Running backs

If you had to pick just one running back who would it be

  • Duane Bennett

    Votes: 45 37.8%

  • DeLeon Eskridge

    Votes: 26 21.8%

  • Kevin Whaley

    Votes: 48 40.3%
  • Total voters
    119
  • Poll closed .
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Doc1001

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If you had to choose just one running back who would it be:
 

Bennett ... oftentimes, guys two years removed from ACL surgery do better than their first year back ... he has shown the most flash of the options available.
 

right now, bennett. Maybe if Whaley matures and can use his blockers better, he'll be my guy. Right now Bennet appears more mature with the ball in his hands.
 

Doogie and Schnoodler agree.

There will be peace in our time.
 

We agree on a few things. We'll see if Doogie comes up with beer money or not.
 


Sorry, but I don't like any of those to be the featured back. Hopefully one of the newcomers can be the guy.
 

Bennett is the best receiver and blocker, but my least favorite runner.

Eskridge, imo, is the best pure running back. Not the fastest by a lot, but he finds the holes and runs lower than the other two. Isn't going to wow anyone.

Whaley has speed and runs hard, but doesn't find the holes (as if there were any) and tends to go down easily.

In other words: None of them are no. 1 guys with this line.
 

tikited has nailed it. Now the future? Bennett off of injury another year, Whaley a sophmore, Eskridge a Junior. there is a learning curve and developmental curve. Can the take the next step??
 

I thought long and hard about this question and couldn't determine an answer.

Translation: Our RB situation sucks. We don't have a Big Ten back.
 



Zeppelin Gopher said:
I thought long and hard about this question and couldn't determine an answer.

Translation: Our RB situation sucks. We don't have a Big Ten back.
Click to expand...

I agree - I thought Bennett might be the guy two years ago, and maybe he can be. The other two do not impress me at all, and I wouldn't be shocked if one of them is gone by next year anyway.

Aren't we suppossed to be getting some good back from Texas who had to go to JC? Maybe he is the answer...
 

Schnoodler said:
tikited has nailed it. Now the future? Bennett off of injury another year, Whaley a sophmore, Eskridge a Junior. there is a learning curve and developmental curve. Can the take the next step??
Click to expand...

Running Back is not really a position where a guy suddenly figures things out and blossoms into a stellar player. While that is true when it comes to pass blocking, carrying out fakes, etc, running ability shows itself early. It's one of those positions where either a guy has it, or he doesn't. There's not a starting RB currently on the roster. Luckily, I believe there is one in the 2010 class.

There's still time to add another one as well. So if current TCU commit Huff is reading this, the grass is greener in Minnesota. Trust me.
 

AhliBobwa said:
Running Back is not really a position where a guy suddenly figures things out and blossoms into a stellar player. While that is true when it comes to pass blocking, carrying out fakes, etc, running ability shows itself early. It's one of those positions where either a guy has it, or he doesn't. There's not a starting RB currently on the roster. Luckily, I believe there is one in the 2010 class.

There's still time to add another one as well. So if current TCU commit Huff is reading this, the grass is greener in Minnesota. Trust me.
Click to expand...

I think you might be wrong about this. Even Maroney and MBIII had to learn patience. The best of the best, yeah maybe. But if we have to rely on that once in a lifetime back to win we're in trouble.

I think you'll find that the Seniors put up better numbers than juniors and so on.
 

Tik, I struggled with that and eventually went with Esky. In general we aren't terrible at passing the ball, and having Bennet doesn't improve our offense by leaps and bounds. I really like whaley as a change of pace back. However, I think Esky has really good balance, and seems to be able to do a pretty good job of making people not getting a clean hit on him. He obviously needs more explosion and strength.

So Esky wins the monky award( I'm so tired from night time feedings, my posts will get more and more sarcastic or just flat out random as the day goes on :) ).
 



Schnoodler said:
I think you might be wrong about this. Even Maroney and MBIII had to learn patience. The best of the best, yeah maybe. But if we have to rely on that once in a lifetime back to win we're in trouble.

I think you'll find that the Seniors put up better numbers than juniors and so on.
Click to expand...

Disagree. MBIII and LM were absolute studs from the moment they walked on campus. RB is mainly an instinctive position. You can't learn burst, vision, balance etc. Either you got it or you don't.

Unfortunately for us, our current backs don't.
 

