Wait or Go

A few more words about running backs. A lot of people think that playing running back in college is just about getting the ball and running around a lot. They think a guy can come in out of high school and simply pick up where he left off.

In truth, few players are able to do this because there is a lot to learn about playing running back that few people learn in high school, and most of them (even the good ones) aren't nearly talented enough to simply play the high school tactic of "give me the ball and no one can tackle me." Even Darren McFadden wasn't good enough to do it. He didn't get a 100 yard rushing game until his 5th college game.

What does a running back have to learn. I can think of a few things, and there are probably even more than this:

1. How to run without fumbling or being stripped of the ball.
2. How to pass block.
3. How to read blockers and defense.

In high school, few defensive players are strong enough or know enough about stripping technique to take the ball away from a talented running back. In college, everyone is strong enough to do it, and practices it. If you don't carry the ball correctly out of habit, you'll lose it.

In a college passing game, everyone has to be pushing in the same direction. If your assignment is to read a blitz and pick it up before going out into a pass pattern, you will get your QB hurt and your offense off the field if you fail to do it. If you can't pass block, you can't play on passing downs. If you can't play on passing downs, you can't play, because your presence on the field will tip the defense that the next play is a run.

The third thing is particularly difficult to pick up, and difficult to explain. Young running backs often do one of two things. They either fail to wait for their blockers and run headlong into the defense only to get tackled unnecessarily, or they wait for the gaping holes they got in high school to open up, and they never do, leading to a tackle for loss when the running back fails to get moving forward. Call it "impatient" and "too patient". A running back who gets a feel for when to wait and when to go makes himself a lot more productive. That is what Charles Scott was talking about when he said, "A lot of the game is slowing down for me. My reads are a whole lot better." He's saying he now knows when to wait and when to go, when he didn't know that before.

Fans who don't understand these concepts are the ones who always say, "We should have been playing Keiland Williams earlier in 2006." Nevermind that by Keiland's own admission he wasn't ready and was slow learning the things he needed to know. They scoff when you suggest that lack of competence in pass blocking can keep a running back off the field. They are absolutely wrong.

LSU does not have a great running back right now. We don't have a Reggie Bush or a Darren McFadden. But we do have several very good running backs. And they're learning. I can't wait to see them go next Thursday.

The Running Backs

Last year, Charles Scott started out the year very strong. He was ahead of Keiland Williams on the depth chart, and played quite a lot in the early season. He didn't manage to get on the field for the ill-fated Auburn game, which was a decision that baffled a lot of people at the time.

Then Charles Scott got hurt, and Keiland passed him on the depth chart. Keiland was a very good running back in the last part of the season, and everyone pretty much forgot about Charles Scott.

In the past few days, however, rumors have started to circulate that Scott had re-emerged as a force at running back, possibly even moving into the #1 position. There is a very interesting article over at Tiger Bait about it (subscription only). I can't publish the whole thing (because I am one of the few people my age who actually respects copyright law), but I will pull out a single quote that I think tells an awful lot.

"I feel a lot better now than I did last year," Scott said. "A lot of the game is slowing down for me. My reads are a whole lot better. I have settled in. I honestly believe off of the scrimmages and camp, I have gained the opportunity for the team to rely on me a lot."

A lot of people forget that players have to develop, and that even great players have a learning curve once they to college. Scott did. Keiland Williams did, and may yet still have learning to do. For Scott the game is "slowing down". What does that mean? It means he's better able to anticipate what's going to happen before it does. Whereas before, Scott had to react. Now Scott can anticipate, giving him an extra split-second in which to act on what happens. That extra split-second may mean the difference between a tackle for loss or a cut away from the tackler into the open field.

The ability to anticipate what will happen can take you a long way in athletics if you're really good at it. It has been said of Wayne Gretzky that he was not particularly fast, nor particularly strong. He was not in any way a phenomenal athlete. He just had the seemingly uncanny ability to be in one place and have the puck come to him in such a way that he could make a play. While everyone else was going to where the puck was, he was skating to where the puck was going to be. It made him arguably the best hockey player of all time, despite his lack of physical athleticism.

It's that ability Scott is tapping into now, and he believes it's making him a much better running back.

Rushing game

Last year, LSU's leading rusher on the season was Jacob Hester with 440 yards on 94 attempts. Not so good, right? Yes and no.

Hester's effort was only good for 16th best in the SEC. In fact, every single SEC team had at least one running back go for more than 440 yards, and Florida beat 440 yards with their backup quarterback. Arkansas, Auburn, South Carolina, and Vandy each had two rushers go for more than 440 yards.

Most teams, however, pretty much went with one or two guys in the rushing game. LSU had five running backs go for more than 200 yards. While we didn't have any one guy getting a lot of yards, we had a large number of effective rushers. Looking at our cumulative statistics, we rushed for 2155 yards on 450 attempts, for an average of 4.8 yards per carry. Here's how everyone else did:

Arkansas 3199 yards, 539 attempts, 5.9 yard average
Florida 2240 yards, 476 attempts, 4.7 yard average
LSU 2155 yards, 450 attempts, 4.8 yard average
Auburn 1927 yards, 470 attempts, 4.1 yard average
S. Carolina 1876 yards, 414 attempts, 4.5 yard average
Vandy 1795 yards, 385 yards, 4.7 yard average
Georgia 1656 yards, 426 attempts, 3.9 yard average
Alabama 1600 yards, 455 attempts, 3.5 yard average
Ole Miss 1504 yards, 422 attempts, 3.6 yard average
Tennessee 1404 yards, 382 attempts, 3.7 yard average
Kentucky 1282 yards, 411 attempts, 3.1 yard average
Miss. St. 1142 yards, 394 attempts, 2.9 yard average

Some observations:

• Clearly Arkansas was on another planet rushing-wise last year. They got more rushing yards than Jamarcus Russell had passing yards, and Jamarcus was awesome.
• Obviously, after giving props to the best rushing attack in college football last year up in Arkansas, LSU's rushing attack was more than just respectable. It was 2nd in yards, and 1st in rushing average in the SEC after Arkansas.
• If Florida hadn't gotten an extra game (with the concomitant extra chance to add to cumulative stats) due to making it to the SEC Championship Game, LSU would have finished ahead of Florida in rushing yards.
• Like I said before, Kentucky would have been awesome on offense if they could run the ball. This was a bowl team, and they had less than 1300 yards rushing last year.
• Ole Miss was a below-average rushing team last year despite having a the 3rd leading rusher in the SEC (BenJarvis Green-Ellis).
  

That last point is especially telling. Ole Miss had the 3rd leading rusher in the SEC, but had only the 9th most team rushing yards and the 10th best rushing average. Combine that with the fact that Brent Schaeffer was the poorest-performing starting QB in the conference last year, and you have a really bad offensive team in Oxford.

But not as bad as Mississippi State's.

There's a lot more to say about rushing the ball, but it will have to wait.