There's been tons and tons of discussion about our rushing attack as a team/program under the offensive scheme of Mike Leach. I was curious to see how the numbers stacked up halfway through the season and saw some things there that I found interesting and thought I'd throw out there for everyone.

First, some points I'd like to make:
  • We need a better goal line rushing attack. I think that's an O-line issue.
  • We need to score more points (duh).
  • Turnovers and special teams miscues are the reason we lost those 2 games and are underperforming. I expect that will get cleaned up.
  • We still aren't beating Bama, and won't unless we start recruiting in the top 10 and Saban calls it quits.
  • I think a lot of people are too focused on HOW the RBs get their touches, instead of how productive they are when they get them.
  • Building on the previous point, you need to quit looking at RB dump-offs as passes (even though they're scored that way) and more as delayed draws when QB doesn't see a good throw downfield.
  • Our WRs have gotten better at running themselves open in zone coverage. As they continue to do that I think you'll see less dump-offs and more 10-15 yard tosses. Just my suspicion, I have no actual data for that.


So overall, the RB position has the following stats:
Rush: 71 / 310 - 4.36 yards/carry
Rec: 71 / 417 - 5.87 yard/rec
Total: 142 / 727 - 5.12 yards/touch

Note the 50/50 split between rushes and receptions. I was surprised by that to be honest.

Marks
Rush: 40/155 - 3.6 yards/carry
Rec: 38/201 - 5.3 yards/rec
Total: 78/356 - 4.5 yards/touch

Johnson
Rush: 29/150 - 5.1 yards/carry
Rec: 31/201 - 6.48 yards/rec
Total: 60/351 - 5.85 yards/touch

Jernighan
Rush: 2/5 - 2.5 yards/carry
Rec: 3/15 - 5.0 yards/rec
Total: 5/20 - 4.0 yards/touch

Other than a short yardage situations (obviously), if we were getting 5.1 yards per carry from the RB position to go along with 5 TDs under say, Mullen, would people be okay with that? Not trying to call people out here, I'm legitimately curious. I'm not a coach by trade, but in my mind a yard is a yard and it doesn't matter how you get there. The same discussion was had on this board when Fitz was running wild but we couldn't throw.