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husker70

husker70

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Grab a bottle.

This from Kent's blog:

"The Gophers will have to get more consistent offensive line play to succeed long term. The whole idea behind going to an offense that included a power-running facet was so the Gophers would be able to run when they had to. Then the Gophers fail to gain one yard on two consecutive plays in the first half Saturday? Coach Tim Brewster has said he wants his team to run for about 150 yards per game. They netted 112 Saturday."

If 150 yards is pounding the rock, the Coach Brewster and I need a sit down. Pounding the rock is 50 plus rushing attempts a game. I don't care if it goes to Bennett. He could attempt to break Kitzman's record. Anything less than 50 is a cop out. Its iddle chatter. Its no motto, creed, or sign material. We brought in Coach Davis as The Running Game Co-Ordinator to rush for 150 yards? If you rush it 50 times you will have over 300 yards, and play action is wide open. Limit Weber to 20 throws, and make the most of it.
 

The gopher homers are not gonna want to hear this, in their eyes we did nothing wrong yesterday.......

I say let's just stick to passing, we're obviously good at it.......
 

Next week we will see what pounding the rock looks like. Five guys rushing for over 50 yards for Air Force, competition not withstanding.

If we play the way we did Saturday for the first half defensively and don't adjust to the option, they will each have a chance to match that total. I thought Saturday was a very underwhelming performance in general and especially by the Gopher Defensive front.

I hope we pound the ball and don't get pounded because it only gets worse after next saturday.

But we will all be so high on life it may well go unnoticed.
 

I'm not gonna lie I think 150 is reasonable enough. I think we're still a little spoiled by being used to having over 250 rushing yds a game. In saying that I think we should just learn to become the Air-It-Out team we seem to be strongest at.......
 

Everyone is scared to hurt these kids feelings because they are not pros and are trying hard but I guess I'm left with no other option. We do NOT have the Running backs to pound the ball 50 times a game.

I know Husker what you and Bayfield and some are trying to say, but just running the ball 50 times a game is not going to be the anwser. Do you think if Eskridge runs the ball 50 times a game, we'll actually gain 300 yards. Eskridge has averaged 3 yards a carry last season, in the fall scrimmage and yesterday. I thought we could have run Bennet more but he gets hurt every time he touches the ball. Whaley seems to be struggling with his injuries and Jay Thomas has never seemed to recover from his.

With this injury prone group of runninng backs, and Eskridge being the only guy who can stay healthy and he is averaging 3 yards a carry, pounding the ball 50 times a game is not going to fool anyone to stop defending the pass.
 


I think that "pounding the rock" in Brewster's context is being able to get three yards on the ground anytime you want or need too. We're not there yet, there were a couple of plays, were everything jelled but in general the OL was out of sync. I will not be suprised if the OL looks a lot better with some home cooking.
 

perhaps giving hoese more than 2 touches a game would help too.
 

I have no interest in rushing the ball 50 times a game.
 

Hey EG9

simply change the sign. Sling the Stone. If you don't want 50 rushes we reached 42 passes.
 



We don't have the backs

Bennett 20-25
Whaley 10
Hoese 5
Eskridge 10
Weber 5

You have gotta to wanta to run the ball. You cannot hope to run it.

As the great Coach John McKay once said when asked if he would give the ball to x 35 times? He said yes, you know the ball isn't that heavy.
 

It takes rudementry football intelligence level to understand you focus your offense around your best player. If we aren't passing the ball more the running, then we fail at giving the best players the best chance at making plays.

I'll take a 1000 of these I wish we ran the ball more as long as on game day Decker, Green, Stoudermire and Weber are controlling the offense.
 

gold04 said:
We do NOT have the Running backs to pound the ball 50 times a game.
QUOTE]


100% correct. We have 1 RB (Bennett) who might become a slightly above average Big Ten back. Everyone else is sub mediocre at best.
Click to expand...
 

I'd personally rather see a 35-35 split (assuming 70 offensive plays). If we're running with power formations and punishing the DL & LB's with our blockers we can still be pounding the rock (without it being a cop out) and be balanced in our attack. I personally thought Bennett should have had at least 5 more carries in the Syracuse game because to me there were more yards on the ground than we were going after. I expect we will see Whaley take over as the #2 RB as the season progresses and I'd like to see him get far more than the one carry he had in Saturday's game.
 



