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Wake-Vanderbilt GAME THREAD - 9/9/2023, 11am Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium - lightening delay

clawsons interview, some very interesting tidbits:

1/ he said he doesn’t do anything with the running backs except for teaching pass protection. no wonder we seem to be so obsessed with it / borderline blind spot.

2/ the most encouraging thing about griffis imo is that clawson is coming off as pretty disappointed in his play so far (after being effusive in the offseason). gives me a lot more optimism.

also i didn’t realize spencer clapp didn’t play
 
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Even though I grew up as a Clemson fan, I was seriously pissed when they usurped our game.

After all, we were the ones willing to play at the ungodly hour of 11 a.m.
 
Liquid Karma said:
Oh great, the Kenny Walker memorial "he doesn't block well enough" narrative is getting started early.

When do we start talking about Ellison being better on special teams?
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I mean I’ve quite literally shown the film of Claiborne getting Mitch slammed. That’s a real thing.

I’m old enough to remember how people basically begged for Quinton Cooley to be the starting running back and he couldn’t even land at a P5 school (and I love QC)

More to it than just running it even if DC is great at that.
 
CamLemons said:
I mean I’ve quite literally shown the film of Claiborne getting Mitch slammed. That’s a real thing.

I’m old enough to remember how people basically begged for Quinton Cooley to be the starting running back and he couldn’t even land at a P5 school (and I love QC)

More to it than just running it even if DC is great at that.
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A side note- Cooley is averaging over 5 ypc and will likely exceed his total carries for last season within the next game. I'm glad to see him doing well.
 
CamLemons said:
I mean I’ve quite literally shown the film of Claiborne getting Mitch slammed. That’s a real thing.

I’m old enough to remember how people basically begged for Quinton Cooley to be the starting running back and he couldn’t even land at a P5 school (and I love QC)

More to it than just running it even if DC is great at that.
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I’m sure we can find video of our OL getting our QB killed also.
Will DC miss some blitz pickups…probably. Is it worth the trade off if he’s that dude? 100%
 
CamLemons said:
I mean I’ve quite literally shown the film of Claiborne getting Mitch slammed. That’s a real thing.

I’m old enough to remember how people basically begged for Quinton Cooley to be the starting running back and he couldn’t even land at a P5 school (and I love QC)

More to it than just running it even if DC is great at that.
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So Ellison has never missed a block?
 
deacdixieboy said:
So Ellison has never missed a block?
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Ellison isn't perfect but there's not a question he's miles ahead in the pass blocking department. To the point someone made about the OL giving up hits to Mitch... that heightens the need to have someone back there when you're in a throw game that can block. Claiborne hasn't passed the sniff test in either game and he needs to improve. This was a run game which is where he's going to shine and he did! He's also going to a considerable amount of opportunities, but he's got to shore up the pass-blocking that's a non-negotiable. Been bad there both by the eye test and grading against Elon and Vandy. Ellison was the reason Mitch got the TD off to Grimes to open the Elon game. That's the expectations for the running backs.
 
Is Chaney out?

Get Chaney, Hudson and Jones back and defense improves.

O line: Clapp out for how long?
Sharpe was carted off?

That's 2 starters.
 
CamLemons said:
Ellison isn't perfect but there's not a question he's miles ahead in the pass blocking department. To the point someone made about the OL giving up hits to Mitch... that heightens the need to have someone back there when you're in a throw game that can block. Claiborne hasn't passed the sniff test in either game and he needs to improve. This was a run game which is where he's going to shine and he did! He's also going to a considerable amount of opportunities, but he's got to shore up the pass-blocking that's a non-negotiable. Been bad there both by the eye test and grading against Elon and Vandy. Ellison was the reason Mitch got the TD off to Grimes to open the Elon game. That's the expectations for the running backs.
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How did Carney grade on blocking? Because it wasn’t just DC that looked miles better than Ellison when it comes to actually running the ball.
 
deacdixieboy said:
How did Carney grade on blocking? Because it wasn’t just DC that looked miles better than Ellison when it comes to actually running the ball.
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Worse than Claiborne by a country mile. He got smoked a couple of times.

Every running back would've looked good against how Vanderbilt decided to play defense yesterday. They tackled like garbage and consistently had 5 in the box. They could've put Zach Igwebe in there and I think he would've had 4-5 yards a carry. Tate did not look better running the ball at all yesterday than Ellison.
 
Clawson on explosive plays: Very concerning.... still.

"Everytime we give up an explosive, it's a TD."
 
CamLemons said:
Ellison isn't perfect but there's not a question he's miles ahead in the pass blocking department. To the point someone made about the OL giving up hits to Mitch... that heightens the need to have someone back there when you're in a throw game that can block. Claiborne hasn't passed the sniff test in either game and he needs to improve. This was a run game which is where he's going to shine and he did! He's also going to a considerable amount of opportunities, but he's got to shore up the pass-blocking that's a non-negotiable. Been bad there both by the eye test and grading against Elon and Vandy. Ellison was the reason Mitch got the TD off to Grimes to open the Elon game. That's the expectations for the running backs.
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Well then I suppose i fundamentally disagree with our offensive philosophy. If the philosophy is potential NFL quality RB has to be able to pick up blitz for QB who will probably max out at college, then I don't understand the plan. I get it when RB's are close in ability/talent/projection. Blitz pickup is always important. But there was NOTICEABLE running ability difference between Ellison and Claiborne.

Find a way to make it work
 
Deacsfan27 said:
A lot of consternation for a game where we dominated an SEC team.
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SEC is washed. The new hotness in conferences is going outside of your name. Atlantic Coast adding cross country teams, Big 10 and 12 adding 13 additional teams or whatever. Best the SEC can do is kinda add teams outside the Southeast but barely in the grand scheme of things. Sad, really.
 
WindyCityDeac said:
Well then I suppose i fundamentally disagree with our offensive philosophy. If the philosophy is potential NFL quality RB has to be able to pick up blitz for QB who will probably max out at college, then I don't understand the plan. I get it when RB's are close in ability/talent/projection. Blitz pickup is always important. But there was NOTICEABLE running ability difference between Ellison and Claiborne.

Find a way to make it work
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I think it should depend on what the defense is giving us. If they are loading up the box and we are going to have to win through the air, it makes a lot of sense to roll with the better blocking back.
 
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