Important position races

[Redwingtom]

I was surprised to see that Joplin is listed as having 1 catch for 11 yards last year. I must have missed that.

Anyway, he is still on the roster and will get a shot if he moves up the depth chart.

[Globetrotter]

Do you think this thread would have to be called something else if we went to BYU?

[h2oville rocket]

Do you think this thread would have to be called something else if we went to BYU?

Only one position- missionary.

[MarkL]

@GT- Haha!! My bad.

Regarding Joplin - he spent all last year learning the offense. His redshirt year was spent getting his grades in order and getting used to campus. He spent his rs-freshman year learning the offense. He only came in for one game that I can think of - Kent State - once it was already out of hand. Now that he should be quite comfortable in the offense and has his grades in order, I imagine Joplin will be a great contributor to the offense. He's a very high caliber athlete.

[Globetrotter]

Do you think this thread would have to be called something else if we went to BYU?

Only one position- missionary.

So am I Stockton and you Malone, Pardon and McLeod?

[Globetrotter]

@GT- Haha!! My bad.

I keep being told its not a race

http://instantrimshot.com/

[birdman]

Clawson in his recent interview said the secondary is wide open, no kidding Maybe we will improve?

[MarkL]

With so many guys coming back including Gates and Truss who I believe were both freshmen, secondary should improve a lot. Last year's secondary was similar to 2006 .... new starters in almost every position. Those guys improved a lot in 2007 and in 2008 were excellent.

[Sub-Zero]

Regarding RB, it has always amazed me that we have been unable to produce quality backs. In the modern era, only PJ stands out. Hopefully we have someone that can really help the D stay off the field and provide a balanced attack.

[Redwingtom]

Really BM? I thought the evil Clawson gave nobody a chance to earn a job but his cronies?

[transfer2BGSU]

Regarding RB, it has always amazed me that we have been unable to produce quality backs. In the modern era, only PJ stands out. Hopefully we have someone that can really help the D stay off the field and provide a balanced attack.

Coach Clawson has stated that this difficulty in recruiting a good running back stems from the offense we run. He can tell a kid that he can come in and be our number 1 running back, but then they see our tape and the offense features receivers and tight ends.

As we begin to implement the Clawson offense, look for a more balanced attack and the rushing offense to come back into the scheme.

[JoeFalcon]

Our running game has consisted of slamming undersized backs directly into the middle of a clogged up line of scrimmage again and again and again. Our pass completion percentage was also low, but you wonder if this was partially a function of an inept rushing attack that gave us unfavorable down and distances to work with. I wish I could say it worked better in the spread, a system that is designed to open up rushing lanes in other ways, but it was arguably worse. The zone read plays under Brandon were consistent disasters and usually resulted in the RB's getting swarmed and stuffed behind the line of scrimmage after developing no momentum.

To get back to the gilded age of PJ Pope running through holes created by Scott Mruzkowski we need to recruit more players like PJ Pope and Scott Mruzkowski.

[Sub-Zero]

I am all for allowing a degree of flexibility with growing pains but this is year 3 of the Clawson Era. We had better see the needle move this year, especially after providing us the worst year ever in our programs history.