Darius Taylor!

Donate To GopherHole



He may be the best rb the Gophers have ever had if he stays healthy the rest of his career. I know that’s quite a statement to make but I believe it to be true. I’ve been following the Gophers for over 70 years so I’ve seen some great rb’s.
 

gopherbadgerman said:
Fleck has to find a way to play another back next year. He’s averaging 30+ carries per full game. That’s more than Mo ever did I think. He’s gotta be in the 250-275 carry range over 12-13 games, not 350+
Click to expand...

Agreed. DT is a stud, but he can’t get 30 carries a game. We can’t run him into the ground.

Go Gophers!!
 


Willwin40 said:
He may be the best rb the Gophers have ever had if he stays healthy the rest of his career. I know that’s quite a statement to make but I believe it to be true. I’ve been following the Gophers for over 70 years so I’ve seen some great rb’s.
Click to expand...
He’s only a true freshman so with more experience he’ll be even better. He has a tremendous burst as you saw on several plays today. He’d get 10 yards so quickly it seemed hard to believe.
 


Oh sweet, that means he is able to count this as a redshirt season, not that it matters cause he's definitely a guy who will leave early for the NFL, hopefully we can get 2 more fantastic seasons out of him before he moves on.
 

Willwin40 said:
He may be the best rb the Gophers have ever had if he stays healthy the rest of his career. I know that’s quite a statement to make but I believe it to be true. I’ve been following the Gophers for over 70 years so I’ve seen some great rb’s.
Click to expand...
even Billy Bye?
 



Willwin40 said:
He may be the best rb the Gophers have ever had if he stays healthy the rest of his career. I know that’s quite a statement to make but I believe it to be true. I’ve been following the Gophers for over 70 years so I’ve seen some great rb’s.
Click to expand...
With all you've witnessed over the years, if you had to pick the best RB we've ever had, who would get your vote?
 

swelna said:
Oh sweet, that means he is able to count this as a redshirt season, not that it matters cause he's definitely a guy who will leave early for the NFL, hopefully we can get 2 more fantastic seasons out of him before he moves on.
Click to expand...
He also played but didn't finish the Iowa game. Played in 5 including the bowl.

Assuming bowl games still count for RS purposes??
 

pharmacygopher said:
He also played but didn't finish the Iowa game. Played in 5 including the bowl.

Assuming bowl games still count for RS purposes??
Click to expand...
I don't think bowl games count.
 

I just want one more year out of him. I think that's perfectly reasonable. That's roughly equivalent of finishing out your rookie contract in the NFL, before getting paid as a FA.

Give us an outstanding, injury-free 2024. Then I will wish you well and personally drive you to the airport after you sign your big payday NIL deal with a helmet school.
 








Slim Tubby said:
With all you've witnessed over the years, if you had to pick the best RB we've ever had, who would get your vote?
Click to expand...
As I said DT is potentially the best. Ibrahim I'd rate number 1 right now, Others that I think were great were Maroney, MBIII, and Thompson. Giel and McNamara were all-americans so they are highly rated. Before my time there's Smith, and Lund and if you count fullbacks there's Bronko Nagurski (best all around gopher player of all time) and Herb Joesting.
 

Willwin40 said:
As I said DT is potentially the best. Ibrahim I'd rate number 1 right now, Others that I think were great were Maroney, MBIII, and Thompson. Giel and McNamara were all-americans so they are highly rated. Before my time there's Smith, and Lund and if you count fullbacks there's Bronko Nagurski (best all around gopher player of all time) and Herb Joesting.
Click to expand...
Memories are often limited to an individuals life experiences...so I understand why you would think MO was the best and DT has the potential to overtake him.
 




When you think about it’s even more amazing that he got so much yardage even though he didn’t get any really long runs. He will break some long runs next year. 300 yard games a possibility.
 

I look forward to more wildcat with Darius next season and can’t wait till he throws his first TD pass to DJ
 


Taylor is such a great example of why you can’t judge running backs on “measurables” alone. I’m guessing he lacked in one or more of those measurables when compared against the 4-star studs rated ahead of him who signed with the helmet schools. Maybe “too small”? Maybe “too slow”?

To me, the keys to the great running backs are very intangible: 1. the ability to read the hole and know when to have patience for a hole to open and when to turn on the burners. 2. The ability to be “elusive”, which I guess means you can make guys miss and also break tackles.

Taylor has both #1 and #2 in large quantities. He also has great quickness and seems to be strong for his size. That combination is deadly! Compared to the great Ibrahim, I would say their possession of skill #1 looks to be equal. Taylor is quicker and might be a tiny bit more elusive than Moe, but Moe’s power, combined with top-notch elusiveness led to the breaking of a LOT of tackles.

Moe definitely lacked high-end speed, but that didn’t stop him from being a GREAT running back. I’m guessing Taylor might also lack the high-end speed? I don’t recall and wide-open foot-races with enemy DB’s, but maybe some of you do. At this point, I don’t really care much about that. We appear to have one of the top RB’s in the country, and I’m sure glad a whole bunch of schools passed on him because he lacked something in their foolish recruiting evaluation scorecards!
 

Said in another thread that 800 yards in essentially 5 games is unreal production, especially when 3 of those 5 games were against power 4/5 teams and the player in question is a true freshman.

Sky is the limit for the new DT provided he can stay healthy. Hopefully they can find a good #2 to compliment him but if what we saw this year is an indication of what Taylor is capable of, those of you that freak out about workload are probably in for a long couple of years because he is going to get a lot of carries.
 



You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom