re: Question about Camar Wheaton

Like ive mentioned before Faulk has to contact his coach. Faulk hasn’t done so because he doesn’t wanna have Kiner thinking he’s recruiting another back over him.

LSU has a very good back in the 2021 class in Kiner so I doubt we take another back and look to take 2 backs in the 2022 class

It's simply a matter of numbers and the who's going where charades. If we go all-in on Wheaton right now and miss then it will surely hurt the relationship that we have built with Kiner (who is also going to rise tremendously in the rankings given the way he's been playing). And remember, Coach O has a proven system that works regardless of rankings.

If we can get both let's totally go for it, but sadly it seems that if we strike out we would lose both of them in the process of finalization. So you have to handle it like a business. We aren't trying to trade talent for talent just given stars. We want both players, but not at the risk of losing what we've already got in Kiner and then also not to be 100% solid with Wheaton come signing day. Both of them are prospective NFL talents and will develop greatly here at LSU as long as they have the patience and work ethic necessary to do so.

The season will surely help smooth some of this over. Recruits will get to see how our running-back by committee approach will still work in this offense. We will have a "feature back," but I think we will utilize all 4 of the RB's on the roster and showcase the full stable given the depth of talent there. It's something Faulk has worked on, which was really fine-tuning the runningback rotations. Each season we will see a unit on the team operate more and more like an NFL unit. It will be the running backs this year for sure. Bradford (the freshman) will be our burner, TDP and Emery will split carries at a higher clip than last season, and Curry will be your main back probably garnering in around 50-55% of the carries so roughly about 60-65% of the offenses' drives. You need all 3-4 to make it through a regular SEC schedule, so with the added games, the rotations will expand.

Trust me, LSU is recruiting Wheaton. Recruits need to understand that just because we are going after a highly-elite ranked player does not guarantee them to start over someone who isn't as highly ranked. Yes, it is exactly what we are seeing with Chris Curry. The Kiner and Wheaton scenario is similar to the TDP and Emery scenario, both will play and play a lot.

As much as I'd like Wheaton, I think we're completely fine with just Kiner in 2021. I would certainly take him if he wants in obviously. We can very easily get 2 good RBs for 2022, and I think we will.

The problem with giving Faulk too much credit is that we know this kid didn't camp at LSU and this was strictly a film eval from his So/Jr film against weak Ohio competition.

People flippantly laugh-off the recruiting services but in this case they have as much or more experience than Faulk if it's truly about film evals only.

Faulk is a GREAT Tiger but he hasn't proven anything yet in regards to recruiting. Just a few years ago he was coaching high school. To give his film eval skills credit just because of his general reputation, that's probably premature at best and realistically misguided

Perhaps he and the entire staff feels Wheaton is strictly a Big 12-style one-trick pony that doesn't have the ability to make it in between the Tackles in the SEC. Only thing I can think of because his speed and explosiveness are obviously on a different level than Kiner's.

It's one of the single most fascinating things in this class so far IMO

Yeah I do, especially their national guys who have seen the kid play unlike Shea. After all, RBs are not that difficult to evaluate. So much of what they do translates immediately to the next level.

Remember that Ohio St not offering this kid says that they don't believe he is elite, and he's right in their backyard where I guarantee you they have more knowledge of local talent than an SEC school that's almost 1000 miles away. That's only logical, and if this were a Louisiana RB that Ohio St took then obviously there would be plenty of people on this board saying "he's not good enough to go to LSU".

There's at least enough room for doubt when it comes to Faulk/Kiner. Time will tell

No, it means that Ohio State got 2 top 5 RBs. If Faulk believes in this kid, so do I. Clyde was a 3* and he whipped Alabama's arse. I see no reason why Kiner can't be a stud for us.

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I don't see any logic here

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Coaches do make mistakes. Me personally, and I've said this before, I don't see the hype of Kiner. Maybe he is great, but he doesn't look like it in highlights. For comparison you could see Helaire's potential by the way he ran in HS.

Wait, running backs aren't hard to evaluate but faulk can't do it off film.
He played in the NFL and was a coach in hs
He has been watching film his whole life.

I wasn't as high on kiner as others but he runs hard and has enough speed. He runs really hard.
I want to see more of him catching the ball.
Does anyone have highlights of him catching the ball? Please post.
All I've seen is a rivals camp

Yeah it's kinda weird that 2 of his top 3 don't really want him.

When he was named as the running backs coach in February of this year. I'm sure it was one of the first things he began to study and think about for the upcoming season since he is the coach of the running backs, you probably know this by now.

He most likely identified each of the RBs strengths and their weaknesses via their film and evaluated what they would need to correct during the offseason and throughout the season as it goes along. And also probably assessed how far along each guy is in terms of development as far as being the perfect fit for the offensive scheme and an all-around back. So yeah, I think it would be fair to say that he's probably been thinking and working on the runningback rotation for much of the year, and then as the team went into fall camp started to work on fundamental development as well as skill development. The process of all this usually evolves a pecking order, as the offensive unit begins to be split between the starters and backups and you give each guy a few reps with the starters to see how things go.

As the offensive coordinator begins to script the gameplans (which he's been doing since midsummer), Faulk has got to see which of his backs will fit into each scenario and then think about the countless perimeters that could alter each scenario. Who gets the carry when it's 1st and 10? Then, who gets the carry when it's 1st and 10, but we are backed up against our own goal-line? It's not something that you wait until the last minute to think about, it's something that you must actively work on as the offseason and game season goes along.