'14 GA RB Treyvon Paulk (UT Signee 2/5/14)

#1,951
#1,951
Darth_Shiveman said:
I get where you're coming from, but you're assuming Hurd and Kamara will both stay healthy all season. If one of them (or both) goes down, then we don't have a RB who can carry the load. Being in that situation really slowed us down against Vandy. With no Hurd and Lane banged up, our offense looked as bad as it did all season with Dobbs at QB.

The way I see it Hurd and Kamara are 1a and 1b for us and we don't have an established #2 at RB. Sure, Abernathy can fill that Devrin Young 3rd down RB/change of pace role, but that's about it.

Hopefully Kelly will come along quickly and be a viable option. We need him to be able to step in and carry some of the load if Hurd or Kamara go down. If that happens and he can't, our offense will be a lot more limited in what we can do.
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I guess I just don't see w reason to assume one or both get injured and can't go. Do I think Hurd alone could carry it 30 times a game. Yeah. Could Kamara if need be? Probably. Could Dobbs keep it 10-12 times instead of 5 if needed? Sure. Could Kelly step in and carry it 8 times a game by mid season? Sure.

Do I think Butch takes 2 backs in 2016? Yeah.
 
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#1,952
#1,952
LebanonVolunteer said:
I guess I just don't see w reason to assume one or both get injured and can't go. Do I think Hurd alone could carry it 30 times a game. Yeah. Could Kamara if need be? Probably. Could Dobbs keep it 10-12 times instead of 5 if needed? Sure. Could Kelly step in and carry it 8 times a game by mid season? Sure.

Do I think Butch takes 2 backs in 2016? Yeah.
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There's absolutely no way anyone can know when an SEC back tears an ACL, MCL, Labrum, etc... Oh and the dreaded high ankle sprain!

My point is that if we bank on them staying healthy, it will bite us down the stretch.
 
#1,953
#1,953
LebanonVolunteer said:
I guess I just don't see w reason to assume one or both get injured and can't go. Do I think Hurd alone could carry it 30 times a game. Yeah. Could Kamara if need be? Probably. Could Dobbs keep it 10-12 times instead of 5 if needed? Sure. Could Kelly step in and carry it 8 times a game by mid season? Sure.

Do I think Butch takes 2 backs in 2016? Yeah.
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You always have to assume that you'll have one guy go down though. Assuming all of your guys stay healthy all year is folly. Hurd had another surgery recently. He had a concussion last season. He basically missed two whole games. We had a game or two where Lane couldn't go. You're safer assuming that each RB will miss a game or two.

And we don't know that Kelly will be able to go by mid season. Most of us expected that Scott would be a capable #3 in 2014, but that never turned out to be the case. We won't know if we have a capable backup for Hurd and Kamara until well into camp or a game or two into 2015. It's an undeniable concern.

I agree that we take two in 2016. I agree with points you've (repeatedly) made about not needing a 3rd back who will get a lot of carries as part of the rotation. Where I think you're making a big oversight is assuming we don't need a 3rd RB who can be more than a role player if #1 or #2 go down.
 
#1,954
#1,954
Darth_Shiveman said:
You always have to assume that you'll have one guy go down though. Assuming all of your guys stay healthy all year is folly. Hurd had another surgery recently. He had a concussion last season. He basically missed two whole games. We had a game or two where Lane couldn't go. You're safer assuming that each RB will miss a game or two.

And we don't know that Kelly will be able to go by mid season. Most of us expected that Scott would be a capable #3 in 2014, but that never turned out to be the case. We won't know if we have a capable backup for Hurd and Kamara until well into camp or a game or two into 2015. It's an undeniable concern.

I agree that we take two in 2016. I agree with points you've (repeatedly) made about not needing a 3rd back who will get a lot of carries as part of the rotation. Where I think you're making a big oversight is assuming we don't need a 3rd RB who can be more than a role player if #1 or #2 go down.
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VQ said Kelly was #1 on UTs board at RB behind Kamara in 2015. If that's the case, IMO that's about as capable a #3 as ya need. TFR RBs play pretty regularly at a lot of schools. Less likely with a couple 5* guys on campus, but happens. I think we'll be fine.
 
