Ford third string | We'll Be Fine at RB

[TheBullies]

Sh1t. Someone should've told CJL "run Ford and we win."

I mean, really, the freak'n Neo of college football has been here all along. Can he dodge bullets too?

Is this kinda like the family guy episode where Peter plays for the Patriots? Can we send everyone else home?

I think we should trust the coache(s) that got us here, don't you? (minus Smazza & the CJL haters.... hey, that sounds like a band)

and for good measure

[usfgrad84]

As long as Ben Williams is our starter, our identity will always be: Williams run for -1, Grothe designed run for 2, grothe run around and avoid the sack...pass for 4, PUNT.

It is amazing how we won 9 games and averaged 35 points per game las season with that identity.

If you are satisfied with a 9 win season and tied for 3rd place when we could have won the Big East, then you need to check yourself. Sure, 9 wins is nice, but it could have been 12.

Whaaa?   How could it have been 12?  By starting Ford?  Dude didn't even know the playbook, hell he hit the wrong hole half the Auburn game and got by on sheer athleticism.  We had Ford alright against Uconn he avereaged 2ypc on 9 carries....wow!

Yeah, he didn't know the playbook..."run right, right straight, run left." 

btw, nice making up of stats.  He had 7 carries against UConn for 27 yards.  That's 3.9 a carry, and not nearly enough carries.  Leavitt said something about bruised ribs, which may or may not be true.  I mean, he played some, why not more?

We won every game he carried over 15 times.  In fact, make that every game he carried 8 or more times.  The 4 losses?  4, 7, 7, and 6 carries.  Nice.

I like your use of stats.  Definitely something I would do to make an argument, but Ford's lack of carries didn't really have a whole lot to do with our 3 conference losses last year.  In the first half against Rutgers, Williams was the only RB that was moving the ball.  His ran for 8 yards, 4 yards and 15 yards in his first few carries.  He also had a run of 14 yards in that game.  When you fall behind like we did you usually have to go into passing mode.  Maybe if the defense would have made a stop or two when we needed to we win.

I have no problem with Taylor starting the game against UCONN.  His first run was for 54 yards on wet field.  Why would anyone have a problem with that? It's not Taylor or Williams fault thatGrothe gets the ball tipped that goes for an INT eturned for the TD and we  fell behind by a lot and had to go to the pass.  We ran Ford in the second half.  At the end of the game when he was really needed him the guy was in an ambulance with a broken rib and a collapsed lung I believe.  Pretty sure with that combination he wasn't the best choice to be the feature back against the tough Cincy D.

[Orlando Bull]

As long as Ben Williams is our starter, our identity will always be: Williams run for -1, Grothe designed run for 2, grothe run around and avoid the sack...pass for 4, PUNT.

It is amazing how we won 9 games and averaged 35 points per game las season with that identity.

If you are satisfied with a 9 win season and tied for 3rd place when we could have won the Big East, then you need to check yourself. Sure, 9 wins is nice, but it could have been 12.

Whaaa?   How could it have been 12?  By starting Ford?  Dude didn't even know the playbook, hell he hit the wrong hole half the Auburn game and got by on sheer athleticism.  We had Ford alright against Uconn he avereaged 2ypc on 9 carries....wow!

Yeah, he didn't know the playbook..."run right, right straight, run left." 

btw, nice making up of stats.  He had 7 carries against UConn for 27 yards.  That's 3.9 a carry, and not nearly enough carries.  Leavitt said something about bruised ribs, which may or may not be true.  I mean, he played some, why not more?

We won every game he carried over 15 times.  In fact, make that every game he carried 8 or more times.  The 4 losses?  4, 7, 7, and 6 carries.  Nice.

I like your use of stats.  Definitely something I would do to make an argument, but Ford's lack of carries didn't really have a whole lot to do with our 3 conference losses last year.  In the first half against Rutgers, Williams was the only RB that was moving the ball.  His ran for 8 yards, 4 yards and 15 yards in his first few carries.  He also had a run of 14 yards in that game.  When you fall behind like we did you usually have to go into passing mode.  Maybe if the defense would have made a stop or two when we needed to we win.

