PJ is injuring his running backs and it has to stop

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hello-world

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PJ asked Mo to run 30 times against OSU in the first game of a season and it led to a snapped Achilles. The very next year he asked that same running back to run 39 (!) times against Iowa _in a losing effort_.

This year he has asked a true freshman to run 33, 22, and 31 times in successive weeks when he was obviously gassed and repeatedly asked to be taken out of the game in the first game. And tonight he got injured. That has to stop. It is too much.

I realize that this doesn't deserve it's own post but it is wildly irresponsible. For comparison, Bucky is running ~10-15 times per game at Oregon and has never carried the ball over 20x per game.

There are 0 other true freshman RBs with over 50 carries coming into today's game. There are only two other Freshman and they both redshirted last year. This young man doesn't even have a full year of conditioning at the college level. He should not be getting that many touches.
 
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Why does his age matter? Such a silly post riddled with “true freshman”. Really you should use them more—less wear than your 5th year senior.
 

hello-world said:
PJ asked Mo to run 30 times against OSU in the first game of a season and it led to a snapped Achilles. The very next year he asked that same running back to run 39 (!) times against Iowa _in a losing effort_.

This year he has asked a true freshman to run 33, 22, and 31 times in successive weeks when he was obviously gassed and repeatedly asked to be taken out of the game in the first game. And tonight he got injured. That has to stop. It is too much.

I realize that this doesn't deserve it's own post but it is wildly irresponsible. For comparison, Bucky is running ~10-15 times per game at Oregon and has never carried the ball over 20x per game.

There are 0 other true freshman RBs with over 50 carries coming into today's game. There are only two other Freshman and they both redshirted last year. This youg man doesn't even have a full year of conditioning at the college level. He should not be getting that many touches.
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You’re not wrong.
 




LesBolstad said:
He is wrong and starting a new thread on this stupid. As I posted in game thread:

There's a hundred reasons to be irate after that debacle, but this "overworking" our RB theme is not one of them
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I’d agree there are about 276 different reasons we lost
 


PJ overuses his go to running back and for any of the geniuses who think otherwise you’re being Pollyanna-ish. Have you ever personally seen a running back that’s carried the ball 25 times a game on Sunday morning? I have, and it’s brutal to watch them shuffle around like a seventy year-old man. You can do it from time to time, but not week after week.
 

LesBolstad said:
He is wrong and starting a new thread on this stupid. As I posted in game thread:

There's a hundred reasons to be irate after that debacle, but this "overworking" our RB theme is not one of them
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He’s not wrong. You could see it coming in the entire second half. It may not be why we lost the game, but it’s definitely the reason he wasn’t able to play the last series in OT and is now hurt.
 



LesBolstad said:
He is wrong and starting a new thread on this stupid. As I posted in game thread:

There's a hundred reasons to be irate after that debacle, but this "overworking" our RB theme is not one of them
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This post is 0% about the outcome of the game and 100% about PJ putting his RBs in a really rough position. RBs run sprints every time they touch the ball and end every carry by running into a 250 lb body builder that is trying to twist their ankles and knees. Asking a 19 y.o. kid with less than a year of college training to do that is going to get them injured in just the same way that asking Mo to run 30 times in the first game out of the season led to a devastating overuse injury.
 

hello-world said:
PJ asked Mo to run 30 times against OSU in the first game of a season and it led to a snapped Achilles. The very next year he asked that same running back to run 39 (!) times against Iowa _in a losing effort_.

This year he has asked a true freshman to run 33, 22, and 31 times in successive weeks when he was obviously gassed and repeatedly asked to be taken out of the game in the first game. And tonight he got injured. That has to stop. It is too much.

I realize that this doesn't deserve it's own post but it is wildly irresponsible. For comparison, Bucky is running ~10-15 times per game at Oregon and has never carried the ball over 20x per game.

There are 0 other true freshman RBs with over 50 carries coming into today's game. There are only two other Freshman and they both redshirted last year. This young man doesn't even have a full year of conditioning at the college level. He should not be getting that many touches.
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Agree. And this has been evident over the past several years. How many times did we see Mo tacking on carries into the 30's of games that were already in hand?? Why do that???

It's either stat pumping, or something else that I don't understand from a coaching standpoint.

And not only that, it kills your depth in the RB room over time. Why would a decent backup or #3 want to wait in the wings?? Prime example: Look at our RB room depth coming into this next week.
 


Barry Sanders at Oklahoma State in 1988
_____
  • Sept. 10 vs. Miami (Ohio): 18 carries, 178 yards, two touchdowns, one kickoff return touchdown
  • Sept. 24 vs. Texas A&M: 20 carries, 157 yards, two touchdowns, one punt return touchdown
  • Oct. 1 vs. Tulsa: 33 carries, 304 yards, five touchdowns
  • Oct. 8 at Colorado: 24 carries, 174 yards, four touchdowns
  • Oct. 15 at Nebraska: 35 carries, 189 yards, four touchdowns
  • Oct. 22 vs. Missouri: 25 carries, 154 yards, two touchdowns
  • Oct. 29 at Kansas State: 37 carries, 320 yards, three touchdowns
  • Nov. 5 vs. Oklahoma: 39 carries, 215 yards, two touchdowns
  • Nov. 12 vs. Kansas: 37 rushes, 312 yards, five touchdowns
  • Nov. 19 at Iowa State: 32 carries, 293 yards, four touchdowns
  • Dec. 3 vs. Texas Tech: 44 carries, 332 yards, four touchdowns
  • Holiday Bowl vs. Wyoming: 44 carries, 222 yards, five touchdowns
I'm not saying heavy loads are a good idea - just that heavy loads throughout at least 8 games can be done.
 



