Bigger Bodies at A Back

scatman22

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I know it's probably easier said than done, but I wonder if we will consider moving a B Back or two to A back to get some bigger bodies blocking on the perimeter? It just seems in the past, our best years came when we had guys like Charles Perkins, Anthony Allen, Lucas Cox, Synjyn Days, Orwin Smith, etc. out on the perimeter blocking. Move Marcus Marshall, Marcus Allen, or Skov to A Back and see what happens.

It's so bad right now, I think we have to try anything we can.
 

ElCidBUZZingFAN

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I think this year needs to be a lesson to all of us that A-Back is not a plug-and-play position. I know I thought it was. It's intricate and the technique or responsibilities isn't something most pick up easily.
 

NEJacket1

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One of this offense is"plug and play" BB's have to make correct reads as well as the QB. For those that thought that BB's just slam it up in there are misinformed. Footwork is critical in timing and when it's off you get guys running into each other. It looks much easier than it really is. JT looks befuddled this year and has to start getting downhill. Moving anyone to AB will gets us the same results it takes time,experience and the"want to"
 

jdubjacket

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JT looks befuddled this year and has to start getting downhill.
He looks befuddled because the second the ball is snapped, he's got at least 2 defenders in his face. Kind of hard to get anything going when you're not winning in the trenches.
 

WrongShadeOfGold

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I think this year needs to be a lesson to all of us that A-Back is not a plug-and-play position. I know I thought it was. It's intricate and the technique or responsibilities isn't something most pick up easily.
This x 1000. Unfortunately, we don't have the luxury of moving a BB to AB this year. We have a guy that spent 4 years as a pro style FB, a guy who has been a LB his whole time at Tech, and a true freshman. Not exactly good candidates for being able to pick up the intricacies of AB quickly seeing as how the ABs that have been at the position all year can't pick it up.
 

johncu

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I know it's probably easier said than done, but I wonder if we will consider moving a B Back or two to A back to get some bigger bodies blocking on the perimeter? It just seems in the past, our best years came when we had guys like Charles Perkins, Anthony Allen, Lucas Cox, Synjyn Days, Orwin Smith, etc. out on the perimeter blocking. Move Marcus Marshall, Marcus Allen, or Skov to A Back and see what happens.

It's so bad right now, I think we have to try anything we can.
I don't think there's anything we can do about that this year, but I wonder if somebody like CJ Leggett will move to A-back next year to add size. We have a lot of speed with guys like Searcy, Cottrell, Benson, etc. but no big bodies at all (unless you count Weimerskirch, who I still don't what position to classify).
 

texstinger

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I think this year needs to be a lesson to all of us that A-Back is not a plug-and-play position. I know I thought it was. It's intricate and the technique or responsibilities isn't something most pick up easily.
Probably true, but I would imagine any decent coach would say that about almost any position on the field.

But as of now, although some are injured, we have 26 A / B / QBs on our roster. About 22% of our total roster. There may be some DBs who came in as O players, IDK.

In looking at 4 other ACC rosters, they averaged 11 RB / QBs on their rosters. It averaged out to about 10% of their roster.

Too much time on my hands & too much worrying over the team I love I suppose

But it does bring some other things to mind.

5 days until back on the Flats vs Pitt.

GO JACKETS.
 

WracerX

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Probably true, but I would imagine any decent coach would say that about almost any position on the field.

But as of now, although some are injured, we have 26 A / B / QBs on our roster. About 22% of our total roster. There may be some DBs who came in as O players, IDK.

In looking at 4 other ACC rosters, they averaged 11 RB / QBs on their rosters. It averaged out to about 10% of their roster.

Too much time on my hands & too much worrying over the team I love I suppose

But it does bring some other things to mind.

5 days until back on the Flats vs Pitt.

GO JACKETS.
2 abacks 1 qb 1 bb on the field (they make up 22% of the roster)

1 qb 1 rb on the field for most teams (they make up 10% of the roster)

Ok, so that makes sense.
 

Helluva Entrepreneur

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I think this year needs to be a lesson to all of us that A-Back is not a plug-and-play position. I know I thought it was. It's intricate and the technique or responsibilities isn't something most pick up easily.
I know I took the AB position for granted. It has been "plug and play" in previous years, but we were always "plugging in" guys with 2-3 years in the system. With Snoddy out and the loss of Andrews we are playing almost exclusively FR and RS FR right now, who are clearly not able to "plug in" like I thought.

Searcy looked to be an up and coming big-time player before he was injured, so that's a bummer to lose him.

I do like the idea of having some bigger AB's for blocking. Just have to be careful not to make it obvious which direction the play is going. It would be interesting to see some guys like Kagawa, Curry, or Gray, or even some BB's get some cross training at AB. Too bad Byerly is hurt and Jordan has to play QB. He would probably be pretty solid at AB.

We should be ok at AB again next year with the (assumed) return of Searcy, Cottrell, Willis, Lands-Davis, JJ Green becoming elligible, and hopefully Jordan able to spend some time at AB, along with all the other young guys getting playing time now.

We badly need Philpott and/or Howell to step up at WR for next season or we will be mediocre there for the next 2-3 years.
 

