I think Wells is a great back and he will only get better, BUT he ain't no Barry Sanders! He still didn't show me the tuffness to fight threw tackles other than that stiff arm, Charles Scott has a pretty good one too. If I was an NFL team I wouldn't pass this kid up if I needed a running back.
Just wait till next year when all those Big-10 coaches start watching video on how to stop Wells...we offered a gameplan that shut him down, except for a couple runs. At least, if I were a coach in the Big-10, thats what I would do.
Try Junior, and he won't get much better than what he displayed last night. He's just not that gifted.
Boeckman grayshirted in 03, redshirted in 04, so he has 1 year remaining. He was always heady and solid, and took his game to very solid and good heights this year. The future was on the sidelines, RS Frosh Antonio Henton (similar to Troy)... and recently back from starring in the Army AA game (Terrelle Pryor) if things do not shift. I'm guessing you haven't watched much OSU football. Nor am I sure what game you were watching in the first half, plenty of carries with 3 yards after contact, driving the pile. Like others mentioned, as OSU became less balanced (passing game tapere doffer), your team clogged up the middle worse than a dorm shower drain.
Seems like it worked perfectly...Boekman (sp?) never had an open man, our corners kept up with the WR perfectly and Wells never rushed much other than his couple of long runs.
Well, it became pretty simple. When you were worried about our receivers, Wells had running room. As soon as you went into man coverage, you could stack a lot of guys in the box. Wells was able to push the pile a lot of the time (A lot of his yards came carrying the LSU defense), but the most he got was 6 yards. The odds were just that far against him, period. If LSU had been forced to honor the passing game, he would have been able to bust out more runs. When LSU had to honor the passing game, he was able to run around. Your defensive backs were able to stop the Ohio State running game, by stopping the Ohio State passing game. In a situation where the Ohio State wide receivers could get open, thus making LSU honor the passing game with something other than man-to-man, Wells would have been able to get a lot more yards. Still, you have to be impressed by how he carried the pile for extra yardage, just as I was impressed by Hester's incredible reliability on 3rd down.
