CBS: What Minnesota star RB Mohamed Ibrahim's season-ending leg injury means for the Gophers offense

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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per CBS:

Potts is expected to be the primary back moving forward. With that said, he is lacking experience. The 5-foot-11, 210-pounder from Williamsport, Pennsylvania, only had 172 rushing yards and two touchdowns in his previous two seasons with the Gophers. The former three-star prospect in the Class of 2019 is a multi-purpose weapon who has the size to pound it between the tackles, but enough speed to be dangerous in space.

www.cbssports.com

What Minnesota star RB Mohamed Ibrahim's season-ending leg injury means for the Gophers offense

Ibrahim is lost for 2021 after he returned to the Gophers for his redshirt senior season instead of jumping to the NFL
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com

Go Gophers!!
 

The replacement RBs should learn to keep their heads low. Mo Ibrahim, they are not. Williams, Potts, and Wiley all have different running styles.

The Gophers are probably also looking at Thomas and Irving. They will put the best product out there.
 

Gotta believe that RB is an open competition right now in a way that it hasn't been with Mo in the mix up to this point. Whichever guy steps up and shows he can get it done will become the feature back and my guess would be we will also see more of a committee approach overall. Doubt any of the other guys would be a candidate to get 30 carries a game the way Mo was. But one of them will probably average around 20 once it is all sorted out.
 

Giving the defense different running styles should help the offense provided our coaches can figure out how to best utilize each one.
it’s good we have a warm-up game this week to get Ky and Bucky reps in a lower pressure situation.
 

Hopefully, 5 guys minimum get 5 or more carries with Potts at double figures.
 


60's Guy said:
Hopefully, 5 guys minimum get 5 or more carries with Potts at double figures.
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Yeah, I agree. Potts should probably have 12 - 15 carries with the next best guy getting the same and the remainder (10 - 15?) being split among the rest. I'm REALLY excited to see Thomas and Irving. We know what we have in Wiley and Williams. They're reliable, will do a nice job on 3rd down, and will occasionally break a big play.
 

It will be interesting to see if we see Thomas or Irving. I know the staff wanted to preserve their redshirts if possible, so they've got 4 games to play.

I think we see them in the next 3 games, and then not again until Wisconsin unless one of them breaks out and is clearly the best back and worth burning a redshirt to play.
 

GFBfan said:
it’s good we have a warm-up game this week to get Ky and Bucky reps in a lower pressure situation.
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It is but that's also the reason why I have some doubts that we'll go over the 20 point spread. I can see the coaches experimenting a little in this game and some of those experiments may not work too well.
 

Taji34 said:
It will be interesting to see if we see Thomas or Irving. I know the staff wanted to preserve their redshirts if possible, so they've got 4 games to play.

I think we see them in the next 3 games, and then not again until Wisconsin unless one of them breaks out and is clearly the best back and worth burning a redshirt to play.
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Thomas has already redshirted and Fleck flat out said they are not going to worry about the 4 game thing and best player will play. If Irving wins the job he will play, no point saving a guy for an extra year if he can help you win now given that our RB situation is now very fluid with Mo out.
 




BleedGopher said:
per CBS:

Potts is expected to be the primary back moving forward. With that said, he is lacking experience.

www.cbssports.com

What Minnesota star RB Mohamed Ibrahim's season-ending leg injury means for the Gophers offense

Ibrahim is lost for 2021 after he returned to the Gophers for his redshirt senior season instead of jumping to the NFL
www.cbssports.com www.cbssports.com
Click to expand...

The three vets (Potts, Wiley, and Williams) aren't exactly devoid of experience, at least not collectively. They have 219 rushing attempts and 17 catches between them although 117 of those rushing attempts belong to Williams from his 2018 true freshman year.
 

I think we have some good RBs. But Mo is easily one of the 5 best RBs in the college game right now.

As a fan, I’d like to see him come back for next years (much softer) schedule. Not sure how that may fit into his career.

But I would think he would be an outstanding candidate for an NIL deal that could make playing another season of college football more attractive than it might have been a few years ago.
 

kg21 said:
I could be wrong, but didn't everyone think it was all over when Rodney Smith went down. And then some guy named Mo Ibrahim was inserted into the lineup.
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Well, I can only speak for myself but I didn't think that at the time. I was never a huge fan of Rodney and I was very impressed with Mo during the spring game of his true freshman year. Mo also had 101 yards on 9 carries (11.2 per attempt) in the first game of his redshirt freshman year. Rodney went down early in the second game against Fresno that year. I understand why Fleck started Rodney after he came back for a 6th year but I always thought Mo was the better back after his redshirt freshman performance. I like Potts but I can't say that I have the same level of comfort with any of the other backs on the roster that I had with Mo after Rodney's injury. But I guess we'll see; the two youngest ones I haven't seen yet.
 



kg21 said:
I could be wrong, but didn't everyone think it was all over when Rodney Smith went down. And then some guy named Mo Ibrahim was inserted into the lineup.
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Not wrong -- but the thing Mo had going for him is that we didn't see him perform poorly before he got his chance. We have much more tape on Wiley and Williams that make me hesitant about them taking the reins. Like others have said I hope its Thomas or Irving that get the bulk of the load alongside Potts.
 

Goldmember said:
I think we have some good RBs. But Mo is easily one of the 5 best RBs in the college game right now.

As a fan, I’d like to see him come back for next years (much softer) schedule. Not sure how that may fit into his career.

