Exactly! We don’t have dynamic playmakers. You really only need a handful in college football. We have a solid foundation and can win with what we have as long as the offense, defense, and special teams are contributing. But, when you have a defense as bad as ours, then you need someone to step up and make plays. We do not have that. Even if we had an average defense this year, we would have won 9 games this year. Think about that for a moment. Then, take it one step further and add the players you mentioned, then you have something.
He’s mad they don’t play Hammonds more. Clay did a good job of explaining a lot of the factors that kept him off th field, early.
As for late, that’s questionable although it’s tough to bring a kid in that carries the ball like that and is small (pass protection) when you’re trying to stop turning over the ball.
Maybe so, but how many times can you say it? It’s pretty hard to redshirt a guy when from DAY ONE the Dad is openly ripping you for not playing him even though he had been hurt and missing practice.
If he’s truly electric, he wouldn’t stay long enough to be a 5th yr senior, anyway.
Who would you have played him over? I bet you’ll say Rawleigh because he wasn’t electric or flashy.
He just made tons of big plays and our fans kept saying he doesn’t make big plays.
He played in eight of the 13 games, so unless he was only getting two plays per game, I suspect he played more than 15 plays (and we know it was 16, since he had 15 rushes and one kickoff return). Lack of ball security will keep you tied to the bench at any level; NFL guys get fired for putting the ball on the ground. We only put the ball on the ground 13 times in 13 games, and as I recall TJ had more than his share of those. And if he doesn’t fix that, he won’t play next year either.
Swine you are smart enough to realize that was an exaggeration. Regardless it wasn’t enough involvement. I may be wrong but I don’t recall tj losing a fumble.
He didn’t have any fumbles but he isn’t wrong. The way he carried the ball was flagrantly bad and something you can’t do in the SEC and get any significant # of carries.
If you didn’t see it you weren’t paying much attention.
I know how he carries the ball, but he didn’t fumble. So we held him from playing based off the fact he might fumble.
Does anyone remember how Matt jones would carry the ball? In one hand, joe Adams was also loose with the ball. Sometimes you just have to take the risk. I would understand not allowing him to get multiple carries if he didn’t change after being coached up on sideline but they would pull him on the first carry and he wouldn’t get another chance, so maybe he would’ve tightened up after one lecture in the game, but we wouldn’t know.
I think a big reason he didn’t play much was because he missed all of the fall camp with an injury and was not healthy early in the season. Whether he fumbled or not, he did have a tendency to carry the ball loosely. I remember CBB getting on him on the sidelines after he broke a big run for carrying the ball so loosely. CBB often said he loved the playmaking skills of TJ, but I’m sure every time TJ carried the ball loosely, it scared him. The risk, he probably believed, wasn’t worth the reward. Whether he was right or wrong is a personal preference, not necessarily carved in stone. Sometimes the only way you can get a point across is by taking playing time away.
Oh, just where did you check that? UA stat sheets (season or game) don’t list who fumbled. You would have to go through all 13 play by plays, and I do mean looking play by play, to find that information. That’s about 920 offensive plays, plus returns.
Yes, Matt Jones carried the ball very loosely, and it cost us at times (Texas game in '04 for one). Adrian Peterson still does, but he produces enough that they are willing to overlook it. Hammonds has not produced enough yet to overlook anything.
Fox sports website, great stats website and very dependable. But there’s more, it’s pretty easy to find just type it in on google. He had no fumbles and no fumbles lost, therefore never put the ball on the ground.
And your argument that he hasn’t produced enough to overlook it is not quite true either. His YPC number is higher than any of our other running backs, and also was drastically decreased the last two games when he was stopped for a minimal gain and never carries again in both games. I also recall multiple plays where he had large gains that were called back due to penalty.
Hold off on your Fox Sports plaudits. I know Austin Allen had some fumbles this year, including the one Bama took back for a scoop and score. Fox Sports says AA had zero fumbles for the year. So don’t trust Fox on that one. As for Googling, anything you find there is going to be based on the UA stats, which do not list who fumbled any of the 13 we put on the ground. And nobody is going to assign (meaning pay) people to go through every play by play and list all the people who fumbled.
You can argue all night long, there’s multiple sites that have hammonds with no fumbles. He simply did not fumble, careless with the ball yes? But you can look at game logs, play by plays, whatever, he didn’t fumble just as I recall watching him and never seeing him fumble.
also the fox sports I’m looking at has 5 fumbles for Allen, so not sure what you are looking at.
Fumbles against- Texas St
Texas A&M
Alabama
Auburn
Ole miss