articles
Comments (8)
You are the running back guru of this site and I know you loathe Mark Walton. I like both Walton and Lyle, but I admit Walton wasn't anything special and Lyle hasn't impressed me thus far. I know you already have the stats breakdown on Walton against FBS, ACC, and P4 schools. I'd like to see a side by side comparison of Walton and Lyle against FBS or conference opponents.
Long runs against G5 / FBS teams we beat by 40 points are exciting to watch.
But we’re a P4 team – so our players should ONLY be evaluated by how they play against other P4 teams. That’s all that matters.
I’ll throw in Knighton to the Walton & Lyle comparison.
Here’s their first 15 P4 games. I highlighted games where they had 4+ ypc (there aren't many)
Walton became a starter after game 10
Knighton became a starter after game 7
Lyle became a starter after game 10
Each of they were given the starting job (they didn’t “earn” it) by coaching staffs that believed in them.
The coaching staff isn’t always right.
Last edited:
Thank you. Appreciate you taking the time put that together.
Those are some rough stats for Lyle outside of that Wake Forest (7 carries, 115 yds, 1 TD) where majority of those yards, and his longest, came late in the 4th qtr when the game was in hand.
In fairness to Walton, he had the disadvantage of running behind one of the worst run-blocking o-lines that Miami has fielded. In fairness to Lyle, he has the disadvantage of playing in one of the worst running schemes/philosophy in today's game.
The scheme concerns are valid, but they're a far second to the main concern - lack of talent.
In those same P4 games I listed:
Walton 3.1 ypc - Joe Yearby 4.5 ypc
Knighton 3.8 ypc - Cam Harris 5.0 ypc
Lyle 4.8 ypc - Mark Fletcher 4.8 ypc (but take out Wake Forest: Lyle 2.8 - Fletcher 4.6)
Yearby / Harris / Fletcher are no world beaters. But they were consistently better with the same system/scheme/OL because they're just better players.
Scheme Example - 2024 vs P4 - Fletcher 5.2 ypc, Damien Martinez 6.5 ypc. Dawson's scheme wasn't an issue for Martinez, simply because he was more talented.
Martinez was a beast for sure. Our best RB since Duke, even better than him in some areas. I was never on the "Lyle over Martinez and Fletcher" crew like some were last year. Unpopular opinion here, but Brown might be our best rb this year. I still think its Fletch, but Brown always seems to get those tough yards on short yardage situations.
Hopefully, our running game gets it going against Stanford and all 3 RB's have good games.
100% agree on all you said. I "think" the running game gets back on track this weekend.
I'd really like to see Pringle start getting a couple carries. IMO If we want explosives he's our best shot.
But easier said than done. It's hard enough to rotate 3 RB's. Adding in a 4th is really tough.
Last edited:
