Nick Griffin looks explosive!!!!!

[pdawg10msu]

been to the last 2 pratices and have seen a whole lot of good things i havent seen the past 6 years!! One thing that stood out was Mr Griffin! he is running like Trent Richardson. Looks like he got stronger during the offseason. He is running with his head low and always moving those feet! Knee looks like its 100% Ready to see him in pads now!

[engie]

Thanks -- keep up the good work

[msstate7]

What about cuts? Isn't that what suffers once knees start breaking down?

[Percho]

JJ didn't cut much.

[Jack Lambert]

YOu have to wonder is there any mental issues with the injuries.

[msstate7]

YOu have to wonder is there any mental issues with the injuries.

It has to be. Every cut back has to scare the daylights out of him

[hacker]

YOu have to wonder is there any mental issues with the injuries.

What a cliché. The guy said he looks more explosive and stronger than ever, and you're wondering about mental issues?

[Jack Lambert]

What a cliché. The guy said he looks more explosive and stronger than ever, and you're wondering about mental issues?

Any Orthopedic surgeon will tell you that Surgery will make your legs stronger but it the mental aspects of the injury they have trouble over comming. Practice is one thing but real game is another. The fear of being hit in the legs will be there. He's been hurt twice and that has to have some effect.

[CadaverDawg]

If Griffin is truly 100% healthy, he could easily become our starting tailback for the SEC schedule. He is an absolute beast when healthy

[engie]

Any Orthopedic surgeon will tell you that Surgery will make your legs stronger but it the mental aspects of the injury they have trouble over comming.

Your first part is very true -- and Griffin struggled overcoming the mental aspect of the first injury in 2011 as did Adrian Peterson out of Oklahoma. Seems alot of these guys overcome it much better the second time around...


Practice is one thing but real game is another. The fear of being hit in the legs will be there. He's been hurt twice and that has to have some effect.
If this is true, he should be far, far better and less afraid in the real games -- since both of his knee injuries were sustained in practices leading into the Gator Bowls -- never in an actual game...

[War Machine Dawg]

What a cliché. The guy said he looks more explosive and stronger than ever, and you're wondering about mental issues?

Cliche? It was the mental part that kept him from playing full speed for a season and a half. It's FAR from cliche to wonder if a second ACL tear has affected Griffin mentally. Hopefully it hasn't, after he regained confidence in the first one and knows it's solid. But until he takes that first hard cut and first hard shot to his knee in a real game, it's more than fair to speculate about how he will bounce back mentally.

For our sake, I really hope he is over it 100% mentally. He could be the every down guy we're looking for to take the load off Perk. If it's not him, it's J-Rob. But if Griffin is 100% mentally and physically, he's earned first shot so far as I'm concerned.

[Coach 57]

Had a kid break his meta-tarcile bone in his foot right before we left for summer break. He was a OLmen and during our first couple of practices (after removal of cast & needed no physical therapy) we were doing some sprints and noticed he was running with a gimp. As though he was kicking his leg out while he was running. I asked him if it was hurting he looked at me strangely as if I were speaking another language. Turns out he didn't even know he was doing it.

The mental angle of an injury seems cliche' but it truly isn't. He had hobbled so long on his foot like that he had forgotten that & had to train himself how to run properly again.

[Barking 13]

Your first part is very true -- and Griffin struggled overcoming the mental aspect of the first injury in 2011 as did Adrian Peterson out of Oklahoma. Seems alot of these guys overcome it much better the second time around...

He pretty much said so in an interview the other day

[Squidawg11]

If Griffin is truly 100% healthy, he could easily become our starting tailback for the SEC schedule. He is an absolute beast when healthy

I completely agree. I love Perk, but a healthy Griffin is a different animal.

[FISHDAWG]

I rewatched the Northwestern game last night and had forgotten what a good game J-Rob had ... if Griffin truly is healthy (in both aspects) that should be enough to grow wool overnight

[maroonmania]

He pretty much said so in an interview the other day

Another issue he had last year was the knee imbalance. Now that he has TWO bionic knees he should be ready to roll!!! :cool:

[Infidel]

If you follow MacGrifferous on Twitter, he is an upbeat, funny guy. You never see signs of him being down which is a good sign, at least.

