Where's Braylon Heard?

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All-Conference
Another week, same thread.

I know he was banged up a little, but this week he was not.

We are "Rexing" Ameer. 31 carries?

When Heard ran the ball, he was very successful. I wish he got more carries. If only for the fact we don't want Ameer to wear down too much.

It was nice to see Cross get some carries for this reason too. Finally.

 
The next two weeks would be an ideal time to spell Ameer frequently. I just don't see us needing to ride one back thirty times per game to get wins against the Gophers and the Hawks (who have to be averaging something like ten points a game by now).

 
It's funny reading things like this after all the concern 2010 and the way the coaches were in trouble putting an injured Martinez out there. Let Heard heal up some more. We're fine.

 
Heard did look very good when giving the opportunity.

Maybe he doesn't practice as hard? Maybe he doesn't pass protect as well? Maybe he has a problem hanging onto the ball at practice? How is he as a receiver? :dunno I would like to see him get more carries as much as anyone, but we don't see what goes on day-to-day at practice.

ETA: And maybe the health issues as others have mentioned.

 
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Heres hopin that he recovers quickly! I like this kid, hes got big play potential. I hope we do use Cross more the next couple games though to take some carries off Ameer. I like how Cross ran with more certainty this week. It's only gonna improve if we give him some real gametime experience

 
Also, it really does seem that Ameer's level of conditioning is exceptional. Even higher than Rex's. Nothing against Rex; Ameer just doesn't ran out of gas, ever.

 
the odd thing is Brown's excuse for not seeing cross/heard a couple weeks ago is that the gameplan was to expose the edges and heard/cross are inside runners so we relied on abdullah more. well, no idea what the gameplan for penn state was, but I think about 10 minutes into the game it was obvious we were going to be able to take advantage of them inside...but still went with abdullah.

 
knapplc said:
It's funny reading things like this after all the concern 2010 and the way the coaches were in trouble putting an injured Martinez out there. Let Heard heal up some more. We're fine.
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Big difference when Martinez was THE man on offense. I'm talking about taking 6-7 carries from Ameer and giving them to Heard. 31 carries? And what 25 the week before? For a 190lb guy?

Just sayin, we didn't think Rex would ever wear out either.

 
I'm not worried about Heard returning too fast--we've playing two of the bottom-four teams in the B1G next, so let both Heard and Rex heal up. Ameer and Cross should be able to rack up 200+ between them both games.

 
knapplc said:
It's funny reading things like this after all the concern 2010 and the way the coaches were in trouble putting an injured Martinez out there. Let Heard heal up some more. We're fine.
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Yep. Hard keeping people happy, even when you give them exactly what they're looking for.

Both Heard and Cross got signficant touches. And you want your featured running back to get a rythym. Ameer has shown himself to be durable, versatile, able to get the tough extra yard and much better with ball security. You don't give him the ball 31 times every game. But you do in THIS game. Just as you asked Burkhead to do last year in a couple of the grind-it-out games.

This game showed the coaches trust Imani Cross with the game on the line. That's pretty big.

We've got running back options I didn't think we had last year.

Even with Burkhead out, we have multiple good options.

I'm happy.

 
Wasn't Heard actually injured prior to the start of the season and there was talk of not playing him at all. Then Rex got injured and he was "called" up again. Is his hammy the lingering injury or is it new? Unsure what the original injury was.

 
im really high on BH... he seems to be progressing really well and i like what he does whenever he carries the ball.. he always seems to make a fine play.....i hope to see a lot more of him next season

 
kchusker_chris said:
the odd thing is Brown's excuse for not seeing cross/heard a couple weeks ago is that the gameplan was to expose the edges and heard/cross are inside runners so we relied on abdullah more. well, no idea what the gameplan for penn state was, but I think about 10 minutes into the game it was obvious we were going to be able to take advantage of them inside...but still went with abdullah.
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Agreed. With Abdullah, I cringe when I see him used as a power back, as his size is conducive to his being injured by too much of this, IMO. We can't afford to lose Ameer so close to our goal.

I understand why Heard wasn't out there, as Brown said that he had that hamstring injury before the Northwestern game, IIRC. But the lack of Cross shouldn't be overlooked--we need to get that kid into the mix more, as I think he's an excellent compliment to Ameer. Plus, I'd much rather see Cross take some of those runs up the middle via designated handoffs than Martinez.

 
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