Bryce Love and the Stanford O-line - A Thing of Beauty

[Flash7]

It's been said that good O-line will make most RBs look good. And it's also been said that a good RB will make an O-line look good. But what does it look like when you have a special Running Back paired with a dominant O-line? Well, take a look.

 

This is a Bryce Love highlight reel and it's a thing of beauty. Look how well the two parts work together (RB and O-linemen). I'm in awe of the synchronization. Since it's a long highlight reel, I would recommend taking a look at the following plays:

 

1:40

1:55

2:35

4:33

4:50

5:16

5:43

6:37

7:52

8:21

8:49

9:32

 

[BleedBlu8792]

Or the fact that Pac-12 defenses are notoriously horrendous.. I'm not knocking Brice as I think he's a good RB, but let's look at the whole picture.

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, BleedBlu8792 said:

Or the fact that Pac-12 defenses are notoriously horrendous.. I'm not knocking Brice as I think he's a good RB, but let's look at the whole picture.

 

Let's not get too carried away....

 

You have a point up to a point...

 

I think Pac-12 defenses are far superior to the Big12.   Those typically have a couple  of good defenses (like Oklahoma and TCU) and not much else.  Those schools put their talent on the offensive side of the ball.   Not so much defense.

 

 

[BleedBlu8792]

I agree, the Big 12 is equally as bad if not worse. I'm not sure I'd put a whole lot of credibility into Washington or USC or even Stanford as superior to the Big 12 either.

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, BleedBlu8792 said:

I agree, the Big 12 is equally as bad if not worse. I'm not sure I'd put a whole lot of credibility into Washington or USC or even Stanford as superior to the Big 12 either.

 

If you're talking about this year and this year only I'd agree with you about Stanford and USC....  (Rspecially Stanford!).

 

But Washington typically is one of the better defensive units in the conference and often one of the better units in the country...

 

They turn out a lot of NFL talent up there.

 

[BleedBlu8792]

15 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

 

If you're talking about this year and this year only I'd agree with you about Stanford and USC....  (Rspecially Stanford!).

 

But Washington typically is one of the better defensive units in the conference and often one of the better units in the country...

 

They turn out a lot of NFL talent up there.

 

 

Ill take quality over quantity, and that doesn't really help their argument either. They have, maybe, a handful of quality defensive guys in the NFL. Let's not overrate who they really are.

[Smonroe]

Love is McCaffrey lite.  He’ll be a great complement, flanker type back.  Tough kid too.  

[BlueShoe]

He is staying in school. 

[Shive]

8 minutes ago, BlueShoe said:

He is staying in school. 

I saw that....super disappointing. I really like his running style. He's one of my favorites out of the draft eligible backs this year.

[Valpo2004]

On 1/12/2018 at 4:50 PM, NewColtsFan said:

 

Let's not get too carried away....

 

You have a point up to a point...

 

I think Pac-12 defenses are far superior to the Big12.   Those typically have a couple  of good defenses (like Oklahoma and TCU) and not much else.  Those schools put their talent on the offensive side of the ball.   Not so much defense.

 

 

 

Big12 games always seem to end 56 to 49 or something like that.  

[shasta519]

Outside of CMac, it's hard to find many good (let alone great) RBs that have come out of the Pac 12 in recent years. Not sure why that is...but it has been that way.

 

Here are the drafted RBs from 2012-2016...Sankey (UW), Taylor (Stanford), Lasco (Cal), Carey (UA), James (ORE), Franklin (UCLA), Perkins (UCLA), Grice (ASU), Allen (USC), Washington (UW). There's a lot of meh in that group...as well as a few busts.

 

That's not to say I am against Love (he's not coming out anyways)...but if I am looking for a RB I am probably looking at Big 10, SEC and small school RB prospects ahead of 99% of PAC-12 RBs.

[Flash7]

I am glad that he is staying in school for one more year - I get to watch him at Stanford. Looking forward to it. Will attend a lot of the games.

