Depth at RB

[Gophergrandpa]

I was concerned, as were many, at our depth at OL, but my greater concern now is depth at running back. We put Maryland back in the game by spending the entire 4th Q futilely running Mo into stacked boxes. Why you mothball playmakers like Rashod Bateman and CAB in a situation where drives must be sustained, and Maryland has sold out at the line of scrimmage to stop the run, is beyond puzzling. Rashod and CAB were getting light coverage as Maryland stacked the box. Worse, Mo entered the 4th Q with, I believe, over 30 carries under his belt--ended the game with 41 carries. He is a stud, but he is not super-human. Mo had to be tired in the 4th Q; he had to have taken a lot of shots already. Sending MO time after time into a stacked box in the 4th Q seems odd if only because he wasn't fresh. In prior years, we operated on a "pair and a spare" RB philosophy (2.5 RBs). This spreads the effort, diminishes the exhaustion factor, and leads to a relatively fresh Mo acting as the "closer" in tight games where we are protecting a lead. There appears to be no "spare" this year; doesn't even appear to be a "pair"; we are deploying 1.05 RBs. If our new OC's plan is to run 75% of the time--and 90% of the time in the 4th Q--even if it means running repeatedly into stacked boxes that leave our WRs plenty of room to roam, we better identify a couple of RBs to help take the load (and punishment) in the first three quarters, so Mo's legs are fresh for the 4th quarter grind. Or, more importantly, so that Mo isn't broken down by game 4 of 5. Wiley isn't one of the guys. Potts could be--but you've got to get him more involved in the game. Bryce Williams should be, but he doesn't seem to be around (injured; COVID?). How about Preston Jelen? He's looked good the few times they've let him run (power). And the kid is a football player.

 

[Hopeful Pessimist]

I was concerned, as were many, at our depth at OL, but my greater concern now is depth at running back. We put Maryland back in the game by spending the entire 4th Q futilely running Mo into stacked boxes. Why you mothball playmakers like Rashod Bateman and CAB in a situation where drives must be sustained, and Maryland has sold out at the line of scrimmage to stop the run, is beyond puzzling. Rashod and CAB were getting light coverage as Maryland stacked the box. Worse, Mo entered the 4th Q with, I believe, over 30 carries under his belt--ended the game with 41 carries. He is a stud, but he is not super-human. Mo had to be tired in the 4th Q; he had to have taken a lot of shots already. Sending MO time after time into a stacked box in the 4th Q seems odd if only because he wasn't fresh. In prior years, we operated on a "pair and a spare" RB philosophy (2.5 RBs). This spreads the effort, diminishes the exhaustion factor, and leads to a relatively fresh Mo acting as the "closer" in tight games where we are protecting a lead. There appears to be no "spare" this year; doesn't even appear to be a "pair"; we are deploying 1.05 RBs. If our new OC's plan is to run 75% of the time--and 90% of the time in the 4th Q--even if it means running repeatedly into stacked boxes that leave our WRs plenty of room to roam, we better identify a couple of RBs to help take the load (and punishment) in the first three quarters, so Mo's legs are fresh for the 4th quarter grind. Or, more importantly, so that Mo isn't broken down by game 4 of 5. Wiley isn't one of the guys. Potts could be--but you've got to get him more involved in the game. Bryce Williams should be, but he doesn't seem to be around (injured; COVID?). How about Preston Jelen? He's looked good the few times they've let him run (power). And the kid is a football player.

How about Ky Thomas?

 

[Blackhammer]

Coaching performance in this one was every bit as bad as the defense. Bateman must be thinking I came back for this?

 

[Dano564]

RB is the least of my concerns.

Mo is a workhorse.
Potts looked good last night.
Wiley needs to gain some strength if he wants to be an Eddie George upright runner.
We haven't seen anything from Ky Thomas yet. I'm guessing PJ is keeping him under wraps until mid-season or else next year.
Bryce Williams is a good runner if he has to play and is healthy.

Williamson I presume is still a RB.

 

[MGGopher]

Potts should've had 10 carries last night. The staff must be concerned about his ability to do things correctly out there -- pass protect, "feel" for the RPO, etc. There's no other explanation for it. Almost every time he's touched the ball in his career (albeit not many time), I've thought, "man, that's a smooth, explosive looking player."

 

[skiumah1]

Potts should've had 10 carries last night. The staff must be concerned about his ability to do things correctly out there -- pass protect, "feel" for the RPO, etc. There's no other explanation for it. Almost every time he's touched the ball in his career (albeit not many time), I've thought, "man, that's a smooth, explosive looking player."

Totally agree on this and I think Potts is an ideal player to bring in motion and hand the ball to on jet sweep type of action to widen the field. Mo is great between the tackles. The lack of creativity on offense is disappointing. Simple and creative can exist together.

