A few points Melton will never be a prototype FB, he's way too tall and carries his weight in the upper body; even worse he runs tall and doesn't get low. As far as Finley as a blocking TE - the guy has the same problem as Melton. He's tall and lanky and light and isn't going to be able to blow people off the line - really I don't see a set with Finley & two wideouts as much different from a 3 wide set. IF you recall Ricky & Shon mitchell played a LOT of shotgun when they played together. And as far as YOung and Charles go - yes they might be able to be successful in the tackles but their ideally suited for the quick hit type runs from the shotgun given their propensity for speed rather than power. In addition, let's face it, the run blocking on the 2006 OL with the two injuries is not as good as it was last year. Ulatoski and Hills have not been that impressive to me in the run game. But, look at it this way, the arguments you make about changing the team offense to suit the personnel because of McCoy (and really, McCoy is actually pretty quick, his problem is that he's not a great passer - that's hard to camouflage in any formation) really go the other way when you consider every single other position.
On Finley, I realize blocking is not his strength, so I was saying more of a receiving oriented TE or H-back would be his role. Still I think he can block better than Cosby/Pittman and is a more difficult match up in the passing game to boot. Big WRs and fleet TEs are a young QBs best friend, they allow for a much bigger margin of error on throws as we have already seen with him and Sweed cathing some toss up balls. Tweedie and maybe another converted guard would share the blocking oriented TE role (say in a 2 TE set; the Cowboys have sets like this). On Melton. It is pretty clear he is not a very good shotgun tailback. Maybe not fullback, but then make him a TE or HBack--find some use for him. Also if I am not mistaken Kindle was a monster runner as well as LB (and Texas has a lot of LB depth going into this year). So between Finley/Tweedie/Melton/Ogbonnaya/Kindle etc if Davis is telling they don't have talented personelle for an extra talentedTE, H-Back or fullback for lots of sets instead of that 3rd WR I am not buying it. Now I am buying it they can't do it NOW with injuries and how they have developed their players and such, but they had since Spring football to add this nuance to make more power/physical sets. And again, we are just talking 1 guy, not a revolutionary change of system. They should have found more ways to get Charles and Finley on the field instead of whichever 3rd schrimpy poor blocking WR. There are lots of potential ways to do it without sitting Selvin Young or the extra blocking TE, as I have outlined.
I agree he should probably be moved to DE or TE although playing too high wil still hurt him, the impact could be lmited. However I think the guy wants to be a TB and the staff is honoring their promise to give him a shot for better or worse. This is a team that used a Defensive Tackle as their primary fullback through last week. Finley is basically a big wideout; Tweedie is fine as a blocker and plays that role ok, but I've never really noticed him and said "man, that neale tweedie is kiling people out there", in fact the only time I notice him is the occasional penalty he draws (which are not that many)and he is not a threat otherwise. Melton we've covered. Ogbonnoya is a guy who was playing wideout until recently but is more of a tailback type as well. Moving Kindle to FB would be a tremendous waste; again he's too tall and a natural linebacker (and currently needed on defense anyway). It's not jsut the fact that none of these guys woudl be anything more than stop-gap at the FB/blocking TE slot -- it's the fact taht you're trading a playmaker like a Finley, Quan Cosby, Jordan Shipley for a guy who's going to be average at best at blocking and not get many touches. Again, none of this deals with Colt's major weakness which is not mobility in the shotgun, but rather the inability to force defenses to respect his arm. I think the current system has done a good (in fact, unbelievably good) job of putting him in a position to let his playmakers make plays for him. For a guy who has not been impressive throwing the ball in an abstract sense - he's been incredibly productive (22 TD's is quite good, of course a lot are the "catch and run" variety.) I understand that your side of the argument says that another way to limit Colt's weakness throwing the ball is to go 3 yards and a cloud of dust and avoid 3rd & long's, but I've got to think that with all the playmakers texas has (even though they are not as potent as last year's with a guy like Taylor who scored 14 TD's as a 3rd or 4th option) the other way has been validated thus far.
