An offseason hunch on RBs…

#26
#26
brockytop said:
Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright will need to be better this year or they’ll be watching a whole lot of Dylan Sampson and DeSean Bishop from the sideline come fall. This offense with backs that are legitimate big play guys will be darn near impossible to stop with quality line play. Heupel knows this.
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I agree with the last part…big play RBs will be a game changer in this offense. But Small and Wright will be the bell cows. And Wright will break off plenty of big plays. He’ll be a star this year.

Seldon, Sampson, and Bishop will be the main guys in 2024.
 
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#27
#27
Small and Wright are avg RBs at SEC level. Would either be on the field at Bama or GA? They don’t consistently impact the game. Sampson is a step above those two. Hopefully Seldon will stay at RB at could be at another level.
 
#28
#28
brockytop said:
Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright will need to be better this year or they’ll be watching a whole lot of Dylan Sampson and DeSean Bishop from the sideline come fall. This offense with backs that are legitimate big play guys will be darn near impossible to stop with quality line play. Heupel knows this.
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Nah. Disagree with your premise. Small is a mule (look up his first carry for us when he went Earl Campbell over not one but two Pitt defenders) and Wright is a shiftier/faster mule. Sampson is fast and shifty, too, and will bust a few for us. All three are battle-tested. Know nothing about Bishop as I haven’t seen him carry.

We should have a very stout RB room with, as you point out, “quality line play.” To state the obvious, our OL is gonna be the key to our running game…and the rest of our offense.
 
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#30
#30
brockytop said:
Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright will need to be better this year or they’ll be watching a whole lot of Dylan Sampson and DeSean Bishop from the sideline come fall. This offense with backs that are legitimate big play guys will be darn near impossible to stop with quality line play. Heupel knows this.
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We were 26th in the country last year in rishing
 
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#33
#33
TBH I don't care who takes the bulk of the carries. I think they're all really talented. That's why a 4⭐ talent like Williams transfers after his true freshman season. We're loaded at the RB position. QB has an RPG attached to his shoulder with a couple legit track stars. The running game is gonna be there all year because there will never be more than 7 in the box.
 
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#34
#34
brockytop said:
Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright will need to be better this year or they’ll be watching a whole lot of Dylan Sampson and DeSean Bishop from the sideline come fall. This offense with backs that are legitimate big play guys will be darn near impossible to stop with quality line play. Heupel knows this.
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Jaylen Wright had nearly 900 yards and averaged 6 yds a carry last year while splitting carries with Small lol.I think he's fine.Small too.But the future looks great at RB.
 
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#35
#35
It will be who the coaches trust in the heat of battle……….
 
#37
#37
Vol in Buckeye Land said:
Jaylen Wright could have a monster year this year and Sampson is going to explode after a year in the system. Jabari is a solid SEC back whom we are lucky to have year of. Any contribution from Seldon or Bishop this year will be gravy.
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JW had an extra gear and level of power in that OB. I just hope the OL is good enough.
 
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#38
#38
brockytop said:
Jabari Small and Jaylen Wright will need to be better this year or they’ll be watching a whole lot of Dylan Sampson and DeSean Bishop from the sideline come fall. This offense with backs that are legitimate big play guys will be darn near impossible to stop with quality line play. Heupel knows this.
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This is a badly misinformed opinion.
 
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#40
#40
brockytop said:
We‘ll see about that, won’t we? I’m not saying Small or Wright aren’t going to play, but I do believe their reps will be reduced for these younger backs.
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Nah. If anything Wright might surpass Small as the RB1. By all accounts at spring practice he has really changed his body and is having a great spring. Just have to hold on to the ball and stay healthy.
 
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#41
#41
Bloodrunsorange27 said:
Small and Wright are avg RBs at SEC level. Would either be on the field at Bama or GA? They don’t consistently impact the game. Sampson is a step above those two. Hopefully Seldon will stay at RB at could be at another level.
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Jaylen Wright definitely is better than average. He has a chance to be elite.
 