Get Potts more involved and throw the ball more. Utilize what you have.

 

[Great Plains Gopher]

We need a new OC. Sitting on a lead is bush league. Not throwing the ball when you have Bateman and Autman-Bell is stupid.

 

[upnorthkid]

We need a new OC. Sitting on a lead is bush league. Not throwing the ball when you have Bateman and Autman-Bell is stupid.

you mean like any team with a killer instinct would have done? that's been my biggest complaint of PJ Fleck's coaching style. They constantly go for these tight games and don't continue to press on the other team when they have the chance and last night it killed them.

 

[KoolAid]

Offensively, I'm more worried about depth at all the other positions. In order of concern:

OL - Having 2 all-conference players out of the lineup (for the year?) is no Bueno for any offensive line. On the bright side, there are lots of players on the roster...they just need seasoning
QB - We have 3 on the roster who received scholarships out of HS...and why didn't we add one last recruiting cycle?
WR - Our top end guys are great, but who steps in after them? This team thrived last year in 3 and 4 WR sets. Can Jackson and Emilen step on the field and produce? Did we miss during the 2018 and 2019 recruiting cycles (outside of Bateman)?

As far as RB goes, we definitely over-used Mo last night. But I think Potts looks good and Wiley looks serviceable. Hopefully Ky Thomas lives up to the hype. If he's any good at all, I suspect we'll see him out there. There's really no such thing as saving players this year.

 

[MplsGopher]

Totally agree on this and I think Potts is an ideal player to bring in motion and hand the ball to on jet sweep type of action to widen the field. Mo is great between the tackles. The lack of creativity on offense is disappointing. Simple and creative can exist together.

Get Potts more involved and throw the ball more. Utilize what you have.

Or Jackson. I believe early in the game we had a nice play to him, and the announcers said something to the effect of “Sanford said he wants to find a way to get the ball to Jackson more”.

 

[Replacement Gopher]

you mean like any team with a killer instinct would have done? that's been my biggest complaint of PJ Fleck's coaching style. They constantly go for these tight games and don't continue to press on the other team when they have the chance and last night it killed them.

PJ punted from the Wisconsin 37 yard-line.
Zero game theory.
Worse: he didn’t learn from it and continues to play not to lose.

How else do you explain the extra point attempt last night? Sad, really.

 

[PMWinSTP]

you mean like any team with a killer instinct would have done? that's been my biggest complaint of PJ Fleck's coaching style. They constantly go for these tight games and don't continue to press on the other team when they have the chance and last night it killed them.

This game was tight because of the defense, not the offense.

 

[skiumah1]

PJ punted from the Wisconsin 37 yard-line.
Zero game theory.
Worse: he didn’t learn from it and continues to play not to lose.

How else do you explain the extra point attempt last night? Sad, really.

Its really interesting because his personality is naturally aggressive. We did go for it on 4th and 1 against Auburn in the bowl last year. Don't remember what yard line we were on. 45 or so of Auburn? I'm interested to see if he continues to make conservative decisions.

 

[upnorthkid]

This game was tight because of the defense, not the offense.

I'd debate that. Sure the defense gave up points, but you're up 10 with the ball and you go ultra conservative in a game you're expecting to give up more points. That is putting too much on the defense (you were not going to bleed 10+ minutes off the clock, so the impetus is to continue to keep distance by scoring. It feels that in closeish games PJ goes more conservative which is going to put it on our defense to make a play and this year that feels like a very poor choice. Again I know this is entirely a feel thing, but it feels like we play risk averse ball (run, run, pass on hopefully 3rd and medium) and avoid trying to pull ahead by more. You have to trust your players that you know are gamers and TM2 and RB0 are 2 of them we ignored yesterday

 

[John Galt]

We need a new OC. Sitting on a lead is bush league. Not throwing the ball when you have Bateman and Autman-Bell is stupid.

In fairness to Sanford, he was executing the game plan that Fleck wanted him to. PJ, for all his flamboyance in most areas of his life, becomes ultra-conservative when he has a lead in the 2nd half. It also almost cost us the Penn St game last year.

 

[John Galt]

Wiley doesn’t have the wiggle that a good RB needs. By all accounts he’s a good athlete, and I was always hoping he would end up at safety.

I think we aren’t seeing the other RBs because Mo is quite a bit better than the others.

 

[Biggsohnasty]

When people complain about the team's lack of offense, has a solution other than 'be more creative' ever been broached?

 

[skiumah1]

When people complain about the team's lack of offense, has a solution other than 'be more creative' ever been broached?

