I'm excited - Bowl Game running backs???

uihawk82

Well-Known Member
I hope IKM is healthy and has a great game and GWilliams also has a great game. Who might be another running back who is ready to get some carries?

Can IKM come back next year?
 
Adding to this, I read Leshon Williams is a runner in waiting. RB Coach Betts is quoted saying Gavin and Leshon and another young back are very talented. I am excited to watch the newer running backs and maybe we can get a more consistent gain per rush for the bowl game.

I think GavinW will run well but we havent seen him get to the third level as far as top end speed. I read there is a talented 4* incoming next year but I look to far forward.

Change is good and you cant have your star athletes forever. Goodson and 25 starts and gained 2500+ yards and he had a fine career but toted the ball a lot.
 
Whats the overall feeling about Betts as the new RB coach? His first year on the job did not turn out so great. A lot due to OL problems, but is anything that Betts can be doing better?
 
Whats the overall feeling about Betts as the new RB coach? His first year on the job did not turn out so great. A lot due to OL problems, but is anything that Betts can be doing better?

I am not sure how Betts is rated after his first year. You might want to start a thread with that title or just a title of "Rating the Asst Coaches". I think our big problem was the OLine and if we would have had the equivalent of the 2002 or 03 Olines the running backs we had this year would have a ton of yards.

I mentioned this during the season but I thought our running backs missed a lot of cutbacks throughout the year that could have gained big yards. We all remember Kirk's best running teams had the Betts, Russell, Young, Lewis, Greene who could cut back, and others. Anyway, Goodson I thought could have cut back more.

And let's face it, 95% of our run plays go to the first direction the OLine moves so defenses have a real high probability of stopping a run to a certain gap or side so that many times our big runs could come off of cutbacks.

Now was that Betts' fault, did they not want the running backs to cutback on their own, did Goodson and others not just see that empty green space in their peripheral vision.

The cutback is the counter play built into the zone blocking scheme.
 
I'm excited for a steady diet of "Pottaball", in which he gets every carry and is targeted for at least one pass every series, it's must watch TV for former Iowa fullbacks. It will be must see TV to see Potty wear down the defensive line by the fourth quarter when we start our 35 point comeback.
 
In Goodson’s early season interview he said he’s trying hard to follow his coaching for “having more patience to let the block develop.” So, Goodson’s too many stop-at-the-line-like-a-deer-in-headlights and wait for the crunch moments were likely ineffective coaching. What made Goodson fun to watch early on was, as you say, his early vision and decision making to jump the hole, sidestep or cut back when needed. Some negative influence may have taken place to change his natural instincts. With this O-line, textbook ‘wait for the block to develop’ dogma may not work against stronger teams. Even newbie G. Williams’ head-down and plow through method seemed more effective than simply freezing at the line.
 
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