Wide Receivers and Running Backs

[thatguy]

I have a question. why is it that only wandale robinson, JD spielman, and Noa are getting targets or catches? all through the offseason, we heard about how we had such depth about wide receiver, and now the following have basically disappeared:

 

Kade warner (i know he's hurt)

Jaron Woodyard

Jamie Nance

Demariyon houston

Mike Williams

Darien Chase

Jaevon Mcquitty

 

it's unsustainable to have 70% of your receivers on your roster unable to see the field. they can't all be undisciplined, injured, or just not getting the playbook, that's really an indictment on the coach. anyone know what's really going on? these guys who are playing will get run into the ground.

 

same thing a bit with the running backs. we see a fumbling problem with running the ball, yet the running backs which have been hyped all offseason can't even get a look in? yet when wyatt mazour gets in, he gets around 6 ypc. what is going on with development/usage at wide receiver and running back?

[BIG ERN]

I've asked before with no answers but I don't understand how Woodyard and Miles Jones aren't seeing the field at all. It's hard for Freshman to play so Nance, Houston, and Chase are understandable. I saw Woodyard make some plays in practice over the summer so something is missing from that story. 

[BigRedBuster]

We've had 12 players catch passes.  6 of those catching at least 4 passes.  6 receivers have caught passes.

 

In the early games, we really only had JD and Robinson at WR catching passes.  That has expanded now to include Noa.  Yes, it would be fantastic if it were more.  But, I'm not really concerned about WR unless we have an injury.  

I would like to see the TEs getting more.

[ColoradoHusk]

I guess they don't teach to use capital letters at the beginning of sentences anymore.

 

I think the coaches want to see guys show their value in practice on M-W before getting the guys lower on the depth chart a lot of time in games.  With Nance, Chase, and Houston, those guys are true freshmen which the coaches may want to redshirt (not sure if Chase is on pace to appear in more than 4 games).  I think the play calls are designed with the best players being the initial reads, so that's why Spielman, Wandale, and Noa are getting the bulk of the targets.

 

Regarding the running backs, I thought we might see more Rahmir Johnson, but nobody knows how he practices during game prep.  They also may be targeting a redshirt with him.

[ColoradoHusk]

1 minute ago, BigRedBuster said:

We've had 12 players catch passes.  6 of those catching at least 4 passes.  6 receivers have caught passes.

 

In the early games, we really only had JD and Robinson at WR catching passes.  That has expanded now to include Noa.  Yes, it would be fantastic if it were more.  But, I'm not really concerned about WR unless we have an injury.  

I would like to see the TEs getting more.

 

The lack of tight end targets (especially to Austin Allen) has been perplexing, as well.  Maybe they are saving them for key moments in conference play.

[thatguy]

1 minute ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I guess they don't teach to use capital letters at the beginning of sentences anymore.

 

I think the coaches want to see guys show their value in practice on M-W before getting the guys lower on the depth chart a lot of time in games.  With Nance, Chase, and Houston, those guys are true freshmen which the coaches may want to redshirt (not sure if Chase is on pace to appear in more than 4 games).  I think the play calls are designed with the best players being the initial reads, so that's why Spielman, Wandale, and Noa are getting the bulk of the targets.

 

Regarding the running backs, I thought we might see more Rahmir Johnson, but nobody knows how he practices during game prep.  They also may be targeting a redshirt with him.

 

oh be quiet. you really don't have to respond if it hurts your eyes that much. i'm not going to take the time to do capitalize first letters if the text editor on this forum is that outdated that it cannot autocorrect.

[Ziebol]

I miss Keith Williams.

[ColoradoHusk]

1 minute ago, thatguy said:

 

oh be quiet. you really don't have to respond if it hurts your eyes that much. i'm not going to take the time to do capitalize first letters if the text editor on this forum is that outdated that it cannot autocorrect.

Yep, keep blaming something else for your short comings.

[thatguy]

5 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

We've had 12 players catch passes.  6 of those catching at least 4 passes.  6 receivers have caught passes.

 

In the early games, we really only had JD and Robinson at WR catching passes.  That has expanded now to include Noa.  Yes, it would be fantastic if it were more.  But, I'm not really concerned about WR unless we have an injury.  

I would like to see the TEs getting more.

