Who cares about RB depth if we never use it


Fleck yesterday: "Trey did a really good job in the game. I thought he had a really good game, but again, we need some more guys to step in and play well to take some of those carries off of him and rotate some guys, which we will as we go forward." (From Ryan Burns notes on the presser.) The coaches are aware - will be interesting to see the adjustments on Saturday and against Bowling green. Maybe they will find their two headed monster ala Barber and Maroney (one can dream, right?).
If the coaches are aware, then why not give those other guys any run. If you want more guys to step in and take carries you've got to live with things not going so well at times. Wiley got 3 carries, Williams 2. Can't show much with that low of number. It takes the OL blocking well to have success in the run game, not just the RB.
Take 10 carries from Potts so he's at 24, Wiley then has about 8, Williams could be at 5 and either Thomas or Irving could have the others two. Thought Irving looked good in the return game, don't see why he didn't get a chance.
 

If the coaches are aware, then why not give those other guys any run. If you want more guys to step in and take carries you've got to live with things not going so well at times. Wiley got 3 carries, Williams 2. Can't show much with that low of number. It takes the OL blocking well to have success in the run game, not just the RB.
Take 10 carries from Potts so he's at 24, Wiley then has about 8, Williams could be at 5 and either Thomas or Irving could have the others two. Thought Irving looked good in the return game, don't see why he didn't get a chance.
Have you seen Irving play? How is he in pass protection? Does he know the plays? Because he had a couple solid kick returns you automatically think he needs to get more carries? I'm not saying he isn't capable but I honestly believe the coaches want to win every game they can and are putting the guys out there they think give them the best chance to do it.
 


Do you run to set up the pass, or do you pass to set up the run?

Or, in some cases, do you run to set up more running?

or run on 3rd-and-long to set up the punt?
 


If the coaches are aware, then why not give those other guys any run. If you want more guys to step in and take carries you've got to live with things not going so well at times. Wiley got 3 carries, Williams 2. Can't show much with that low of number. It takes the OL blocking well to have success in the run game, not just the RB.
Take 10 carries from Potts so he's at 24, Wiley then has about 8, Williams could be at 5 and either Thomas or Irving could have the others two. Thought Irving looked good in the return game, don't see why he didn't get a chance.
I think its a mixture of things.

An acknowledgement that they should have seen more carries earlier in the game to establish a rhythm. Come the second half, with Miami Ohio coming back, the backups weren't getting yards and so as a coach you have to decide whether to keep giving the ball to the person who has consistently run this game, or try to give the other guys more carries and hope they figure it out. PJ and Sanford picked the former, however it was a corner they did walk themselves into.

Also it shows that they know there was a breakdown in the OL that didn't help the RBs. We've mentions that almost every play the backups got it seemed the DL was through the line before they could do anything. That needs to be better to give them a chance, whether it's putting them in on different play calls, or practicing those plays so the OL does better.
 

Don't worry guys, Tanner has Dylan Wright and CAB, they'll be a more balanced offense as the season goes on. I think Fleck, to a certain extent, just gets through these types of games. Win and move on.
 

If the coaches are aware, then why not give those other guys any run. If you want more guys to step in and take carries you've got to live with things not going so well at times. Wiley got 3 carries, Williams 2. Can't show much with that low of number. It takes the OL blocking well to have success in the run game, not just the RB.
Take 10 carries from Potts so he's at 24, Wiley then has about 8, Williams could be at 5 and either Thomas or Irving could have the others two. Thought Irving looked good in the return game, don't see why he didn't get a chance.
Gonna say it again - Potts - 34 carries - 178 yards - 5.2 YPC - 2 TD in a game we won by 5 freakin points in which he was the entire offense in the second half and doing a heck of a job.....

And we honestly have fans thinking we should have given him 10 fewer carries in order to get the other guys some looks.....in a game we won by 5 points....you don't experiment in a close game....you don't experiment in a game where you need to score....and when given the choice in that tight game you hand the ball to the guy who gained 178 freaking yards as opposed to the guys who combined for negative yards over 5 carries.

WTF is going on in this thread? In three weeks if Potts is averaging 30+ carries a game and the other guys aren't getting a shot at all fine...panic about workload....but holy crap I don't get anyone that doesn't understand why Potts got nearly all the carries on Saturday in a game we won by 5 points.

And just for fun....in the second half as the score tightened, Williams and Wiley got a total of 3 carries and amassed a whopping -2 yards. At the same time, during the second half Potts got 16 carries for 98 yards and a TD at a 6+ YPC average. He had a 21 yard TD as well an 11 yard carry to ice the game at the end.
 

Gonna say it again - Potts - 34 carries - 178 yards - 5.2 YPC - 2 TD in a game we won by 5 freakin points in which he was the entire offense in the second half and doing a heck of a job.....

And we honestly have fans thinking we should have given him 10 fewer carries in order to get the other guys some looks.....in a game we won by 5 points....you don't experiment in a close game....you don't experiment in a game where you need to score....and when given the choice in that tight game you hand the ball to the guy who gained 178 freaking yards as opposed to the guys who combined for negative yards over 5 carries.

