Spring Competition

augustabuzz

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takethepoints said:
I agree about the blocking, but I don't know about the rest.

This is old news here, but I want a BB who'll - to repeat myself for the umpteenth time - get us 4 yards on 3 and 3 reliably. From what I saw last year Marshall isn't that back. Some of that was probably inexperience; as Boomer pointed out awhile ago, he was a high school TB a year ago. No doubt that was what led to his lack of speed to the mesh. I suspect that some of it is running style, however. He's a speed merchant, not a bruiser. What you want at BB is both (Dwyer), but you seldom find that so most of Coach's BBs have been bruisers. There's a reason for that. When you run up the gut, you need to be fast to the mesh and have enough size and strength to pull out of an initial hit. What I saw from Marshall last year was a home run hitter who went down too easily in short yardage situations. I'd rather have somebody like Laskey.

But, he does have great speed and, no doubt, the coaches have been on his case about strength and determined running at the mesh. If he can improve there, he could fulfill the promise many here see for him and he'll convert me. Otherwise, I'll take the best bruiser(s) we can find this spring, thank you very much.
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The closest we have to Laskey, appears to be Allen.
 
Eastman

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MeandI said:
Quaid is a bruiser. Check out this video on instagram. If his foot is healed he may get some playing time.

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Hard not to be excited about the talent in our backfield. Whoever wins the starting position this year may still be young but they they will be skilled and have another year of experience. I am ready for spring ball so I can become overly optimistic for next year.
 

Skeptic

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Eastman said:
Hard not to be excited about the talent in our backfield. Whoever wins the starting position this year may still be young but they they will be skilled and have another year of experience. I am ready for spring ball so I can become overly optimistic for next year.
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I see you have been here before. I have made up my mind that the only game that counts in 2016 is Boston College. Then we shall see, a week at a time.
 
Boomergump

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Sorry. I know I haven't around much lately. To those who say speed wasn't much of an issue last year at AB, I beg to differ. There were tons of plays that were really close to breaking the first defensive wave that were stopped due to nothing else than a plain lack of speed. It is what it is. Our kids tried hard, but you can't fake speed.... it matters. Whether a play is stopped for 4 yards or breaks for 24 is pretty significant in my mind. It was a problem. We were a foot away sooo many times. Where there other problems? Like spacing, blocking and what not? Yes, but let's not pretend that we didn't lose speed after losing Snoddy, Searcy, and the like who were replaced with Lynch and Willis. We got what we could out of those guys, but it was a step down. I am sorry if I offend.

Pure speed was an issue, as was reaction speed to the passing scene. Decision making in the flow of the game was often hesitant and tentative complicating matters even worse.

There were some pretty good athletes just starting to get the hang of it when our season ended in 2015 (Lynn Griffin and Mikael Lands-Davis) and we have some returning off injury ( Searcy and Cotrell) or transfer (JJ Green). It is going to get crowded competing for playing time this coming season.
 
Augusta_Jacket

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Boomergump said:
Sorry. I know I haven't around much lately. To those who say speed wasn't much of an issue last year at AB, I beg to differ. There were tons of plays that were really close to breaking the first defensive wave that were stopped due to nothing else than a plain lack of speed. It is what it is. Our kids tried hard, but you can't fake speed.... it matters. Whether a play is stopped for 4 yards or breaks for 24 is pretty significant in my mind. It was a problem. We were a foot away sooo many times. Where there other problems? Like spacing, blocking and what not? Yes, but let's not pretend that we didn't lose speed after losing Snoddy, Searcy, and the like who were replaced with Lynch and Willis. We got what we could out of those guys, but it was a step down. I am sorry if I offend.

Pure speed was an issue, as was reaction speed to the passing scene. Decision making in the flow of the game was often hesitant and tentative complicating matters even worse.

There were some pretty good athletes just starting to get the hang of it when our season ended in 2015 (Lynn Griffin and Mikael Lands-Davis) and we have some returning off injury ( Searcy and Cotrell) or transfer (JJ Green). It is going to get crowded competing for playing time this coming season.
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It's not so much that speed wasn't an issue as much as it was that blocking was a bigger issue. A slow runner can get yardage on good blocks, but a fast runner can't reliably outrun bad blocking. Speed hurt us last year when we had the blocks but couldn't outrun the defensive recovery. Those were the plays where the AB ended up with 9-20 yards that Cottrell, Qua or one of our other speedsters would have maybe broken. The bigger issue was how many plays only gained a few yards due to poor blocking. Again, speed was an issue, but it wasn't the killer.