50? No way Husker, as much as I would like to see us duplicate days past. Brewster/Fisch have pro backgrounds and that means pass the ball.

Brewster's comment about 150 yards likely means averaging about 32-35 running plays/game. 150 yds/4.0 or 150/4.5. I'd rather hear him say we want to run the ball at least 50% of the time.

The concern is that he must get his O to produce an effective running game. They have awarded the starting 5 OL spots to the biggest players yet, in most cases, most inexperienced OL. What does that say? Another season with an ineffective OL. My hope is they can show improvement unlike last season.
 

To be Honest

Bennett is the only guy who is good enough to pound the rock with, and he gets injured all the time. The only unknown factor in all of this is Whaley who MIGHT (it's might because he's not been out there yet) be as good as Bennet but he get hurts all the time also. So the two backs who give you the best chance to have a quality run game are always on the sidelines with injuries.

We are left with two options: Be willing to pass the ball more or start praying your hail Mary's.
 

gold04 said:
Bennett is the only guy who is good enough to pound the rock with, and he gets injured all the time. The only unknown factor in all of this is Whaley who MIGHT (it's might because he's not been out there yet) be as good as Bennet but he get hurts all the time also. So the two backs who give you the best chance to have a quality run game are always on the sidelines with injuries.

We are left with two options: Be willing to pass the ball more or start praying your hail Mary's.
Click to expand...

Whaley gets hurt all the time? I'm sorry but this is a stupid comment. Getting shot in the leg has nothing to do with the durability of a player.
 

And look where pounding the rock got us all those Mason years...ZERO New Years Day bowls and a a HISTORIC loss to Michigan when all we could do was run and not throw a forward pass. Guess what guys, the goal is to WIN the game!! Stats are for losers! Get your hand off the panic button and just take it one game at a time! We won the game!! Rome wasn't built in a day....we will be fine!!
 

I will take a strong running game and stout defense any day. Mason forgot about the defense part.
 

gold04 said:
Bennett is the only guy who is good enough to pound the rock with, and he gets injured all the time. The only unknown factor in all of this is Whaley who MIGHT (it's might because he's not been out there yet) be as good as Bennet but he get hurts all the time also. So the two backs who give you the best chance to have a quality run game are always on the sidelines with injuries.



How many times have you seen Bennett get past the first tackler in his career? Three? Maybe four? And have you ever seen a running back end up on his butt so much? Most ballcarriers are going forward when they get tackled and squeak out a few extra yards. Bennett gets hit and he's done. Which reminds me of another Bennett runing back who wore purple a few years ago...
Click to expand...
 

Golden Shower said:
And look where pounding the rock got us all those Mason years...ZERO New Years Day bowls and a a HISTORIC loss to Michigan when all we could do was run and not throw a forward pass. Guess what guys, the goal is to WIN the game!! Stats are for losers! Get your hand off the panic button and just take it one game at a time! We won the game!! Rome wasn't built in a day....we will be fine!!
Click to expand...

In all fairness Mason was one win away from the Rose Bowl twice in 10 years, and couldn't get it done.

Aside from going to the Rose Bowl, a January Bowl game of any consequence is a pipe dream for Minnesota unless and until the fans start supporting the team much more vigorously -- regardless of who the coach is. Records don't land you in January bowl games butts in seats do and we do not travel as well as most of the other teams in the Big Ten. Improve that and win enough games to be at the top of the conference (two things that football coaches at Minnesota haven't done in a long time) and maybe then we can start to worry about 1/1 bowl games. My hope is when we do get to the Rose Bowl, people will support the team in droves and change the perception. I will be there when and if it happens.
 

The great Coach John McKay once said when asked if he would give the ball to x 35 times? He said yes, you know the ball isn't that heavy.[/QUOTE]
You have to be careful when you call him "the Great Coach John McKay"....some of us remember Tampa Bay....lol
 

Golden Shower said:
And look where pounding the rock got us all those Mason years...ZERO New Years Day bowls and a a HISTORIC loss to Michigan when all we could do was run and not throw a forward pass. Guess what guys, the goal is to WIN the game!! Stats are for losers! Get your hand off the panic button and just take it one game at a time! We won the game!! Rome wasn't built in a day....we will be fine!!
Click to expand...

