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Running Back Room


I Plead Da Fif

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Curious to see what everyone's thoughts are on the running backs this year. This is the deepest the room has been in as long as I can remember in terms of guys with upper end talent.

Daniel Young - 6'0 210

Similar body type to Kyle Porter, but does everything we'd want a guy like Kyle Porter to do, much better, except pass protect and that's still TBD. He's a guy who will be able to be consistently leaned on in a running back rotation, regardless of talent that makes it's way to campus in the future. Vision can't be taught. 5.1 YPC on 23 attempts last year.

Toneil Carter - 6'0 205

The one guy on the team with proven big play ability from the back field who is able to play 2 games without getting injured. Sky is the limit for Toneil. He's more inconsistent than Young in what we saw, but to me has shown flashes of a higher ceiling. Quickness and vision is dangerous, and has the highest top end speed of someone who carried the ball last year out of the RB position. 4.9 YPC on 37 attempts last year.

Keaontay Ingram - 6'1 190

He's a freshman. We don't know what to expect. His HS tape shows a quick, elusive, purposed runner, who runs a bit high, but given a set of cutback or counter plays and inside zone to keep the defense honest, could be really dangerous in this offense. In an attempt to compare what someone of his ability and recruiting ranking (247 composite #6, .9324 rating) has shown is capable of in the past 3 years or so as a freshman, we can consider our very own Toneil Carter, Devwah Whaley, Trey Sermon, and Saquon Barkley as players who saw some significant playing time as a freshman. While Saquon is an outlier and Trey Sermon benefitted from having Baker Mayfield under center, it would be a welcome addition to get 5 YPC out of another set of legs in the backfield, especially one with pigskin security and big play ability.

Tre Watson - 247 says 5'11 205, looks shorter

Has the most experience out of the group, minus Kyle Porter, whom I will leave out of this discussion, in large part due to the addition of Tre Watson. I see Watson as a replacement for Kyle Porter in all passing situations where we'd want an experienced RB to help with blitz pickups to go along with someone quick out of the backfield. Hasn't had a single season where he's had 200 carries, but will not be asked to be the primary ball carrier unless he shows out. He has a career rushing average of 5.1 YPC, but given his 2 best and most heavily used seasons out of the backfield were alongside Jared Goff and a 5th year senior Davis Webb, he had a massive benefit and likely took advantage of soft defenses. This can't be understated. Will we want to use him in some different ways than the previous 3: draws and counters out of the shotgun on passing downs, screens and passes to the flat. He's our "keep em honest" RB.


We have a back field with 4 different guys that have different skillsets that Stan Drayton, Herb Hand and Tom Herman need to be able to make good use of to take heat off of Sam and/or Shane and/or Cam (I kid I kid). The talent level is the highest and deepest it's been in a while. We need to take a massive leap forward in the running game, it's the difference between 7-5 and 10-2. And if Kyle Porter sees the field, it should only be in mop up duty after Keaontay needs a rest.

Edited by I Plead Da Fif
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17 minutes ago, GringoSalado said:

Appreciate the post and pov but at this point I have a hard time even caring about the RB until I'm convinced our OL won't be utter shit.

And that's fair. I want to think the same thing, however our 2 best returning running backs averaged 5.0 YPC with our shitty oline last year. I'm thinking that at the very least our depth on the oline is better, and given injuries are a near certainty, we should be rolling someone out there better than Tristan Nickelson for half the season.

Edited by I Plead Da Fif
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Carter has the potential to be a feature back but goddamn he can't hold on to the ball to save his life. 

 

Give me heavy doses of Danny Young and Tre Watson until Carter can prove his hands aren't coated in butter, redshirt Ingram and unleash him next year. 

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1 hour ago, TankedBevo said:

Carter has the potential to be a feature back but goddamn he can't hold on to the ball to save his life. 

 

Give me heavy doses of Danny Young and Tre Watson until Carter can prove his hands aren't coated in butter, redshirt Ingram and unleash him next year. 

