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Jaquez Yant???


BenchCoach

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2 minutes ago, Guy Chamberlin said:

I like the look of Yant, too. 

 

By game four, I really wanted and expected to be getting excited about one of these guys, even if they were doing some platooning. 

 

It's probably not good for RB morale if your QB is always going to be your leading rusher, and if you collectively have 8 completions to the running backs after four games. I still don't get why a Scott Frost offense, faced with an offensive line that gives up a lot of early penetration, isn't using a steady diet of outlet passes to the running backs.

 

 

True- the screen pass has been absent. AND after the Defense gets burned by one or two, they quit coming so fast. 

 

Im guessing pretty strong, that- this is an oline problem as well. It is much harder to execute than it looks. Cam would be pretty dang good in space- the rest- not so sure. 

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36 minutes ago, BigRedBuster said:

You have to have good recruiting.  But, this is one reason why I don't like it when it seems like a guy is being kept around because "he's a great recruiter".  You first have to be a good coach.  That's your first priority.  Then, every staff has to have a few who are really good at both.


If you are just a good recruiter, you might as well be the recruiting coordinator and leave the coaching to someone else.

 

That said, I do think more of our problem with the running game is with the line.

Good points/post.

 

To the bolded, I agree. If I could redefine the problems I assign to Held, it would be the lack of consistency in the group and inability to develop a 'dude' back there. The o-line troubles are genuine concern worth noting, though.

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Note- go back and look at some of Ozigbos film from 2018. Often times he was having to make guys miss in the backfield just to get to the LOS> He did that pretty well. We haven't had anyone since who could do that and frankly one would hope that isn't happening a whole lot- but it did and Ziggy was pretty good at making that first guy miss. 

 

Note- he also improved quite a bit from 2017-2018. SO who gets credit for that? Yes he put on too much weight because Riley asked him to. How much of the improvement was due to the weight/Duval- scheme or coaching? We don't know for sure how much of this is an oline issue. That might buy Held another year, Austin, not so much. 

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Love everyone’s take on the offense…agree the Oline has a few issues. To me that’s all the more reason to give him a few carries to see how he does. A back the makes his own blocks, that’s Yant. I haven’t been impressed by any other back besides our USC transfer (a little). I would love to be proved wrong but I see this kid as a 12-15 carry a game type guy. Never seen him go down easy, I’ve seen the rest go down with a stiff wind.

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In reading this thread, Mills played a type of FB at Georgia Tech. So when we moved him down against Ohio State, he had some skills and prior experience to fall back on. My understanding is that Yant is a big RB. A FB is and has completely different skills and just because someone is big, doesn’t make them a good short yardage back. 
 

I’d like to see Yant in short yardage situations, but putting him in the FB position in an I doesn’t feel like a good idea. 

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Yant shows that on nearly every carry he will drag a pile or at least keep his feet moving for extra yards, whether he’s driving himself forward or trying to back pedal for extra yards. There are not too many backs who exhibit that trait, rarely stood up and usually muster out an extra 1-3 yards. Rex and Ameer were great at it. If I were to guess, his doesn’t get touches because he doesn’t have the “home run” threat that every other back appears to possess. 

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19 hours ago, Enhance said:

This times 1,000%.

 

Who knows what's happening there. Just look at Stepp who ran for 102 yards on 18 att. against Fordham, 20 yards on 9 att. against Buffalo, and didn't have a single carry against OU. Just when you think someone is making something of themselves, they disappear. That's been the theme almost every season under Frost. That, to me, is a coaching issue.

 

The rumor mill swirling at the moment (according to Damon Benning) is that Held is 'under a lot of pressure' right now. He went on to say that there are two people either very close to or whom work closely with Held inside the program that are not very big fans of Held's. DB wouldn't go into much further detail but I definitely interpreted what he said as meaning Held knows he and his unit aren't getting it done.

 

I don't think Held's seat is quite as hot as Austin's but it is definitely warm, and with good reason. Being considered one of the staff's best recruiters is great, but that unit has been consistently inconsistent for four seasons now.

 

I guess it depends on how you want to look at it.  I didn't hear Benning's comments but it's pretty hard to separate the RBs struggles from the OL struggles. 

 

I get people being frustrated but I actually think Held has put together a pretty good RB room this year.  We don't have the absolute stud but we have several really solid options.  It just took awhile to get here because we had almost nothing when he got here and then the stud he recruited (Washington) and another solid option (Bell) both turned into head cases.