I have no problem with Taylor starting the game against UCONN.  His first run was for 54 yards on wet field.  Why would anyone have a problem with that? It's not Taylor or Williams fault thatGrothe gets the ball tipped that goes for an INT eturned for the TD and we  fell behind by a lot and had to go to the pass.  We ran Ford in the second half.  At the end of the game when he was really needed him the guy was in an ambulance with a broken rib and a collapsed lung I believe.  Pretty sure with that combination he wasn't the best choice to be the feature back against the tough Cincy D.

grad - I somewhat agree with what you wrote, but I don't think you can say that we were forced to pass against RU or UCONN. Those games were close the whole time, it's not like we were consistently down by 3 scores.

Bottom line is, we all know Ford is the best pure runner on the team. Williams and Taylor are going to get carries, and Taylor could possibly be a beast as well, but Ford is the only one that you could build the team around. As long as it's not Ford, it's Grothe's team (not that I am against that), and Grothe will be the only one who determines if we win or lose. With Ford on the field, those two guys are in control of our destiny.

[slowdown]

As long as Ben Williams is our starter, our identity will always be: Williams run for -1, Grothe designed run for 2, grothe run around and avoid the sack...pass for 4, PUNT.

It is amazing how we won 9 games and averaged 35 points per game las season with that identity.

If you are satisfied with a 9 win season and tied for 3rd place when we could have won the Big East, then you need to check yourself. Sure, 9 wins is nice, but it could have been 12.

Whaaa?   How could it have been 12?  By starting Ford?  Dude didn't even know the playbook, hell he hit the wrong hole half the Auburn game and got by on sheer athleticism.  We had Ford alright against Uconn he avereaged 2ypc on 9 carries....wow!

We won every game he carried over 15 times.  In fact, make that every game he carried 8 or more times.  The 4 losses?  4, 7, 7, and 6 carries.  Nice.

We also won every game last year in which Severino had multiple pass attempts. 

[Bulls On Parade]

Sh1t. Someone should've told CJL "run Ford and we win."

I mean, really, the freak'n Neo of college football has been here all along. Can he dodge bullets too?

When he figures out he is in the matrix he will just jump into the endzone, I guarantee BCS championship when that happens

[windbane]

As long as Ben Williams is our starter, our identity will always be: Williams run for -1, Grothe designed run for 2, grothe run around and avoid the sack...pass for 4, PUNT.

It is amazing how we won 9 games and averaged 35 points per game las season with that identity.

If you are satisfied with a 9 win season and tied for 3rd place when we could have won the Big East, then you need to check yourself. Sure, 9 wins is nice, but it could have been 12.

Whaaa?  How could it have been 12?  By starting Ford?  Dude didn't even know the playbook, hell he hit the wrong hole half the Auburn game and got by on sheer athleticism.  We had Ford alright against Uconn he avereaged 2ypc on 9 carries....wow!

We won every game he carried over 15 times.  In fact, make that every game he carried 8 or more times.  The 4 losses?  4, 7, 7, and 6 carries.  Nice.

We also won every game last year in which Severino had multiple pass attempts. 

Heh, true, but there's a big difference between cause and effect.  Ford not being used a lot (due to fumbling, injury, and/or coaches) is a cause of losing.  Severino getting playing time is an effect of winning.

[usfgrad84]

As long as Ben Williams is our starter, our identity will always be: Williams run for -1, Grothe designed run for 2, grothe run around and avoid the sack...pass for 4, PUNT.

It is amazing how we won 9 games and averaged 35 points per game las season with that identity.

If you are satisfied with a 9 win season and tied for 3rd place when we could have won the Big East, then you need to check yourself. Sure, 9 wins is nice, but it could have been 12.

Whaaa?   How could it have been 12?  By starting Ford?  Dude didn't even know the playbook, hell he hit the wrong hole half the Auburn game and got by on sheer athleticism.  We had Ford alright against Uconn he avereaged 2ypc on 9 carries....wow!

Yeah, he didn't know the playbook..."run right, right straight, run left." 

btw, nice making up of stats.  He had 7 carries against UConn for 27 yards.  That's 3.9 a carry, and not nearly enough carries.  Leavitt said something about bruised ribs, which may or may not be true.  I mean, he played some, why not more?

We won every game he carried over 15 times.  In fact, make that every game he carried 8 or more times.  The 4 losses?  4, 7, 7, and 6 carries.  Nice.

