Rushing the football

[stepha4]

Does anyone remember the Independence Bowl against Miami of Ohio......specifically the rushing machine that was Iowa State!!! I seem to remember Bret Meyer rushing for 125+ yards and Stevie Hicks rushing for 100+ yards. As a team I think we rushed for 300+ yards. WHAT HAPPENED?



I thought that game in December of '04 was where we finally put aside the ghost of Marty Fine and started to see the impact of BARNEY COTTON POWER FOOTBALL!



Then we had last year?????? I need someone to explain to me what happened last year? We can't blame our inability to run the ball totally on the Hicks injury can we?



I'm looking for some insight here.......and some reason to believe that we'll come out and control the line of scrimmage this year.

 

[Nedrick]

I've got to believe it lies largely with our O-line. Granted, we had a thin group at RB, esp. with our starting RB hurt most of the year. But, if our line was running efficiently, the 2nd or 3rd string RB should have been able to step in and not miss a beat. With an O-line of mostly seniors this year, I hope that trend reverses and we can get going on our rushing game. Maybe this year, we'll finally see Brant step out of the shadow of his potential and have a great year. Should be interesting to see what happens...

 

[Wesley]

Clones continue to be too predictable which down and which side they will run to. TYhis can be corrected with better play callinmg. We are perhaps too conservative for a high scoring game. And it would be nice sometime to see Stevie run straight ahead without a stop and go. I do not want Brett to run too much early in season - fear of injury for rest of season.



Any hope for 6-4 Jon Davis this year. His height along with Blythe makes a problem for the 6-0 defenders.

 

[Clonehomer]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(stepha4 @ 06-22-06 10:53 pm) [post=5444]Quoted post[/post]</div><div class='quotemain'>



Then we had last year?????? I need someone to explain to me what happened last year? We can't blame our inability to run the ball totally on the Hicks injury can we?


[/b][/quote]

Uh, yes we can blame what happened last year on injuries. For most of the season we had Coleman, Harris, Brown, and Kock. Coleman was moved to FB for a reason. He was not a featured back. I believe Brown was a walk-on senior which usually describes a guy that helps out on the practice team but thats about it. We all know Kock can run the ball in short situations, but he's not going to get 50 yds a games. And Harris was just not ready. He had great stuff but he couldn't hang onto the football.

Now, I'm not going to let the coaches off the hook so easily as to say its beyond their control. Why wasn't there another guy that could step in? What happened to that stable of running backs we had just a few years ago? We had four or five guys that could have not only stepped into the starting role, but were competeing for it.

We are bringing in more guys this year that seem to be able to play, but I would expect them to redshirt so we need Hicks, Scales, and Harris to be healthy and ready to go. McCarney has said that Scales is doing everything in offseason workouts, so I'm really hoping he's going to be healthy.

 

[HandSanitizer]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Bryceman @ 06-23-06 9:34 am) [post=5466]Quoted post[/post]</div><div class='quotemain'> Clones continue to be too predictable ewhich down and which side they will run to. TYhis can be corrected with better play callinmg. We are perhaps too conservative for a high scoring game. And it would be nice sometime to see Stevie run straight ahead without a stop and go. I do not want Brett to run too much early in season - fear of injury for rest of season.



Any hope for 6-4 Jon Davis this year. His height along with Blythe makes a problem for the 6-0 defenders.

[/b][/quote]





Here is what I am scared of. We have a Senior led O-Line that we are worried about. What happens next year?