Yes but is is in no small part to that fact they havn't developed many talented potential fullback/H-backs athletes into this role. They have been left with scraps for a fullback because it wasn't a priority, not because they didn't have talented guys on the roster to be groomed in the this. Now maybe Mack Brown takes just as much if not more responsibility for that (e.g., convincing Melton or Kindle or whomever if they want to play much next year and help the team they need to do it). Besides, it wasn't that long ago (18 months?) fullbacks were more essential parts of offensive sets. I would rather have more touches (and presence, even if a decoy) for Charles and Finley than Cosby and Shipley. Now Cosby and Shipley are not bad players, but the former players are nightmares for defenses to account for. That is the way to draw the defense away from McCoy. (Note I don't even think more plays to Charles has to take away from Selvin on a 1 to 1 basis, be creative, use them both at times the way SC used two tailbacks last year or use Charles occasionally in the closest slot WR where the D is scared to death he takes a screen or dump to the house and has to adjust accordingly). I agree with the use of playmakers, that is why the use of Charles, who has been the best playmaker stepping on the field in every game save versus AP, troubles me. (JC has 20% of the touches, even less versus NU). The loss of Taylor was significant, but in truth a lot of those TDs and his role came because Charles was injured. Selvin is good too (probably our 3rd bets offensive player), IMO a better player than Shipley or Cosby, find a way to keep him and Charles on the field. We just have to disagree about validation. Colt and the offense have mopped up the average to below average comp, yes. But they havn't been efficient in converting opps to points against good defenses and IMO it is largely because we underutilized power formations given the quality of the OL and tailbacks. I would have made opponents like OSU and NU prove they could stop us taking them strait on tackle to tackle (or add two TEs on each side) before then asking Colt to win a pressured game. Based on Selvin and Charles YPC even with only 6 blockers in from of them and with opponents stacking the box I am not sure if any front 7 they have played could have stopped. Might not have worked against Michigan, but if we have to play them it would have been in Jan of 07 and Colt would have had more time. Colt is progressing nicely BTW, I just think we ended up having to have Colt outplay Troy Smith--a long shot at best, instead of focusing on our trench guys and tailbacks beating OSU's mostly green front 7, and that had a much better chance for a positive outcome.
I think you're overestimating his capabilities a bit. The guy was injured for the second half of last year and for 1.5 games this year, so I don't know if he can handle the load of being a 30 touch guy. He too has a lot less room to operate without #10 taking snaps (from any formation) and doesn't seem as effective htis year as a result; it also seems taht he suffers a bit from Reggie Bush syndrome by tring to bounce his runs out wide. This works vs. Rice, but not so much vs. Oklahoma or Nebraska. I believe I read something that while he's a bigger big play threat than S. YOung, he's also the guy who has a bigger chance of a loss, probably due to these tendencies The other thing is that he's not as good a blocker as Young - which is huge. When they put charles in, you're basically inviting the defense to blitz (not that they didn't already have the incentive anyway), because two of the three things he might do (block or run) shouldn't scare the defense. Peterson - look, he was playing the best Run Defense in the nation and he still shredded them in the first half (often out of the spread); you just get the feeling that he is somethng special when he touches the ball, something that is not there w/Charles. Likewise, I don't know if you've seen Ray Rice from Rutgers play but that kid is a bowling ball of a running back; he's only 5-8 200 or so but he's a contact runner. Garret Wolfe from Northern Illinois is a pretty damned good RB too, as is Mike Hart from Michigan. For all of Texas' talent I think those guys are a cut above Charles, really.
To be fair...it was the same ankle injury that affected the 2nd half of the season. Ankle sprains don't heal that fast, it kept Kindle out for almost all of spring training and the first couple games. Also...I'm sure Charles would have played in the game he missed if it was a big game, no need to play him against SHSU when you have OU the next week. I see what you're saying but I don't think we'll ever need Charles (or any other back) to be a 30 touch guy, 20 touches is already a big enough load and I think Charles has no problem in doing that. Even LT gets 24-25 touches a game (carries and receptions). I think its safe to say that nothing on offense seems to be as effective this year w/o VY. But I think its especially true w/ the RBs and the complete ineffectiveness of the zone read, which I would say was our biggest running play last season. Last year's running game was basically a "pick your poison" type scheme, this year, defenses can key in on our RBs knowing Colt won't take a 80 yard run to the house. One thing is for sure, 9 carries isn't enough for Charles. Even vs. Nebraska, he still got 63 yards, that's 7ypc. Hopefully our Sr. RB is a better blocker than a sophomore, but Charles isn't a bad blocker and will get better. One of the things Mack praised about Jamaal last season was his ability to take on the blitz. I usually agree with your posts but I have to disagree big time with this one. Both Rice and Wolfe are excellent backs, but I think they are more of a product of their situation. As far as talent, I think Charles is much better than the guys you mentioned. I don't think you can get a clear picture of a RB when he is splitting carries right down the middle w/ another RB. When Jamaal was our primary back last season, he was amazing, he looked liked the next big thing for UT. But with Selvin taking half (maybe more) the carries, your cutting his yards, carries, TDs, and chances for breaking one in half. Just some stats, Charles is averaging less than half (11) the carries Wolfe (23) and Rice (25) are getting so far each game. Give Charles 23 carries a game and I think we'd be talking Heisman right now.
