What will get Shepard more involved is improvement in his pass catching skills, not any new asst. coach.
True. But, if he is not reliable enough to catch the ball, as many of you are saying, then a creative OC can and will find ways to get the ball to a playmaker of his caliber. I mean, RS has two more years of eligibility and we need to maximize getting him the ball. If up to this point in his football life (i.e. thru HS), he has primarily been a QB/RB, and his pass catching abilities are raw, then find other ways to get him the ball before the clock runs out on his time here. I'd be willing to bet CKelly would have maintained him at QB, or transitioned him to RB/slot back, or something like that, if he clearly was not developing his catching skills. Many say that RS is too small for QB, and arm is not strong enough. So, try him at RB; he is bigger than LaMichael James, so why not? I'm not so sure that a "new asst. coach" at the level of a new OC won't come in, evaluate all of the tools he has, and say "hey, why are we not utilizing this guy? he's a playmaker, and we need to find ways to get him the ball!" I would hope this would be his attitude and approach, at least for RSs sake, I hope that is the case. It would be nice and refreshing. If SK does simplify things, that in fact may be what helps RS out the most. CGC may not have utilized him as much or targeted him as much, simply b/c he was not confident that RS knew the plays well enough. And I would point out this, TT, RS, and RR, all WRs now, were all 5*s coming out of HS, and not one of them has had a stellar career so far, and all of their time has been or was (as far as TT is concerned) spent under CGC as an OC. That sucks for them. I am just hopeful that SK turns out to be a good change for RS and RR moving forward, not to mention the overall success of the offense and LSU.
There is no way anyone can say that Shepard isnt a big play threat. Shepard has a long ways to go to be a Harvin like player. His hands need to improve a hell of a lot. He is very inconsistent. He does also need to bulk up a bit more. Still in all he is a big play waiting to happen, the coaches dropped the ball on not getting him involved enough in the game plan. When he does get the ball its usually so obvious whats coming the D is keying on him. When he is in space he is the best gamebreaker on the O along with Randle. Hopefully he can get a few more touches, but more importantly better quality of touches.
He could be used as a speed back and catch short passes out of the backfield like devine was used by wvu. He would make a great dump off reciever out the backfield when the long pass is covered and mett(hopefully) has to get rid of the ball. Many of Reggie bush's passes are caught in this way and turn out to pick up good yardage. Shep out of the backfield would put him one on one with a linebacker which would be a big mismatch.
He would be best used in a Bush type role. There are many ways to get a guy with his talent the ball in space. The coaching staff has failed miserably to do this thus far in his career. Hopefully Krag and the simplified offense will be the thing that gets him more involved.
Play him as a third down back running a pass route out of the backfield with four wide receivers thus creating a mismatch with a linebacker in coverage. Sounds simple but with crowton nothing could be simple. If shep has trouble running routs and catching difficult long passes shorten the routs up and simplify the play. All we need is to throw the ball five yards to him and watch him go. Most of Reggie bush's passes are caught with short throws and then he runs for yardage.
Sorry to say it but I actually think he might of made the wrong college choice and might be one of the most talented players to come through LSU but was never used
I still think it's miles fault and he handcuffed Crowton..hopefully he will learn to give the new OC a chance. It's a shame how much talent LSU has and how vanilla and predictable the offense has been the past seasons
