re: Excellent piece by Andy Staples at SI on AU/KSU

Like I said earlier, I'm not anti-nick...I just think JJ gives us a better chance to put away teams early. Nick is clutch as hell, but it's because of earlier frickups that he has to redeem himself. Going back to the earlier analogy about stocks, I'm more of a Mutual Fund guy myself.

quote:

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And during that stretch, his career average is 225 yards of total offense per game and 2 touchdowns per game.

I watched JJ put up 278 yards of total offense and 3 touchdowns in one half.

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Well, that's not exactly correct. Nick is technically 13-2 as a starter (didn't start WCU last year and didn't start Arkansas this year). And if we are talking halves, Nick only played half of the first quarter against FAU last year, so that shouldn't count as a full game against him. So he really played in 12.13 games.

283 yards per game
2.5 TDs per game

The other fact you ignored, was that Nick opens up lanes for our RBs unlike JJ.

Let's look at the Arkansas game.

In the first half, a RB ran the ball 16 times. Total rushing yards in first half from RBs, 67. That's a 4.2 ypc average.

In the second half, a RB ran the ball for 22 times. Total rushing yards in second half from RBs, 216. That's a 9.8 average.

So when Nick is in the game, the RBs averaged twice as much ypc as when JJ was in the game? You don't think that's important?

Absolutely.

Marshall is our guy, no doubt. But I liked seeing JJ come out against Arkansas and nailing throws, just as much as seeing Marshall coming out and working his own strengths during that game. So when Gus spoke about JJ having an expanded role on the field this season, I thought that was smart thinking. If we face a defense where Nick is having trouble against (and we need to pass cause our run game ain't happening), then I say, 'JJ to save the day'.