Miami Backfield

[The Franchise]

Gus is going to be a Gurley clone this year. Gurley without the fragility.

OK, we all need a RB to have a good year, but let's not get crazy. Nobody projects Gus to go top 10 in next year's draft. Let's just hope our OL makes our backfield look good.

I don't care about NFL projection nonsense and what other people are saying. They'll be all over Gus AFTER this season. Once he hangs 1500 yards on the board everyone will wake up. He's got every tool in the cot dang shed.

 

[FrancisSawyer]

Gus is going to be a Gurley clone this year. Gurley without the fragility.

OK, we all need a RB to have a good year, but let's not get crazy. Nobody projects Gus to go top 10 in next year's draft. Let's just hope our OL makes our backfield look good.

I don't care about NFL projection nonsense and what other people are saying. They'll be all over Gus AFTER this season. Once he hangs 1500 yards on the board everyone will wake up. He's got every tool in the cot dang shed.

Chise, I hope one of those tools is a shovel. We need Gus to be a good ****** and start shoveling some coal for the good of this football team. When players shovel coal they simply do not have the time nor the desire to join destructive cliques which was the downfall of this team last year.

We need leaders like Gus who will step up and be an example to the rest of the squad especially the incoming freshmen. For far too long this program and it's fans have championed the outdated, archaic and shallow yet generally accepted metrics of success. For far too long we the fans have embraced an utterly vapid and selfish philosophy and culture rooted in the antiquated concepts of fierce competition, winning games, dominating opponents and winning titles.

Gentlemen, I submit that we are at a crossroads with our beloved program. We are at a crucial juncture in this programs history and because of this it is absolutely imperative that we have talented upperclassmen become spiritual leaders in the locker room and on the field. We must have leaders step up and demand that we no longer continue to poison our core values with tangential and petty obsessions like winning games, "returning to elite status" and competing for championships. Our leaders must emphasize that no player is above shoveling coal. We must complete the transition from the old stale paradigm defined by developing champions on the gridiron to a new and enlightened paradigm defined by developing student athletes to be champions in life.

With men of substance and integrity like Blake James, Al Golden and Mark Donofrio leading the way, let us teach our student athletes by using football as a metaphor for life. Through our slyle of play our student athletes will learn that only by selflessly submitting to the Hegelian whole can they acquire the life skills and tools they need to be stewards of good sportsmanship and champions in life. The values, culture and general philosophy that a program epitomizes are accurately reflected in the dominant mantra of that programs fans. It stands to reason that the classic UM mantra of "Big time players make big time plays in big time games." will be soon replaced by "Yards don't matter.".

 

[Mario Hurricanes]

I went to the spring game, and Gus looked to be phenomenal shape. If he is going to have a "breakout" year 2015 is going to be it.

 

[GonzoCane]

Not worried about the skill set of the Miami backs, save for a freshmans ability to pick up a blitz. I'm more worried about how they will be utilized by this coaching staff, I.e., having Gus run wide on tosses and sweeps and running Yearby up the middle five straight times until some fatazz DL falls on him and breaks his ankle. That would be my concern.

 

[maurice3p]

Gus Edwards won't get much touches because of Joe Yearby & Mark Walton. He's a big back that doesn't play BIG.

I already seen him 2 years in a row that's all I needed to see to tell if a guy can ball or not.

 

[Paranos]

Not nearly enough speed.

Ding ding ding ding ding!!!! We have a winner Johnny! This is what concerns me the most. Outside of Gray our speed at rb is pedestrian.

Both of you are clearly uninformed fans. Walter Tucker is world class hurdler who ran the fastest 110m hurdles in Florida if not the country when he was in high school. Miami has been miss using him. He ran a 10.4 100meters at 200+ lbs.

Gus Edwards has in the past run a sub 4.5 sec 40yd time. He just needs to run harder an break the initial tackle because he lacks acceleration but has elite top end speed.

Yearby doesn't have top end speed but has elite acceleration and lightening quickness which is why he will have a high YPC.

Gray is electric with the ball but needs more development time.

So Miami has speed to burn right now.

 

[FrancisSawyer]

Not worried about the skill set of the Miami backs, save for a freshmans ability to pick up a blitz. I'm more worried about how they will be utilized by this coaching staff, I.e., having Gus run wide on tosses and sweeps and running Yearby up the middle five straight times until some fatazz DL falls on him and breaks his ankle. That would be my concern.

Good post. You basically summed up my concerns quite nicely.

 

[FrancisSawyer]

Not nearly enough speed.

