ShotgunDawg
09-11-2018, 10:02 PM
Pretty good stuff here from Feldman
https://theathletic.com/517541/2018/09/11/college-football-stanford-usc-mississippi-state-kentucky/
Charles Huff knows something about special running backs. The past three seasons, he coached Saquon Barkley at Penn State. A few months ago, I texted Huff to ask if he thought he had good talent to work with at Mississippi State, where he followed Joe Moorhead to Starkville as the Bulldogs' new run game coordinator/running backs coach. Huff mentioned he had one kid who he thought could be really special.
Kylin Hill.
That wasn't the name I expected to see since it was Aeris Williams who ran for more than 1,000 yards last year for Mississippi State.
But Saturday against a stingy Kansas State defense on the road, Huff's words looked prophetic. In the previous two years, no team had run for more than 223 yards on K-State. Hill rushed for 211 on just 17 carries and scored two TDs on the ground and a third through the air. Mississippi State ran for 384 as a team, averaging 9.8 yards a pop.
The 211 rushing yards are more than half of what Hill gained his entire freshman season.
"He has some unbelievable raw talent," Huff told The Athletic on Monday. "He's worked on everything that matters, and that also means the way you've got to eat, the way you go to class, the way you go to sleep, and he really bought in and started to change his habits. And then he bought in a little more."
Hill reshaped his body, trimming down from about 225 pounds to 212 when he came to training camp. Huff used Barkley as a teaching tool to develop Hill. He showed clips of Barkley as a freshman and then as a junior. Barkley was superb as a freshman, but there were four or five times when he got walked down on runs that could have gone for touchdowns. "He was quick as a cat and explosive, but he couldn't keep that top-end speed long enough," Huff says.
As a junior with more time honing his skills that included developing his long speed, Barkley had five plays of 80 yards or longer and seven of 60-plus.
Working on Hill's long speed will be the next phase. "We can't give it to him all at once," Huff says. This year, Huff said it was critical to amp up Hill's short-area quickness, which he says accounts for 90 percent of football runs. Two summers ago, Huff consulted with Penn State's track and field coach and asked what could the Nittany Lions do to improve their athletes" 10-yard burst and the 90-yard top-end speed. The answer to the former was some swimming pool work, so Huff had Barkley " and now Hill " do quick high knees as fast as they can for 20 yards in the water. Then in the sand pit, it means running 10-yard sprints full speed and getting to full speed as quickly as possible. It also means some "old-school" technique jumping rope for two sets of 100 reps after each weight training session to get their lower leg muscles and calves to fire quickly.
Barkley's evolution was enough to sell Hill, but Huff kept harping on the details of playing the position on the field to his backs, specifically urging them to create their own tool belt, whether that means adding a spin or a stiff-arm.
Huff also pulled five to 10 video clips of Hill to show the former four-star recruit that if he'd have been faster or a bit quicker, a 4-yard play could have been a 12-yard play or maybe a touchdown. His message: Everybody's grinding. And Huff was preaching grinding with a purpose.
"We don't tackle every day in practice, and I understand why," Huff says. "The art of tackling has declined. We have to be able to break tackles and get YAC (yards after contact). In our system and in today's game, you've gotta be able to change directions and be explosive. Look at the top backs in football " Todd Gurley, Ezekiel Elliott and Saquon " they stick their foot in the ground and they're explosive and do it with power. Kylin runs behind his pads and he explodes with power. He?s getting from the A gap to the C gap and running with power."
Kansas State's defense was a good test. Huff says he and his backs watched a lot of tape on the Wildcats and saw how well the team tackled, especially on the back end. He also gave Hill one more Barkley carrot, pointing out that this K-State game was going to be similar to what last year's Iowa game was for Penn State because it was against a tough, strong defense on the road.
"At some point you're gonna have to impose your will on this defense and take over this game within the framework of the system," Huff told Hill, delivering a message similar to the one he gave Barkley.
Last year, Barkley responded by rushing for 211 yards to go with 94 more receiving in a win against the Hawkeyes. This year, Hill responded to Huff's challenge by saying, "I've been waiting for this my whole life."