I don't disagree with you entirely here. Which is why I want sets with both JC and Selvin. USC realized that Bush and White were two of their best players, find a way to use them either directly or as a decoy in some sets (Bush as a 2nd tailback or hybrid tailback/slot receiver). Selvin is probably farther along as a blocker than LenDale as well. Also, a screen or dump pass to JC could absolutely kill a blitz. It is likely he only has to make 1 guy miss and it is over. Having JC in there is a disincentive for a defense to just go all out upfied for McCoy and rather they have to play more honest. Hey, I got no qualms with Peterson being better. AP is the best college running back I have seen in a while. I have not seen Rice or Wolfe, so can't compare them, but I'll take your word they are more dynamic and or better. But Charles does compare well IMO to Slaton (Heisman contender who WV uses in ideal ways, and is actually smaller than Charles), and I think either JC/Slaton are more threatening than Mike Hart. Mike Hart is pretty hard nosed, but I am really not sure if he is much different than Selvin. Both Selvin and Charles have a better YPC than Hart, but admittedly Hart runs a lot N-S between the tackles as I am proposing we should be doing more of. Personally I think Selvin and Charles both are good in tight space, Charles is kinda of slippery to tackle too, it is once they hit the open field where the real difference comes it. Again, if anything, I want to see a lot more Charles, maybe even a little more Selvin. Make the defense not know from a single formation whether Selvin is going off of left guard, Charles over right tackle, or a vertical pass to Sweed or Finley. And if they blitz, you check into either a dump to the backs or quick slants to your big physical wide outs (Sweed/Finley). This would scare the hell out of me as an opposing DC.
The point I'm making is that those other guys have proven that they can tote the rock inside the tackles many times a game and make yards and be durablee. Charles is a speed guy, though he can run inside, is best suited for a spread field, and hasn't really shown he's an 300 carry runner.....yet. As far as him being a heisman winner with a ton of carries, those stats are a bit deceiving; who knows if Charles can be a 25 carry/game guy, put it this way, Ramonce Taylor had a higher average per touch than Reggie Bush IIRC but even the burnt orangest fan knew that Taylor probably would not have been able to put up Reggie Bush numbers just by increasing his touches.
Bush had a higher average per touch than Taylor by almost 5 yards. I'm not saying that Jamaal would be a Heisman winner, but if he was getting 190-200 carries like Wolfe and Rice are getting, or even 150 carries, I think we'd be hearing a lot more about Jamaal and that he could be a Heisman candidate. But he's not so I guess it doesn't matter. I'm just saying that you can't look at Wolfe or Rice's stats and say they are better than Jamaal. They are in situations where they run the ball almost every down and against weaker opponents compared to UT. It's like saying Jamario Thomas (UNT) was a better back than Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams in 2004 or that Jerome Harrison was a better back than Reggie Bush last season.
it shouldn't have been that close, but why is this thread still hanging around...Is the new kicker going to remain the starter?
You sure about that? Here's what I've got (Not includign the rose bowl): Taylor 10.64 Bush 10.08 http://www.dailytexanonline.com/med...0251809&sourcedomain=www.dailytexanonline.com Don't dump on Garrett Wolfe - the guy ran for 171 yards on Ohio State AND had 114 yards receiving that same game - that is a MONSTER game, especially behind a Northern Illinois line -- he is the real deal. Ray Rice is no slouch either, granted the best of his competition was Pitt, but he's been destroying people -- it is not just empty stats.
I was looking at their ypc and ypr on ESPN.com, it had Bush averaging 8.7 ypc and almost 13 ypc, Taylor had almost 7 ypc and 10 ypr. How do they calculate touches? I'm not dumping on Wolfe or Rice, they are both excellent backs that are putting up some unbelievable numbers, but I think we have to factor in how many times they have ran the ball and who they ran against. The guys I mentioned earlier (Thomas and Harrison) are good examples of situation guys that put up great numbers, but aren't necessarily better backs than others that don't put up as good as stats.
As I said I think the most direct comparison to for Charles is Slaton--absolute blazers with shiftiness as well. Despite Slaton giving up 10lbs to JC, 25lbs to Selvin--probable easier to tackle than either once you get a hit on him (Charles seems like he breaks a fair number of tackles to me just like Selvin does), Slaton has 160 touches in 7 games. Going into the season I would have planned 20 touches for JC and 15 for Selvin. Both are under that despite having fine YPC. We have underutlized both players (IMO our 1st and 3rd best overall skill players) and have shown zero creativity (in my recollection) in getting both players on the field at the same time.
I think Rice is much better at running between the tackles than Charles, like I said he is a bowling ball runner and his a lot lower. He destroyed the best team he faced as did Wolfe. Ray Rice vs. Pitt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYzBCWQwVHg Garret Wolfe (out of the 3 wr set, and with lots of -gasp- east west passing dominating OSU: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_N4jeoGz2M Neither of them has charles speed though that's obvious!