Ding ding ding ding ding!!!! We have a winner Johnny! This is what concerns me the most. Outside of Gray our speed at rb is pedestrian.

Both of you are clearly uninformed fans. Walter Tucker is world class hurdler who ran the fastest 110m hurdles in Florida if not the country when he was in high school. Miami has been miss using him. He ran a 10.4 100meters at 200+ lbs.

Gus Edwards has in the past run a sub 4.5 sec 40yd time. He just needs to run harder an break the initial tackle because he lacks acceleration but has elite top end speed.

Yearby doesn't have top end speed but has elite acceleration and lightening quickness which is why he will have a high YPC.

Gray is electric with the ball but needs more development time.

So Miami has speed to burn right now.

Paranos,

Walter Tucker is not nor will be a significant contributor to this offense therefore his speed is of little consequence. While is may be true that Gus Edwards has the potential to have good speed, that 4.5 you serve up as evidence seems dubious to me. Yearby does indeed posses elite acceleration and change of direction skills but those attributes do not fall under the category of "home run hitting ability" which is what we are discussing. Walton has potential but is too young and at this stage in his career he hardly scares anyone with his speed. Gray is the only back we have that has this attribute but he is a little too raw as a running back right now to be counted on to have a major impact from game to game. So you see your assessment that we have "speed to burn" is grossly inaccurate.

 

[INCaneFan]

Not nearly enough speed.

Ding ding ding ding ding!!!! We have a winner Johnny! This is what concerns me the most. Outside of Gray our speed at rb is pedestrian.

Both of you are clearly uninformed fans. Walter Tucker is world class hurdler who ran the fastest 110m hurdles in Florida if not the country when he was in high school. Miami has been miss using him. He ran a 10.4 100meters at 200+ lbs.

Gus Edwards has in the past run a sub 4.5 sec 40yd time. He just needs to run harder an break the initial tackle because he lacks acceleration but has elite top end speed.

Yearby doesn't have top end speed but has elite acceleration and lightening quickness which is why he will have a high YPC.

Gray is electric with the ball but needs more development time.

So Miami has speed to burn right now.

No offense, but Walter Tucker has never been considered a world class track and field athlete. He's fast, but not world class fast or even in the conversation for the 110 in college at this time. His future professionally will be in football or nothing else. Yes, for his size, he's very fast. Is he even staying at the running back spot?

Gus doesn't possess elite top end speed. What in the world makes you think he does?

Yearby is quick, but I'm nowhere near sold on him at this point.

Gray is nothing but high school hype so far. We'll see what happens, but his collegiate sample size is too small to say much more.

Speed to burn, I disagree completely. We don't have one running back that's a threat to take it to the house any given play now. That may change if someone steps up, but this is as slow and the least threatening backfield we've had in a couple of decades.

 

[Cane2]

Backfield is actually good. Wished they would put Gray at WR though.

The RB positions have been misused at the U for at least the past 11 years. I'd like to have a Gus and Yearby, a Gus and Walton, and Gray and Yearby in the game at the same time with both RBs in the respective set actually getting touches in running and catching passes from the backfield; heck with so many pass-catching RBs (excluding Tucker). I can't fathom why a runner would hardly ever go in motion for catching passes at the U anmore. Such backfield would create mismatching nightmares for Defenses...imagination is sorely lacking with this crew of coaches.

 

[FrancisSawyer]

Backfield is actually good. Wished they would put Gray at WR though.

The RB positions have been misused at the U for at least the past 11 years. I'd like to have a Gus and Yearby, a Gus and Walton, and Gray and Yearby in the game at the same time with both RBs in the respective set actually getting touches in running and catching passes from the backfield; heck with so many pass-catching RBs (excluding Tucker). I can't fathom why a runner would hardly ever go in motion for catching passes at the U anmore. Such backfield would create mismatching nightmares for Defenses...imagination is sorely lacking with this crew of coaches.

Imagination has been sorely lacking for quite some time but Bozo the Coley takes it to a new level. Any OC would be hard pressed to be more rigid, tentative, bland and disjointed with his playcalling than our very own Bozo the Coley.

 

[ncncanes]

There is nothing that closely resembles ALA's backfield and Miami's
- One, ALA runs 3 yards before being hit
- Two, ALA tells you they are going to run at you and they do it. Miami cant do that: we are so soft on 3rd and 2 + 4th & 1

 

[Canedog]

Golden has sorely misused running backs at Miami ... Oh, I forgot Duke Johnson just broke Miami's all time yardage record under Golden in 3 years.