Our Running Game

[gophmeister]

I hate to state the obvious, but I think it can be proved statistically that there is a direct correlation between running for more than 100 net yards in a game and winning for this team. Here's our net yardage by game for the season.

SYR 112
AF 108
CAL 37
NW 166
WI 57
PU 207
PSU 37
OSU 123 88 Yds by Gray
MSU 89
IL 50
SDSU 137 - 48 ATT 2.9 AVG
IA 54 - WE ACTUALLY OUTRUSHED IA!

Take away Gray's yards at the end, which can reasonably be considered an outlier, and the hypothesis Yds > 100 = W seems pretty solid. Hopefully the coaching staff is working extra diligently on the run game during bowl practice.

 

[Schnoodler]

Yes, even though philosophies on running have changed, you still need to be effective. We were not.

sometimes there are numbers that don't seem to fit that say interesting things.

We were dead last in yards per attempt with 2.9

Bennett was 3.9
Whaley was at 4.2 which I believe would be third for freshmen with a decent number of attempts.

Those aren't terrible numbers, however...

Weber is at -2.0 with a rushing year of -135 yards.

Our actual running game, how well we do when running a true run play wasn't so bad.

The more and more I look at the numbers the more it looks like our single biggest weakness was simply play calling and getting first downs. I think our running stats were more symptomatic of a lack of opportunity, and three and outs. Probably not the cause of them.

Ten+ yard running plays are great, but it's not the role of a run. It's to put you into a situation where the field is wide open. 2nd and six is a great situation to be in. The defense has no idea what your going to do. Third and two is also not so bad. With Bennett at 3.9 and Whaley at 4.2 we obviously were capable of that. Yet first downs were far and few between.

As I've said before, sustaining drives is an art. Fisch has never called plays at any level and is now at the highest level of college ball trying to learn. This is the single greatest weakness of our offense IMHO. Hopefully the guy is a quick learner.

 

[Gophers09]

Yes, even though philosophies on running have changed, you still need to be effective. We were not.

sometimes there are numbers that don't seem to fit that say interesting things.

We were dead last in yards per attempt with 2.9

Bennett was 3.9
Whaley was at 4.2 which I believe would be third for freshmen with a decent number of attempts.

Those aren't terrible numbers, however...

Weber is at -2.0 with a rushing year of -135 yards.

Our actual running game, how well we do when running a true run play wasn't so bad.

The more and more I look at the numbers the more it looks like our single biggest weakness was simply play calling and getting first downs. I think our running stats were more symptomatic of a lack of opportunity, and three and outs. Probably not the cause of them.

Ten+ yard running plays are great, but it's not the role of a run. It's to put you into a situation where the field is wide open. 2nd and six is a great situation to be in. The defense has no idea what your going to do. Third and two is also not so bad. With Bennett at 3.9 and Whaley at 4.2 we obviously were capable of that. Yet first downs were far and few between.

As I've said before, sustaining drives is an art. Fisch has never called plays at any level and is now at the highest level of college ball trying to learn. This is the single greatest weakness of our offense IMHO. Hopefully the guy is a quick learner.

Definitely agree here - our run game is ok (not great) on actual run plays. And play calling is definitely an art with a learning curve.