Other RB's

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I don’t understand everyone being so down on Wiley. He is a good pass catcher and has good speed. He’s only had 43 carries and is still young.
 


btowngopher said:
I don’t understand everyone being so down on Wiley. He is a good pass catcher and has good speed.
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Would be a great slot receiver.

Why a 6-2 guy who does not appear to have that typical stout/bowling ball body type would even want to be a running back in the Big Ten ... beats me.
 

btowngopher said:
I don’t understand everyone being so down on Wiley. He is a good pass catcher and has good speed. He’s only had 43 carries and is still young.
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Wiley has positives our course (which you mention) -- but our bread and butter is inside zone running. Wiley has shown to be effective running outside zone, and bouncing plays outside with his speed -- but I haven't seen the vision to be successful running between the tackles. Additionally as was noted when he committed and elsewhere here today his pad level is way too high. He is a tall back and doesn't run low enough.
 




CentralGopher said:
Think we'll be ok. Until we find that workhorse like Mo we will probably not be as much of a ball control offense but that helps us too so we aren't one dimensional all year and can't resort to the passing game when needed.
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That might not be such a bad thing. It sucks feeling like being down two scores is almost insurmountable because it takes an 6-8 minute drive to score most of the time. The WR corp looks better than I expected.
 


Governor Sibley said:
We are about to become a throwing team, just like that.

I like Potts, who will only get better. After him, I'm interested in seeing the freshmen.
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I like both of these.

Make it a passing game with the Potts package, have him leak out and split out wide at times. Sounds like Williams could also be used as a pass blocker in the backfield.

Use Thomas and Irving on the ground. Both young, but highly recruited kids. Let's see what they got. I gotta feeling at least 1 of them will surprise us here.
 





I think if we didn't have the experience at O-line I'd be a lot more concerned. If the line can play the way they did last night, we should be able to have some success running the ball.

I also believe our depth of running back should be able to step up. Mo was great and it will certainly make things tougher, but the Gophers have some other guys that can fill in.

I think we've been pretty fortunate in the last decade with new players stepping up. In 2013, the expectation was Kirkwood would be the main back and then David Cobb emerged. 2015, Cobb went to the NFL, and then Brooks and Smith became the go to guys. In 2018 when both were injured, Mo stepped up. I'm hoping we can continue with guys stepping up this year.
 

We ran 75 plays last night with 50 of those being a running play and Mo carried the ball 30 times by the third quarter. He was on pace to have at least 40 carries on the night until he went down. That is too many carries for one back.
Treyson has not been durable the past two seasons. We will have to use a more balanced approach with RB use.
Would think the next few weeks it would be something along the lines of
Treyson 10 - 15 carries
Cam 5 - 15 carries
Bryce 5 - 15 carries
Ky 5 - 10 carries
Bucky 5 - 10 carries
With Bryce and Cam go with the guy who is having the better day depending on how the OL is handling the DL. Same thing with Ky and Bucky.
 



Tommyboy said:
I do not think I saw Mo substituted one time before he got hurt. He most likely would not have gotten hurt if they would have given him a few breaks through out the game with other backs.
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He had a few breathers. He was up to 30 carries though and on his way to 40.
 

Let's look at the tOSU game with a glass half full. In times of injury to a key player, there is always an opportunity for others to step up.

It's Carpe Diem time! When Donnell Kirkwood went down with an injury, David Cobb seized the opportunity and never looked back. He ended up in the NFL.

We've got a trio of Williams, Wiley, and Potts. Then they are followed, Thomas, Irving, Jelen, and Moore.

I am not worried about the RB. There will be some adjustments.
 


IceBoxGopher said:
I think if we didn't have the experience at O-line I'd be a lot more concerned. If the line can play the way they did last night, we should be able to have some success running the ball.

I also believe our depth of running back should be able to step up. Mo was great and it will certainly make things tougher, but the Gophers have some other guys that can fill in.

I think we've been pretty fortunate in the last decade with new players stepping up. In 2013, the expectation was Kirkwood would be the main back and then David Cobb emerged. 2015, Cobb went to the NFL, and then Brooks and Smith became the go to guys. In 2018 when both were injured, Mo stepped up. I'm hoping we can continue with guys stepping up this year.
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Good example of quality guys stepping in consistently
 

MplsGopher_fan said:
Nope. If you were a true freshman last year, you are still a true freshman this year.
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well even the officialy roster says he is a redshirt freshman this year....doesnt matter really. with the covid year he has an extra year....instead of 5 years to play 4 he has 6 years to play 4...correct?
 

gopherguy06 said:
We have some talented guys in the pipeline and going to be RB by committee. Hoping they can conserve the redshirt on Thomas/Irving.
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RB is one position I would never worry about preserving the redshirt. If he's talented enough to play, and make meaningful contributions, he should be out there playing.