[pdawg10msu]

He is a very funny guy, doesnt seem to let much bother him, I think he is a top SEC back but here is some good news... the other 3 backs are looking just as good!! If the o-line plays good this year I expect a great rushing attack which will also help the passing.

[hacker]

My point about it being a cliché is that there has been nothing indicating he has a mental issue this time around. This post was a positive, optimistic one and to wonder about his mental state at this point is so woe-is-us, we are Miss. State thinking. Can't somebody just post some good news without someone turning it into a worry fest?

[TexasDawg]

The real mental issues won't show up until somebody with a different color jersey comes at him full speed with every intent of knocking his ass out. That's when we will know if he is mentally back, if he can take a hit get back up and do it all over again.

[War Machine Dawg]

The real mental issues won't show up until somebody with a different color jersey comes at him full speed with every intent of knocking his ass out. That's when we will know if he is mentally back, if he can take a hit get back up and do it all over again.

Exactly. It's different when you know the other guy is trying to hurt you. Until we see him full speed in a game, it's fair to speculate on his mental state, especially considering that's what held him back with his first ACL tear.

[bulldawg28]

If he's worried about an injury it WILL show in practice. Practices are harder than games and it's easy to spot if he's worried. If no one is seeing it now he's mentally gotten it out of the way. Now everything should be just reaction.

[bgdog]

Great news Griffin is hands down without a doubt my favorite player. Seems like a smart guy on the twitters. Seeing him get his big td run towards the end of the season was the one bright spot in that entire abysmal second half of the season. He nearly broke down in the endzone and half the team wrapped around him. There was a great picture of it somewhere

[Johnson85]

If Griffin is truly 100% healthy, he could easily become our starting tailback for the SEC schedule. He is an absolute beast when healthy

with our current line. Hard to believe he'd really be 100%, but I hope he is. After watching him toward the end of last season, I thought he was going to take a lot of snaps from Perkins this year.

[CadaverDawg]

with our current line. Hard to believe he'd really be 100%, but I hope he is. After watching him toward the end of last season, I thought he was going to take a lot of snaps from Perkins this year.

Completely agree. I felt the same way.

And Welcome aboard

[engie]

with our current line. Hard to believe he'd really be 100%, but I hope he is. After watching him toward the end of last season, I thought he was going to take a lot of snaps from Perkins this year.

Surely you aren't implying that you can tell anything about how Robinson, Milton, and Shumpert are going to run against elite defenses?

Paul Jones said this morning on the radio that Shump is way further along than he expected him to be and is going to be difficult to keep off the field at this point...

[engie]

If he's worried about an injury it WILL show in practice. Practices are harder than games and it's easy to spot if he's worried. If no one is seeing it now he's mentally gotten it out of the way. Now everything should be just reaction.

Bingo. He still looked good in games in 2011 after the first injury... It was from practice reports that we heard he was struggling mentally...

If we don't hear anything in this regards soon, we've got to expect that he's nearing 100%....

[FISHDAWG]

wow - I completely forgot about Milton ... if you can get past the terrible fumble against LSU - Milton doesn't look bad at all either ... now adding Shumpert into this equation .... NEXT YEAR WILL BE BIG WHEN WE HAVE A TRUE DUAL THREAT QB TO GO ALONG WITH THIS POWER RUNNING GAME I'm EXPECTING

[Johnson85]

Surely you aren't implying that you can tell anything about how Robinson, Milton, and Shumpert are going to run against elite defenses?

Paul Jones said this morning on the radio that Shump is way further along than he expected him to be and is going to be difficult to keep off the field at this point...

He came in and gained yards and was an effective blocker in the passing game. I didn't break down game tape, so maybe I missed some of the other backs do something similar. And it wasn't a full game of production, so maybe he just got lucky in some limited snaps, but he at least has the physical attributes necessary to do get yards and block against superior defenses. I love Perkins but without an elite line, we're going to struggle with him as our primary back against the Bama and LSU type defenses. That's not a knock on him, pretty much everybody is going to struggle against those defenses, and we may not improve at all even with a 100% Griffin. But we know what Perkins is capable of; we have to hope that a new threat emerges from somewhere and without the injury, it seems like the best hope would be the person that has at least shown flashes of that type of ability.

