BleedGopher
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per the Daily:
Rodney Smith is supposed to be one of the two featured backs for Minnesota.
Last Saturday, he got the carries, but the yards didn’t follow.
Smith only had 35 yards on 18 carries against Maryland, which comes to less than two yards per carry. Smith, along with running back Shannon Brooks, has been a large contributor to the offense for the Gophers since they arrived, but that pace of generating offense and yards looks to be slowing down.
“We didn’t execute well,” Smith said. “Running back-wise, we missed some holes, we could have ran a little bit more physical. We took accountability for our performance last week as a running back unit, and we know that we have to run the ball better.”
Smith has had moderate success so far for the Gophers, though. In the first three games he had 275 rushing yards and one touchdown.
One of those games includes the final nonconference game against Middle Tennessee State, where he only played the first half and got 107 yards. That was also a game where Brooks did not play.
“I said going into the game that [Maryland was] the best defense we’ve seen yet,” said offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca. “Having not been in the Big Ten before, but having played Big Ten teams, [Maryland was] better. They were a little bigger, they were a little stronger than the teams we had seen.”
http://www.mndaily.com/article/2017/10/fleck-says-minnesota-needs-to-do-better-sustaining-blocks
Go Gophers!!
Rodney Smith is supposed to be one of the two featured backs for Minnesota.
Last Saturday, he got the carries, but the yards didn’t follow.
Smith only had 35 yards on 18 carries against Maryland, which comes to less than two yards per carry. Smith, along with running back Shannon Brooks, has been a large contributor to the offense for the Gophers since they arrived, but that pace of generating offense and yards looks to be slowing down.
“We didn’t execute well,” Smith said. “Running back-wise, we missed some holes, we could have ran a little bit more physical. We took accountability for our performance last week as a running back unit, and we know that we have to run the ball better.”
Smith has had moderate success so far for the Gophers, though. In the first three games he had 275 rushing yards and one touchdown.
One of those games includes the final nonconference game against Middle Tennessee State, where he only played the first half and got 107 yards. That was also a game where Brooks did not play.
“I said going into the game that [Maryland was] the best defense we’ve seen yet,” said offensive coordinator Kirk Ciarrocca. “Having not been in the Big Ten before, but having played Big Ten teams, [Maryland was] better. They were a little bigger, they were a little stronger than the teams we had seen.”
http://www.mndaily.com/article/2017/10/fleck-says-minnesota-needs-to-do-better-sustaining-blocks
Go Gophers!!