Agree with everything but redshirting Ingram. We should be running the ball more frequently now that we have guys in the backfield that can find a hole in the line we do have or make people miss. If Carter can't get his shit together with respect to keeping the ball clean, that's Ingram's role to lose, and I see at least 3 different roles in our backfield.

More importantly, our return to the promised land is heavily impacted by landing commitments over the next 2 classes from the likes of Noah Cain, Trey Sanders, Zachary Evans. We need to prove to them that we're not stingy with who gets the rock, that yardage can be earned behind our running schemes and against the Big XII, with an oline that is not even elite yet, and that freshman get to eat too. I want to win the playoffs when we get there, not just get there and we do that with elite talent.

Edited by I Plead Da Fif
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I was thinking along the lines of reducing the wear and tear that's inevitable but then I think of what Jamaal and Malcolm were able to do as freshman with good to great running backs in front of them and I say fuck it, put him out there and see what happens. 

 

I completely forgot about the 4 game redshirt rule too, making it a no-brainer. 

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8 minutes ago, Hank_Hill said:

That rule is going to make the season so fun. Seeing that badass db class in some garbage time (hopefully) blowouts will be cool.

This. Running Backs should never be redshirted, due to their average NFL career being shorter than other positions. We should have running backs that leave after junior years without a redshirt.

With that being said, we get to see what Angilau looks like without burning a shirt (and maybe we need to). We get to see what our loaded DB class looks like. Now we just need to blow out some teams so there’s garbage time.

Edited by I Plead Da Fif
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From what I've seen, Tre Watson has the work ethic and the understanding of what it takes to compete. He walks like the job is his, and it will be if none of the other guys match his focusness.

Toneil Carter has the "million dollar talent and a ten cent brain" tag creeping up behind him. He can still save himself, but he has to realize that the Longhorn uniform isn't something you take off when you're done with it. The media and the fans follow you everywhere. It may be unfair, but that's your choice when you pick the Burnt Orange. There's someone there for your spot if it's too much. He should be option 1a, instead he's #3 by default.

Daniel Young just does everything right. By rights, he should be a complementary or change of pace back. Thus far, overall offensive ineptitude forces him into the featured role. He's owned it through dedication.

Of course, all of this is tosh if the OL can't open up a gap. Between the return of the TE to the Texas offense and new widebodies, there's every reason to believe that will happen. However, right now it's all just theory.

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I'm from Missouri on RBs and the OL until Maryland, but I do like that they added Watson from a seniority point of view.  Young seems like a guy who could be very good with average to above average blocking, since he was decent with dogshit blocking.  Watson seems like a guy who will be a good receiver out of the backfield which was a key to the UH version of Herman's offense, so that is another plus.  I hope Ingram is as good as advertised, because I think the rest of the room are in the JAG category.

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I think our running backs will be much improved for these reasons:

1. Kyle Porter should only get playing time in mop up duty

2. Our 2 best backs from last year now have some experience

3. Watson brings experience and leadership to the room

4.  Ingram should be a solid back that doesn't have to be the man year 1

5. Kyle Porter should only get playing time in mop up duty

6. Improved offensive line play, partially due to hopefully fewer injuries

7. The ability of our backs as a group to catch the ball

8.  Fuck Kyle Porter and the horse he rode in on

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10 minutes ago, txhorns said:

I think our running backs will be much improved for these reasons:

1. Kyle Porter should only get playing time in mop up duty

2. Our 2 best backs from last year now have some experience

3. Watson brings experience and leadership to the room

4.  Ingram should be a solid back that doesn't have to be the man year 1

5. Kyle Porter should only get playing time in mop up duty

6. Improved offensive line play, partially due to hopefully fewer injuries

7. The ability of our backs as a group to catch the ball

8.  Fuck Kyle Porter and the horse he rode in on

So you're saying we'll only see Kyle Porter play against Tulsa?

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3 hours ago, Red Five said:

Is there a name for playing a guy four games or less to preserve his redshirt? Like, it’s November 1st and Ingram has played in three games. What’s that called now?

Oddly enough, the phrase is, “Don’t let the player hit the Red Five, or we’re screwed!”

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