#1,955
#1,955
LebanonVolunteer said:
VQ said Kelly was #1 on UTs board at RB behind Kamara in 2015. If that's the case, IMO that's about as capable a #3 as ya need. TFR RBs play pretty regularly at a lot of schools. Less likely with a couple 5* guys on campus, but happens. I think we'll be fine.
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What happens if running back A gets hurt this spring and running back B gets hurt early in the season? If running back C becomes our lone rb, we are screwed. Always best to at least have an A-D available.
 
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#1,956
#1,956
LebanonVolunteer said:
VQ said Kelly was #1 on UTs board at RB behind Kamara in 2015. If that's the case, IMO that's about as capable a #3 as ya need. TFR RBs play pretty regularly at a lot of schools. Less likely with a couple 5* guys on campus, but happens. I think we'll be fine.
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We'll be very fortunate if you're right. Depth will be a concern at RB until we bring in more in our 2016 class.
 
#1,957
#1,957
LebanonVolunteer said:
VQ said Kelly was #1 on UTs board at RB behind Kamara in 2015. If that's the case, IMO that's about as capable a #3 as ya need. TFR RBs play pretty regularly at a lot of schools. Less likely with a couple 5* guys on campus, but happens. I think we'll be fine.
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Agree with this, if that is the case.
 
#1,958
#1,958
Dust10 said:
What happens if running back A gets hurt this spring and running back B gets hurt early in the season? If running back C becomes our lone rb, we are screwed. Always best to at least have an A-D available.
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Then Kelly goes for 675 yards, Abernathy goes for 380, Perry pitches in with 300, Bruce adds another 300. Dobbs keeps it a bit more and rushes for about 300 on the year. All along throwing it more as we have the WRs to lean on if needed.

More passes, serviceable backs, it can work if need be.
 
#1,959
#1,959
Dust10 said:
What happens if running back A gets hurt this spring and running back B gets hurt early in the season? If running back C becomes our lone rb, we are screwed. Always best to at least have an A-D available.
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Because if we assume running back A, B and C are all going to get injured then you are really trying too hard to have a argument. Yes we are a little thin at RB, but we are better off then we were last year that much we can all agree on.
 
#1,960
#1,960
LebanonVolunteer said:
Then Kelly goes for 675 yards, Abernathy goes for 380, Perry pitches in with 300, Bruce adds another 300. Dobbs keeps it a bit more and rushes for about 300 on the year. All along throwing it more as we have the WRs to lean on if needed.

More passes, serviceable backs, it can work if need be.
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I'd be very surprised if any of the guys you listed were able to put up any of those numbers in 2015 (except Dobbs 300 might be a conservative estimate for him...that's like 25 per game).
 
#1,962
#1,962
voltime12 said:
Because if we assume running back A, B and C are all going to get injured then you are really trying too hard to have a argument. Yes we are a little thin at RB, but we are better off then we were last year that much we can all agree on.
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1) I never said running back C was going to get injured.

2) If you don't believe 2 possibly 3 rbs will get injured in the SEC, then you have no concept of reality.

We nearly lost to Vandy because we had no healthy running backs. Entering the year with 3 running backs is a really bad situation.
 
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#1,963
#1,963
Dust10 said:
1) I never said running back C was going to get injured.

2) If you don't believe 2 possibly 3 rbs will get injured in the SEC, then you have no concept of reality.

We nearly lost to Vandy because we had no healthy running backs. Entering the year with 3 running backs is a really bad situation.
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So you're saying we beat an SEC team with no RBs. Well, now we have 3-6. We golden!
 
#1,964
#1,964
Bring in justice Hayes or whatever from Michigan. 1 yr grad transfer and would give another body behind kamara and jalen. Least he has experience.
 
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#1,965
#1,965
LebanonVolunteer said:
In an emergency, I think getting 20-30 yards a game out of these guys is reasonable.
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I didn't read the scenario you were replying to closely enough and didn't realize those numbers were based on the assumption that Hurd and Kamara don't play. That seems realistic. For a scenario where those were the only RBs we had.

But that still won't be enough production to win 8 games (which is IMO the goal for 2015).
 
#1,967
#1,967
LebanonVolunteer said:
So you're saying we beat an SEC team with no RBs. Well, now we have 3-6. We golden!
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1. It was the worst Vandy team in a decade. We won by a Cam Sutton PR TD. Calling that an SEC win is technically correct, but also misleading.

2. We had 3-5 RBs at this point last season. We were anything but golden at RB for the last 2-3 weeks of the regular season.
 
