Injuries against NW

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hungan1

hungan1

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Bryce Williams was carted away during the game.

Who else was injured?
 



What happened with Bryce? Couldn't watch the game
 





Almost certain Williams has an ankle sprain. Guess he could have broken it or something.
 

Bryce Williams was enough. Down to two freshmen RBs now. Where on the team might there be others who can carry the ball if if those two get injured? Got to have contingency plans.

Of course, theres the "running backer" kid who scored the 24 yd final td, thats 1. Then they could look to the obvious places like the the defensive backfield, but Id also take a look at the OL bench, specifically for some "little" guard cast aside because he's only about 5'10" or 5'11" but maybe strong as any and quick off the blocks. Those can be hard to bring down. Just teach him to hold on to the ball and run toward the right end zone.
 



OldBob53 said:
Bryce Williams was enough. Down to two freshmen RBs now. Where on the team might there be others who can carry the ball if if those two get injured? Got to have contingency plans.

Of course, theres the "running backer" kid who scored the 24 yd final td, thats 1. Then they could look to the obvious places like the the defensive backfield, but Id also take a look at the OL bench, specifically for some "little" guard cast aside because he's only about 5'10" or 5'11" but maybe strong as any and quick off the blocks. Those can be hard to bring down. Just teach him to hold on to the ball and run toward the right end zone.
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Good Lord, Rudy at RB? This isn't 1962 Bob.
 

OldBob53 said:
Bryce Williams was enough. Down to two freshmen RBs now. Where on the team might there be others who can carry the ball if if those two get injured? Got to have contingency plans.

Of course, theres the "running backer" kid who scored the 24 yd final td, thats 1. Then they could look to the obvious places like the the defensive backfield, but Id also take a look at the OL bench, specifically for some "little" guard cast aside because he's only about 5'10" or 5'11" but maybe strong as any and quick off the blocks. Those can be hard to bring down. Just teach him to hold on to the ball and run toward the right end zone.
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Our smallest guard on the roster is 6’4”, 295lbs.
 

Williams’ injury was obviously an ankle but was it a sprain, high sprain, dislocation, or break? We’ll likely never know and his return date will likely be a mystery. Somewhere between next week and never. The way injury info is now (not) communicated, the only known thing about his injury is I’ll be frustrated over the lack of info handed out about it.
 

Time to re-balance the portfolio? Since the 2020 season we have lost Ibrahim, Potts, Wiley, Williams, Williamson and Jelen at RB. We have 2 healthy scholarship RBs, one a redshirt FR and the other a true FR. We have just added a third RB, LeCaptain (a PWO who earned a scholie), who we previously had playing at LB. We also have local FR w/o, Kendall Moore, but I have no idea if he is ready. That is thin for a B1G team, but extremely thin for a team that runs 75+% of the time regardless of what the defense is showing--a team that runs more often than any others in FBS football save for the service academies.

By my count, we have 12 healthy scholarship WRs plus a few PWOs. That's a superabundance of WRs for a team that doesn't want to pass the football. It's a huge stockpile of unused athleticism and speed recruited to play a position that is given a minor role in our offensive game planning. Keep LeCaptain as the "big back" that we haven't had since Kobe McCrary; we really need one. But maybe "borrow" a couple of the 12 WRs, too? A couple who possibly have some speed, size, vision and, ideally, HS RB or running QB experience. If you are a recruited scholarship player who sits at third or fourth on the depth chart as a WR on a team that doesn't like to throw the ball, wouldn't you jump at the chance Le Captain just got ... to play behind this OL?
 



I would guess about 75% of the roster were "prolific rushers" during their prep days. There has to be a handful of guys that can begin getting reps in practice and help out on an emergency basis.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Time to re-balance the portfolio? Since the 2020 season we have lost Ibrahim, Potts, Wiley, Williams, Williamson and Jelen at RB. We have 2 healthy scholarship RBs, one a redshirt FR and the other a true FR. We have just added a third RB, LeCaptain (a PWO who earned a scholie), who we previously had playing at LB. We also have local FR w/o, Kendall Moore, but I have no idea if he is ready. That is thin for a B1G team, but extremely thin for a team that runs 75+% of the time regardless of what the defense is showing--a team that runs more often than any others in FBS football save for the service academies.