kisarazu said:
Barry Sanders at Oklahoma State in 1988
_____
  • Sept. 10 vs. Miami (Ohio): 18 carries, 178 yards, two touchdowns, one kickoff return touchdown
  • Sept. 24 vs. Texas A&M: 20 carries, 157 yards, two touchdowns, one punt return touchdown
  • Oct. 1 vs. Tulsa: 33 carries, 304 yards, five touchdowns
  • Oct. 8 at Colorado: 24 carries, 174 yards, four touchdowns
  • Oct. 15 at Nebraska: 35 carries, 189 yards, four touchdowns
  • Oct. 22 vs. Missouri: 25 carries, 154 yards, two touchdowns
  • Oct. 29 at Kansas State: 37 carries, 320 yards, three touchdowns
  • Nov. 5 vs. Oklahoma: 39 carries, 215 yards, two touchdowns
  • Nov. 12 vs. Kansas: 37 rushes, 312 yards, five touchdowns
  • Nov. 19 at Iowa State: 32 carries, 293 yards, four touchdowns
  • Dec. 3 vs. Texas Tech: 44 carries, 332 yards, four touchdowns
  • Holiday Bowl vs. Wyoming: 44 carries, 222 yards, five touchdowns
I'm not saying heavy loads are a good idea - just that heavy loads throughout at least 8 games can be done.
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Yeah, but he had to retire early from the NFL, directly stating his college workload was too tough on his little legs.
 

The fact that the Gophers need a true freshman to contribute that much shows that the program has failed to recruit, develop, and retain adequate running back talent.
 

corcorangopher said:
The fact that the Gophers need a true freshman to contribute that much shows that the program has failed to recruit, develop, and retain adequate running back talent.
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Or that they are recruiting really well and found a really talented freshman.
 


Word said:
Or that they are recruiting really well and found a really talented freshman.
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Both can be true. Having more than one running back seems to be a good thing. See Purdue, 2022.
 


corcorangopher said:
The fact that the Gophers need a true freshman to contribute that much shows that the program has failed to recruit, develop, and retain adequate running back talent.
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They had good depth in Bucky, Ky and Trey who all left.
Why didn't Tyler get in the game, injured during the week? Can't trust due to fumbles last week?
What is up with Evans not playing either?
 


GFBfan said:
They had good depth in Bucky, Ky and Trey who all left.
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this is why I've turned into the casual fan in the last couple of years; the NIL money grab & transfer portal crap benefits the top 15 programs nationally and the rest are left to fight it out to maybe find an elite positional player
 

I agree that Fleck likes to run his top RB into the ground.

the issue is that there is apparently no other RB on the team that the Head Coach will allow to play - except for Bryce Williams. Tyler in the doghouse for fumbling. Evans in the doghouse for reasons known only to Fleck.

and the odd thing - it wasn't always like this - remember Rodney Smith and Shannon Brooks splitting carries?

(live update) --------------Barreiro just said that Taylor should enter the transfer portal to keep Fleck from over-working him-----------------
 

I'm A Maroon 2! said:
Yeah, but he had to retire early from the NFL, directly stating his college workload was too tough on his little legs.
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1 - Can you find a source for that statement? The only ones I find are because of the Lions being the Lions. "Since retiring, Sanders wrote co-authored a book — Barry Sanders: Now You See Him ... His Story in His Own Words — in which he made it pretty clear that he retired because he was losing interest in playing for a franchise that didn't put a winning team on the field."
2 - The average RB career in the NFL is 3.3 years. Barry Sanders played for 10 years and had over 3000 carries.
3 - Barry Sanders had tree trunks for legs. (Nit-picking hehe)
4 - Even though I am personally uncomfortable with a freshman RB having 30+ carries per game, my only reasons for that are ultimately based on feelings. I feel like a team probably shouldn't do that, but I'm not a coach and I'm not a doctor.
 


Yeah giving the ball to our best player 30 times a game is a horrible idea
 

Polski said:
Agree. And this has been evident over the past several years. How many times did we see Mo tacking on carries into the 30's of games that were already in hand?? Why do that???
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I get what you’re saying. But the reason they run them late into the game is to avoid what happened yesterday
Polski said:
It's either stat pumping, or something else that I don't understand from a coaching standpoint.

And not only that, it kills your depth in the RB room over time. Why would a decent backup or #3 want to wait in the wings?? Prime example: Look at our RB room depth coming into this next week.
Click to expand...
 


BigGopher69 said:
Yeah giving the ball to our best player 30 times a game is a horrible idea
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Why not give it to him 50 times then? There's a limit somewhere. He's not a robot and can get fatigued over time. It's just odd that we don't see a few carries here and there from other guys besides Bryce Williams. Williams is a nice guy to have in obvious passing situations but that should be the extent of his playing time.

It's weird too because prior to 2020, Fleck's teams (at MN and WMU) usually had multiple guys that would get a lot of carries.
 

UpAndUnder43 said:
Why does his age matter? Such a silly post riddled with “true freshman”. Really you should use them more—less wear than your 5th year senior.
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He did not make a silly post but you certainly did. Maturity does matter and maturity usually matches up with age.

It might not be gross mismanagement to run a guy a few months out of high school 30 times a game but it is not very smart when you have a passing game that was sharp when occasionally called upon.
 

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