What grade would you give Gophers staff in their first game at the U?

GopherWeatherGuy said:

I actually had the same thoughts you did until I watched some highlights a while back. Barber was obviously a more physical runner, but he had a good burst when he needed it. Barber ran a 4.49 40 at his pro day. Maroney only ran a 4.51 40, which was surprising. I think both were faster than Smith/Brooks, as they are a lot more like David Cobb. Vision and power, but not as much speed.

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That absolutely shocks me. My memory is of Maroney leaving everyone in the dust, and Barber, well, not.

GopherWeatherGuy said:

I actually had the same thoughts you did until I watched some highlights a while back. Barber was obviously a more physical runner, but he had a good burst when he needed it. Barber ran a 4.49 40 at his pro day. Maroney only ran a 4.51 40, which was surprising. I think both were faster than Smith/Brooks, as they are a lot more like David Cobb. Vision and power, but not as much speed.

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You're out of your mind. Do you have accurate 40 times on those two or just pulling this out of your behind? They are plenty quick.

All of the backs mentioned here were/are good in their own ways.

Pompous Elitist said:

You're out of your mind. Do you have accurate 40 times on those two or just pulling this out of your behind? They are plenty quick.

All of the backs mentioned here were/are good in their own ways.

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Check their wiki pages.

This is what I found. No 40 times.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Brook

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Smith_(running_back)

Pompous Elitist said:

This is what I found. No 40 times.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shannon_Brook

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_Smith_(running_back)

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I was talking about Barber and Maroney. It's my opinion until proven otherwise that Smith and Brooks are slower based on watching the games. That's why we don't see them run outside much. They are better north/south runners than east/west.

A lot of these questions will only be answered after we have seen the Gophers play more games, and had a chance to evaluate the offense.

right now, it's all just possibilities.

It's possible that Fleck & staff kept the offense as vanilla as possible to protect the QB's.

It's possible that they kept the offense vanilla to prevent against turnovers.

It's possible that the coaches don't believe they have the right personnel to really run their system.

It's possible that the entire team needs more time, more reps and more game situations to truly learn and master the system.

It's possible that the Gophers just don't have any talent.

It's possible that, for certain players, their skill set was better suited to the previous system. (for which they were recruited by the previous coaching staff). (I lean toward this explanation).

Here's what I know (or think I know). Fleck keeps talking about getting younger before they get older. He keeps talking about the importance of the '18 and '19 recruiting classes. It may be that he and the coaches honestly believe that they need three or four years in order to recruit players who fit their system. If so, I wish he would just come out and say that. I wouldn't be thrilled by the notion that it will be another 3 or 4 years before the Gophers can be competitive. But I would respect the honesty.

Shannon ran a 4.56 in high school according to 247. That would be fast enough to run an outside running play of any type.
No 40 time listed for Rodney, but would guess his was similar.

Barber ran a 4.53 at the combine.

http://nflcombineresults.com/playerpage.php?f=Marion&l=Barber&i=7025

Maroney a 4.48

http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/dsprofile.php?pyid=10249&draftyear=2006&genpos=RB

LoMo was the fastest back I had seen in person ever. He just looked shot out of cannon at times. I would say that the fastest player I had seen in person was Desmond Howard.