The term,"Freshman Mistake," is usually used when talking about blown assignments or just something lacking in game prep. It really is a cover for something more mental and or lack thereof. There are many reasons why freshman make mistakes and sometimes it is game speed or something physical. But today we saw repeated freshman errors. And they were in the fundamental football realm of controlling the football and or not fumbling. And most of them, well I think all of them, came from our BACKUP running backs. Am I correct to say Shaw misjudged the opening kick off. Minor dropped a screen pass which hit his hands. That is football lingo for he,"should've caught it." And Grady fumbled after attempting to carry the entire LB corp of ND into the endzone for round two. Even the QB fumbled a snap. So here is my take on it. And like I said this is not a color-race thing here at all. And Fred Jackson chooses who startsat running back anyhow. At all. But the backup running backs need to bring their A game even when they do not start. Grady did in my opinion. I thought Kevin's TD was nothing shy of extraordinary. But Shaw and Minor's fumble were the worst. Misjudging that kickoff and dropping that screen pass really hurt. Are Shaw and Minor equally capable of doing what McGuffie did today? Yeah, Shaw especially. Shaw has mad skills and a huge upside. I still think Shaw will be the guy. But what separates them from McGuffie? To be honest I really do not know. But what I do know is it that when you are a high school super phenom and used to having the moons and other planets orbit around your every want. It is really difficult on the ego to find a way to perform without the glory of being the number one guy. And I think that is what leads to a majority of freshman mistakes. McGuffie is playing by default almost. I mean Brown gets freakishly hurt, Minor tends to cough it up, and here is Sam.....no attitude, works hard, no thrills no frills football player. These other guys in their mental game prep from here to the end of this season should mimic that in Sam. I would hate to see the Max Martin Mike Hart thing again. Mike Hart played because he was a man. He played tough and DID NOT FUMBLE. He was mentally there every down when it came to holding onto the football. i am not saying the other running backs are Cinderellas wicked step sisters here. But they half assed it in some ways. You have to learn to perform on every down, even if you are not the man or go to guy. If you can't Arena football awaits.
Justin Meram didn't just score
I'm relatively certain that Minor and Grady, who are upperclassman, lost 2 of the 4 fumbles. That brings the number of games lost due to fumbles from those two to like 6.