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A Crucial Element to being a Great Running Back

by Mars · 4/18/2014

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M
Mars


The best offenses are well balanced and keep the defense guessing. They can run multiple plays from the same package, hiding what they will do until the last second possible. The best offensive players can do more than one thing well, providing multiple options and making themselves much more difficult to cover.



So you look at Harvey Unga and you realize that he was great at running the football. He was one of the best. 696 Runs for 3455 Yards and 36 Touchdowns. But that doesn't tell the whole story of how much he helped his offenses. Add in 102 Receptions for 1085 Yards and 9 Touchdowns, and the totals rise to 798 Touches for 4540 Yards and 45 Touchdowns. THAT is what Harvey Unga brought to BYU (along with his coaches and teammates, of course).

http://byucougars.com/athlete/m-football/harvey-unga" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Jamaal Williams is a great kid and a phenomenal talent. He has already racked up 383 Runs for 2008 Yards and 19 Touchdowns. In my opinion, he has been the heart and soul of the offense the past two seasons. He's also brought 45 Receptions for 440 Yards and 1 Touchdown to the table. That makes 428 Touches for 2448 Yards and 20 Touchdowns. Great career numbers, and he's still just getting going!

http://byucougars.com/athlete/m-football/jamaal-williams" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



Just for comparison's sake, I want to include one other running back: 352 Runs for 1797 Yards and 14 Touchdowns. 96 Receptions for 990 Yards and 5 Touchdowns. Overall, 448 Touches for 2787 Yards and 19 Touchdowns. http://byucougars.com/athlete/m-football/jj-di-luigi" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;





So statistically-speaking, Jamaal's career is approaching (and will soon eclipse) that of JJ DiLuigi- just 329 combined yards shy. By his Senior season, he should reach the Harvey stratosphere (who finished with 370 more TOUCHES than Jamaal has had thus far, not quite double). As for "the eye test", that's up to the individual beholder. I loved how Unga had power (as certain Utah defenders learned all too well), but also how he could wait for the right hole to open and hit it at just the right time. Amazing VISION! I thoroughly enjoyed watching JJ catch a dump-off pass in the backfield and streak it up for a first down, time after time, even though HE WAS the entire defensive gameplan. And we've all seen "Baby Williams" play, our favorite teenage super-star. Quick, fast, and Jamaal simply doesn't fumble. SPEED is his main tool of assassination, and boy does the kid love to kill. I would love to see him continue to receive the ball in as many ways as possible- When you've got a weapon like him, you've gotta use it! Maybe, just maybe, every game he could be Shoveling? Just a thought.



Go Cougars
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Cougarbib
How did you leave Curtis Brown out of this discussion.



Also - no mention of blocking.



IMHO, if you take best single season performances, Unga and CB are in a different class than JJ. JW could be in that class and maybe be the best if he improves at pass catching and blocking.



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M
Mars
Cougarbib wrote:
How did you leave Curtis Brown out of this discussion.

I couldn't find his full stats. I'm curious what his total career receiving totals are.
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Cougarbib
Mars wrote:
How did you leave Curtis Brown out of this discussion.

I couldn't find his full stats. I'm curious what his total career receiving totals are.




Not sure. But, when I looked at 2006 recently re another thread, he was often the leading receiver in addition to racking up rushing yards.



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frdbtr
Curtis Brown career receiving stats: 157 catches for 1309 yds 5 td's

Rushing stats: 641 rushes for 3221yds 31 td's



Totals 798 touches 4530 yds 36 td's



Not only that but he lost 5 total fumbles his whole career. CB was a rock solid BYU style RB.



More on fumbles. He fumbled the ball 6 total times lost 5, 5 of the 6 were in 2004, he didn't fumble even once in 06.
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Guest
I don't think enough can be said about just how important it is for a runing back to be a great pass catcher. The ways that opens up the offense are almost incalculable.
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Mars
frdbtr wrote:
Curtis Brown career receiving stats: 157 catches for 1309 yds 5 td's

Rushing stats: 641 rushes for 3221yds 31 td's. Totals 798 touches 4530 yds 36 td's

So, Curtis Brown: 1309 receiving yards.

Harvey Unga, 1085 receiving yards.

JJ DiLuigi, 990 receiving yards.

Jamaal Williams, 440 receiving yards (thus far).



