A2toGVSU

August 8th, 2017 at 9:39 AM ^

I understand it sounds like a 1a/1b situation, but my untrained eye thought Higdon was the best ballcarrier on the roster last year. I love Evans as much as the next fan, but I never understood why Evans was anointed after the season and Higdon relatively forgotten about.

I think Higdon is the most explosive RB on the roster, he runs HARD, and despite his size, was the most physical back not named Smith.

switch26

August 8th, 2017 at 12:01 PM ^

Yea those end around to higdon really worked well against Iowa and FSU for higdon..

He better have become much faster in the off-season or he will get eaten alive again against good defenses

TrueBlue2003

August 8th, 2017 at 4:08 PM ^

the 40 times posted by the guy that is getting info from Higdon, he ran a sub-4.5 40 which is very fast for a RB and was 0.15 seconds faster than Evans.

So if that's true (and I doubt the time is accurate) that should be his game, and is not at all Hart-like.

MNWolverine2

August 8th, 2017 at 11:15 AM ^

Evans a monster against FSU is a little exaggeration.  He had 8 carries for 49 yards, 30 of which game on 1 run.  Zero catches.  Don't get me wrong, that one run was beautiful, but a monster he was not.  7 carries for 19 yards, 1 sack given up in first 55 minutes.  

 

Flashes of brilliance, yes.

TrueBlue2003

August 8th, 2017 at 4:13 PM ^

is certainly a surprise.  Seemed like Onwenu was a lock to start.  And the curious thing about these 1s on the O line is that they'd consider not starting Onwenu to play Ruiz and keep Bredeson at LG instead of play Ruiz at LG and bump Bredeson out to RT.

Hopefully that means one (or more) of the guys at RT is doing well enough to keep all those inside guys battling there.

mrkid

August 8th, 2017 at 7:50 AM ^

With how often Harbaugh rotates backs, Higdon taking over Evans can only be a really good thing. It means Higdon took a huge leap and Evans is still very good. Watching Harbaugh deploy that rotation to the dismay of the opposing defense will be a wonderful thing to watch.

Honk if Ufer M…

August 8th, 2017 at 4:11 PM ^

After the spring game one of the players told me Donovon is a freak but he needs to learn the playbook and offense more. Black is older with the extra prep school year and as a commit he probably had the playbook for a year. Plus there was repeated "expert:" opinion that he was being overlooked and underrated during his recruitment. Tarik is Awesome and has a head start. DPJ will be great even if he starts off slower.

SAMgO

August 7th, 2017 at 9:25 PM ^

From a football perspective we've seen Perry be a superior slot receiver to McDoom. He's a phenomenal safety valve for Speight who leaned on him heavily for parts of last year. McDoom has his role with the reverses, but you shouldn't expect him to upend Perry in the slot.

As for Perry's legal issues, seems like he's going to stick on the roster as the case is now resolved and he's practicing with the team. You can have whatever opinion you want, but assuming Jim has made the call to keep him around then I'm glad he's being utilized.

Mr. Yost

August 7th, 2017 at 9:30 PM ^

How is this disappointing (from a football standpoint)?

Perry is the best slot WR we've had since maybe Breaston (Dileo and Mathews may say otherwise, I know).

Meanwhile McDoom caught how many actual passes last year?

I wouldn't be shocked if Martin is ahead of McDoom by the time the B1G season rolls around from a pure receiving standpoint. McDoom will still get his touches, he's too dangerous with the ball not to...but Perry is far and away the better slot.

Our offense stalled without Perry, when he came back we looked a heck of a lot better. The guy just gets open.

Gulo Gulo Luscus

August 7th, 2017 at 9:58 PM ^

McDoom should be in the mix if we're running 4-wide sets, especially if Johnson is PR-only and Collins gets mention (on the outside, but among freshman) over Martin  And he's gotta be in competition for KR duty. I'd expect there is a large group taking reps there.

ThadMattasagoblin

August 7th, 2017 at 10:49 PM ^

The victim testimony was tough but I still don't think what he did is bad enough to get kicked off. Harbaugh kicked off a pretty important player for us for the future when he got rid of LTT so he doesn't take this stuff lightly. It was determined what perry did wasn't sexual in nature so I'd give him a 3 or 4 game suspension.

Elmer

August 8th, 2017 at 9:26 AM ^

It was a big deal, but the real question is whether a kid who hasn't been in trouble before can get a second chance.  Players getting a DUI, which can potentially kill other drivers, seem to get a second chance, but what Perry did was so egregious he doesn't deserve the same? 

Gucci Mane

August 8th, 2017 at 3:48 PM ^

A girl that I have not seen in years grabbed my ass while I was pumping gas recently. I'm 100% going to press charges and author a note about how scared I am to go in public.

Chuck Norris

August 8th, 2017 at 4:39 PM ^

It's different. The difference between the genders is that one can kill the other with their bare hands. The average man is 2 standard deviations stronger than the average woman. That means that the average man can overpower 98% of women.

When that woman grabbed your ass, you knew that she was incapable of  assaulting you or raping you.

To put it in perspective, what if a 6'10, 290 lb man (someone you had no hope of winning a fight against) walked over to you and grabbed your ass and mocked you. You wouldn't fear for your life?

Mr. Yost

August 7th, 2017 at 9:51 PM ^

It means they're both ready to be starters.

As I mentioned the other day, it really doesn't matter at this point. We should stop "caring" so much about it. Because they're both going to play and get a ton of carries/opportunities.

And whoever is playing better in that particular game is the one we're all going to be yelling for in the 2nd half anyway. There's not going to be any benefit of the doubt because you're a starter.

In a way, the RB interest should be 0. We know we have 2.5 starters. That's perfect. At this point whoever starts could just be based on the actual play call/formation and nothing more.

Both seem capable of carrying the load if they have the hot hand on any given day, in the meantime, they present different skill sets which provides us with the most versatility we've had in the position since Brandon Minor and Carlos Brown were both healthy.

mgobleu

August 7th, 2017 at 10:25 PM ^

For all the camp talk we've gotten over the past few years about how "back A is a stud, or back B is really going to put it together..." It sure is nice to have a couple experienced guys battling in practice that you've seen produce at game speed.

My RB interest is not at 0 though. I'm super pumped to watch Evans as he puts on muscle and I think Higdon is going to break out at some point. Not that Evans falls behind, I can just see Higdon making the jump Mike Cox never did while he was here.

Mr. Yost

August 7th, 2017 at 10:40 PM ^

I guess I just meant compared to other camp news/battles.

IMO, we have two starters. It's not like RT or CB where I'm trying to figure out what that really means. 

At RB I truly believe both guys can and will lead this team in the ground game. For the other two positions I'm hoping that we're not trying to figure out who hurts us less. My fingers are crossed that we're going to have true B1G high-level starters at those positions.