@DMoney - I agree with you for coming to the defense of Cam. People saying he sucks or should transfer is a over the top and ridiculous. Cam will still have some big games and break some huge runs this year. But saying "the stats never come into play", and some other things you're saying are a bit misleading.
1) CAM IS A HOME RUN HITTER
100% True. Cam is our best HR hitter. But he also strikes out the most.
Cam BY FAR had more big runs than Chaney & Knighton on the same amount of carries in 2020. Cam's speed/big play ability can't be overlooked.
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Cam also BY FAR had more carries for negative yds. That's on Cam, not the OL or play calling. Losing yards on 21% of your carries also can't be overlooked.
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2) CAM IS TOUGH
Cam's definitely "tough", he's just not "physical". Dallas, Lingard, Chaney, Knighton, Burns - all missed games due to injury the last couple years. Cam has more carries than any of them and has never been injured. Not even nicked up really. IMO that shows his toughness.
But he's not a "physical" runner. He continuously shies away from contact. He's obsessed with getting to the sideline, and makes bad decisions just to avoid contact. And when anticipates contact, he usually stops his momentum, turtles up, and braces for contact. This is why he falls backwards instead of forward. It's not that he doesn't break tackles because of poor contact balance, it's that he doesn't try to physically run through tacklers. He makes it easy for them.
3) DEFENSES CHANGED AFTER THE UAB & LOUISVILLE GAMES TO ACCOUNT FOR CAM
Disagree. UAB & Lousiville were just poor run defenses. Cam's big runs always come against poor run defenses. All of them. Essentially his HR's always come against bad pitchers, but good pitchers always strike him out.
4) CAM'S 5.1 YPC IS GOOD, AND HE'S A GOOD RECEIVER
Disagree on both. Cam's 5.1 ypc is "good" when compared to Chaney's 4.7 & Knighton's 4.0 ypc.
But 5.1 by itself isn't very good. It's average. And Cam is just a decent receiver. Cam has graded out as our worst receiving RB the last 2 years, and his 7.2 yds per reception is the worst of any Canes RB in the last 10 years (and I do mean ANY...and by at least a full yard).
Since "The best since Duke" always gets thrown out there, here's the career Yds Per Carry & Yds Per Reception for any RB that's played at Miami since Duke was a Freshman 10 years ago in 2012 (stats are while at Miami & minimum of 100 carries)
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Overall Cam isn't good or bad - he's just solid/average.