Interesting.
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Cougarbib
Mars wrote:
Curtis Brown career receiving stats: 157 catches for 1309 yds 5 td's

Rushing stats: 641 rushes for 3221yds 31 td's. Totals 798 touches 4530 yds 36 td's

So, Curtis Brown: 1309 receiving yards.

Harvey Unga, 1085 receiving yards.

JJ DiLuigi, 990 receiving yards.

Jamaal Williams, 440 receiving yards (thus far).



Interesting.


Williams needs to, and probably will, pick up the pace. It would be great to see him up there with CB.



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SpiffCoug
Mars wrote:
Curtis Brown career receiving stats: 157 catches for 1309 yds 5 td's

Rushing stats: 641 rushes for 3221yds 31 td's. Totals 798 touches 4530 yds 36 td's

So, Curtis Brown: 1309 receiving yards.

Harvey Unga, 1085 receiving yards.

JJ DiLuigi, 990 receiving yards.

Jamaal Williams, 440 receiving yards (thus far).



Interesting.

What's interesting is that Unga really fell off in the passing game his sophomore and junior seasons.



Of his 1,085 yard receiving, 655 of them came as a freshman. Of his 102 catches, 44 came as a freshman. Of his 9 receiving TDs, 4 came as a freshman. I'm not sure why he was so little used in the passing game - especially as a JR.



FR: 44 catches for 655 yards, 4 TD, 14.9 ypc

SO: 42 catches for 309 yards, 4 TD, 7.4 ypc

JR: 16 catches for 121 yards, 1 TD, 7.6 ypc



Unfortunately, I don't have targeting information going that far back yet, so I can't give him a RER either. Just interesting to note that he was less involved in the passing game as his career progressed.
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Cougarbib
I vaguely remember a hand injury. Not sure. I could be confused about that. Or we could blame any change in QB, locker room politics, off field distractions, or his parents ;)



it was tough to lose him for his senior year. Dude could block, too.



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frdbtr
My recollection was that Max hall became fixated on his 2 favorite receivers during Unga's sophomore and JR years. Especially during Collie's swan song, Max would watch Collie for most of his route then check down to Pitta and throw the ball.
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CrimsonCoug
frdbtr wrote:
My recollection was that Max hall became fixated on his 2 favorite receivers during Unga's sophomore and JR years. Especially during Collie's swan song, Max would watch Collie for most of his route then check down to Pitta and throw the ball.

I think Collie left after the 2008 season--the Jr year for him, Max, and Pitta and Harvey's Soph year. The 2009 season was Unga's Jr year, and Sr years for Max and Dennis--last year played for all of them.

2010 was the start of the Riley/Heaps struggle, which was accentuated by the team not having ANY high quality players with leadership and game experience. Harvey not being around for 2010 was a factor; the way he left had a bit of a demoralizing and unstablizing effect as well. But that's the topic of the other thread.



I was sure, Mars, that you were going to point to lack of fumbles in your OP as the "crucial element to being a great RB". The fact that Curtis Brown only fumbled once after his frosh year is astounding!!



Anyone know what the fumble/FL tallies are for Harvey and Jamaal?



And what were the numbers for Fui? I'd love to get back to a Vakapuna/Tonga duo--still my favorite Mendenhall-era backfield. Those guys were thunder and lightning, and a big part of the success of the 2006 team (Fui's injury-free Soph season).
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Mars
CrimsonCoug wrote:
I was sure, Mars, that you were going to point to lack of fumbles in your OP as the "crucial element to being a great RB". The fact that Curtis Brown only fumbled once after his frosh year is astounding!! Anyone know what the fumble/FL tallies are for Harvey and Jamaal?



And what were the numbers for Fui? I'd love to get back to a Vakapuna/Tonga duo--still my favorite Mendenhall-era backfield. Those guys were thunder and lightning, and a big part of the success of the 2006 team (Fui's injury-free Soph season).


I think that JJ DiLuigi had 7 (?) fumbles, and Jamaal has only fumbled once, with no lost fumbles. Maybe Harvey around four? But those are "off-the-top-of-my-head" stats, not real, hard stats.
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frdbtr
Mars wrote:
I was sure, Mars, that you were going to point to lack of fumbles in your OP as the "crucial element to being a great RB". The fact that Curtis Brown only fumbled once after his frosh year is astounding!! Anyone know what the fumble/FL tallies are for Harvey and Jamaal?