[hacker]

He came in and gained yards and was an effective blocker in the passing game. I didn't break down game tape, so maybe I missed some of the other backs do something similar. And it wasn't a full game of production, so maybe he just got lucky in some limited snaps, but he at least has the physical attributes necessary to do get yards and block against superior defenses. I love Perkins but without an elite line, we're going to struggle with him as our primary back against the Bama and LSU type defenses. That's not a knock on him, pretty much everybody is going to struggle against those defenses, and we may not improve at all even with a 100% Griffin. But we know what Perkins is capable of; we have to hope that a new threat emerges from somewhere and without the injury, it seems like the best hope would be the person that has at least shown flashes of that type of ability.

11 carries for 38 yards. 3.5 ypc.

I see people talk about this all the time. What gives? Obviously flawed hivemind?

[Boodawg]

I just happened to re-watch the LSU game last night, and he looked the best of any back that ran against LSU. I think a healthy NG is our best option against the elite defenses in our league. That is if he is in fact healthy. It's kink of odd that the coaches have talked about all the other backs a good bit, but not much about NG at all. What's that all about? Is he our secret weapon??? Maybe? We should've won that LSU game. The fumble knocked all the wind out of our sails.

[Johnson85]

11 carries for 38 yards. 3.5 ypc.

I see people talk about this all the time. What gives? Obviously flawed hivemind?

First, I think your expectations are a little high. Against LSU and Bama, Griffin had 12 carries for an average of 3.9 yds per carry. Probably more importantly, he only had one play that went for a loss, so when he's not successful, it's not putting the team in a killer position. Certainly not killer stats, but very respectable against those defenses. Second, I don't think excitement over Griffin is really stats driven. I think most people just saw him make plays, particularly blocking but also getting tough yards, that Perkins realistically can't make. There are plenty of things Perkins can do that Griffin can't, it's just against LSU and Bama, we need yards after contact and somebody that is big enough to handle freak defensive players more than we need what Perkins brings to the table.

And again, some of it is wishful thinking. I think everybody recognizes Griffin probably benefited some from opposing offenses preparing more for Perkins and not having to carry a heavy load for an entire game. But you have to hope somebody steps up against those defenses, and Griffin seems like the best hope, if for no other reason than his size gives him an advantage over Robinson in pass blocking.

[CadaverDawg]

11 carries for 38 yards. 3.5 ypc.

I see people talk about this all the time. What gives? Obviously flawed hivemind?

Stats don't tell the whole story. Hell, nobody has good yardage against LSU....but the eye test clearly showed that Griffin was our most physical SEC style every down back when healthy IMO. Perkins is great, but I just wish we could give Griffin or JRob the tough yardage carries and have Perkins as more of a lightning to their thunder. Perkins on passing downs and screen plays is a damn weapon, but we are trying to force him to be an every down back. He can do it effectively against the weak teams because he's a stud, but he can't get the tough yards against Bama, LSU, etc, on a consistent basis in my opinion.

[FISHDAWG]

slot maybe ???

[engie]

I agree with you in the part about Perkins -- Just disagree that Griffin has proven anything that JRob hasn't. I can tell you this -- I had very mixed emotions about who I thought the true #2 was last yr between Griffin and Robinson -- and with the injury, it should be Robinson at this point until Griffin earns it back...

ETA: I concede the point about pass blocking(last year). Was widely talked about by our coaches that Milton and Robinson just didn't have that part down yet. That is a major difference of having an extra year in the program though. By the only account I've seen thusfar, JRob has been our best pass-blocker this fall...