I like your use of stats.  Definitely something I would do to make an argument, but Ford's lack of carries didn't really have a whole lot to do with our 3 conference losses last year.  In the first half against Rutgers, Williams was the only RB that was moving the ball.  His ran for 8 yards, 4 yards and 15 yards in his first few carries.  He also had a run of 14 yards in that game.  When you fall behind like we did you usually have to go into passing mode.  Maybe if the defense would have made a stop or two when we needed to we win.

I have no problem with Taylor starting the game against UCONN.  His first run was for 54 yards on wet field.  Why would anyone have a problem with that? It's not Taylor or Williams fault thatGrothe gets the ball tipped that goes for an INT eturned for the TD and we  fell behind by a lot and had to go to the pass.  We ran Ford in the second half.  At the end of the game when he was really needed him the guy was in an ambulance with a broken rib and a collapsed lung I believe.  Pretty sure with that combination he wasn't the best choice to be the feature back against the tough Cincy D.

grad - I somewhat agree with what you wrote, but I don't think you can say that we were forced to pass against RU or UCONN. Those games were close the whole time, it's not like we were consistently down by 3 scores.

Bottom line is, we all know Ford is the best pure runner on the team. Williams and Taylor are going to get carries, and Taylor could possibly be a beast as well, but Ford is the only one that you could build the team around. As long as it's not Ford, it's Grothe's team (not that I am against that), and Grothe will be the only one who determines if we win or lose. With Ford on the field, those two guys are in control of our destiny.

What would anyone have done different at Rutgers?  Williams was the only RB that was moving the ball from the RB position.  His first 6 runs averaged about 6 YPC.  Why make a switch for the sake of making a switch just so Ford can be the guy when Wlliams was moving gthe ball?  makes no sense.  It also had no bearing on the final outcome.

At UCONN Taylor had the big run to start the game and then Alvarado issed the 2 field goals.  Go back and look at the game.  Ford not running the ball had nothing to do with Grothe fumbling the ball on the 3 yard line on the first drive and then a penalty on 3rd and less than a yard on the second drive. If Delbert makes those kicks we are kicking a FG to win at the end of the game rather than trying to put Plancher in Ford's spot when he is in the ambulance.  Without Ford (his first run in that game was a 3 yard loss by the way) running the ball we were moving the ball very well.  Ford not being  the feature back in that game had nothing to do with Grothe throwing a completley awful pass to a wide open receiver in the end zone when he could have walked in backwards.    Halfway through the 3rd quarter we were down 16-0.  I can go on and on in that game.  Ford not running the ball had nothing to do with Ced Hill being wide open and dropping the pass.  He had nothing to do with the penalty that negated the TD.  In fact I think it was him that scored on that play, but got called back.  The point I am making is that someone implied that Ford not running the ball was a factor in losing the three games.  If you look at the games objectively that is simply not true.

[Orlando Bull]

As long as Ben Williams is our starter, our identity will always be: Williams run for -1, Grothe designed run for 2, grothe run around and avoid the sack...pass for 4, PUNT.

It is amazing how we won 9 games and averaged 35 points per game las season with that identity.

If you are satisfied with a 9 win season and tied for 3rd place when we could have won the Big East, then you need to check yourself. Sure, 9 wins is nice, but it could have been 12.

Whaaa?   How could it have been 12?  By starting Ford?  Dude didn't even know the playbook, hell he hit the wrong hole half the Auburn game and got by on sheer athleticism.  We had Ford alright against Uconn he avereaged 2ypc on 9 carries....wow!

Yeah, he didn't know the playbook..."run right, right straight, run left." 

btw, nice making up of stats.  He had 7 carries against UConn for 27 yards.  That's 3.9 a carry, and not nearly enough carries.  Leavitt said something about bruised ribs, which may or may not be true.  I mean, he played some, why not more?

We won every game he carried over 15 times.  In fact, make that every game he carried 8 or more times.  The 4 losses?  4, 7, 7, and 6 carries.  Nice.

I like your use of stats.  Definitely something I would do to make an argument, but Ford's lack of carries didn't really have a whole lot to do with our 3 conference losses last year.  In the first half against Rutgers, Williams was the only RB that was moving the ball.  His ran for 8 yards, 4 yards and 15 yards in his first few carries.  He also had a run of 14 yards in that game.  When you fall behind like we did you usually have to go into passing mode.  Maybe if the defense would have made a stop or two when we needed to we win.

