Lamar Brown moving to offense this week is interesting. I’ve read a lot of people suggesting he move to guard to help out there. But he’s not big or strong enough yet, and hasn’t had practice there enough, for that to be realistic. And him having #3, precludes that anyway. So he’s supposedly been in practicing in a TE role.

Which I think likely would includes some H-back duties. Doing this now is interesting with Trey-Dez back, Grace finally getting involved in the passing game, and Roman Mothershed getting some TE action. So what role would Brown have?

1st, I think it’s interesting that he’s #3, same as Trey Wilson. Who, I believe, still has the most snaps of any WR on the team, despite not being a huge part of the offense yet. So Lamar and Trey can’t be on the field at the same time. Which leads me to think, he’s either going to be in on goal line/short yardage packages and/or we’re going to run more 12 personnel.

Ruffino hinted the other day that he’s heard we’ve got something to help out at LG. Say what you will about Blake, he’s done this a few times this year and it’s turned out to be right. I’m not sure if he has any good sources inside the program, but I think he at least has sources who have sources inside. So since Lamar isn’t playing LG, it didn’t sound like he was suggesting a new starter.

I think, that will Bama’s stud NT coming back, and our inability recently to really run the ball as effectively as we were earlier in the season, Lamar is going to have a role in the running game. Whether it’s lining up on the edge beside Seaton and allowing Seaton to block down and give some help to Satterwhite and letting Brown take the edge guy—he’s shown his athletic ability to move vertically on defense—or lining up in the backfield at the H-back spot and being the lead blocker on some running plays, I think he could play a big role in our running game.

I think Lane has seen our running game slow down a bit and knows we’re going to have to find a way to run it against Bama to have a chance. Don’t have to go crazy and put up 200 yards+, but we need to get 4-5 a pop consistently to stay ahead of the chains. It keeps the offense moving, and helps prevent putting Sam in 3rd and long, where he might put the ball in harms way, where Bama has been very good capitalizing with several interceptions, 5 of which, I think, wound up going the other way to the house.

Back to Leavett, he quietly ran for 58 yards on 8 carries against Auburn, including some very big runs to move the chains or score. And that was with a bum hamstring, which he aggravated that week and looked like he re-aggravated early on. If the week off helped that to heal and he’s back at 95%, I think he’s going to be a big factor in the run game himself. Not just scrambling, but running some zone reads or zone reads where there’s no real options and the play is designed for him to run. I think Bama’s defense is susceptible to this, plus, the threat of it should keep their back 7 frozen just enough trying to diagnose run v pass, that it could open up some shots down the field.

Tl;dr—I think Brown may have a bigger role than we think to help out in the running game. And I think Leavett’s running ability is going to be a big part of the game plan. And I’m sure there will be a few plays where we leak Brown out and hit him in the passing game a couple of times. The 1st time could be a “trick” play for a big gain if we’ve seen something on tape that might make them susceptible. And after that, them having to respect him in the passing game, could get some guys moving the wrong direction, vertically or horizontally, taking a player out of the box, and helping the running game that way, not just as a blocker. Or he may not play a snap. It will be intriguing to see if/how they use him.