WTF is going on in this thread? In three weeks if Potts is averaging 30+ carries a game and the other guys aren't getting a shot at all fine...panic about workload....but holy crap I don't get anyone that doesn't understand why Potts got nearly all the carries on Saturday in a game we won by 5 points.

And just for fun....in the second half as the score tightened, Williams and Wiley got a total of 3 carries and amassed a whopping -2 yards. At the same time, during the second half Potts got 16 carries for 98 yards and a TD at a 6+ YPC average. He had a 21 yard TD as well an 11 yard carry to ice the game at the end.
I agree with you, I wasn't talking about taking those carries from him after halftime. The first half is where I have the problem with the workload. Find out who has the hot hand in the first half and ride that person more in the second. It's a non-conference game, get some guys game reps for a series and not a play here or there. Potts showed he's very capable, because he was out there most of the time, even in the first half. Why not give Wiley a series and Williams a series in the first half to see if they could have some success as well. Do something like Potts-Wiley-Potts-Williams-Potts-Wiley etc. each series
Then after half time 'shorten the bench' and give the carries to the guy(s) who is gaining yards.
 



Screen pass? Never heard of that.
I've heard of it, but that was several years ago. Not sure anymore but I think it's when you get free tickets to a movie before it's made available to the general public? I dunno, it could mean something else, too, that we're not aware of here in Minnesota.
 

Honest question to those that are not sold on Potts as a feature back: What is it about him that makes you think he can't be the guy?

There is no doubt he is a step down from Mo, anyone would be as Ibrahim was one of the best backs in all of college football. But I like what I saw out of Trey on Saturday, and he has looked solid in the limited action he has seen in other games as well.

34 carries for 178 yards and 2 TD is a great day no matter who you are up against. And the thing that makes that number even more impressive to me is that in the second half Miami was selling out to stop the run, and Potts still did a solid job. He gained all the yards on the key TD drive after the kick return and helped ice the game at the end. This writeup does a good job covering that.

He is small. That is why. 30+ carries to a guy that small against BigTen defenses won't hold up IMO.

I like the kid on the edges and in doses, but don't see him as a bell cow type guy. That said, he is the best we have most likely and will get a lions share of the carries. My hope is that we find at least one other guy that can tote it 8-12 time a game, seeing as our offense is afraid to throw the ball...
 

What are you talking about? Did you miss that Mo had to be helped off the field and is out for the year? Potts started the game as #1. He's not a "backup" anymore.

Some of us have been vocal with our concerns, some are in the In PJ We Trust camp, or 'we got a win, all that really counts'. I doubt many of us are changing their mind at this point, at least until more games are played. But let's be honest. Right or wrong, they barely used the actual "backup" running backs at all last week against a MAC team.

Just for fun, check out Wisconsin's box score against another MAC team.
Or check out Colorado’s box score against McCaffrey’s Northern Colorado team. Five RBs and 9 receivers got touches.
 
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If the coaches are aware, then why not give those other guys any run. If you want more guys to step in and take carries you've got to live with things not going so well at times. Wiley got 3 carries, Williams 2. Can't show much with that low of number. It takes the OL blocking well to have success in the run game, not just the RB.
Take 10 carries from Potts so he's at 24, Wiley then has about 8, Williams could be at 5 and either Thomas or Irving could have the others two. Thought Irving looked good in the return game, don't see why he didn't get a chance.
The coaches saw that Potts was in a groove and stuck with him to win the game. I think other running backs will be given chances to succeed, and to fail along the way, in future games. But Miami got too close. We couldn’t lose the game for the sake of giving other RBs experience.
 




Or check out Colorado’s box score against McCaffrey’s Northern Colorado team. Five RBs and 9 receivers got touches.
Good for Colorado. What were their touches like today against the gophers? Spread the ball around and score a bunch?
 



I was a bit surprised at how big Ky was. Good sized back.
Yeah, this was my first time seeing Ky play much and he was impressive but a different kind of RB than I was expecting. He was bigger than I thought. He would be a nice change of pace to Potts/Bucky types.
 

Another thread that didn’t age well.
Not really. Pretty easy to interpret this as proof that the Gophers had strong running back depth that could have been used to avoid running Potts 35 times against a MAC team in his first game as a starter (never having carried that heavy of load in a college game).

Also, it's only one game, but it seems to validate those questioning why Irving and Thomas weren't getting any carries previously.
 



This particular complaint box appears to have been emptied out, and removed.

Don't worry, though; someone will hang a brand new complaint box on the wall, right next to the time clock.
 

Why didn’t it age well?
We finally used our RB depth, which is what the thread was about.

Correct. I've been hanging around this site for between 7 and 8 years now. What's clear to me is that some posters prefer bashing this site and the people who post on it more than discussing Gopher sports. And rarely do they perform that bashing in any way that is entertaining or eloquent.
 




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