RB for 2015

[Eda]

You can't refute my statement so you use a straw man argument. Nice. I stand by my statement, my opinions and my beliefs about kfootball.

Your argument was that YOU saw something in Daniels during the early part of the season last year that told YOU that he needed to be a primary back. YOU saw this in the limited action he had on the field. YOUR argument provided no detail of what he did during the offseason, spring, fall camp, or practices to become better. The limited action he saw this year during games wasn't enough to prove to anyone EXCEPT YOU that he needed to be the feature back. He hasn't shown really good vision yet, tremendous speed, patience, or incredible power that would give him the edge over any of the other backs. So go ahead and keep stumping for him based upon what YOU have seen from his limited game action. I'll hold off until I see him beat out the "fullback" for more carries.

 

[atxhawk]

You are all forgetting something, who's the best at pass protection? Not being able to protect the QB gets you in Kirk's doghouse quickly.

 

[HawkeyeWalker]

Oh I see you have 3,400+ posts, so you must be new around here. A little advice... Always take the under.

Fair enough, thanks Eda

 

[ArvadaHawk]

Your argument was that YOU saw something in Daniels during the early part of the season last year that told YOU that he needed to be a primary back. YOU saw this in the limited action he had on the field. YOUR argument provided no detail of what he did during the offseason, spring, fall camp, or practices to become better. The limited action he saw this year during games wasn't enough to prove to anyone EXCEPT YOU that he needed to be the feature back. He hasn't shown really good vision yet, tremendous speed, patience, or incredible power that would give him the edge over any of the other backs. So go ahead and keep stumping for him based upon what YOU have seen from his limited game action. I'll hold off until I see him beat out the "fullback" for more carries.

Eda, you are laughable. If you feel confident that kfootball always, without fail, plays the best player at each position, then good for you and you can just keep your tinfoil hat on. And, if you think I am the only one on the LeShun Daniels over MW bandwagon, you've had your head and your tinfoil hat buried in the sand.

LeShun Daniels actually has lateral cutback ability, while MW does not, he does have good vision and is better than MW has, he does have patience to and power through the hole, and he has more than adequate speed for a tailback, MW does not.

Eda, you really just need to get over your love affair with both MW and kfootball. LeShun Daniels is a better tailback than MW. Is he the next Shonn Greene? Nope, but MW is one helluva lot further away from Shonn Greene's talents than LD.

 

[ryno]

Ah yes... The age old argument that "Kurt don't play the bestest players". Take a look at the roster this year, and you'll find several spots where the incumbent/older player was unseated.

who cares? it wasn't in the most important positions on the field, namely QB and tailback

 

[Eda]

Please provide a list. I think you're wrong on this. In fact, I can't think of one incumbent starter from last season, who is still on the team or couldn't play due to an injury, was unseated.

It's not just a list of players who started last year. It's a list of positions/players that got their spot from someone else sometime during their career. This topic has been brought up on here before, and it's been discussed on the OnIowa podcast too. I don't have the list the OnIowa podcast presented earlier this season; but I'll try off the top of my head...

Mark Weisman
Tommy Gaul
Dillon Kidd
Nate Meier
Lomax
King
Lowdermilk
Jewel (was poised to get the start coking out of fall camp before the injury)
Spearman got on the field last year for the raider package
Maybe McCarron and Vandeburg could be put on the list for PR over KMM (although that may be more so to keep KMM healthy).

I can't recall who Ott replaced (and why) when he started playing halfway thru the season two years ago. Maybe you could give me a hand there.
I also don't quite remember who was gonna play center before Blythe took over, so perhaps an hand there as well?

 

[HawksMN]

Currently the Hawks are really devoid of talent at RB. And for a run first team, that is bad.
KF, what in the heck are you doing during recruiting season??? Can we get a solid tailback in the fold, please.

 

[thejumper5]

There are three major questions I have that I believe will define the running back competition for 2015.

1. How quickly will Daniels bounce back from his injury? A fractured ankle that required surjury could take a long time for Daniels to recover from, and he may never be the same back he was before the injury.