Complete disrespect to the 1999 Gophers team.......
 

Stupid Comment

Grunk,

Before you make statements about stupid comments read your own comments. Whaley got shot last year and that's an injury. Not a football one, but it's an injury prevented him in playing. Now he is struggling with turf toe. Some people are questioning if Whaley can take the pounding since he's so small. Whaley like Bennett has questions about his durability.

The fact of reality is our run game is depended upon two guys who have had to fight through some injuries these last few years and that's not a comforting thought. The rise on fall of our run game will depend upon the health of those two players. I hope these two guys can stay healthy or else our run game is in trouble.

P.S. I know some people are saying your giving Whaley too much credit, he's only carried the ball once in his Gopher Career. I hope Whaley is a very good running back. Setting all those rushing records in a football state like Virgina is not an easy thing to do.
 

gold04 said:
Grunk,

Before you make statements about stupid comments read your own comments. Whaley got shot last year and that's an injury. Not a football one, but it's an injury prevented him in playing. Now he is struggling with turf toe. Some people are questioning if Whaley can take the pounding since he's so small. Whaley like Bennett has questions about his durability.

The fact of reality is our run game is depended upon two guys who have had to fight through some injuries these last few years and that's not a comforting thought. The rise on fall of our run game will depend upon the health of those two players. I hope these two guys can stay healthy or else our run game is in trouble.

P.S. I know some people are saying your giving Whaley too much credit, he's only carried the ball once in his Gopher Career. I hope Whaley is a very good running back. Setting all those rushing records in a football state like Virgina is not an easy thing to do.
Click to expand...

A gun shot to the leg is no reflection of durability. Find me a player that would have played through that. He could have played at the end of last year but the coaches decided not to burn his redshirt. If the wound via gun shot had a risk of reinjury I would agree with you that he is injury prone but that really isn't the case.

Keeping a player out of a scrimmage due to turf toe is a decision to prevent further injury. There is a difference between keeping a player out of a scrimmage and keeping him out of a game.

Marion Barber missed an entire year with a pulled hamstring. Outside of that he didn't miss a single game in his college career but by your definition you would be calling him injury prone. One injury--especially when non-football related--is not the definition of injury prone. Missing games in spurts due to nagging injuries is what qualifies a player for the label of injury prone.

P.S. I don't know what you're talking about with the statement "I know some people are saying your giving Whaley too much credit..." because I'm not giving Whaley credit for anything other than disputing the "injury prone" label you are placing on him.
 

"Pound the rock" to me has nothing to do with reaching a certain number of carries or whatever. It's all about grinding out yards that you NEED to get. Like, you know, 3rd and 1, 4th and 1. Or if you are up by a score in the 4th quarter and you are running down the clock and you just pound that ball down the opposing team's throat to get 1st down after 1st down. You don't need to carry the ball 50 times to do that, but you do need to establish a solid running game prior to those crucial moments when you really need some quality runs. They aren't there yet, but give it more than a game and maybe we'll see improvement, and maybe get that yard needed in the future.
 

Gunk,

Both players have struggled with injuries these last few years and turf toe is an injury. I've heard the coaches are still being cautious with Whaley. They don't want the same thing to happen to him that happened to Pinnix his senior year, where Pinnix struggled with turf toe the whole year.

I can see where you drawing the line that there's a difference between questioning durabiltiy and injury prone. The bottom line is this. Our run game is dependant on those two guys and I hope they stay healthy. I hope to God they do, but those two having to battle injuries the last few years is not a comforting thought.
 

It's a good point Monty. I do not think we need to run the ball 50 times a game but we need to run it more. I think Bennet got 16 caries last game and I'd like to see him average between 20 to 25 carries a game. Obviously Bennet can't carry the load himself. That's why I'm hoping Whaley is 100 percent and ready to go. Eskridge has filled in abmirably last year, but people are starting to see he's not at Bennet's level. Whaley is the only guy left that gives us hope that we have another RB who might be as good of a runner as Bennett.
 

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