 

There just isn't a lot of separation in the guys we have so that's why we see such big variations from week to week.  No one is significantly better so whoever seems to get an edge, makes a couple things happen early or fits the game plan a bit better gets more run. 

 

Stepp had one good game against our weakest opponent.  I just think he's probably the most limited in what he can do so he didn't fit the game plan as well the last two weeks.  And we're struggling to block the inside run game so our offensive line is worst at what he does best.  Not a good combination.  Yant is basically the same back as Stepp but not as good and not as in shape.  So there's no reason to play him ahead of Stepp right now.  Maybe in a year or two.  As was mentioned, he basically got the chances this spring because of lack of other options.

 

Ervin was the #1 guy coming into the season but had no opportunity with his chances early in the Illinois game so it didn't look like as good of a choice.  But when he had more room to run later, he showed he had good moves.  Sucks for him that's he's now out for the year.  But that would seem to be a pretty good find in recruiting by Held to be able to bring in a guy who can show he's worth being the starter as a true freshman over several guys who had been on the field for Power 5 schools in previous seasons.

 

Johnson seems to have really come on in the last few weeks.  He's probably our fastest back but we saw against Oklahoma that he seems to have figured out how to run through contact much better.  Plus he and Ervin are said to be the best options in pass protection.  With Ervin now out, I would think Johnson will get a lot of chances going forward.

 

Morrison is basically the odd man out.  He got some chances early but it seems like he's slipped behind Johnson lately.  Maybe Ervin's injury opens the door for him a little more.  But he was good enough to get quite a few chances early in the year.

 

But we basically have four running backs that are worthy of playing time.  That's a pretty deep RB room if you ask me.  Plus two others (Yant and Scott) who are still options.  Compare that to having Ozigbo, Mikale Wilbon and Jaylin Bradley being the entire RB room when Held got here and I don't think there's any question our current situation is not even comparable to where we were.

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28 minutes ago, Mavric said:

 

I guess it depends on how you want to look at it.  I didn't hear Benning's comments but it's pretty hard to separate the RBs struggles from the OL struggles. 

 

I get people being frustrated but I actually think Held has put together a pretty good RB room this year.  We don't have the absolute stud but we have several really solid options.  It just took awhile to get here because we had almost nothing when he got here and then the stud he recruited (Washington) and another solid option (Bell) both turned into head cases.

 

There just isn't a lot of separation in the guys we have so that's why we see such big variations from week to week.  No one is significantly better so whoever seems to get an edge, makes a couple things happen early or fits the game plan a bit better gets more run. 

 

Stepp had one good game against our weakest opponent.  I just think he's probably the most limited in what he can do so he didn't fit the game plan as well the last two weeks.  And we're struggling to block the inside run game so our offensive line is worst at what he does best.  Not a good combination.  Yant is basically the same back as Stepp but not as good and not as in shape.  So there's no reason to play him ahead of Stepp right now.  Maybe in a year or two.  As was mentioned, he basically got the chances this spring because of lack of other options.

 

Ervin was the #1 guy coming into the season but had no opportunity with his chances early in the Illinois game so it didn't look like as good of a choice.  But when he had more room to run later, he showed he had good moves.  Sucks for him that's he's now out for the year.  But that would seem to be a pretty good find in recruiting by Held to be able to bring in a guy who can show he's worth being the starter as a true freshman over several guys who had been on the field for Power 5 schools in previous seasons.

 

Johnson seems to have really come on in the last few weeks.  He's probably our fastest back but we saw against Oklahoma that he seems to have figured out how to run through contact much better.  Plus he and Ervin are said to be the best options in pass protection.  With Ervin now out, I would think Johnson will get a lot of chances going forward.

 

Morrison is basically the odd man out.  He got some chances early but it seems like he's slipped behind Johnson lately.  Maybe Ervin's injury opens the door for him a little more.  But he was good enough to get quite a few chances early in the year.

 

But we basically have four running backs that are worthy of playing time.  That's a pretty deep RB room if you ask me.  Plus two others (Yant and Scott) who are still options.  Compare that to having Ozigbo, Mikale Wilbon and Jaylin Bradley being the entire RB room when Held got here and I don't think there's any question our current situation is not even comparable to where we were.

That's a good run down of where we are at.  What's frustrating is that our biggest backs are the worst in pass pro.  That's an area where I would have thought Stepp would have been a good option.

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