Day 3 of Fall Camp: Pads Come on, Drummond to Fullback, and Run Game Promising

Great stuff! Thank you for these updates! Very excited for season!

A totally unnecessary comment. Do you want somebody talking about your mother that way?

What is the status of the transfer RB from the Big 10?

I get it people say you don't control my free speech on this forum, but just perhaps consider, players families (maybe even potential recruits) may very well subscribe or visit this site to see the stories and tenor of fans in relation to the team. We talk about "bad fans" at OU then have (perhaps) our own folks saying bad things about our own team/family! (Hopefully that guy was a troll from another school and state).

Orangeheart72 said:

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I get it people saw you don't control my free speech on this forum, but just perhaps consider, players families (maybe even potential recruits) may very well subscribe or visit this site to see the stories and tenor of fans in relation to the team. We talk about "bad fans" at OU then have (perhaps) our own folks saying bad things about our own team/family! (Hopefully that guy was a troll from another school and state).

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I hate to tell you this, but there will be, with beginning of football season approaching the same couple of trolls who will show back up here that have disappeared for a while!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Robert Allen said:

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Elijah Collins is practicing and competing for the top spot on the depth chart at running back.

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That's good news thought he might have been just a guy on the outs in East Lansing.

NJAggie said:

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Robert Allen said:

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Elijah Collins is practicing and competing for the top spot on the depth chart at running back.

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That's good news thought he might have been just a guy on the outs in East Lansing.

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I thought he'd be the automatic starter, but I'm surprised to hear that Nixon is doing so well, and that Ollie might be looking at 3rd on the rotating roster.

I guarantee it will take three RB's. The goal from week to week will be to have two healthy ones on Saturday. Let's hope all three are pretty good.

Robert Allen said:

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It may take four running backs. This is physical football and a physical brand of running OSU is going back too some. I would like to see as many guys at that position show signs they can help. I have no doubt about the top three. Jaden is more of a home run and explosive back. I do feel good about the size and toughness of both Ollie Gordon and Elijah Collins.

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I'm looking forward to it. Have been since you let us know about the shift. I prefer us to be able to do 3 yds and a cloud of dust anytime we want to instead of the pitch and hope running game we've had at times.

Robert Allen said:

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It may take four running backs. This is physical football and a physical brand of running OSU is going back too some. I would like to see as many guys at that position show signs they can help. I have no doubt about the top three. Jaden is more of a home run and explosive back. I do feel good about the size and toughness of both Ollie Gordon and Elijah Collins.

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HUH?

Does that even make sense Robert? When we ran "physical football" back in the 70s and 80s and 90s, we didn't chew through 3 or 4 RBs... if one got injured it was unfortunate, but getting 2 hurt was a rarity... because...

The physical rushing play was at the LOS, the overloading the point of attack, the FB knocking the LB off the hole, etc... The RB didn't take the blows. Sure they took some, they took a lot, but that's not what made it physical rushing football, it was lining up and smashing the defense at the LOS.

what am I missing here? Smash mouth football does not mean that the RBs have to be more physical than they already are; it means they have help smashing the defense.

There is a huge difference in football since the 60's 70's 80's 90's, and has really accelerated past about....2000?.... Player development in increasing size & strength, and nominally in speed, has been a game changer and also is a big reason teams don't even practice the same way now as then. They CAN'T. Size & strength is increasingly outpacing the material strength of muscle & connective tissue. So, "physical football" means something way different than it used to.

I have a real life example. Son#1 was a big boy, played varsity his freshman and sophomore years at Noble OK and was pretty good. Got some All-District votes. He played OL & DL and at his best condition was 6-0, 265, and was the fastest lineman at Noble. We moved to Texarkana for his Junior & Senior years. As soon as we got there, he was the smallest lineman and on JV, stayed there for nearly all of his Junior year. Why? The starting 5 OL were 320, 285, 285, 300, 315 across the line, and these boys weren't fat boys. They had benefitted from an 8000sf training facility with good coaching and great knowledge of strength & conditioning. Those same boys were in rotation on the DL too. I remember thinking back then, watching practice one day, and reflecting on the size & strength of the T-High linemen and remembering looking at the O-State vs Nebraska program on a bitterly cold day way back in about '72 or so when we played the N...I don't remember ANY of the Nebraska linemen being bigger than 260, most were around 245, and thought then that those were huge corn-fed farm boys.

So, a RB is also bigger and stronger and faster now than the 60's 70's 80's 90's. Force is mass x acceleration. Football bodies are colliding with FAR more force than they were then. That's why it takes 3-4-5 prepared & able RB's to make it through a season.

My 2 cents. Flame away.