There’s nothing you love more than hearing that your defensive coordinator speaks the same language as his players.
Maybe the problem was that Kerry Coombs simply didn’t know how to communicate with Tommy Eichenberg? People are wondering!
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- I’M THINKING TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE
Y’all know that famous adage that says if you have two starting quarterbacks, you actually have no starting quarterbacks? Well, praise God that it doesn’t apply to running backs.
From Joey Kaufman of The Columbus Dispatch:
“I look at it as we have two starters,” Alford said. “I have the whole time.”
…
“We have two guys that are capable of being starters,” Alford said. “We have two guys that are capable of playing championship-level football. And we’re going to use them according to how we need to use them to help win games.”
Alford handles questions about the rotation each season. The subject often comes up during preseason training camp. Reporters ask if he will use a running-back-by-committee approach or favor a bell cow back.
“I say the same thing every year,” Alford said. “I don’t care. I want to win games. We’re here to win games. We’re not here to stack up stats. If stats come with it, then fantastic. But we’re here to win games and however we have to do that, that’s how we do it.”
The coolest part here is that this whole “co-starters” thing happened because both guys are genuine stars that you can’t keep them off the field, not because neither one emerged as RB1.
I mean, you can talk about Henderson having a down year or a sophomore slump or whatever. But the guy is still averaging 6.4 yards per carry this season, which is good for No. 21 in the entire country.
Fact is, I thought Henderson was the most talented running back in the country heading into the season, and he hasn’t done anything to change my mind on that front. And yet, I’m still perfectly fine calling Miyan Williams RB1.
That’s where we’re at.
- DID YOU KNOW THAT BALLS BOUNCE?
When you’re bad at Little League baseball like I was, they stick you in the outfield where you’re less of a liability. And one of the first things they teach you is that you should play a little deeper because it’s easier to run up to get a ball than it is to run backward.
So, while watching Emeka Egbuka backtrack for almost every single punt so far this season, I kept thinking “damn, I wish he was worse at baseball growing up.”
But as it turns out, there’s a more real reason why he’s up so far.
While I am probably more apt to believe the “it’s very hard to do!” excuse than most, shit like this just gets a whole lot less defensible when you’re paying a full-time special teams coordinator to figure it out.
I concede that Day’s explanation that they absolutely do not want the ball landing short of the returner and bouncing is better reasoning than I expected (honestly, I’m mostly just glad there is an actual reason).
That said, “We’re five games in and we’re still figuring out where our return man should line up” ain’t exactly a ringing endorsement for Parker Fleming.
- ADVANCED PUNTER STATS BECAUSE WHY THE HELL NOT?
With how exceptionally shitty Michigan State has been in pretty much every avenue of football so far this season, it’s honestly been hard to find a compelling matchup to watch.
I finally found one – punter vs. punter, baby!
(Quick aside: the fact that four of the top five and most of the top 10 are from the Big Ten is the most cartoon B1G I’ve seen in a minute)
Of course, a “punter duel” would assume that both punters actually, you know, punt. And based on how this game played out last year, that’s far from a given.
During this game last season, Jesse Mirco punted just once, bombing one for 50 yards, which was downed inside the 20. Meanwhile, Baringer had nine(!!!) punts for an average of 49.7 yards per punt with five downed inside the 20.
But thankfully, the EPA formula doesn’t appear to necessarily reward volume too much (otherwise, Iowa’s Tory Taylor would be our clear king) so Mirco’s gonna have a fighting chance even if he only punts once.
Also, I have a strange feeling that this stat doesn’t account for Mirco’s 22-yard keeper, which is both totally understandable and also complete bullshit!
- C.J. STROUD – DUAL-THREAT QUARTERBACK
Heading into last season, C.J. Stroud hadn’t even attempted a pass in his college career. So hilariously, when a defense popped in the college game tape from his freshman season, this is what they saw:
That’s it. That’s the extent of his highlights from the 2020 season.
To give you an idea of how the rest of his career has gone, he rushed for 48 yards on that play alone. He currently has 36 career rushing yards.
I funny thing is that thought the exact same thing when Justin Fields housed a zone read from 51 yards out on his fourth play in a Buckeye uniform. Shit, I even remember thinking Dwayne Haskins looked extremely mobile when he rattled off a 22-yard run against Michigan his sophomore year.
It doesn’t feel like a coincidence that all three of them decided they were no longer interested in running the ball once they got that top spot on the depth chart.
That’s perfectly fine with me, as long as their legs magically work again in late November, December, and January.
EAT ARBY’S. A gang of women in neon-green bodysuits attack and rob two women… The unique shittiness of university landlords… A killer may be behind the killings of five men in central California… The car wrecks were staged but the injuries were real… Dudes only play extreme metal to impress other dudes… They just don’t rob banks like they used to…