Per Steve Lorenz Twitter: Christian Turner emerging as 3rd RB?

Submitted by The Baughz on

Steve Lorenz posted a link on Twitter from Zack Shaw who speculates that Christian Turner might be the 3rd RB on the depth chart heading into the season. Looks to be turning heads in practice, with Runyan Jr giving him high praise.

This is the first time I’ve heard his name being mentioned. Of course, it’s all speculation at this point, but we’ve been waiting for a 3rd RB and with this latest news, he might be the guy. Also added 15 pounds of muscle while maintaining his explosiveness.

If someone could embed the link, that’d be appreciative.

Farnn

August 15th, 2018 at 11:07 AM ^

Some players can and some can't.  A guy like Chris Evans comes in and runs for 7 ypc as a freshman and was turning heads from day 1 in practice.  Meanwhile, Higdon struggled as a freshman gaining only 1.7 ypc, and was even behind Evans as a sophomore.  But junior year, while everyone figured Evans was the #1 back Higdon pushed passed him.

Turner was a guy that the staff was high on and some recruiting guys were saying don't worry about the big gap between Evans/Higdon and the rest of the RBs in spring practice.

stephenrjking

August 15th, 2018 at 3:01 PM ^

Jake Fromm was the caretaker of an ultra-talented offense featuring Nick Chubb and Sonny Michel and a fantastic OL, with a great defense. 

He grew as the season went along, but he was able to win while playing in a vanilla passing scheme. Chad Henne's freshman season is a good analogue. Tua played, basically, for a half. 

Nice players with an impact, but the RBs Larry mentioned came into college football and were dominant players playing as well as anyone in the country (in Peterson's case, he should have won the Heisman) from the very beginning. And those are hardly the only examples. 

MDSup3rDup3

August 15th, 2018 at 11:48 AM ^

I think it comes from the learning curve. If we stick strictly to offense, QBs have to learn the whole playbook, WRs/TEs have to learn blocking schemes and route trees (although there can be some contribution in special packages, see: McDoom, Eddie), OLs need to learn all of the blocking schemes (and most need to learn actual pass protection), whereas RBs struggling with pass protection or catching the ball can follow holes and contribute with runs. It seems like the position is simultaneously the position with the lowest difference in play between high school and college and where cracks can be papered over by simply handing them the ball and telling them to follow blocks.

Goggles Paisano

August 15th, 2018 at 11:59 AM ^

Blocking, inlcluding making the right read to pick up the blitz, and ball security are two musts that true Freshman must excel at to see the field.  Holding onto that ball has to be a big adjustment when going from HS to B1G football.  

I also think there will be a few guys that will get some snaps during the season to see who really solidifies that 3rd RB spot.  

MDSup3rDup3

August 16th, 2018 at 12:04 PM ^

I fully agree with your points. However, for change of pace backs/spell backs, which the 3rd RB tends to be, these are less important. Although it becomes easier to key on the defense if a 1-dimensional player comes in, having a 3rd RB come in for a down to run up the gut doesn't require those same reads (I will admit to not addressing ball security)

LeCheezus

August 15th, 2018 at 11:50 AM ^

I'd be careful to try to extract any useful data from such a low sample size - 11 carries/19 yards for Higdon compared to Evans' 88 carries/614 yards as a freshman.  Higdon also was coming off of some knee issues I believe.  Samuels had similar YPC last year and it's pretty useless data considering they were all snaps with the game in hand with backup O-line.

Fezzik

August 15th, 2018 at 11:25 AM ^

Getting late early for him. If he is indeed behind Turner now then he'd likely be no higher than 3rd on the depth his junior year. That is the year Charbonnet and Gray come in who I am very high on. I believe Charbonnet will be 2nd on the depth chart by his first game. 

I always found O'Maury really intriguing as a safety prospect, comparable to Dymonte Thomas, but he is on the short side there. Maybe he can bloom late.

stephenrjking

August 15th, 2018 at 12:12 PM ^

"Could ultimately emerge." 

That means he's in the mix. I think we're a ways off from knowing who RB3 will be. 

BTW, isn't it nice that the RB slot that we're really unsure about is the third stringer? Other than Tackle (which is pretty crucial, mind you) we have a great stack of talent everywhere this year.