Ha I would say "be more creative" is synonymous with "call plays that work." Benefits of being a fan

 

[Dano564]

Offensively, I'm more worried about depth at all the other positions. In order of concern:

OL - Having 2 all-conference players out of the lineup (for the year?) is no Bueno for any offensive line. On the bright side, there are lots of players on the roster...they just need seasoning
QB - We have 3 on the roster who received scholarships out of HS...and why didn't we add one last recruiting cycle?
WR - Our top end guys are great, but who steps in after them? This team thrived last year in 3 and 4 WR sets. Can Jackson and Emilen step on the field and produce? Did we miss during the 2018 and 2019 recruiting cycles (outside of Bateman)?

As far as RB goes, we definitely over-used Mo last night. But I think Potts looks good and Wiley looks serviceable. Hopefully Ky Thomas lives up to the hype. If he's any good at all, I suspect we'll see him out there. There's really no such thing as saving players this year.

OL - I agree it's a concern.

QB - not worried. We have Tanner as a Jr again next year provided he isn't so good he opts out.
Zack Annexstad is going to be a redshirt sophomore next year.
Jacob Clark and Cole Kraemer are both redshirt freshmen again next year.
and if 2021 class holds true Athan Kaliakmanis will be a true freshman and is ranked higher than any of them.

WR - Daniel Jackson already looks good. A few other guys I'm sure are battling for reps. Michael Brown-Stephens I think would be playing if Bateman hadn't returned.
I don't think you call people that can't hit the field busts yet when CAB and Bateman are ahead of them and we're playing TE's more frequently where we're about 4 deep.

 

[Jordekorn]

When people complain about the team's lack of offense, has a solution other than 'be more creative' ever been broached?

Maybe it means throw the ball on 1st down when the defense is lined up to stuff the run once in awhile? Last I checked, our qb and top two receivers are dependable and productive when asked to perform.

 

[upnorthkid]

Offensively, I'm more worried about depth at all the other positions. In order of concern:

OL - Having 2 all-conference players out of the lineup (for the year?) is no Bueno for any offensive line. On the bright side, there are lots of players on the roster...they just need seasoning
QB - We have 3 on the roster who received scholarships out of HS...and why didn't we add one last recruiting cycle?
WR - Our top end guys are great, but who steps in after them? This team thrived last year in 3 and 4 WR sets. Can Jackson and Emilen step on the field and produce? Did we miss during the 2018 and 2019 recruiting cycles (outside of Bateman)?

As far as RB goes, we definitely over-used Mo last night. But I think Potts looks good and Wiley looks serviceable. Hopefully Ky Thomas lives up to the hype. If he's any good at all, I suspect we'll see him out there. There's really no such thing as saving players this year.

We didn't because PJ is expecting Athan to walk in and take the reigns (either after Tanner leaves or post one year of Annexstad). QB recruiting is interesting in that you expect to have multiyear starters most of the time. Taking one every year just increases your chances of hitting on someone.

 

[skiumah1]

We didn't because PJ is expecting Athan to walk in and take the reigns (either after Tanner leaves or post one year of Annexstad). QB recruiting is interesting in that you expect to have multiyear starters most of the time. Taking one every year just increases your chances of hitting on someone.

I also think Kramer or Clark are more than capable of taking over for a year or two. They'll for sure challenge Annexstad I would think. Both decently recruited kids.

 

[MplsGopher]

Wiley doesn’t have the wiggle that a good RB needs. By all accounts he’s a good athlete, and I was always hoping he would end up at safety.

I think we aren’t seeing the other RBs because Mo is quite a bit better than the others.

Agree with you (how about that). He's clearly a fantastic track athlete, and probably the side-to-side/agility stuff too, but RB is not his position.

 

[MplsGopher]

OL - I agree it's a concern.

QB - not worried. We have Tanner as a Jr again next year provided he isn't so good he opts out.
Zack Annexstad is going to be a redshirt sophomore next year.
Jacob Clark and Cole Kraemer are both redshirt freshmen again next year.
and if 2021 class holds true Athan Kaliakmanis will be a true freshman and is ranked higher than any of them.

WR - Daniel Jackson already looks good. A few other guys I'm sure are battling for reps. Michael Brown-Stephens I think would be playing if Bateman hadn't returned.
I don't think you call people that can't hit the field busts yet when CAB and Bateman are ahead of them and we're playing TE's more frequently where we're about 4 deep.

And Axel Ruschmeyer went down with an injury in Maryland.

His left leg got rolled up on. That is the one with the bad ankle that they had essentially immobilized with tape during the Mich game. So my wild guess is either: 1) he re-injured that bad ankle, or 2) with the ankle immobilized, all the force went up into his knee.

Hoping for 1 and not 2.