SB Nation - Demetrius Goode

If College Football Had a Playoff: #16 Troy @ #1 Alabama

Jeremy Mauss — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 19:00:25 -0000

by Dave Martin - AP

So, starting each week day from now till the title game a 'What if Playoff' will occur here with readers voting on who should win the matchup.

Today's would be Sun Belt champion Troy @ Alabama. An upset is unlikely, but the way Troy plays against big time competition who knows how close this game would be. Yes, a playoff would feature home teams by the upper seed to give them an advantage for a better season. The bracket and stats on each team are listed below.

Just make sure to vote and the winner moves onto the next round. Voting is open for 24 hours, and look for these to be posted each day at 12 eastern time.

#16 Troy Stats

Passing

		Passing									Rushing					Sacks
	G	Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/G	Y/A	TD	INT	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Sack	YdsL
Levi Brown	12	60.0	248	386	64.2	3264	272	8.5	19	5	46	19	1.6	.400	1	-	-
Dantavious Parker	9	50.0	10	19	52.6	87	9.7	4.6	0	0	28	154	17.1	5.5	2	-	-

Rushing

		Rushing					Receiving
	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Rec	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD
Levi Brown	12	46	19	1.6	.400	1	0	0	0	0	0
Jason Bruce	10	2	11	1.1	5.5	0	20	260	26	13	2
Maurice Greer	10	34	244	24.4	7.2	3	6	59	5.9	9.8	0
DuJuan Harris	12	137	471	39.3	3.4	8	23	193	16.1	8.4	1
Josh Jarboe	8	2	9	1.1	4.5	0	14	236	29.5	16.9	1
Jerrel Jernigan	12	34	227	18.9	6.7	1	62	947	78.9	15.3	4
Nathan Nolin	2	1	9	4.5	9	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dantavious Parker	9	28	154	17.1	5.5	2	0	0	0	0	0
Chip Reeves	11	3	9	.800	3	0	22	363	33	16.5	3
Austin Silvoy	10	1	-15	-1.5	-15	0	13	182	18.2	14	0
Shawn Southward	12	100	574	47.8	5.7	10	10	94	7.8	9.4	0
D.J. Taylor	3	8	71	23.7	8.9	0	0	0	0	0	0

Receiving

		Receiving
	G	Rec	Yds	Y/G	AVG	TD
Travis Boyd	2	3	41	20.5	13.7	0
Jason Bruce	10	20	260	26	13	2
Jonathan Chandler	1	0	0	0	0	0
Patrick Cherry	11	20	260	23.6	13	1
Andrew Davis	8	13	149	18.6	11.5	2
Tebiarus Gill	11	44	553	50.3	12.6	6
Maurice Greer	10	6	59	5.9	9.8	0
DuJuan Harris	12	23	193	16.1	8.4	1
Josh Jarboe	8	14	236	29.5	16.9	1
Jerrel Jernigan	12	62	947	78.9	15.3	4
Zack Marcum	12	33	315	26.3	9.5	1
Chip Reeves	11	22	363	33	16.5	3
Austin Silvoy	10	13	182	18.2	14	0
Shawn Southward	12	10	94	7.8	9.4	0
Cornelius Williams	11	18	320	29.1	17.8	2

Kicking

		Field Goals								PAT
	G	0-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50+	FGM	FGA	PCT	XPM	XPA	PCT	pts
Sam Glusman	5	-	-	-	-	-	7	9	80.0%	9	9	100.0%	30
Michael Taylor	8	-	-	-	-	-	9	10	90.0%	38	40	100.0%	65

#1 Alabama Stats

Passing

		Passing									Rushing					Sacks
	G	Rating	Comp	Att	Pct	Yds	Y/G	Y/A	TD	INT	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Sack	YdsL
Star Jackson	2	70.0	13	18	72.2	116	58	6.4	0	0	6	3	1.5	.500	0	-	-
Greg McElroy	13	93.0	192	315	61	2450	188.5	7.8	17	4	47	110	8.5	2.3	1	-	-