 

i think that's probably the issue: you will have injuries if you don't find a way to utilize more players. most players aren't that durable over the long haul. it will cost us at some point. plus, i think it makes the job of opposing defenses somewhat easier.

[thatguy]

1 minute ago, ColoradoHusk said:

Yep, keep blaming something else for your short comings.

i think you mean shortcomings.

 

clown.

[Cdog923]

24 minutes ago, thatguy said:

I have a question. why is it that only wandale robinson, JD spielman, and Noa are getting targets or catches? all through the offseason, we heard about how we had such depth about wide receiver, and now the following have basically disappeared:

 

Kade warner (i know he's hurt)

Jaron Woodyard

Jamie Nance

Demariyon houston

Mike Williams

Darien Chase

Jaevon Mcquitty

 

it's unsustainable to have 70% of your receivers on your roster unable to see the field. they can't all be undisciplined, injured, or just not getting the playbook, that's really an indictment on the coach. anyone know what's really going on? these guys who are playing will get run into the ground.

 

same thing a bit with the running backs. we see a fumbling problem with running the ball, yet the running backs which have been hyped all offseason can't even get a look in? yet when wyatt mazour gets in, he gets around 6 ypc. what is going on with development/usage at wide receiver and running back?

 

Presumably (what I've heard, anyways), is that most of the players on that list can't be trusted with knowing more than 4 plays at the moment. Frost wants to run fast, and needs WRs out there that know more than just one or two plays/route combinations, and from the sound of it, there are only 3-4 WRs that have enough knowledge of the offense to get some run. Houston and Chase are still young, and Williams is getting regular snaps. Nance, Woodyard and McQuitty must be "swimming in it", so to speak. Warner will help out a ton when he gets healthy. 

 

Miles Jones, barring an injury, might be the most disappointing Frost recruit thus far. 

[thatguy]

2 minutes ago, Cdog923 said:

 

Presumably (what I've heard, anyways), is that most of the players on that list can't be trusted with knowing more than 4 plays at the moment. Frost wants to run fast, and needs WRs out there that know more than just one or two plays/route combinations, and from the sound of it, there are only 3-4 WRs that have enough knowledge of the offense to get some run. Houston and Chase are still young, and Williams is getting regular snaps. Nance, Woodyard and McQuitty must be "swimming in it", so to speak. Warner will help out a ton when he gets healthy. 

that seems more likely and understandable. but if that's the case, that still worries me. if you are a teacher, and 50% of your students aren't picking up what you are putting down after 3 semesters, then that may not necessarily be a student problem.

 

 

[BigRedBuster]

21 minutes ago, thatguy said:

 

i think that's probably the issue: you will have injuries if you don't find a way to utilize more players. most players aren't that durable over the long haul. it will cost us at some point. plus, i think it makes the job of opposing defenses somewhat easier.

Hmmm...Both JD and Robinson have the most catches at 18 and 17 respectively.  That's roughly 4-5 catches per game.  Is that really out of line for your top two receivers?  I don't think so.  

The next highest is Washington at 10.  SO, that's roughly 2.5 per game.  Not out of line either.

[Toe]

34 minutes ago, Ziebol said:

I miss Keith Williams.

 

Why, so he can pad our recruiting rankings only to have all the players he recruited bail a little later? Almost none of his guys are still on the team.

[WyoHusker56]

Most teams have 2-3 receivers that get the bulk of the work. Frost likes to use TEs and RBs in his passing game too so they eat up a chunk of the passes. We're averaging 17.5 completed passes per game on 28 attempts so there hasn't been a ton of passes to go around and some guys might be dropping their opportunities.

 

In the last couple weeks Mike Williams and Noa are seeing more opportunities and I imagine that'll continue, but that is already 4 receivers and that's a decent rotation. So, the other guys likely aren't seeing a ton of snaps.

As far as RB's go a lot of teams have maybe 2 guys get the bulk of the work and NU has basically had 3 with Wandale. So, there isn't a lot of time beyond those 3. I know people like Mazour and I think he continues to see spot work, but he averaged 3.0 YPC against USA and NIU. His two carries against Illinois looked good so he may see a bit more work. As far as Rahmir he has only played against NIU so far that I can remember so I am guessing a redshirt there. All of our RBs besides Mazour are back next year so we don't need him now unless he's far and away better in practice.