In one play in the Mississippi State game, Jefferson dropped back and Blue stepped out to the left to block the obvious unblocked outside man. But a stunt was on and another linebacker blitzed on the same side but on Blues inside. Blue spotted it and tried to shift his block to that man, but had already committed his momentum. He ended up blocking air and falling down between the two blitzing defenders, both of whom got in of the sack. Young backs learn by experience and now Blue knows two things he didn't previously. 1. The obvious blitzer may not be the key blitzer. 2. When you can't block them both, at least block one of them. This lesson Blue has learned the hard way and hopefully won't get caught whiffing two defenders again. But Ford still needs PT and he's still going have those rookie errors in front of him. It may be that the coaches only want to risk one green back at a time in there making freshman mistakes.
That is an execution issue. I understand Ford's are more mental in nature. Maybe in that situation Ford doesn't hang out to block at all, and instead goes out to the flat to catch a pass. I don't know if things are that extreme, but maybe they are. Would you rather have the back that knows, but misses the assignment, or the back that doesn't know the assignment at all.
Not the case from what I am hearing. He did fine with our blitz packages but then when we inserted opposing defense schemes he starting over thinking and even started running into the wrong holes, etc... Mental thing... Blue still brings something different to the table when paired up with Ridley. Where Ridley and Ford are similar.
Can Ford run the ball? If so why not put him in a few times a game to run it? And if you want to keep it from being obvious, throw him in on a few pass plays where he doesn't have to run, but runs a wheel route or a flare. If the guy was so lights out in the spring and in practice like Miles said he was, why isn't he playing?
The assumption on your part being that Ford is not whiffing in practice. Clearly Ford is not getting something correct, or he would not get passed up by two true freshmen. Practice is the biggest indicator on a depth chart. It's not rocket science.
Actually, I'm suggest that all of the young backs have issues with picking up the blitz, this is nothing new. It's just that Blue is getting more opportunities to get past his freshman mistakes and that maybe the coaches feel a need to break in these backs one-at-a time.
Looks up at my posts. Also Blue and Ware were not with the team in the Spring. Ford is not the wheel route type of back. Maybe it would work here and there but he is more of a physical pounding back.
If he can give you 5 or 6 snaps a game of just rushing the football, without him having to pick up blitzes, or maybe a flare route, then i really don't see why he can't play. I mean can't he just memorize a few plays? Or in short yardage situations. Bhelm, do you think that lack of playing time is damaging Ford's psyche? To be honest i really don't care at this point because Stevan Ridley has proven that he can run the ball, but it's always nice to have other guys who have in game experience.
