Really? And what, besides your gut-feeling, leads you to that? Because he ran all over teams in high school?? Miles has shown to be a GREAT evaluator of talent and getting the most out of players. 4 years into the program and Shep hasn't just failed to duplicate great success that matched his hype.....he's yet to even achieve it. I know some will paint me as "a hater". I'm not. I like him. I think he's got great speed and a good player. NOT "great". Lets not make him out to be anything more than he has been since setting foot on campus.
One of Shep's problems has been dropping the ball when he touches it. He's seemingly getting a bit more sure-handed the last couple of games, though.
As my high school coach used to say: "One way to guarantee you don't get more chances is by dropping the ones you DO GET." He'd be more a featured part of the offense with more consistancy when he DOES get the ball thrown his way.
A closer inspection of the Tennessee game says otherwise. It is the first time I have seen us use him effectively every time he touched the ball. 10 yard rush 9 yard rush 14 yard pass reception for a TD Yes, he can be a very valuable decoy, but he now appears ready to be able to gain some very valuable yards against an overly aggressive Bama defense.
Shep is only 2.5 years removed from HS. When you consider that he was still a QB for part of his FR year and never ran a route beyond 10 yds as a WR last year, this was really supposed to be his first year as a true "outside" WR (rather than slot or gimmick). All of the offseason updates gave me a lot of optimism that he would excel in this new role. Then, he was suspended, and now appears to be moving around again. I fully expect Shepard to improve and become a serious threat for this offense.