Rushing

		Rushing					Receiving
	G	Rush	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD	Rec	Yds	Y/G	Avg	TD
Demetrius Goode	3	16	108	36	6.8	0	0	0	0	0	0
Terry Grant	7	40	166	23.7	4.2	3	3	47	6.7	15.7	0
Mark Ingram	13	249	1542	118.6	6.2	15	30	322	24.8	10.7	3
Star Jackson	2	6	3	1.5	.500	0	0	0	0	0	0
Julio Jones	12	2	4	.300	2	0	42	573	47.8	13.6	4
Marquis Maze	10	4	7	.700	1.8	0	30	519	51.9	17.3	2
Greg McElroy	13	47	110	8.5	2.3	1	0	0	0	0	0
Trent Richardson	13	126	642	49.4	5.1	6	14	107	8.2	7.6	0
Roy Upchurch	10	46	290	29	6.3	2	12	72	7.2	6	1

Receiving

		Receiving
	G	Rec	Yds	Y/G	AVG	TD
Earl Alexander	3	4	52	17.3	13	0
Michael Bowman	1	1	7	7	7	0
Preston Dial	3	3	25	8.3	8.3	0
Brandon Gibson	2	2	25	12.5	12.5	0
Terry Grant	7	3	47	6.7	15.7	0
Darius Hanks	9	17	272	30.2	16	3
Mark Ingram	13	30	322	24.8	10.7	3
Julio Jones	12	42	573	47.8	13.6	4
Marquis Maze	10	30	519	51.9	17.3	2
Mike McCoy	3	10	149	49.7	14.9	1
Colin Peek	10	26	313	31.3	12	3
Trent Richardson	13	14	107	8.2	7.6	0
Brad Smelley	5	7	50	10	7.1	0
Roy Upchurch	10	12	72	7.2	6	1
Michael Williams	2	3	29	14.5	9.7	0

Kicking

		Field Goals								PAT
	G	0-19	20-29	30-39	40-49	50+	FGM	FGA	PCT	XPM	XPA	PCT	pts
Jeremy Shelley	1	-	-	-	-	-	0	1	0	1	1	100.0%	1
Leigh Tiffin	13	-	-	-	-	-	29	33	90.0%	39	42	90.0%	126

Poll

Who wins this matcup?

Running Back Success Rates: Alabama vs. North Texas

Nico2.0 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 13:00:20 -0000

Much like the Florida International game, our success rates against a defense like North Texas aren't going to tell us a ton about our running game, but still, we want to provide the information for your perusal. I've been delayed on processing the VT numbers and will have those ready on Wednesday or Thursday. Anyway, four backs carried in our game against UNT and, as always, they'll be listed in the order they got their first carry. For those of you that need a refresher on RB success rate, it goes a little something like this: a carry is successful if on...

1st down: the RB gains 40% of the yardage needed
2nd down: the RB gains 60% of the yardage needed
3rd & 4th down: the RB gains 100% of the yardage needed

vs North Texas / 9.19.09	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Mark Ingram	8	91	11.4	1	3	38	12.7	1

Ingram had another solid day with 129 all-purpose yards (91 rushing, 38 receiving) and he had both a rushing and receiving TD. Actually, I guess you can't get much more perfect than having every carry you take be deemed a success.

vs North Texas / 9.19.09	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Trent Richardson	11	87	7.9	1	1	3	3	0

Richardson turned in another solid performance as well. Nothing you can really complain about when 73% of his carries were successful. Two of his three unsuccessful carries were only a yard short of being deemed successful so he was two yards shy of being 10 of 11. His carry for (-1) yards in the first half was the only negative play we had all day as far as designed runs were concerned.

vs North Texas / 9.19.09	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Terry Grant	19	79	4.2	2	2	29	1 4.5	0

Grant got more carries than any other back in the game. He had as many as Ingram and Richardson combined. Considering the fact that the lion's share of his carries came in the 2nd half behind non-starters, I'd say his overall 63% is quite good.

vs North Texas / 9.19.09	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Demetrius Goode	1	14	14	0	0	0	0	0

With only one carry, there's no need to construct a chart for Goode. His 14 yard carry was on a first & 10, putting his success rate at 100% for the day.

