re: Any News from Scrimmage today?

Willing can be a negative if the player in question isn’t an effective runner.

I’m hopeful but not confident in that.

I agree, I think he runs hard and isn’t afraid to take a hit or give one. But he’s not a shifty runner like Stet. I read where he was around the 4.7 40 mark out of high school which isn’t too far off of Stetson and Bo Nix.

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isn’t afraid to take a hit

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Hell, he needs to be. I have concerns about him staying healthy down the stretch otherwise. Pugs has a cannon but isn’t ready based on what I’ve read. Stockton staying healthy is hugely important for any chances we have to make a run.

Obviously sacks are counted in that and he played 2 of the best defenses in the country with a very banged up offensive line all while our coaches for some reason decided to feature his legs very little in the Sugar Bowl. Listen, he’s not going to rush for 1,000 yards but you saw in the Texas game that having at least the threat of an athlete kept the backside rusher from just crashing on Etienne or Frazier, so now just imagine how it may look when we’ve had an entire offseason knowing he’s who we have to design an offense for. He’s not as fast or quick as Stet was, but we can absolutely use him in 3rd or 4th and 2 as a battering ram. But Brooks Austin made a good point on his show a week or so ago. How much they allow or scheme runs for Gunner is a direct correlation to how ready they think Puglisi is to be able to play effectively as the backup. If faith in Pug is low, Gunner might only be running on scrambles, not very many designed runs.

The threat of the QB run is the deal here. Beck wasn’t a huge threat. He did pull it back a few times, but not many. No threat of the QB keeping allows the defense to crash from the backside and take away running/cut back lanes. The threat of the QB keeping makes the backside DE have to stay honest. It also affects the backside LB. The threat of the QB keeping takes 1 or 2 defensive players out of the run defense at the los. Some plays are called for a hand off, some are option to give or keep, some are hard QB keep running various versions of the read look.

What we don’t know is how many times Beck and Gunner were asked to read or do hard keeps. Based on limited data, they are more comfortable with Gunner reading and keeping which will affect defenses as stated above. If the QB keeps 3 or 4 times a game and gets a first down or decent chunk of yards, it will force the defense to respect it and make running easier in general.

4.8 QBs can run the read if the DE crashes and they can gain good yardage doing so. It’s more about them taking hits. Stet, had the athleticism to make moves on the defenders which took it to another level.

Gunner has enough wiggle and physicality to consistently pick up a few yards on a busted or covered play.

Teams like Florida had success against Beck last season when only rushing like 3-4 guys and dropping everyone back, so I am optimistic for a more balanced attack this year.

It looks like the RB room is very deep. Excited to see what the pecking order is after camp. Sometimes I forget about Cash Jones and Roderick Robinson.