AlaGold

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I know it's probably easier said than done, but I wonder if we will consider moving a B Back or two to A back to get some bigger bodies blocking on the perimeter? It just seems in the past, our best years came when we had guys like Charles Perkins, Anthony Allen, Lucas Cox, Synjyn Days, Orwin Smith, etc. out on the perimeter blocking. Move Marcus Marshall, Marcus Allen, or Skov to A Back and see what happens.

It's so bad right now, I think we have to try anything we can.
Hush your mouth-our recuits are big enough-no problem

that is what was thrown at me when I suggested it 7 yrs ago when we started adding these 175 lb A backs
I'm sorry but I was a blocking back and I know how tough that can be--we should not recruit a kid that is less than 190 lb unless he has documented speed of 4.4 (of course they still need to be skilled not just larger)
 

Deke

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I've often thought about having a "bash brothers" package of our 3 biggest backs for certain scenarios (e.g. Lyons, Allen and Dwyer in 2009). That being said, I think injuries/lack of experience is definitely the problem more than not having big enough ABs. We've shown in the past that we don't need huge ABs to effectively execute the offense (and we need speed to get to the outside). I'm sure CPJ would love to have everyone be 190+ lbs with similar speed to what we currently have (or at least what we had in week 1), but those guys don't grow on trees.
 

johncu

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Hush your mouth-our recuits are big enough-no problem

that is what was thrown at me when I suggested it 7 yrs ago when we started adding these 175 lb A backs
I'm sorry but I was a blocking back and I know how tough that can be--we should not recruit a kid that is less than 190 lb unless he has documented speed of 4.4 (of course they still need to be skilled not just larger)
So you're saying we should only recruit 200+ lb RBs with speed who can also run WR routes to stretch the field vertically. Gotcha.

I'd love for you to take a look and tell me:

1) how many of those there are in the country

and

2) what schools they end up at
 

swampsting

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Andrews wasn't a real big guy but he was a good blocker, probably better than Perkins, who was bigger than Andrews.

Since our A-backs do a lot of cut blocking, size there isn't that much of an imperative. Still, I wouldn't mind seeing Days-Perkins style combo out there, especially now.

But the thing about A-back is it takes some a long time to learn it. For all his physical tools, it took Snoddy a long time to finally break into the rotation (before he broke his leg). He had gone from A to B and back to A, but he still lagged behind others at the position.

When PJ was at Southern, he had a kid from Wheeler who was one of the best kids in the world and was top notch sprinter in high school. But it took until his senior year before he got into the rotation on a regular basis.
 

AlaGold

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Andrews wasn't a real big guy but he was a good blocker, probably better than Perkins, who was bigger than Andrews.

Since our A-backs do a lot of cut blocking, size there isn't that much of an imperative. Still, I wouldn't mind seeing Days-Perkins style combo out there, especially now.

But the thing about A-back is it takes some a long time to learn it. For all his physical tools, it took Snoddy a long time to finally break into the rotation (before he broke his leg). He had gone from A to B and back to A, but he still lagged behind others at the position.

When PJ was at Southern, he had a kid from Wheeler who was one of the best kids in the world and was top notch sprinter in high school. But it took until his senior year before he got into the rotation on a regular basis.
exactly--if you can't be big you have to be skilled and blocking is a LEARNED skill these days since running backs don't do that much now(that's why T. Marshall was such a relevation going from QB to Aback (of course his team competition was not at highest level either)
 

AlaGold

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So you're saying we should only recruit 200+ lb RBs with speed who can also run WR routes to stretch the field vertically. Gotcha.

I'd love for you to take a look and tell me:

1) how many of those there are in the country

and

2) what schools they end up at
wow, you must be in politics since you just mis-stated my comment and added your own spin to sound oh so intelligent
 

ElCidBUZZingFAN

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wow, you must be in politics since you just mis-stated my comment and added your own spin to sound oh so intelligent
I read it the same as him. You're all over the place on this subject.

Do you only want 190lb A-Backs or not?
 

johncu

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wow, you must be in politics since you just mis-stated my comment and added your own spin to sound oh so intelligent
Perhaps you can clarify, because this is what I read:

we should not recruit a kid that is less than 190 lb unless he has documented speed of 4.4 (of course they still need to be skilled not just larger)

Sounds pretty clear that you would not approve of any back that isn't ~200lb unless they have elite NFL speed, which is what a true 4.4 is.

You added a qualifier that they must also be skilled, so I simply specified exactly what skills A-backs need. They need enough speed to turn the corner on pitches and be a HR threat, and they need to be able to run routes and stretch defenses vertically in the passing game, and catch the ball in traffic.

Then I asked you a serious question. I'd love to have a guy like that, but how many are there?
 

johncu

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MLD will be the prototype when it's all said and done.
Problem is, guys like him are typically feature backs who get 20+ touches and fit in just about every offense, so it's a hard sell to put him at A-back where you might get 6 carries and 2 catches per game, if you're really good and lucky, while spending the rest of your time blocking.

Honestly I think somebody like Charlie Rogers is the prototype. Big play threat through the air and on the ground, and a lot more "gettable" because he doesn't fit the body type of either a RB or WR that most teams would look for. Blocking is teachable and is more about effort than anything, so he could pick that up with time.

I do like MLD a lot, though. Watching his HS film plus his 2 games this year, he's big, fast, and clearly a pretty good receiver. Combining that with all of the speed we will have at that position next year, the future is bright at A-back.
 
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