By my count, we have 12 healthy scholarship WRs plus a few PWOs. That's a superabundance of WRs for a team that doesn't want to pass the football. It's a huge stockpile of unused athleticism and speed recruited to play a position that is given a minor role in our offensive game planning. Keep LeCaptain as the "big back" that we haven't had since Kobe McCrary; we really need one. But maybe "borrow" a couple of the 12 WRs, too? A couple who possibly have some speed, size, vision and, ideally, HS RB or running QB experience. If you are a recruited scholarship player who sits at third or fourth on the depth chart as a WR on a team that doesn't like to throw the ball, wouldn't you jump at the chance Le Captain just got ... to play behind this OL?
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You should let Fleck know. He’s probably run out of ideas.
 

topos said:
I would guess about 75% of the roster were "prolific rushers" during their prep days. There has to be a handful of guys that can begin getting reps in practice and help out on an emergency basis.
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This. Obviously they will keep working on contingency plans. We are snakebit at the RB position right now. Sometimes it just works out that way.
 

OldBob53 said:
Bryce Williams was enough. Down to two freshmen RBs now. Where on the team might there be others who can carry the ball if if those two get injured? Got to have contingency plans.

Of course, theres the "running backer" kid who scored the 24 yd final td, thats 1. Then they could look to the obvious places like the the defensive backfield, but Id also take a look at the OL bench, specifically for some "little" guard cast aside because he's only about 5'10" or 5'11" but maybe strong as any and quick off the blocks. Those can be hard to bring down. Just teach him to hold on to the ball and run toward the right end zone.
Click to expand...
I assume that if this was a home game we'd have seen true freshman walk on Kendall Moore, and that we gave LeCaptain reps because Moore wasn't on the travel roster. Now that Bryce is week to week I assume we'll see Moore travel with the team.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Time to re-balance the portfolio? . . .
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I've had the same thoughts for a while and just haven't done the full research. We carry many more receivers than Iowa or Wisconsin and it seems like we over recruit the position in order to encourage transfers and keep the talent level high. I do like the strategy (if I perceive it correctly) as in the 5 years of having Fleck we've already seen better wide receivers than our rivals in decades
 

noamfromm said:
I assume that if this was a home game we'd have seen true freshman walk on Kendall Moore, and that we gave LeCaptain reps because Moore wasn't on the travel roster. Now that Bryce is week to week I assume we'll see Moore travel with the team.
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Yep, Moore would be the obvious choice to slide up into a more prominent role if Williams is on the shelf for a while. He must not be a contributor on special teams right now so wouldn't be part of the travel roster.

Maybe we can get Moore and LeCaptain over 100 yards in a game as well and keep adding to our total.... :)
 

noamfromm said:
I've had the same thoughts for a while and just haven't done the full research. We carry many more receivers than Iowa or Wisconsin and it seems like we over recruit the position in order to encourage transfers and keep the talent level high. I do like the strategy (if I perceive it correctly) as in the 5 years of having Fleck we've already seen better wide receivers than our rivals in decades
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I agree with the overall sentiment - that we have too many WRs and too few RBs for a team who is heavy on the run game. However, the question is better asked - why are we heavy on the run game in 2021? The answer may lie in the run game being the better option, currently, as it moves and controls the ball, eats time off of the clock, and excepting the BGSU game, was a key to the Gophers' wins.

I presume that were Morgan hitting his receivers as well as he did in 2019, we'd have a better mix. But he's not, and the coaches have decided to employ the more effective route for now.

All of that said, I'm not convinced we couldn't run the ball as well as now with a different OC, and I think part of Morgan's inconsistencies are attributable to the OC...
 

MNVCGUY said:
Yep, Moore would be the obvious choice to slide up into a more prominent role if Williams is on the shelf for a while. He must not be a contributor on special teams right now so wouldn't be part of the travel roster.

Maybe we can get Moore and LeCaptain over 100 yards in a game as well and keep adding to our total.... :)
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Then get Kramer over a 100 when we run read option the entire second half in a blowout of wisconsin
 

How many fucking running backs do you people want? We’d be wondering who is transferring next if Mo wasn’t healthy and taking 80-90% of the carries. I mean you’re not going to have 8-9 scholarship RBs when generally 1 is on the field at a time. We do have a lot of WRs but in theory 5 can play at once.

This is an aberration. Fleck and Co know more about these players than any of us. I’m sure they watched some DBs run for 200+ yards in a high school game. I have full faith that the people being paid to manage the roster and some up with plans are doing exactly that.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
How many fucking running backs do you people want? We’d be wondering who is transferring next if Mo wasn’t healthy and taking 80-90% of the carries. I mean you’re not going to have 8-9 scholarship RBs when generally 1 is on the field at a time. We do have a lot of WRs but in theory 5 can play at once.
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Might be reasonable to have more than 2. Injuries happen, staff makes personnel adjustments. Meanwhile, Gopher football fans speculate on a discussion board.