2. Will Markel Smith actually be a Hawkeye next semester? If so, will he live up to the play-right-away talent that he showed in high school and in about half of his prep school games?

3. Will Karan Higdon adjust to the pace of play and the passim game requirements of Iowa football? He seems to have the physical tools and the mental and emotional makeup to be a star, so if that can translate to the field, he could do big things as early as next season.

If all of those things go Iowa's way, I could see a 5-way competition for carries with those guys, Canzeri, and Wadley, and I could see any Daniels, Wadley, or Smith leading the team in carries and any of the five being second on the team in carries.

If all of those things go against Iowa, I think Wadley and Canzeri will be the feature backs by default, unless some one like Hilliard or Parker surprises by blossoming into an every-down back much more quickly than expected.

 

[Knight78]

Eda, just because kfootball decide to use a fullback as the primary tailback doesn't mean he was the best player. I will tell you that I saw signs last season that LD was good enough to be the primary tailback. You need to move beyond the fact that MW got most of the carries to call that "consistent. I could have gotten all of the carries and been "consistent." I would have been consistently bad, but I would have been consistent. kfootball understands that if a player doesn't play, their performance can't be evaluated by the fans. Just because no one else was the primary tb, doesn't mean there isn't a worthy player on the team. kfootball has made erroneous player personnel decisions and this is just one example.

Says all those on HN who have attended all the practices and done detailed player evaluation of those players' practice efforts.

Face it. Kirk plays who HE thinks is the best for the position. And as I've said many times, coaches only have practice time to evaluate players and since we don't have access to practices we cannot possibly make qualified evaluations.

Everyone likes to bring up the Allen Iverson story. Ok - ONE player doesn't work hard in practice and does well in games. And while he was talented, he was also a cancer on every team he played on. Probably because the other players saw him not working in practice and decided it was OK for them as well. (I know, another guess. Fits right in here at HN player evaluation.)

 

[Knight78]

Eda, you are laughable. If you feel confident that kfootball always, without fail, plays the best player at each position, then good for you and you can just keep your tinfoil hat on. And, if you think I am the only one on the LeShun Daniels over MW bandwagon, you've had your head and your tinfoil hat buried in the sand.

LeShun Daniels actually has lateral cutback ability, while MW does not, he does have good vision and is better than MW has, he does have patience to and power through the hole, and he has more than adequate speed for a tailback, MW does not.

Eda, you really just need to get over your love affair with both MW and kfootball. LeShun Daniels is a better tailback than MW. Is he the next Shonn Greene? Nope, but MW is one helluva lot further away from Shonn Greene's talents than LD.

No, I don't feel that Kirk plays who I consider to be the best player at each position. He plays who HE believes is the best player at each position. What you or I think does not matter. Period. Never has. Never will.

How this continues to be lost upon posters here at HN is beyond my comprehension. How they think complaining about it here is going to change Kirk's mind is beyond my comprehension.

 

[ArvadaHawk]

Says all those on HN who have attended all the practices and done detailed player evaluation of those players' practice efforts.

Face it. Kirk plays who HE thinks is the best for the position. And as I've said many times, coaches only have practice time to evaluate players and since we don't have access to practices we cannot possibly make qualified evaluations.

Everyone likes to bring up the Allen Iverson story. Ok - ONE player doesn't work hard in practice and does well in games. And while he was talented, he was also a cancer on every team he played on. Probably because the other players saw him not working in practice and decided it was OK for them as well. (I know, another guess. Fits right in here at HN player evaluation.)

I'll say this much, it is a damn good thing that kfootball doesn't have to practice his personnel decisions and game and clock management during the week. He's so bad on game day, at times, there is no way he should be the starting head coach.

All of you folks that believe kfootball is infallible and never makes a wrong decision just don't understand the reality.

 

[RoseBowlBound]

I heard on Suterman & Howe today that we need a RB.

Here are our choices for 2015:

Parker
Wadley
Daniels, Jr.
Wellik-walk on
Canzeri
Hilliard-redshirting 2014
Higdon-incoming 2015 recruit

Who'll rise to the top? Is there a breakaway back in this group?

Wellik left the team.

