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Miami fans…lemme ask yall this (no trolling)

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So nobody is commenting on Najeh kicking off in high school and then tackling the return man?

That might be the most amazing running back feat I've seen
 
flagator86 said:
2 yards out from the end zone for the game winning TD on 4th and goal…..which Miami RB in history would you give the ball to and trust getting in the end zone?
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Obviously, most of the discussion will revolve around Edge or McGahee. Both excellent choices.

But some OVERLOOKED choices...

1. Stephen McGuire - this guy played while I was in school, so I got to see it up close. People forget, he has our ALL-TIME RUSHING TD record, with 35. Now, granted, he played 4 years, so that's an average of 9 per year. But he had 10 as a freshman and 11 as a sophomore, and then he got nicked up as a junior and only had 9 in 9 games. Also, by that time, we had big Larry Jones coming in to carry the load. But for 3 years straight, McGuire averaged a rushing TD per game played. And he was pretty stout, he didn't just use speed like Kevin Williams could. Funny thing with Stephen, ALL of his TDs were rushing, he had zero-point-zero passing TDs (McGahee and Gore were the same).

2. Melvin Bratton - I only got to see his final 2 years, but I just remember that this guy could FLY. Not necessarily with footspeed, but Melvin could ELEVATE, this guy looked like he was FLYING into the end zone. I don't even know if we called our RBs "tailbacks" back then, I think everyone in Miami was a fullback, like the Dolphins with Csonka and Kiick.

3. Cleveland Gary - I definitely got to see Cleveland Gary play, and he was probably the last of the old-school Miami fullbacks. He didn't play all four years at Miami (he was a transfer-in) but the guy had a nose for the end zone and was reliable, no matter what Lou Holtz or Notre Dame fans try to tell you.

Now, I came up with the three names above out of OBVIOUS bias (these were guys that I got to see play live games at UM), so I did some quick analysis with stats to see if I was crazy. I took the top 36 Miami running backs of all-time who scored more than 10 rushing TDs. I looked at rushing TDs per attempts, as well as total TDs per touches (run + pass). Since we didn't have any combo players in that group (like Kevin Williams or Santana Moss), I felt that the passing TDs would reflect "goalline" catches more than long passes. Here are the results.

Rushing TDs - overall
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Rushing TDs PER ATTEMPT:
1682689921551.png


Total TDs PER TOUCH:
1682689968428.png



Key Takeaways:

1. Ottis Anderson may seem to get credit for volume, and might look bad ON AVERAGE, but you have to remember that he played at a time when the UM teams were TERRIBLE and he was the only offensive weapon. The very fact that we got close to the end zone 15 or 20 times is amazing. Still a great player, even if he was wasted with a bunch of runs in the middle of the field.

2. There are definitely some "Honorable Mentions" int he lower-volume category, guys like Dallas Crawford, Najeh Davenport, and Gus "The Bus" Edwards.

3. James Stewart sneaks into the mix as a nice mid-level-usage guy in both rushing and receiving.

4. Miami has had some amazing running backs, particularly from the early 1980s to the early 1990s. I was very fortunate to see most of Miami's all-time best RBs live, both when I was in school and since.

5. Most of these guys were "every-down" type backs, though Najeh was stuck in a loaded backfield. Dallas was an outlier, and Gus transferred out (unfortunately) and was incredibly overlooked while he was at UM.


The clear winner is Willis McGahee. Edge was a bit lower than I expected, though his first year or two were on "not-so-great" teams. But the three guys I mentioned did pretty well in the analysis.
 
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DTP said:
So nobody is commenting on Najeh kicking off in high school and then tackling the return man?

That might be the most amazing running back feat I've seen
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Yes, but the most amazing wide receiver feat I've seen was Brian Monroe running a fake punt, passing the ball, and then running down the field to make an amazing catch for a touchdown...
 
TheOriginalCane said:
2. Melvin Bratton - I only got to see his final 2 years, but I just remember that this guy could FLY. Not necessarily with footspeed, but Melvin could ELEVATE, this guy looked like he was FLYING into the end zone. I don't even know if we called our RBs "tailbacks" back then, I think everyone in Miami was a fullback, like the Dolphins with Csonka and Kiick.
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When Erickson installed his one back offense, the running back was called the "fullback" and the slot receiver was often called the "tailback."
 
DTP said:
When Erickson installed his one back offense, the running back was called the "fullback" and the slot receiver was often called the "tailback."
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Yes, but I think everybody under JJ was a fullback. Not that it really mattered...
 
It would be Clinton Portis or Cleveland Gary for me. I can't seem to recall CP getting stuffed too often inside the 5.
 
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