And what were the numbers for Fui? I'd love to get back to a Vakapuna/Tonga duo--still my favorite Mendenhall-era backfield. Those guys were thunder and lightning, and a big part of the success of the 2006 team (Fui's injury-free Soph season).


I think that JJ DiLuigi had 7 (?) fumbles, and Jamaal has only fumbled once, with no lost fumbles. Maybe Harvey around four? But those are "off-the-top-of-my-head" stats, not real, hard stats.


Diluigi had 9 fumbles over his career and lost 5 according to cougarstats.com. Harvey had 8 fumbles and lost 4. So far Jamaal Williams has had 2 fumbles and hasn't lost one. Kid just doesn't put the ball on the ground which IMO is his best trait.
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SpiffCoug
One thing I also like about Jamaal is his ability to find the endzone.



Percentages of BYU RB carries which terminate with a touchdown:

Luke Staley: 9.8%

Ronny Jenkins: 6.3%

Jamal Willis: 6.1%

Brian McKenzie: 6.0%

Pete Van Valkenburg: 5.3%

Harvey Unga: 5.2%

Jamaal Williams: 5.0%

Lakei Heimuli: 5.0%

Curtis Brown: 4.8%

Taysom Hill: 4.7%

JJ DiLuigi: 4.0%

Jeff Blanc: 3.4%



I expect both Taysom and Jamaal to get into the endzone more frequently than they did last year to improve this stat.



I could totally see Jamaal getting closer to his 7.2% number in 2012 than his 3.2% number last year.
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CrimsonCoug
I don't know, Spiff. I think Jamaal benefitted his Freshman year by not having to be the every-down back. That meant he got carries better attuned to his particular gifts, and less wear on his body. He also wasn't asked to be the 3rd and short guy. He had all of those things last year, and I don't know that it will change. Maybe if we really get the passing game to open up, then it could free up Jamaal a bit for some longer runs. But he's still going to share 3rd and short with Lasike a lot, and Anae has described his offense for this year as using the run to set up the pass, rather than using the pass to set up the run.



I expect Jamaal's numbers to increase, but that 50% drop in TD productivity is likely due to things beyond his control.



These numbers do illustrate how phenomenal Staley was. I had no idea he was 33% more productive than the next best guy on the list. Wow.



Respect for THill up on the list as a QB, and clearly clumped with the midrange of the best RBs, rather than the next tier down.
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SpiffCoug
In 2001, Staley actually average more yards per carry and fewer carries per TD than Barry Sanders in 1988. That 2001 season was simply phenomenal.



I think Jamaal's reduction in TD production was more due to BYU's utter lack of a consistent Blue Zone attack. BYU struggled so mightily in the Blue Zone last year it's comical.



BYU only had 13 Blue Zone rushing TDs last year. 8 fewer than 2012.
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frdbtr
SpiffCoug wrote:
In 2001, Staley actually average more yards per carry and fewer carries per TD than Barry Sanders in 1988. That 2001 season was simply phenomenal.



I think Jamaal's reduction in TD production was more due to BYU's utter lack of a consistent Blue Zone attack. BYU struggled so mightily in the Blue Zone last year it's comical.



BYU only had 13 Blue Zone rushing TDs last year. 8 fewer than 2012.


They didn't know what plays to call in the blue zone because they knew the line couldn't block for whatever play they called. It was like throwing darts at a dart board and see what happens.
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Cougarbib
SpiffCoug wrote:
In 2001, Staley actually average more yards per carry and fewer carries per TD than Barry Sanders in 1988. That 2001 season was simply phenomenal.



I think Jamaal's reduction in TD production was more due to BYU's utter lack of a consistent Blue Zone attack. BYU struggled so mightily in the Blue Zone last year it's comical.



BYU only had 13 Blue Zone rushing TDs last year. 8 fewer than 2012.


At the risk of sounding like a broken record, SOS is a factor in 2012 result for JW being better than 2013. It is not the only factor. Being the work horse and getting beat up and getting concussions takes a toll. Supporting cast also matters as does playcalling.



But I am going to go out on a limb here and predict that our kinder, gentler opponents in 2014 will enable JW to improve YPC and Carries Per TD ratio to improve well over 10% in 2014 vs 2013. Well over.



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