It’s Time to Feed the Beast – Get Bucky Irving the Ball

[FishDuck Article]

 

Why RBBC (running back by committee - the bane of all fantasy football players) is a bad idea for the Ducks.

 

It's Time to Feed the Beast - Get Bucky Irving the Ball

FISHDUCK.COM

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Oregon had a strong one-two punch this last year in its two main running backs, Bucky Irving and Noah Whittington. Both had their moments and regularly…

 

[Haywarduck]

You mentioned the ASU coach loved the RB by committee, it will be interesting to see how Stein sees the position. Another factor will be how Stein sees the qb position. The threat of a running qb is great, but he doesn't need to run too often to keep the defense on their heals.

 

I hope we see Bucky with the ball more running and catching out of the backfield. This will actually keep the LB's busy too. If Bucky is a threat to catch the ball the defensive backfield has to be cognizant of this threat. There are few players who are a bigger threat than Bucky in the open field. We saw how elusive he was against the Tarheals, he made them look like they had tar on their heals with his cutbacks.

 

The main item is the RB competition is over Bucky is our guy. Unless somebody blows up the position this spring, or through summer workouts, Bucky is our number 1 guy. 

 

Fortunately we have a few other guys who can run the ball very well. What we don't have is another proven guy who can distribute the ball and lead the team. This season we need Nix throwing more, and running less. What does Stein want, time will tell.

[EzDucksIt]

First off, I will be honest, have not read the article yet but here is my gut reaction.  Both RB's, really all three, seemed to stay healthy all year.  It will help them moving forward if they are lucky enough to go to the NFL or CFL.  Not all are lucky to end their collegiate careers without a major issue health wise.  Think Travis Dye while at USC, our former workhorse.

 

Coach Locklyn, has not let us down, although many original RB's of the team have transferred out.  The talent that has transferred in along with recruits of the 2023 class, appears promising.  Lots of talent, going to challenge each other.

[Smith72]

Thanks for the article David!  I too think that Bucky Irving is our back.  The competition this spring will be intense.  

 

However, I disagree about RBBC.  How many times did we see Verdell unable to finish a season.  Excellent point by EzDucksIt.  Travis Dye was USC's main back - did not finish the season.

 

I agree with Dillingham's "fresh legs".  All the backs this past season finished the season.  Without Bucky I think our bowl game could have ended our season on a downer!

 

In addition, RBBC keeps a talented room happy!  Football is a tough sport.  Practice is work.  Not getting into a game after all that work can be disheartening.

 

When one is having an off day, another can step in.  Besides, " iron sharpens iron" and competition keeps everyone striving to be their best.

 

The Ducks are loaded with talent.  In Locklyn I trust!

[Jon Joseph]

Irving and Whittingham were both lights out with a healthy Bo Nix keying a solid RPO-oriented offense.

 

Let's hope Bo is good to go all season and not the banged-up player he was at the end of 2022. The RB room is deep. Bot so the QB room.

 

And let's hope without coach Klemm that the new O line can come close to the productivity and efficiency of last season's OL.

 

Thanks for the article, David.

 

 

 

 

[spartan2785]

I'm not against rotation, what I hope to see though is Irving in the game more during crunch time in close games, there were too many times last year when the game was on the line we didn't have our best RB on the field.  The biggest reason you rotate is keep your best RB fresh for the biggest moments, why do it if you then just take the RB1 out?

[Mudslide]

Perhaps one reason for BI's lovely and successful 6.8 ypc was the fact that he was rested.  I think the successful rb use overall was a testament to Locklyn's good choices.  But Nix....well that's a different story.  I'd like to see him run a lot less.  He's great runner, but it's obvious the Duck's offense was diminished when he was hurt.  Let's hope Stein has a plan to secure Nix's health this season.

[Charles Fischer]

Another way of looking at this, is that the additional 1.2 yards Bucky got per carry divided into the 5.6 yards the other running backs got is a bonus of over 21% more yardage per carry out of Irving!

 

That is a big margin. 
 

Great read and sound logic, David. I still like having fresh legs, but will concede at times Irving should not have been taken out.

[David Marsh]

On 2/14/2023 at 8:37 AM, Charles Fischer said:

Another way of looking at this, is that the additional 1.2 yards Bucky got per carry divided into the 5.6 yards the other running backs got is a bonus of over 21% more yardage per carry out of Irving!

 

That is a big margin. 
 

Great read and sound logic, David. I still like having fresh legs, but will concede at times Irving should not have been taken out.

A great way to put it Charles. 

 

Also... I want to note that Irving only had 17 more carries than Whittington on the year. So it's not like he got the ball that much more than Whittington on the whole for the season but he was far more productive with the ball in his hands. 

 

Which also makes those goal line battles all the more frustrating to have Irving on the sideline when he is our most productive back. I get going for the power play with James but we also used Whittington in some of those goal line situations or went with an empty set with just Nix. Why not more Irving? 

[Charles Fischer]

Irving saved the day at Washington State; on 4th down he made an incredible catch across the middle--and this was after dropping the ball twice against Georgia.  I would scream at the TV...."don't throw to Irving!" 

 

Err....great catch!  (The video is qued up right to that amazing play)

 

 

[David Marsh]

During that Washington State game Irving gained a ton of yards running the ball in the open field but when it got into the red zone... no Irving and we saw Oregon unable to punch the ball in for touchdowns and settle for field goals. 

 

I found it so odd that Irving was considered to be good enough for the open field but when it got down into scoring territory he was pulled. Yes, there isn't as much room to run but Irving showed time and time again he has the ability to break tackles and get yards after contact. Which is EXACTLY what you need and want in the red zone. 

[Drake]

I would like to see Bucky involved a bit more in the red zone. His abilities to gain yardage in a crowded space is at times uncanny.
 

The playbook is also larger when he is on the field. Giving opponents footage of a wider variety of plays keeps them occupied in the film room, and at times may get a defender to hesitate momentarily because of what he has seen on film.

 

However, if Locklynn wants to reward players for their efforts in practice with playing time, I really don’t have a problem with that at all.
 

There are going to be games that may not be the best time to get a guy playing time if the outcome is still in question, but RBBC is probably here to stay. 

[JDuck]

I agree, glad I'm not the only one who thought things stalled a bit a few times when he came out.  But... keeping a rotation to some degree may keep the energy up and potentially reduce injuries.

 

How that RBBC time is divided up...maybe a bit more Bucky this year but keep him fresh.  Red zone...yes please.  Maybe the big back can get more reps too outside of 3rd and 1, he seems to have a lot of upside for more every-down situations.

[DuckFan93]

Can't agree more about the untimely and too-frequent substitutions of RBs when the game was going well.   If Bucky had gotten the ball instead of Nix in the fateful Q4 red-zone run against the puppies, OBD might have gone to the play-off, won the Pac or at least the Northwest!