This is better.
For the record, I didn’t like Yearby getting benched when it happened. I was more upset by his departure than Gus’. It worked out because Homer was a beast.
Walton had a poor freshman year in 2015, but he bounced.
Walton’s emergence at the end of 2016 changed my mind. That was what Richt saw from the beginning. Yearby was awesome moving the chains but he was slow.
Walton came out BEASTING in 2017 with two huge games. Duke sold out to stop the run so he only went 17 for 51 but he had almost 80 yards receiving. Florida State is always tough sledding and Mark got hurt and that was it for his college career.
The real culprit in this was Richt’s garbage offense. If you recall, we were losing games with Richt’s garbage, slow developing pass plays and snail tempo. When we quick passed and ran tempo we were much better.
We had three good backs and all of them should have eaten, but inconsistent line play and bad play calling and strategy killed that.
I don’t think it was favoritism. Walton was a Golden recruit. Yearby was slow and Gus fell behind in Richt’s offense. The timing of his injury didn’t help. By the end of 2016, I changed my mind and Walton was the guy. His play in 2017 confirmed it, then he got hurt.
These are all the answers you need. This ain’t a trial. I’m smart enough to recognize when someone is trying to lead me into a trap with loaded questions demanding yes and no answers. The context of these type situations is too nuanced for the rigidity of leading questions. You should have been a lawyer.
I'll never understand why Walton's 2017 was seen as him BEASTING instead of it just being par for the course?
2015 Joe Yearby (First 4 games) - 4.9 ypc at end of the year
58-424 yds - 7.3 ypc - 4 TD
2016 Mark Walton (First 4 games) - 5.3 ypc at end of the year
63-445 yds - 7.1 ypc - 8 TD
2017 Mark Walton (First 4 games) - 13.0 ypc the first 2 games, 2.6 ypc the next 2
56-428 yds - 7.6 ypc - 3 TD
2019 Deejay Dallas (First 3 games) - 6.0 ypc at end of the year
37-309 yds - 8.4 ypc - 4 TD
2020 Cam Harris (First 3 games) - 5.1 ypc at end of the year
38-311 yds - 8.2 ypc - 5 TD
Seriously - it happens EVERY year. EVERY....****....YEAR.....
But the excitement and hope of the new season will get fans every single time. They don't want to realize these RB's will come back down to earth as the season goes on and the schedule gets harder.
This is why the "Walton would've had a huge year in 2017 if he hadn't gotten hurt!" makes me laugh every time.
Like - Imagine if Cam had the good fortune of being injured for the season after 3 games like Walton did? People would be talking about him as a 2nd Round pick/best RB in the country. Unfortunately for Cam, he stayed healthy and everyone had to face reality.
Fortunately - Walton did get hurt so he didn't get exposed. And it paved the way for Homer who helped us win the FSU & GT games we wouldn't have won otherwise. And it allowed Deejay to switch to RB. Everyone Wins.
This is also why looking at such a small sample size gets you in trouble when evaluating.
Walton's 3 game Pitt/UVA/NC St Hot Streak - 49-356 yds - 7.3 ypc - 5 TD
Walton's 9 other P5 games under Richt - 141-436 yds - 3.1 ypc - 2 TD
If a plyer is bad 25% of the time, and bad 75% of the time - Guess what?
But after 3 big games, confirmation bias and narratives can kick in:
Now it's Richt was a genius and he could just see what others couldn't this whole time (nope, not favoritism at all....See my post on Page 4 Tru)
Now it's it's only Yearby is small & slow - when actually BOTH Yearby AND Walton are small & slow
Now it's everyone committing to this "If Walton gets hurt we're screwed" narrative, even though Homer is better
Now it's Walton goes 17-51 against Duke because they "sold out to stop the run". Even though Homer went 3-43 yds.
Now it's Walton goes 12-25 vs FSU while Homer goes 3-29 yds. But Walton's pass protection is SO valuable!
Now it's Homer has 170 yds rushing in his 1st start is because GT wasn't worried about the run (Walton never even had 150 total yds vs P5 ever)
Now the narratives become stronger than the reality - even as they get more and more ridiculous because people are so invested in them.
"Walton is a Beast" is Miami's own "Biden stole the Election!" Our QAnon. Our Flat Earth. Narratives > Facts
Why so many narratives were built around Walton not performing well vs looking at the very simple and obvious reason that he was 200 lbs and ran a 4.6....is something I'll never understand.
Walton will get market corrected over time - but it's still really weird.
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