No reason to get outraged. Just because you absolutely trust all football coaches (because they are coaches, right?) doesn't mean people can't postulate about something as inconsequential as a sporting event.
 


UpAndUnder43 said:
How many fucking running backs do you people want? We’d be wondering who is transferring next if Mo wasn’t healthy and taking 80-90% of the carries. I mean you’re not going to have 8-9 scholarship RBs when generally 1 is on the field at a time. We do have a lot of WRs but in theory 5 can play at once.

This is an aberration. Fleck and Co know more about these players than any of us. I’m sure they watched some DBs run for 200+ yards in a high school game. I have full faith that the people being paid to manage the roster and some up with plans are doing exactly that.
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To clarify my point about rostering so many WRs. I don't have a problem with it and I think we roster the right amount of RBs. If we reduced a couple WR scholarships I'd like to see them go to the defensive side of the ball.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Our smallest guard on the roster is 6’4”, 295lbs.
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6'4"? Shoot. the 295 is fine of course, but I was thinking more the bowling ball concept, you know its harder to stop a 295 bowling ball moving at say 15 mph than a 6'3" 220 lb running back at 22 mph+

low center of mass, no legs to chop
 

noamfromm said:
To clarify my point about rostering so many WRs. I don't have a problem with it and I think we roster the right amount of RBs. If we reduced a couple WR scholarships I'd like to see them go to the defensive side of the ball.
Click to expand...

So, you understand that a player or a scholarship isn’t locked into a position because the internet roster says “WR”, right?

A team doesn’t have too many or too few at a position due to what the roster says. You can bet the staff has been trying out plenty of guys at RB since Potts went down.

Also, the learning curve is a bit higher for a new RB, especially blocking. It’s best to have guys that were RB in HS than creating one from a WR.
 

Gophergrandpa said:
Time to re-balance the portfolio? Since the 2020 season we have lost Ibrahim, Potts, Wiley, Williams, Williamson and Jelen at RB. We have 2 healthy scholarship RBs, one a redshirt FR and the other a true FR. We have just added a third RB, LeCaptain (a PWO who earned a scholie), who we previously had playing at LB. We also have local FR w/o, Kendall Moore, but I have no idea if he is ready. That is thin for a B1G team, but extremely thin for a team that runs 75+% of the time regardless of what the defense is showing--a team that runs more often than any others in FBS football save for the service academies.

By my count, we have 12 healthy scholarship WRs plus a few PWOs. That's a superabundance of WRs for a team that doesn't want to pass the football. It's a huge stockpile of unused athleticism and speed recruited to play a position that is given a minor role in our offensive game planning. Keep LeCaptain as the "big back" that we haven't had since Kobe McCrary; we really need one. But maybe "borrow" a couple of the 12 WRs, too? A couple who possibly have some speed, size, vision and, ideally, HS RB or running QB experience. If you are a recruited scholarship player who sits at third or fourth on the depth chart as a WR on a team that doesn't like to throw the ball, wouldn't you jump at the chance Le Captain just got ... to play behind this OL?
Click to expand...
Another hint to the braintrust -- do not ever again, under any circumstances, line up Bucky to receive a kickoff. Even if he only returns one it's too much injury risk.

Dino was the best kick return man in Illinois last year. He's the guy.
 

highwayman said:
So, you understand that a player or a scholarship isn’t locked into a position because the internet roster says “WR”, right?

A team doesn’t have too many or too few at a position due to what the roster says. You can bet the staff has been trying out plenty of guys at RB since Potts went down.

Also, the learning curve is a bit higher for a new RB, especially blocking. It’s best to have guys that were RB in HS than creating one from a WR.
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My point had nothing to do with running backs going down. Additionally, there has never been a player listed as "WR" that has gotten snaps anywhere else other than Seth Green.

Your bolded point is absolutely false. We can't turn running backs in lineman and vice versa. The construction of a roster should be designed to maximize the available talent for the scheme you are playing. We roster many wide receivers, in my belief to keep kids transferring and keep incoming talent high. I just think that with the personnel packages we are running we could roster a couple less scholarship receivers and use the scholarships on the defensive side of the ball.
 

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