#1,968
#1,968
Darth_Shiveman said:
I didn't read the scenario you were replying to closely enough and didn't realize those numbers were based on the assumption that Hurd and Kamara don't play. That seems realistic. For a scenario where those were the only RBs we had.

But that still won't be enough production to win 8 games (which is IMO the goal for 2015).
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Last year TN rushed for about 1600 yards as a team. The numbers I posted would equate to even more than 2014. That team won 7 games. Figure in the defensive improvements and 8 wins in 2015 is a gimme. Now imagine in Hurd and Kamara give us anything at all. WOW! Buckle up.
 
#1,970
#1,970
LebanonVolunteer said:
Last year TN rushed for about 1600 yards as a team. The numbers I posted would equate to even more than 2014. That team won 7 games. Figure in the defensive improvements and 8 wins in 2015 is a gimme. Now imagine in Hurd and Kamara give us anything at all. WOW! Buckle up.
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Yeah, but looking at your numbers again, it doesn't seem realistic. You yourself have commented about how Butch doesn't seem to use 3 RBs in his offense. And somehow you think that 3 small scatbacks (2 as true freshmen who we aren't even sure will be RBs and one who is 170 lbs as a senior) could combine for 1000 yards on the ground as backups? That's just not how our offense has ever distributed carries and you've pointed out as much.

You're sending conflicting messages because you're unwilling to even fathom the possibility that you could be even partially wrong. You scoffed at people's ideas that we needed a 3rd stud RB to rotate with Hurd and Kamara, but now you're saying if they went down we'd start rotating 4 backs (3 of whom are true freshmen) and we'd get better production than we did last year with Hurd? C'mon man.
 
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#1,971
#1,971
Darth_Shiveman said:
Yeah, but looking at your numbers again, it doesn't seem realistic. You yourself have commented about how Butch doesn't seem to use 3 RBs in his offense. And somehow you think that 3 small scatbacks (2 as true freshmen who we aren't even sure will be RBs and one who is 170 lbs as a senior) could combine for 1000 yards on the ground as backups? That's just not how our offense has ever distributed carries and you've pointed out as much.

You're sending conflicting messages because you're unwilling to even fathom the possibility that you could be even partially wrong. You scoffed at people's ideas that we needed a 3rd stud RB to rotate with Hurd and Kamara, but now you're saying if they went down we'd start rotating 4 backs (3 of whom are true freshmen) and we'd get better production than we did last year with Hurd? C'mon man.
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Both Hurd and Kamara go down, IMO Butch would adjust as none of those guys, but for Abernathy have done anything in college. In that scenario, keep them fresh, spread the carries around, and try to keep them up right. Being smaller backs, it might help finish out the year.

They did take a RB to go along with Hurd and Kamara. His name is Kelly.

I may very well be wrong. I didn't see a need for Kamara, Kelly, and Bussey in the 2015 class. Interesting how it all played out I suppose.
 
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#1,972
#1,972
With the safety numbers being favorable, I like Evan Berry as 3-4th RB. I think his running style would do well in this Offense and he has the leg up in game experience and being in the S&C program
 
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#1,973
#1,973
LebanonVolunteer said:
Both Hurd and Kamara go down, IMO Butch would adjust as none of those guys, but for Abernathy have done anything in college. In that scenario, keep them fresh, spread the carries around, and try to keep them up right. Being smaller backs, it might help finish out the year.

They did take a RB to go along with Hurd and Kamara. His name is Kelly.

I may very well be wrong. I didn't see a need for Kamara, Kelly, and Bussey in the 2015 class. Interesting how it all played out I suppose.
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I think Butch's system will distribute almost all of the carries to the best two RBs regardless. That's how he's operated going all the way back to Cincy and CMU. There's no reason to assume that would change.


Also, you're assuming that all of those guys will be ready to go and rotate in. That's absurd. You really think all 3 of those guys will be able to contribute at RB as true freshmen? I'd be surprised if one of the three could pass block well enough to see the field. There's a lot more to the position than just running in the open field. Perry and Bruce have not played full time RBs in their career, let alone in the SEC. Assuming they will add solid depth at RB in 2015 is unrealistic.
 
#1,974
#1,974
VolNilla Ice said:
With the safety numbers being favorable, I like Evan Berry as 3-4th RB. I think his running style would do well in this Offense and he has the leg up in game experience and being in the S&C program
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Berry is another good option if it came to it. Just wait till Butch and DeBord roll out the McKenzie at FB on the goal line set.
 
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