But I would think he would be an outstanding candidate for an NIL deal that could make playing another season of college football more attractive than it might have been a few years ago.
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I love Mo as much as the next guy -- but I am not sure he is the 5th best back in the B1G. I'd probably choose OSU's top 3, Noah Cain and then I'd have to do my research to make sure Mo is my next guy off the board.
 


cjbfbp said:
Well, I can only speak for myself but I didn't think that at the time. I was never a huge fan of Rodney and I was very impressed with Mo during the spring game of his true freshman year. Mo also had 101 yards on 9 carries (11.2 per attempt) in the first game of his redshirt freshman year. Rodney went down early in the second game against Fresno that year. I understand why Fleck started Rodney after he came back for a 6th year but I always thought Mo was the better back after his redshirt freshman performance. I like Potts but I can't say that I have the same level of comfort with any of the other backs on the roster that I had with Mo after Rodney's injury. But I guess we'll see; the two youngest ones I haven't seen yet.
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I thought the same, although Rodney seemed tentative his 6th year - he was smooth as silk in prior seasons when healthy. I was also subconsciously glad Mo was on the bench to start the year because he had a previous history of getting injured. His fresh legs vs Auburn was a thing of beauty.
 

Based on the comments from Flecks at yesterday's press conference, I'd be surprised if Irving gets much of a chance. Starting at around 7:56...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oe7v-oSKU0
 

GopherPete said:
Based on the comments from Flecks at yesterday's press conference, I'd be surprised if Irving gets much of a chance. Starting at around 7:56...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oe7v-oSKU0
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"You mentioned Ky and Bucky a lot over the last month with the four game redshirt rule is there much thought to giving them a look here in September yet" - Burns

"Absolutely -- every back is going to be able to get a look. I am not interested in this point of four games, not four games. Everyone of those backs can play football. Whoever the best ones are that compliment each other really well from this point forward -- they are going to play." - Fleck

I actually took Fleck's comment to say the opposite. I took it to mean that he's not interested in playing someone for only four games to keep a redshirt. If a player is the best player he will play.

Fleck did go on to mention Irving last among the running backs and then said he is talented but young -- so I do see where you are coming from.
 

Running backs in Fleck's offense need to be beefy (for the heavy zone running schemes) and good enough blockers to keep Tanner from getting killed. That might be a tough hill to climb for a young true freshman like Irving. He might need a little time to grow.
 

noamfromm said:
"You mentioned Ky and Bucky a lot over the last month with the four game redshirt rule is there much thought to giving them a look here in September yet" - Burns

"Absolutely -- every back is going to be able to get a look. I am not interested in this point of four games, not four games. Everyone of those backs can play football. Whoever the best ones are that compliment each other really well from this point forward -- they are going to play." - Fleck

I actually took Fleck's comment to say the opposite. I took it to mean that he's not interested in playing someone for only four games to keep a redshirt. If a player is the best player he will play.

Fleck did go on to mention Irving last among the running backs and then said he is talented but young -- so I do see where you are coming from.
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IMO his comments at the end of that sequence (and the non-verbal facial expressions) regarding Irving told me that he is not anywhere near the top of the depth chart.
 

FormerFatOL said:
Running backs in Fleck's offense need to be beefy (for the heavy zone running schemes) and good enough blockers to keep Tanner from getting killed. That might be a tough hill to climb for a young true freshman like Irving. He might need a little time to grow.
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I agree that they need to be "beefy" (205+) -- but I think the more important quality is vision. Wiley and Williams have not demonstrated the vision that Ibrahim or Smith had.
 

GopherPete said:
IMO his comments at the end of that sequence (and the non-verbal facial expressions) regarding Irving told me that he is not anywhere near the top of the depth chart.
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I know what you are saying -- his opening comments left the door open for Irving -- he really only sounded down on Wiley IMO
 

hungan1 said:
The replacement RBs should learn to keep their heads low. Mo Ibrahim, they are not. Williams, Potts, and Wiley all have different running styles.
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Agreed.

Whomever it is going forward / out there... we gotta call what works for them.

Can't put anyone out there and expect them to just "be Mo" and pick the right hole like magic or beat dudes 1:1 as often as Mo can.

Potts... there was at least one pass against tOSU where Potts looked like a really natural receiving threat, gotta emphasize what works for him.
 

noamfromm said:
I agree that they need to be "beefy" (205+) -- but I think the more important quality is vision. Wiley and Williams have not demonstrated the vision that Ibrahim or Smith had.
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Agreed. Vision is huge; probably the #1 factor. Some of that might come with experience (at least I hope).

BTW, by "beefy", I mean serious strength and conditioning that improves explosiveness even if not much weight is gained.
 

FormerFatOL said:
Agreed. Vision is huge; probably the #1 factor. Some of that might come with experience (at least I hope).

BTW, by "beefy", I mean serious strength and conditioning that improves explosiveness even if not much weight is gained.
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I'm with you -- but I have doubts. Cobb seemed the have vision the whole time (his pass pro just sucked). Smith and Brooks seemed to have it early as did Ibrahim. Heres to hoping that Williams and Wiley can find it.
 


Goldmember said:
Well I sure wish I was in a fantasy football league with you.
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Thats a conversation of a matter. Presupposing that Ibrahim was healthy I wouldn't draft anyone ahead of him in a fantasy setting -- but if we had Noah Cain or any of the OSU guys I think they would start over Ibrahim.
 

More passing to our TEs (Spann-Ford) in particular.
 

I’d be surprised to see Thomas or Irving. The staff obviously like Potts and Wiley. I’d say they like Williams third. I’m not sold that any of the three are above average big10 rbs, but as a group I feel they can all provide enough to keep the offense moving. Potts and Wiley are probably above average wrs which could add some wrinkles to the offense. This group is no worse than the rb groups NW has won the west with.
 

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