 

[eveningnewsteam]

Says all those on HN who have attended all the practices and done detailed player evaluation of those players' practice efforts.

Face it. Kirk plays who HE thinks is the best for the position. And as I've said many times, coaches only have practice time to evaluate players and since we don't have access to practices we cannot possibly make qualified evaluations.

Everyone likes to bring up the Allen Iverson story. Ok - ONE player doesn't work hard in practice and does well in games. And while he was talented, he was also a cancer on every team he played on. Probably because the other players saw him not working in practice and decided it was OK for them as well. (I know, another guess. Fits right in here at HN player evaluation.)

Which is an absolute failure of recruiting if Mark Weisman is the best RB on the field during practice

 

[hawkeyebob62]

LeShun Daniels is a better tailback than MW. kfootball should have started grooming LD early last season to become the fulltime tailback by mid-season, last season. I don't know if Markel Smith is better than LD, but Smith wasn't on the team this season to compare. For those who aren't sold on LD yet, that is understandable if you go by stats alone. But look beyond the stats and you'll see a good tb.

Is LD the second coming of Shonn Greene? No. But he reminds me of a Ladell Betts type player and should have 1+ seasons as the starting tb. Having said that, kfootball and staff should approach each recruiting season as an opportunity to upgrade the tb position because it is a position where a freshman can absolutely play, right away. kfootball needs to go out and offer the best running back he can find and tell that player if he comes to Iowa he'll get carries right away. Waiting your turn doesn't sell, at this position.

<<But he reminds me of a Ladell Betts type player>>

Seriously? That might explain a LOT of your posts.

To quasi-quote Trev Alberts, "And it's not even close"

 

[BIG10INCH]

I heard on Suterman & Howe today that we need a RB.

Here are our choices for 2015:

Parker
Wadley
Daniels, Jr.
Wellik-walk on
Canzeri
Hilliard-redshirting 2014
Higdon-incoming 2015 recruit

Who'll rise to the top? Is there a breakaway back in this group?

Hilliard- starts from day 1

 

[bigjim]

Im wanting to see what Hilliard has got. They say he has awesome top speed. I just hope who ever it is has the potential to break off some big ones every now and again.

 

[blubberhawk]

Im wanting to see what Hilliard has got. They say he has awesome top speed. I just hope who ever it is has the potential to break off some big ones every now and again.

He may have great top end speed but if he fumbles once, early in his career, Ferentz will bench him, which will make top end speed guy transfer.

Probably why we have 4.8 guys returning punts and 4.8 guys as our featured tail backs.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

Well one thing about the rb situation next year is this. I think the options will be better. We aren't sure what Daniels is really capable of yet. If he's good to go next year I like him as a short yardage guy at the least. I think his pass blocking leaves alot to be desired... The rest of them I don't see a ton of difference in. Between Canzeri Wadley Parker and Hilliard any one of them could emerge or some combo of them. If Smith or Higdon are playing that means either AIRBHG is back or they are absolute studs. Either way no more Weisman and Bullock... Bullock it's too bad they found his role so late. If he could have just been a 3rd down guy all this time he could have been pretty effective.

 

[bigjim]

He may have great top end speed but if he fumbles once, early in his career, Ferentz will bench him, which will make top end speed guy transfer.

Probably why we have 4.8 guys returning punts and 4.8 guys as our featured tail backs.

Watching Melvin Gordon play just make me gringe when I get to thinking about if he would have stayed with us. Our RB position has been very average for a long time.

 

[PCHawk]

No, I don't feel that Kirk plays who I consider to be the best player at each position. He plays who HE believes is the best player at each position. What you or I think does not matter. Period. Never has. Never will.

How this continues to be lost upon posters here at HN is beyond my comprehension. How they think complaining about it here is going to change Kirk's mind is beyond my comprehension.

You bolded a question in post you quoted, then you answered a question he didn't even ask. He didn't ask if he starts who YOU think is the best player. He asked if he starts the best player.

No one cares if he starts who HE believes is the best player. They only care if he starts the best player.

How you think people actually think Kirk might change his mind by reading what is posted on here is beyond my comprehension.