Will a Star be born?

C

CAARHawk

Banned
There is a chance tomorrow that a new star will emerge for Iowa. Ball State is exactly the type of team that a strong and hungry freshman running back can exploit.

Remember this?

Saw first action of career in opening win over Ball State . . . rushed 18 times for 116 yards and a touchdown, scoring on a six-yard run . . .

That is from Shonn Greene's bio from his freshman season in 2005.
 
Coker could absolutely be a super stud RB in our system. He's big, physical, can block, and has a surprising extra gear in open field. I know there are a lot of people fretting about a true freshman running back toting the rock, but that's how programs like Alabama, USC, and Georgia have built success in the past. It helps to get top recruits if they know that they have a shot at stardom from day 1.
 
Maybe I am the only one that thinks this, but I dont think Coker gets more than 5-10 carries tomorrow. That is awfully hard to tell if a star is in the making when you only get 5-10 carries.
 
We just need somebody to be able to spell Robinson. I think that Coker will do a fine job in that capacity. I don't expect any miracles here.

What will be particularly valuable is that Coker will get a chance to get up to game speed early in his career ... and with Wegher now gone, that will both help our depth at RB, but also provide our group of RBs with more "contrast" when it comes to running style. Don't get me wrong, ARob and Hampton are both strong, powerful runners ... however, they are also guys of somewhat smaller stature. Coker is a bigger guy with a bigger frame ... and once he starts acclimating to the college game, that will give opposing Ds another wrinkle in the Iowa O that they will have to worry about.
 
OUTofTOWNHAWK said:
Lets hope so. Just need the Oline to do their part.
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The Oline has been doing their part -- well beyond where they were expected to. (As I shake my head in frustration ...) They "looked" bad because they were outnumbered and overrun by AZ -- something they will not see again the rest of the season as long as the coverage units do their part.

Coker has the size and talent to be a star. Where he will be "born" or "fizzle" will be determined by how well he blocks and, most importantly, whether he holds onto the ball.
 
MidnightBlueSix said:
Coker could absolutely be a super stud RB in our system. He's big, physical, can block, and has a surprising extra gear in open field. I know there are a lot of people fretting about a true freshman running back toting the rock, but that's how programs like Alabama, USC, and Georgia have built success in the past. It helps to get top recruits if they know that they have a shot at stardom from day 1.
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How do we know that he has an extra gear at the D1 level or can block?
 
STILLBUSTER -

I agree that the OL has been performing beyond initial expectation. However, the group still needs to continue to make good strides through EACH and EVERY game.

Iowa will continue to regularly see 8 and 9 man fronts attempting to stop the run game. Even with some of those guys dropping back in coverage from those stacked fronts, that still gives our WRs and TEs a great chance to get behind the coverage. Iowa will need to continue to have success taking shots down the field, in order to either force the safeties back ... or to force them to put more defenders on islands.

Of course, BECAUSE we're going to see those stacked boxes ANYHOW, our guys are going to have to get to a point where we can still run against stacked boxes. In order to acheive that, we really need ALL our guys to play with greater consistency. Blown assignments were also a big reason why a number of runs went nowhere.

Furthermore, we need ARob to study his own film and learn from his mistakes. He made some bad reads and it led to too many negative yardage runs.
 
Maybe i missed this from an earlier post earlier this week--- but why aren't we looking at doing more bubble screens or shovel passes? Look, if anyone thinks what we saw from AZ this week is the last time we'll see this is crazy-- young line--- sure-- blitz packages and a 9-10 stacked box is going to be the norm..... why not? if I'm am an opposing coach---AZ film tape provided me a lot of potential gold.... ????
 
also--- Arob had 0 chance on most of those carry's--when your getting hit the moment you get the ball--we should be grateful really that robinson's ball carrying skills showed--- let's face it-- AZ completely shut out the running game....
 
TigerHawk36 said:
you will think he is a star if he puts up 80 - 100 yards on 5-10 carries
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I'm sorry, but there's NO WAY that Coker will do that. We haven't yet had a TR FR see the field that has had that sort of a game. Even in Wegher's game against GT, he only averaged 7.1 ypc. Against Ball State, Greene only averaged 6.4 ypc ... and that was against a terribly depleted Ball State squad too.
 
I agree its hard to put up this kind of numbers with a limitted amount of carries. I feel like many of backs have to get into the flow of the game and get use to reading the blocks in our sceme. Our offense is not really set up for a one touch and gone type of guy. Our runners have to get use to reading the zone sceme and feel how the defense is flowing to the ball.

I was kind of joking around when i posted earlier. It would be nice but not very relistic. Hey he is a astophysics major
 
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dsmhawkluva said:
Maybe i missed this from an earlier post earlier this week--- but why aren't we looking at doing more bubble screens or shovel passes? Look, if anyone thinks what we saw from AZ this week is the last time we'll see this is crazy-- young line--- sure-- blitz packages and a 9-10 stacked box is going to be the norm..... why not? if I'm am an opposing coach---AZ film tape provided me a lot of potential gold.... ????
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I'm inclined to think that it's about execution. We tried a WR screen against ISU and the blocking wasn't quite where it should have been.

The coaches won't call a play just because it's strategically the correct thing to do ... because how the players EXECUTE the play is an even more important element. If a guy misses a block, then the ball can get easily swatted, and such a tipped ball would be going directly towards a bunch of defenders.
 
TigerHawk36 said:
I agree its hard to put up this kind of numbers with a limitted amount of carries. I feel like many of backs have to get into the flow of the game and get use to reading the blocks in our sceme. Our offense is not really set up for a one touch and gone type of guy. Our runners have to get use to reading the zone sceme and feel how the defense is flowing to the ball.
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I disagree. There is plenty of opportunity for such explosive backs given our blocking scheme. In fact, when a RB reads a cutback lane right ... a really explosive and fast RB (say, like Melvin Gordon) could exploit such an opportunity and take it to the house. Heck, you need look no further than what Damian Sims did with the ball back in '05 and '06.

Where you're definitely correct though, is that the RB has to get used to making reads in our running scheme.

The problem is that explosive, fast guys also have to be able to run strong ... because they're going to have plenty of occasions where they get hit at the LOS. Iowa is still a team where down and distance matters a lot ... and the ability to fall forward and/or break tackles can often be the difference between facing 3rd and 12 and 3rd and 2.
 
Talking about sims, I always had alot of hope for him. He was explosive and I would have to go back to see if those home runs he hit were off the zone scheme. Did he end up getting hurt, was it his ankle
 
TigerHawk36 said:
So homer are you saying we have backs that are not being coached to cut back or are fast enough to do this?
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Not at all. I'm saying the following ...

1. We currently don't have any really explosive and fast RBs on the roster who are healthy
2. ARob can make the cutbacks, but he still has to be more consistent
3. ARob is a dynamic and quick player, but not exactly all that fast or explosive
 
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