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Wake Football Offseason Thread

Thanks for sharing the article. Will have to see WF as a consistent threat to run the ball to believe it after years and years of a pathetic running game, but would love to see the Deacs have their best ground game since the Chris Barclay article. Excited about Rocky Reid. Deepest stable of backs for WF is a long time. With that said, the quality of the RBs was only a small part of the explanation for WF's pathetic running game. The OL must and should be better.
 
Can't really call the RB pool deep. More of a large, shallow puddle.
 
Can't really call the RB pool deep. More of a large, shallow puddle.

Yeah. Tyler Bell is the standard bearer and he's not all that good. We have a lot of RBs. We need a lot of good RBs.
 
Bell improved substantially over the course of the season.

We need a RB who doesn't require that every defender be blocked in order to make gains. How long since we have had runners who actually broke tackles and didn't go down with the first hit?

Well, Bell and Colburn gave some indication of that last season; but we need much more.
 
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Bell had a nice game against duke to end the year, 19 carries for 94 yards. Before that he had 113 carries for 357 yards. His longest rush of the season was 33. Colburn's was 21.
 
I thought Bell looked good against ND, State, and UNC (albeit with a bad fumble) as well. I don't know how instructive YPC is given the number of plays that are flat dead behind the LOS. I'm excited to see Reid.

I'll hold out hope for Colburn mostly because he looked great in the preseason and seems to have more ability to run through contact. Although he and Reid may overlap too much and I'll be disappointed if Reid isn't just better.
 
I thought Bell looked good against ND, State, and UNC (albeit with a bad fumble) as well. I don't know how instructive YPC is given the number of plays that are flat dead behind the LOS. I'm excited to see Reid.

I'll hold out hope for Colburn mostly because he looked great in the preseason and seems to have more ability to run through contact. Although he and Reid may overlap too much and I'll be disappointed if Reid isn't just better.

Yeah. Bell showed flashes last year with a subpar oh-line. Can only see him getting better with the work ethic Clawson praises. An improving Bell, Rocky, and Oh-line...I can only see the run game improving and being average in 2016 and to be a strength in 2017
 
I thought Bell looked good against ND, State, and UNC (albeit with a bad fumble) as well. I don't know how instructive YPC is given the number of plays that are flat dead behind the LOS. I'm excited to see Reid.

I'll hold out hope for Colburn mostly because he looked great in the preseason and seems to have more ability to run through contact. Although he and Reid may overlap too much and I'll be disappointed if Reid isn't just better.

Agreed YPC isn't totally fair with our line. Bill Connelly has a stat (adj. line yards) that attempts to hide line play that has Wake around 70th in the country vs 118th in normal Rushing S&P. I think Colburn is a better runner than Bell but lacked in pass pro and receiving. Hopefully Reid can show some burst.

DeacsOrDie - we were 118th in rushing last year (out of 128 FBS teams). Jumping to average would be quite a feat.
 
I'm also very excited about Byrd (RB we just signed). Would love to see what he can do after a year of learning and lifting. Seems like an extremely versitile back.
 
http://www.journalnow.com/sports/wf...aa2-7bda-589f-9519-7915f2235a7f.html?mode=jqm

Article from Dan regarding the RBs. Sounds like Bell, Rocky, and Carney are getting the bulk of the snaps with IRob and Colburn out. These extra snaps for Rocky should really help him. I am hoping for a tandem of Bell and Rocky this fall with Carney as the 3rd back in the rotation. Maybe redshirt Colburn this year?

I am still a little higher on Colburn than most and I think he showed great promise last year. I think he is in the mix and Carney will redshirt.
 
Overall, I think we've made great strides with our RBs in the past 2 years. More quality players and much more depth.
Also have some more power runners, not just scat-backs.
Don't know yet if any of them will be a breakout star, but I do see us being able to rotate several guys so we constantly have fresh legs.
 
Watched Carney play 4-5 times in HS and was thinking it was unrealistic that he'd end up at Wake. I always thought he'd go to ECU where his dad went. I think this kid has a tremendous amount of upside and could distinguish himself as our top back by 2017.
 
It's nice to have a stable of running backs than to just have one or two like Grobe's last few season. Not sure how a coach with a triple option background could end up with so few running backs on the roster.
 
Buttt they don't call me CreamyWrongness for accurate player projections sooooo...
 
Watched Carney play 4-5 times in HS and was thinking it was unrealistic that he'd end up at Wake. I always thought he'd go to ECU where his dad went. I think this kid has a tremendous amount of upside and could distinguish himself as our top back by 2017.

Since you saw his games, IYP, how much of a factor was Carney's competition regarding his stats?
 
I wasn't that impressed with Carney's tape. Seemed like he lacked top end speed and wiggle.

With regard to Wake running game in general, I don't think we will ever attract the type of STUD rb who can make up for a monumentally shitty O-line. I think we can atract good, ACC level talent. I think we probably have that on the roster. However, even a adequate/good rb talent can't get anywhere behind a terrible O-line. Fix the line and the guys we have will be fine.
 
There's another thread asking a great question. What's going on with the Qb competition. With a three man race, there should be some opinions from the few who have seen a practice.
 
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