If the Gophers had used the deep quick

pitch more often to Whaley more often to get him on the flank he would have had a few 100 yard games. The kid has speed and you could see that on his punt coverage ( How many you noticed he was on punt coverage?) Whaley is not an off tackle back per say. You could see his frusration
during the year trying to find an off-tackle hole. The best run of the Insight Bowl other than Gray's burst was the wide quick pitch to Whaley to get him in the open. Confusing why we didn't see more of that during the year.
 

ruppertflywheel said:
pitch more often to Whaley more often to get him on the flank he would have had a few 100 yard games. The kid has speed and you could see that on his punt coverage ( How many you noticed he was on punt coverage?) Whaley is not an off tackle back per say. You could see his frusration
during the year trying to find an off-tackle hole. The best run of the Insight Bowl other than Gray's burst was the wide quick pitch to Whaley to get him in the open. Confusing why we didn't see more of that during the year.
Click to expand...

WE used that exclusively early in the year, until the other defenses figured out if Whaley was coming in he was going to run wide, so everyone slanted out and stuffed him.

The Gophers tried to counter it by running him inside, but he struggled even though he had the advantage of breaking tendencies.
 

Zeppelin Gopher said:
Disagree. MBIII and LM were absolute studs from the moment they walked on campus. RB is mainly an instinctive position. You can't learn burst, vision, balance etc. Either you got it or you don't.

Unfortunately for us, our current backs don't.
Click to expand...


+1, sorry Schnoodler. RB is an instinctive position--this is why you see more college freshmen and professional rookie RBs contribute immediately than at any other position.
 

monk10 said:
WE used that exclusively early in the year, until the other defenses figured out if Whaley was coming in he was going to run wide, so everyone slanted out and stuffed him.

The Gophers tried to counter it by running him inside, but he struggled even though he had the advantage of breaking tendencies.
Click to expand...

Sure you can figure out he's coming wide when it is a slid down the line handoff. If you have a replay of the game you will see what I mean by a "deep quick pitch" I have replays of every game
and I count about 6 times they used it and all 6 gained positive yardgage.
 


Doc

Where is none of the above?

These choices are all scat backs, no power, no ablity to move the pile, run through an arm tackle, punish the safety. They all go down on contact. Why? No base. No glutes, no thighs, no squat.

Go to the way back and take a look at Thompson, Darkins, Hamner, Redmon, Tapeh, Barber, Maroney, Pinnix. We don't have a back who has those qualities. I have high hopes for those comming to the program. I truly think Lamonte Edwards is the answer. He is built more like the latter.
 

We really were hurt by losing Lipscomb. Edwards will probably be converted to D, and I'm not so sure Kirkwood is big enough to be better than what we have. That leaves Wright, who is better off red-shirting.

I see the same Mickey Mouse shuffle next season. Let's just hope someone makes the effort to step it up this offseason.
 

Husker

I wanted to force the pollers to pick one of the our present runners to see if they agree with my thoughts. I personally would give Eskridge the edge. I would like Bennett as a third down type back. Whaley maybe has the most potential though but seems kinda small. Can he put on weight and bulk without losing speed?
 

I don't think 'the guy' is here right now. We expect to have some studs at RB again in the near future. Could be any one of the 3 in the '10 class and we have two studs coming in in '11. I expect Edwards to be one of them and that he may well be our most productive this fall. I really like his potential and we can't afford to add him to our LBs. They are a strong group and we have find a running game now!
 

If I had to choose, I'd go with Bennett. Best hands and seems to have a nose for the endzone that the other 2 don't have when we get in close.
 

Doc another point

It really doesn't matter who lines up, we are not committed to running the ball. For pass protection lets find the best blocking back. We have Hoese as a senior. And with Coach Fisch working his magic with the pro style offense. I am afraid we will just have more of the same old sling it and hope.:rolleyes:
 

I don't know if we aren't committed to running the ball. It seems like we usually come out and give it a fair shot, but it is hard to constantly be in 2 and 9's and 3rd and 8's, especially when our defense is usually working their tails off to get off the field. Our offense was about 50/50 run to pass ratio which does show a committment because our running game was terribly ineffective.
 

No freshmen?

Why isn't there a choice for either a freshman or the freshman commits listed individually? RB is the position where a frosh is most likely to come in and produce right away.
 

Given Whaley's departure from the team, I think there should be a revote.
 

I voted for Bennett. So I guess I'll change my name to clair. clair voyant.
 


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