[BlueShoe]

1 hour ago, Shive said:

I saw that....super disappointing. I really like his running style. He's one of my favorites out of the draft eligible backs this year.

 

It was sort of surprising. I had not heard anything leading up to the deadline that he was staying. It does make sense though. This draft is top heavy with talent at running back. I had him and Ronald Jones pretty close to each other, and they're similar backs. Jones is a little bigger. I had them both slated in the late first round to early second area, and it was going to be interesting. Not sure what the supply and demand will be there, and one of them could have fallen. It's possibly that Bryce was also informed of this, and maybe it helped him make a decision to stay in school. 

[BlueShoe]

Kind of curious what @NewColtsFan thinks of Love's decision to stay in school. He has a better eye on Stanford than most of us. 

 

For the record, I almost always (99%) of the time, approve of players staying in school. Got to get that education! Football doesn't last forever.   

[NewColtsFan]

1 hour ago, BlueShoe said:

Kind of curious what @NewColtsFan thinks of Love's decision to stay in school. He has a better eye on Stanford than most of us. 

 

For the record, I almost always (99%) of the time, approve of players staying in school. Got to get that education! Football doesn't last forever.   

 

This was a tightly kept decision that reportedly wasn't made final until a few hours before the deadline.

 

The Stanford community is pleasantly surprised.    It's great for Stanford football, and we think Love is set-up for a great year.   We will surround him with a better QB, O-line, WRs, TEs, you name it. (Given health, Stanford might have its best offense since the Luck years of 10 and 11.   But our defense might be surprisingly poor which is disappointing.)

 

Love wants to be a doctor, that degree is everything.   How can anyone not be proud of a kid like that?

 

All that said, Bryce is probably making a mistake from a pure football perspective.  He should turn pro and not risk possible injury which might hurt his draft chances.  The injury risk is considerable.   But the family supports the decision, so it's all good.   The Stanford community is not complaining!       

 

 

PS --  Stanford still had a number of players who the Colts might be very interested in drafting.   I'll address them in another post likely next week.

 

 

 

[Shive]

6 hours ago, BlueShoe said:

I had him and Ronald Jones pretty close to each other, and they're similar backs.

Oddly enough, Jones was another RB I really like.

[chad72]

16 hours ago, NewColtsFan said:

 

This was a tightly kept decision that reportedly wasn't made final until a few hours before the deadline.

 

The Stanford community is pleasantly surprised.    It's great for Stanford football, and we think Love is set-up for a great year.   We will surround him with a better QB, O-line, WRs, TEs, you name it. (Given health, Stanford might have its best offense since the Luck years of 10 and 11.   But our defense might be surprisingly poor which is disappointing.)

 

Love wants to be a doctor, that degree is everything.   How can anyone not be proud of a kid like that?

 

All that said, Bryce is probably making a mistake from a pure football perspective.  He should turn pro and not risk possible injury which might hurt his draft chances.  The injury risk is considerable.   But the family supports the decision, so it's all good.   The Stanford community is not complaining!       

 

 

PS --  Stanford still had a number of players who the Colts might be very interested in drafting.   I'll address them in another post likely next week.

 

 

 

 

The other aspect is NFL GMs are more cautious with 4 year RBs from college because the low mileage RBs translate better to the NFL for the most part. 

[OffensivelyPC]

11 minutes ago, chad72 said:

 

The other aspect is NFL GMs are more cautious with 4 year RBs from college because the low mileage RBs translate better to the NFL for the most part. 

That has a lot more to do with the fact that the best running backs often go to college when they are draft eligible, or 3 years. That being said, there is both a positive and negative associated with a college RBs workload and it depends on preference.  Low miles = less injury risk, but low experience.  High miles = More experienced, but higher injury risk.  When it comes to the 1st round, and even 2nd round, you want a prototypical balance, but you'll often find that most guys with more carries are taken sooner because not only does experience matter, there is more film to better project his progression from college to the NFL.