He went on to match Barkley's rushing total with 211 yards, and 108 of those came after contact.
https://theathletic.com/517541/2018/09/11/college-football-stanford-usc-mississippi-state-kentucky/
Charles Huff knows something about special running backs. The past three seasons, he coached Saquon Barkley at Penn State. A few months ago, I texted Huff to ask if he thought he had good talent to work with at Mississippi State, where he followed Joe Moorhead to Starkville as the Bulldogs' new run game coordinator/running backs coach. Huff mentioned he had one kid who he thought could be really special.
Kylin Hill.
That wasn't the name I expected to see since it was Aeris Williams who ran for more than 1,000 yards last year for Mississippi State.
But Saturday against a stingy Kansas State defense on the road, Huff's words looked prophetic. In the previous two years, no team had run for more than 223 yards on K-State. Hill rushed for 211 on just 17 carries and scored two TDs on the ground and a third through the air. Mississippi State ran for 384 as a team, averaging 9.8 yards a pop.
The 211 rushing yards are more than half of what Hill gained his entire freshman season.
"He has some unbelievable raw talent," Huff told The Athletic on Monday. "He's worked on everything that matters, and that also means the way you've got to eat, the way you go to class, the way you go to sleep, and he really bought in and started to change his habits. And then he bought in a little more."
Hill reshaped his body, trimming down from about 225 pounds to 212 when he came to training camp. Huff used Barkley as a teaching tool to develop Hill. He showed clips of Barkley as a freshman and then as a junior. Barkley was superb as a freshman, but there were four or five times when he got walked down on runs that could have gone for touchdowns. "He was quick as a cat and explosive, but he couldn't keep that top-end speed long enough," Huff says.
As a junior with more time honing his skills that included developing his long speed, Barkley had five plays of 80 yards or longer and seven of 60-plus.
Working on Hill's long speed will be the next phase. "We can't give it to him all at once," Huff says. This year, Huff said it was critical to amp up Hill's short-area quickness, which he says accounts for 90 percent of football runs. Two summers ago, Huff consulted with Penn State's track and field coach and asked what could the Nittany Lions do to improve their athletes" 10-yard burst and the 90-yard top-end speed. The answer to the former was some swimming pool work, so Huff had Barkley " and now Hill " do quick high knees as fast as they can for 20 yards in the water. Then in the sand pit, it means running 10-yard sprints full speed and getting to full speed as quickly as possible. It also means some "old-school" technique jumping rope for two sets of 100 reps after each weight training session to get their lower leg muscles and calves to fire quickly.
Barkley's evolution was enough to sell Hill, but Huff kept harping on the details of playing the position on the field to his backs, specifically urging them to create their own tool belt, whether that means adding a spin or a stiff-arm.
Huff also pulled five to 10 video clips of Hill to show the former four-star recruit that if he'd have been faster or a bit quicker, a 4-yard play could have been a 12-yard play or maybe a touchdown. His message: Everybody's grinding. And Huff was preaching grinding with a purpose.
"We don't tackle every day in practice, and I understand why," Huff says. "The art of tackling has declined. We have to be able to break tackles and get YAC (yards after contact). In our system and in today's game, you've gotta be able to change directions and be explosive. Look at the top backs in football " Todd Gurley, Ezekiel Elliott and Saquon " they stick their foot in the ground and they're explosive and do it with power. Kylin runs behind his pads and he explodes with power. He?s getting from the A gap to the C gap and running with power."
Kansas State's defense was a good test. Huff says he and his backs watched a lot of tape on the Wildcats and saw how well the team tackled, especially on the back end. He also gave Hill one more Barkley carrot, pointing out that this K-State game was going to be similar to what last year's Iowa game was for Penn State because it was against a tough, strong defense on the road.
"At some point you're gonna have to impose your will on this defense and take over this game within the framework of the system," Huff told Hill, delivering a message similar to the one he gave Barkley.
Last year, Barkley responded by rushing for 211 yards to go with 94 more receiving in a win against the Hawkeyes. This year, Hill responded to Huff's challenge by saying, "I've been waiting for this my whole life."
He went on to match Barkley's rushing total with 211 yards, and 108 of those came after contact.