re: Current LSU players you were wrong about - mine is Kaleb Jackson.

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He does need to improve his vision but he’s a good back

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I think he would be the perfect smallish fullback 15 years ago. He squares people up and loves to hit. He is quick enough to have a few carries and catch a swing pass and get north/south before seeking out a CB to obliterate.

That's why I said slot earlier. Whatever it takes to get him on the edge. He's out in space and he can plow over lighter defenders.

That's a surprising number. It just seems like we run up middle all the time on 2nd, I probably should have said, when we run, 99.9% of time it's up the middle.

Either way, figure of speech...

I hope Kaleb gets Toss plays and I-back formations ...them let em rip.

Jackson had burst and power last year. Looks like he tried to put on weight and it cost him both.

He has decent vision but not good enough to make up for poor run play calls and mediocre run blocking. He need big holes but his burst is what’s missing.

Durham simply has a burst that lets him hit those small holes quicker and enough strength to get through.

Jackson can get back to form. Reminds me a lot of what happened with Justin Vincent. Simply put on bad weight and doesn’t have good enough in the other areas to counter that.

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I’d say the first half of the season we were probably 60/40 gap/zone. We went to more zone in the second half of the season because it was giving us more success, but we still ran a lot of counter & power. In the Alabama game for example we were probably 60/40 zone/gap instead of the other way around.

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A big reason why is that we weren’t very good at it. Our Guards were too lumbering and slow (before Mubenga was forced to play, but he has other obvious issues) and Chester too inconsistent to hit spots fast enough to beat a defense to spots and create the lane for a back.

Jackson’s style is better suited to gap plays IF we can execute them better and faster.

Kaleb has no vision that's why he looks slow. He's not actually "slow". I don't think he's going to work out because vision is not something you can really coach well.

Completely shocked he is not in the portal. I thought he was the next great big back for us. Although, we really don’t have another back at his size (235lbs). Change of pace I would say, but not sure how he will play next season.

He looked kind of slow and horrible.

Hope this helps

I honestly believe he is a solid back. I think it's just the lack of running play creation and plays being called by Joe Sloan that makes him ineffective. Because it's not like he doesn't have talent. We have all seen him flash. So we know he can. It's just about the right plays being called for him and the blocking up front.

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A big reason why is that we weren’t very good at it.

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No argument there.

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Our Guards were too lumbering and slow (before Mubenga was forced to play, but he has other obvious issues) and Chester too inconsistent to hit spots fast enough to beat a defense to spots and create the lane for a back.

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I’m not sure whether speed was the issue, but I do agree that the interior OL was a huge part of our problem running power/counter.

One persistent issue was that Chester (and later Mubenga, as you mentioned) got bullrushed into the backfield way too often. You need your center and play side guard to clear a lane for the pullers. Otherwise, the timing gets thrown off and it also forces the lead blocker to make a sharper cut into the hole.

The end result is the same as slow pullers though - it delays the play development and creates a logjam in the hole.

Anyhow, I agree that Jackson looks like he should be more of a gap scheme running back.