Boomergump said:
Decision making in the flow of the game was often hesitant and tentative complicating matters even worse.
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This. Only experience fixes this. We have a lot of guys with experience now. Hopefully that translates into positive results.
 
SidewalkJacket

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I'm sorry, but I think all this BB discussion is simply overanalysis. Maybe some of us are just frustrated by the 3-9 record and wanting to see changes all over the place, but I am willing to bet MM is our day one BB starter, and remains there for the next three years, unless he leaves early. He's just on another level, talent-wise, and was thrown into the fire as a true Fr. last year. Of course he could block better (everyone could have), and of course the mesh takes a lot of work. But some on here are doubting he'll start because he's not as smooth as a SR ZL?? He has twice the natural talent as ZL, and I loved ZL (who never started an entire season, btw). Here's to MM becoming the next great GT RB... unless someone else does... then I'll gladly root them on!!
 
Northeast Stinger

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SidewalkJacket said:
I'm sorry, but I think all this BB discussion is simply overanalysis. Maybe some of us are just frustrated by the 3-9 record and wanting to see changes all over the place, but I am willing to bet MM is our day one BB starter, and remains there for the next three years, unless he leaves early. He's just on another level, talent-wise, and was thrown into the fire as a true Fr. last year. Of course he could block better (everyone could have), and of course the mesh takes a lot of work. But some on here are doubting he'll start because he's not as smooth as a SR ZL?? He has twice the natural talent as ZL, and I loved ZL (who never started an entire season, btw). Here's to MM becoming the next great GT RB... unless someone else does... then I'll gladly root them on!!
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That is an encouraging way to look at it.

At the risk of miss interpreting what others were saying, I think some of this discussion is not about MM not being an incredible back. It is simply a recognition that no one has won the job yet. Leggett was the guy that CPJ was really high on, prior to the season and before he got hurt, and the player that he seemed most encouraged by. After the injury CPJ seemed to be leaning heavily on Quaide Weimerskirch. Again an injury forced further shuffling. All the while this was going on there were indications that the staff was just waiting for the light to come on for Marcus Allen. Meanwhile CPJ was trying to play down the expectations for the presumed starter, Skov.

I could go on with players that were moved from one position to another and players that were moved around the depth chart but I think it is safe to say that finding an orderly path to the starting BB became a little complicated. I have no doubt that MM will see the field a lot and perhaps even become our every down BB. But I think Tech has more depth at this positon than we have ever had and the competition will be stiff to see who starts and who ends up where on the depth chart.
 
Augusta_Jacket

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SidewalkJacket said:
I'm sorry, but I think all this BB discussion is simply overanalysis. Maybe some of us are just frustrated by the 3-9 record and wanting to see changes all over the place, but I am willing to bet MM is our day one BB starter, and remains there for the next three years, unless he leaves early. He's just on another level, talent-wise, and was thrown into the fire as a true Fr. last year. Of course he could block better (everyone could have), and of course the mesh takes a lot of work. But some on here are doubting he'll start because he's not as smooth as a SR ZL?? He has twice the natural talent as ZL, and I loved ZL (who never started an entire season, btw). Here's to MM becoming the next great GT RB... unless someone else does... then I'll gladly root them on!!
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For the record, C.J. Leggett was a higher rated recruit coming out of HS than MM was.
 

takethepoints

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As I've said before, I expect a two headed monster at BB. I think one will be Quaid, simply because apparently somebody told him last spring that he'd be the power BB. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see Marshall (provided he's learning) and Leggett as the pair.

Luckily, Coach is paid to make these kinds of decisions. I will say this though: I don't think we've been as loaded with sheer physical talent at skill positions on O since 1990. If Robertson signs with us (do it), we'll be simply oozing talent.
 

croberts

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Augusta_Jacket said:
For the record, C.J. Leggett was a higher rated recruit coming out of HS than MM was.
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And jh days and F Kalon were our only 4 star players in their classes. I put my money on the only back that has proven himself (MM) or the most highly rated /offered player(Mills). Then my speculation pick (Benton). By the way, he has the same # of carries as the other two that everyone loves.
 
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