Vincent Smith
The man needs to be the every down back. He has the best vision by far and is competent in blitz pickup. He has the respect of his team and seems to have finally fully recovered from his knee injury from OSU freshman year.
Not to knock Fitz and Shaw but Smith needs more touches.
It appeared the coaches are warming up to this idea. Manball in the past has included the Morris boys which are not exactly typical RB's.
12 carries for 132 yds...........not to mention his awesome screen last week for TD
September 17th, 2011 at 7:53 PM ^
You're telling me that after one game of collecting over 100 yards that Smith should now be the every down back? That's ridiculous. Outside of today's performance Smith has been nothing but 2 yards and cloud of dust. I hated when RR started and gave him the ball on first down. He was a guaranteed 2nd and 8.
<br>
<br>People over- react to one game WAY too much,
September 17th, 2011 at 7:55 PM ^
how about we not base our analysis off of last year when he was less than a year removed from an acl tear and being used improperly by the coaching staff? k thanx.
September 17th, 2011 at 8:01 PM ^
You're right he's awesome, in fact, now I think he's the best back in the Big Ten...
September 17th, 2011 at 8:26 PM ^
Fitz: china doll but shows promise
Shaw: ????
Hopkins: If he wasn't 230 or from Texas we would expect nothing except more fumbles
Rawls: Freshman
Smith: even coming off a knee injury he avg over 4 ypc.
I love idiot statements without offering an argument. What has he shown that would prove your point. Please tell me you have more than he is short and doesn't have top end speed.
September 17th, 2011 at 10:21 PM ^
I think this might be the funniest part of that idiotic post:
Toussant: 19 rushes for 167 yards (career)
Shaw: 165 rushes for 853 yards (career)
Smith: 187 rushes for 891 yards (career)
So even if we are not looking at "just one 100 yard rushing game," Smith still has better numbers than any of his competition. Also, since Smith's career average yards per carry is close to 5, I am going to guess that every time RR handed off to him on first down, it wasn't 2nd and 8.
September 17th, 2011 at 10:44 PM ^
And almost half of those (409 to be exact) came against Delaware Sate, EMU and Purdue... He does not have more than 80 yards in a game against any other opponent, including Indiana, WMU and Bowling Green. Not saying he does not deserve to be the starter, but he is not a savior by any means and we could have a much better backfield with a bigger, more powerful back (that we do not have as of now).
September 18th, 2011 at 1:31 AM ^
I haven't seen one person call him any type of savior. He is the best back on the team. I don't care if he did get all of his yards against those 3 teams as I bet every other back on the team had an opportunity to get yards against shitty teams also. Shaw has been here an entire year longer than Smith. Smith was recovering from an injury that usually takes 1.5 years to completely come back from. You could go on about how and when they got their yards as they each have positives and negatives. Vince is the most complete back when you look at everything.
September 17th, 2011 at 11:47 PM ^
Doesn't he actually have the worst numbers per carry there? Just for clarification I would love to see him be the featured back right now. I think he is the only one to have earned it at this point.
What did Darren Sproles wiegh in college? Ask Fred Jackson. Listed as 190 now, I can't imagine him being much over 180 in college.
September 17th, 2011 at 10:26 PM ^
nuff said.
September 18th, 2011 at 12:34 AM ^
I thought he looked terrific today, and certainly made a case for more carries. But, to conclude that he's clearly our #1 back based on a game against EMU might be going a little far.