Elite run D's we saw were Alabama @ #1 and LSU @ #9.
Bama - total 21 rushes for 47 yards
Perk - 15 for 38yds
JRob - 1 for 15yds
Griff - 1 for 9yds

LSU - 24 for 47yds
Griff - 11 for 38yds
JRob - 5 for 17yds
Perk out

Good run D's we saw were Arkansas @ 19th, Northwestern @ 22nd, OM @ 26th, Texas A&M @ 35th.
Arky - 36 for 203yds
Perk - 17 for 91yds
Griff - 2 for 68yds
JRob - 4 for 26yds

Northwestern - 33 for 186yds
JRob - 7 for 91yds
Perk - 19 for 84yds
Griff out

OM - 25 for 30yds
Perk - 16 for 45
Griff - 3 for 10
Jrob out

aTm - 27 for 98yds
Perk - 13 for 42yds
JRob - 4 for 20yds
Griff - 2 for 10 yds

So, overall against good runD's...
Perk - 80 for 300 - 3.75avg
Griff - 19 for 135 - 7.10avg
JRob - 21 for 169 - 8.05avg

As you can see, Griff and JRob are alot more similar than they are different...

[FISHDAWG]

well done engie ... points out something a lot of us have already suspected

[Johnson85]

I agree with you in the part about Perkins -- Just disagree that Griffin has proven anything that JRob hasn't. I can tell you this -- I had very mixed emotions about who I thought the true #2 was last yr between Griffin and Robinson -- and with the injury, it should be Robinson at this point until Griffin earns it back...

ETA: I concede the point about pass blocking(last year). Was widely talked about by our coaches that Milton and Robinson just didn't have that part down yet. That is a major difference of having an extra year in the program though. By the only account I've seen thusfar, JRob has been our best pass-blocker this fall...

So, overall against good runD's...
Perk - 80 for 300 - 3.75avg
Griff - 19 for 135 - 7.10avg
JRob - 21 for 169 - 8.05avg

As you can see, Griff and JRob are alot more similar than they are different...

Fair enough. My biggest deal is that I would hope to see the carries and averages of Perk and either Griffin or Robinson (or some combination of both) flip this year. I think it'd be a very good sign for us if Perk was touching the ball less but with bigger plays while the majority of our run plays went to Griffin and/or Robinson. I also think it'd be more fair to Perkins. I'm not sure what his NFL chances are, and I'm sure he is competitive and wants the ball all the time, but I'd rather us showcase what he can do in the passing game and on speed plays rather than constantly running plays that accentuate his lack of size and inability to grind out yards against NFL caliber defenders.

[Barking 13]

Fair enough. My biggest deal is that I would hope to see the carries and averages of Perk and either Griffin or Robinson (or some combination of both) flip this year. I think it'd be a very good sign for us if Perk was touching the ball less but with bigger plays while the majority of our run plays went to Griffin and/or Robinson. I also think it'd be more fair to Perkins. I'm not sure what his NFL chances are, and I'm sure he is competitive and wants the ball all the time, but I'd rather us showcase what he can do in the passing game and on speed plays rather than constantly running plays that accentuate his lack of size and inability to grind out yards against NFL caliber defenders.

x1

[Coach34]

It's almost like we took JRob out of games so he wouldnt look better than Perkins last year. He was a wrecking crew vs NW and he hardly played in the 2nd half...wtf????

[bulldawg28]

It's almost like we took JRob out of games so he wouldnt look better than Perkins last year. He was a wrecking crew vs NW and he hardly played in the 2nd half...wtf????

I couldn't have questioned it any better.

[BankerDog]

I really really like Milton. The guy is a one cut type of guy and can go around you or run over you. Other then the fumble against LSU, he was running really well. Ran well in the spring game too. I think he is one of those that gets lost in the shuffle, but any other year the guy would be a starter. I look for him to be our big goal line back. I fully expect us to split up the carries, a lot like LSU does. Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing us in a 2-Back formation with Prescott out of the gun and run the triple option.

[War Machine Dawg]

It's almost like we took JRob out of games so he wouldnt look better than Perkins last year. He was a wrecking crew vs NW and he hardly played in the 2nd half...wtf????

It just doesn't make any sense to force Perk into the role of an every down back. He just doesn't have the physical tools to be one.

I'll continue to beat the dead horse here. J-Rob or a healthy Griffin should get the bulk of our carries. Mix in Perk as the explosive change of pace with about 35 different ways to get him the ball. But the other two bring the thump you gotta have against the elite DLs in this league. Perk doesn't. Plus, a new downhill running scheme only works if you have a power back to run downhill. It's just that simple.