I have no problem with Taylor starting the game against UCONN.  His first run was for 54 yards on wet field.  Why would anyone have a problem with that? It's not Taylor or Williams fault thatGrothe gets the ball tipped that goes for an INT eturned for the TD and we  fell behind by a lot and had to go to the pass.  We ran Ford in the second half.  At the end of the game when he was really needed him the guy was in an ambulance with a broken rib and a collapsed lung I believe.  Pretty sure with that combination he wasn't the best choice to be the feature back against the tough Cincy D.

grad - I somewhat agree with what you wrote, but I don't think you can say that we were forced to pass against RU or UCONN. Those games were close the whole time, it's not like we were consistently down by 3 scores.

Bottom line is, we all know Ford is the best pure runner on the team. Williams and Taylor are going to get carries, and Taylor could possibly be a beast as well, but Ford is the only one that you could build the team around. As long as it's not Ford, it's Grothe's team (not that I am against that), and Grothe will be the only one who determines if we win or lose. With Ford on the field, those two guys are in control of our destiny.

What would anyone have done different at Rutgers?   Williams was the only RB that was moving the ball from the RB position.  His first 6 runs averaged about 6 YPC.  Why make a switch for the sake of making a switch just so Ford can be the guy when Wlliams was moving gthe ball?  makes no sense.  It also had no bearing on the final outcome.

At UCONN Taylor had the big run to start the game and then Alvarado issed the 2 field goals.  Go back and look at the game.  Ford not running the ball had nothing to do with Grothe fumbling the ball on the 3 yard line on the first drive and then a penalty on 3rd and less than a yard on the second drive. If Delbert makes those kicks we are kicking a FG to win at the end of the game rather than trying to put Plancher in Ford's spot when he is in the ambulance.  Without Ford (his first run in that game was a 3 yard loss by the way) running the ball we were moving the ball very well.  Ford not being  the feature back in that game had nothing to do with Grothe throwing a completley awful pass to a wide open receiver in the end zone when he could have walked in backwards.    Halfway through the 3rd quarter we were down 16-0.  I can go on and on in that game.  Ford not running the ball had nothing to do with Ced Hill being wide open and dropping the pass.  He had nothing to do with the penalty that negated the TD.  In fact I think it was him that scored on that play, but got called back.  The point I am making is that someone implied that Ford not running the ball was a factor in losing the three games.  If you look at the games objectively that is simply not true.

Totally agree, I was just saying that we were never really in desperation mode where we could only pass (like Cincy).

I think it is a little unfair though to compare what Ford did on single runs last year. I rewatched the AU game the other night, and while it got better, there were very rarely times that he was on the field where he wasn't getting the ball. Since he was out of shape, he couldn't stay on the field a lot, so, when he came in, defenses keyed in on him.

Whoever is hot should get the ball, not disputing that. My only thought is that there is no way that he is actually our 3rd best back. If he is, Lord help the defenses we are going to play this year because it's going to get ugly.

On a separate but similar note, had a buddy (not really a UCF fan, just football fan) tell me today that UCF's defense is going to be good this year. I had to say that I am not too concerned with a defense that returns a lot of starters from last year's team we hung 64 on.

I love football season.

[usfgrad84]

I still believe that no matter what comes from the mouth's of the coaches at this point Ford will be the feature back.  I am just curious though.  For all the people that think we won't be as good a team if Ford isn't the starter and that he MUST be our starting RB, which game last year would having him run the ball really made much of a difference in the outcome of the game?  If you look at the games objectively, having him with more touches in any game would not have changed the outcome of the games at all.  Having him run more last year may have given him some better stats, but probably wouldn't have changed the team's overall runing stats much and maybe not even his stats too significantly.  When Grothe runs the read option a lot of his runs are predicated on what the DE does at the point of attack so I don't know how much more he would have actually run the balk in our offense. Eeven if he was in there more.  Maybe, Maybe not.  The bigger and more important thing is that I don't see where having him in there more, when he was available, would have changed the outcome of any game.

My point is that with him as the starter or not we will be more than fine at RB.  We have too many weapons elsewhere.

[USF Bulls Football]

Tend to agree with you, BUT.... I'd have to say that we dont win Auburn with just Ben runnin the ball.