My concern is that the carries get distributed so much among a host of RB's that nobody has the chance to really emerge and separate themself as a primary bell cow back. I think a lot of RB's need to get 15-18+ carries to really get going without Moe, they may not give that many carries to just one back. It'll be interesting to see, I'm not sure I'm 100% sold on either Potts or Wiley at this point for being a primary back.

Maybe they don't think they need a clear cut RB1, I guess we'll find out. My guess is that at some point in the next 2-3 games, someone could emerge
 

FormerFatOL said:
I'm curious if the blocking scheme doesn't change, at least somewhat, to accommodate the type of running back.
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I'd hope at this point we're recruiting RBs that fit into the vision of the offense, so I'd hope not. The rest might not be as good as Mo but hopefully they possess the skillset to be successful.
 

btowngopher said:
I don’t understand everyone being so down on Wiley. He is a good pass catcher and has good speed. He’s only had 43 carries and is still young.
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Soft, doesn’t finish, runs high, tentative and doesn’t uncork speed even in green grass. I think we all wanted him to be a Maroney type, but he doesn’t seem to have “it”.

Then again, maybe a lightbulb goes on and he gets that Waterboy thing going. Who knows? My pure guess is we’ll see Potts, Wiley, Williams split carries. I liked Williams the little we saw of him in 2018, and he looks bigger, stronger, faster in terms of breakaway vs a few of the current.

Whats up with Ky Thomas? I don’t think I’ve seen him on the field, or at practice.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Soft, doesn’t finish, runs high, tentative and doesn’t uncork speed even in green grass. I think we all wanted him to be a Maroney type, but he doesn’t seem to have “it”.

Then again, maybe a lightbulb goes on and he gets that Waterboy thing going. Who knows? My pure guess is we’ll see Potts, Wiley, Williams split carries. I liked Williams the little we saw of him in 2018, and he looks bigger, stronger, faster in terms of breakaway vs a few of the current.

Whats up with Ky Thomas? I don’t think I’ve seen him on the field, or at practice.
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PJ has mentioned Thomas as looking good in practice. As well as Bucky Irving
 

Once Potts is in there getting regular carries and builds confidence, I think you are gonna like what you see.
 

WriterGoph said:
PJ has mentioned Thomas as looking good in practice. As well as Bucky Irving
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Would like to see them both get a fair shot to get some carries behind Potts.

Gotta be able to pass block, though. Williams probably has a solid edge there.
 

Vandy said:
Once Potts is in there getting regular carries and builds confidence, I think you are gonna like what you see.
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I do like Potts. Shifty with speed. Just not sure you can workhorse him more than 20 touches a game or so, which shouldn't be a problem. Will be a lot more balance in the RB room without Mo.
 

Pompous Elitist said:
Soft, doesn’t finish, runs high, tentative and doesn’t uncork speed even in green grass. I think we all wanted him to be a Maroney type, but he doesn’t seem to have “it”.

Then again, maybe a lightbulb goes on and he gets that Waterboy thing going. Who knows? My pure guess is we’ll see Potts, Wiley, Williams split carries. I liked Williams the little we saw of him in 2018, and he looks bigger, stronger, faster in terms of breakaway vs a few of the current.

Whats up with Ky Thomas? I don’t think I’ve seen him on the field, or at practice.
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He’s managed to averag 5 ypc. I would be curious to see Williams behind a much better oline than we had in 2018.
 

btowngopher said:
He’s managed to averag 5 ypc. I would be curious to see Williams behind a much better oline than we had in 2018.
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Small sample size, against below average Big Ten defenses. Don’t get me wrong, I’m open to him and really hope I’m wrong; I suppose we’ll get a chance to see all work through at least the early part of this season.



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Pompous Elitist said:
Small sample size, against below average Big Ten defenses. Don’t get me wrong, I’m open to him and really hope I’m wrong; I suppose we’ll get a chance to see all through work this season.
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I don’t think he’s anywhere close to Mo or anything, but I’m not sold that he can’t be a serviceable back.
 

MGGopher said:
Coaches will have a tough decision to make if Mo misses extended time. Potts is next man up, but there's no way he can handle Mo's workload. It's clear that Wiley is not a difference maker...but rather a 3 - 5 carry per game guy for change of pace and fingers crossed for a HR. Williams is the same kind of zone runner...although perhaps he can be useful in 3rd down situations.

So now you're talking about 15 - 20 carries/game to be accounted for. Given the word out of camp about how gifted they both are, I wouldn't be surprised to see one of Thomas or Irving burn the shirt and take 10 of those. It's not what the staff wanted, but plans go out the window when a catastrophic injury occurs.
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I totally forgot the Thomas would use the COVID year for last year and that he still has a redshirt...I was wondering why he wasn't on the field at all...
 


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