Spring Ball Outlook - RB: Who's Going to Help Akrum Wadley?
- Thread starter RobHowe
- Start date
If Wadley stays healthy they might find it tough to take him out as much as last yr... If he's closer to 200 then 185 and playing great they might ride that pony into the ground. I think it'll kinda depend on the flow of the games though obviously. If in the first few non con games if Iowa gets up big they'll throw the others in there. But if Iowa's in closer games (inevitably they usually are) I can see Wadley getting 20-25 touches easy maybe more.
BigD
Well-Known Member
I hope by the end of each game he has Toren through the opponents defense.
I think we have capable bodies all over the place. If everyone is healthy I bet Wadley (if he maintains his not fumbling) will get closer to 75% of the touches then 50. I think he's so explosive that with a new QB and dominant Oline it'll just be too tempting to run him as much as he can take. Young may get the short yardage touches/goal line ones. But I don't see it being a 50/50 split like with Daniels last yr. Toks will get a chunk of touches too obviously. It'll be interesting to see how it sorts out because that'll be what sinks or swims this team is the running game.
GesterHawk
Well-Known Member
I think Wadley will get closer to 60% of the touches (carries and passes to RB), not 75%. I am not saying he can't take the toll, but I would think that you wouldn't want him to have an empty tank come November.
Noah is the complete wild card in the equation, in my opinion. Great athlete, but the coaches have little idea of what he can do at RB at the moment. He also has had the entire summer, fall, and winter to be a gym rat and really get himself physically ready without the full grind of a season.
Noah is the complete wild card in the equation, in my opinion. Great athlete, but the coaches have little idea of what he can do at RB at the moment. He also has had the entire summer, fall, and winter to be a gym rat and really get himself physically ready without the full grind of a season.
taffaej
Well-Known Member
Um Rob shouldn't it be the offensive line? If we are as good as we are supposed to be up front Wadley won't get touched until he gets into the backfield so that should reduce any punishing blows
Joshbrown
Well-Known Member
I think you're missing the big picture.
Taking him out is one thing . . . RBs (any RB on a run-first team) lasting an entire season is another.
So the question is, who on this team can do what he can do? The paid hack (not rob/jon) will as usual tell me Toks can do it. I have seen nothing to indicate that is true.
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DMLadyhawk
Well-Known Member
We have seen so little of anyone else it is impossible to predict what will happen at this position. Hopefully, everyone is healthy and makes progress this spring. I hope that another one of the younger backs can catch the ball.
I think there are only a handful of backs in the nation that can do what he does.
Exactly... I think Wadley is pretty darn special and we only got a tip of that iceberg last yr. I sure hope he stays healthy. He'll be extremely fun to watch. We just haven't seen enough of the other guys to guess at what they'll do really. I just think if Wadley is healthy and playing well they'd love to feed him and if he doesn't get at least 20 touches a game it'll be a travesty. How Brian will manage the touches will be interesting and I'm sure the flow of the in game situations will dictate that a lot too.
WinOneThisCentury
Well-Known Member
I'm going to be the first to say it on here, but I seriously think Wadley can win the Heisman Trophy. Here me out...we are experienced and deep on the offensive line, we have a good screen game, and the guy is freaking money in space. If he stays healthy and plays big (ala Michigan) in our toughest games, and we win a few of them. I say it's possible. His only issue is that KF will rest him in the first four games if we are winning easily...there is no padding of stats at Iowa.
True but it's his senior year. I think there's a line in the sand of to how much usage you want to put on him. And if they are confident there's little drop off when putting in Toks or even Young in short yardage/goal line then I'm not by any means against splitting up the reps some. It just won't be anywhere close to the 50 50ish split of last yr. Wadley will get a bunch more. I'm just remembering back to the Greene days even the Albert Young and Freddy Russell days. They really rode those guys heavy in the KOK days and I guess we'll see if BF subscribes to the workhorse mentality more so or not.