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#42
#42
K-town Vol Fan said:
Nah. If anything Wright might surpass Small as the RB1. By all accounts at spring practice he has really changed his body and is having a great spring. Just have to hold on to the ball and stay healthy.
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Never seen the other guys at the college level but they want write off 2 RBs that are proven and both had close to 1000 yds.
 
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#43
#43
Vol865 said:
Jaylen Wright definitely is better than average. He has a chance to be elite.
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He’s better than Small and probably would have him and Sampson as our top 2. He runs hard and can be explosive but hasn’t had a lot of carries due to turnovers. I would say he is above average but I don’t know about elite. Small is average. I would love to see all of them take a huge step forward this year.
 
#44
#44
Bloodrunsorange27 said:
He’s better than Small and probably would have him and Sampson as our top 2. He runs hard and can be explosive but hasn’t had a lot of carries due to turnovers. I would say he is above average but I don’t know about elite. Small is average. I would love to see all of them take a huge step forward this year.
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I had concerns about fumbles early in the year but he cleaned it up. Didn't get much live practice in the summer.
 
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#46
#46
savannahfan said:
If you are a really gifted runner all you want/need is to be pointed in the right direction, then shear speed and god given ability will take over... i.e. H Walker, Bo Jackson etc. I know they don't come along very often but they do come...
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Bo and Hershel were rare creatures you rarely see in college FB, They were essentially NFL sized LB'ers playing as RBs. I don't think we have any such RBs on our team. Not since Jamal Lewis anyway. The NFL also had some of these creatures. John Riggins and Mike Alstott come to mind. They weren't called The Diesel and A-Train for nothing.
 
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#47
#47
WoodsmanVol said:
Bo and Hershel were rare creatures you rarely see in college FB, They were essentially NFL sized LB'ers playing as RBs. I don't think we have any such RBs on our team. Not since Jamal Lewis anyway. The NFL also had some of these creatures. John Riggins and Mike Alstott come to mind. They weren't called The Diesel and A-Train for nothing.
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Riggins and Alstott were tanks, but they didn't have the speed of Bo or Herschel. That rare combination of size, power and speed is what made Bo, Herschel and Jamal Lewis special.
 
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#48
#48
Namorto1 said:
The rotation will continue to be Small, Wright and Sampson this year (in any order you want to put them in). Like the good reports on newbies (we haven’t even seen Keith yet and he adds a big back dimension we don’t have), but highly unlikely they beat out the experienced backs. I’m convinced we are going to have our best rushing attack in years and may lean on it slightly more to complement Milton and to help sustain drives. Milton’s arm is going to frighten teams against the deep ball and they are going to have to make a decision. Do we protect against the big play with 2 safeties playing deep or do they take the risk that he overthrows our WRs? I suspect they will do the former and ask us to march down the field which will open it up for our RBs.

I also hope we use the RBs more in the passing game this year too. Small in particular may benefit in this role. He is the best in pass protection of the 3 and I think has the best hands. I think Sampson has the most upside and looks like the most natural rusher of the 3, but all are good solid backs. Wright is fast and shows some surprising strength despite size. Given Small gets banged up a lot I bet Wright starts, Small is more of a situational (passing downs, short yardage) back and Sampson gets similar amount of carries as Wright. If we punish some inferior teams on the scoreboard like I think we will, there is going to a lot of opportunities for the RBs to put a lot on film.
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Sampson needs to improve 100% in pass protection. #1 hole in his game.
 
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#50
#50
Bloodrunsorange27 said:
Small and Wright are avg RBs at SEC level. Would either be on the field at Bama or GA? They don’t consistently impact the game. Sampson is a step above those two. Hopefully Seldon will stay at RB at could be at another level.
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Small and Wright both had an ability to emerge from the hole with burst.
Their stats are both impressive.
Heupel platoons the backs, so they remain fresh, and both Small and Wright have shown me they are both in the the top tier of RBs in the SEC. Either could rush for 1400 yds if featured, but it is much harder to zero in on different backs.
If Sampson makes himself more useful in blocking assignments, we could have a 3 RB Corps that compares very favorably with Hurd, Kamara, and Kelly.
 
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