Needless to say, we pretty much ran the ball at will against North Texas. Our overall team success rate was 74%. We had eight carries of 10 yards or more and 21 carries of five yards or better. Move the ball like that and it's nearly impossible not to win. This analyses will get more interesting once we delve into conference play.

September 20th: Sunday Night Roundup

outsidethesidelines — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:42:18 -0000

More photos » by Dave Martin - AP

Thanks, coach.

Browse more photos »

All in all it was yet another great weekend of college football. Lots of news and storylines out there today, so here's a quick roundup of things of interest:

After watching the Tide dismantle his Mean Green, North Texas head coach Todd Dodge is fully convinced of the Tide's abilities. In the post-game he said we were, "as good as advertised," and furthermore said that we had "all the ingredients" needed to win a national championship. If nothing else, we made a believer out of him on Saturday.

Julio Jones dressed out for the game yesterday against North Texas, and Coach Saban said something to the effect of that he might play if we needed him, but obviously it never came to that. The smart money is on Julio playing had we been facing an SEC opponent, but even so Coach Saban has already said that Julio should be good to go next week against the Hogs. The news, however, wasn't necessarily so promising on Roy Upchurch. Saban said he was probably 80-85 percent right now, but did say that if he kept responding that he might play this weekend.

Demetrius Goode went down after his 14-yard run with an injury to his right knee and did not return. Coach Saban, however, later said it was just a hyper-extended knee and that he thought he should be okay. Goode tore an ACL two years ago in Fall camp, but this injury doesn't look anywhere near as serious.

Lost in the domination of the Mean Green was that Greg McElroy took a very hard shot on the opening play of the game. He hurt his left jaw during the impact, and was favoring it a tad bit afterward. I noticed him with ice on it at one point, and while the medical staff is telling him to keep ice on it the next few days it's nothing serious.

Alabama didn't get any sacks against North Texas, but Coach Saban couldn't have cared less about that fact.

Click here to watch highlights from the North Texas game, and click here to watch Coach Saban's postgame interview.

After USC's upset to Washington, Alabama moved up to third in both major polls, trailing only Florida and Texas. And in the AP poll, 'Bama received three first place votes.

Moving on to the Hogs, Arkansas starting middle linebacker Jerry Franklin was ejected from the Georgia game last night after bumping two UGA players and an official. Under a new rule passed this past year, whenever a player is ejected from a game due to a flagrant personal foul, the team's conference must conduct an automatic video review for possible additional sanctions to be added in the next game. Obviously I don't expect Franklin will miss any time in the Alabama game because of it, but it is nevertheless something to keep in mind.

Speaking of the Hogs, for those of you that like to bet or like me who just like the betting lines for their predictive power, Alabama opened as a 14.5 point favorite over Arkansas..

If nothing else, at least Arkansas has struggled in Tuscaloosa as of late. In the past five trips to Bryant-Denny, the Hogs are only 1-4.

Initial Impressions from the North Texas Game

outsidethesidelines — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:15:09 -0000

A few initial impressions after the 53-7 route of North Texas:

Obviously a dominant performance by the Tide, and frankly one that was over before it ever really started. North Texas was never even close to being in our league and they were just outmatched from the very beginning. We effectively could have named the score today, and honestly this was probably the most dominating performance we've had over a Division 1-A team in many years. At the very least, it was the most points we scored since UTEP in Legion Field way back in 2001.
On the offensive side of the ball, you really just cannot say enough about the performance of Greg McElroy. Ever since he took off in the Virginia Tech game, he has been practically unstoppable. I think he threw about one bad ball today, but aside from that his performance was completely flawless. And the amazing thing is that he has had three touchdown passes dropped the past two weeks, which means his already gaudy statistics ought to be even more inflated. I'm sure it won't be this good all year, but you would have been hard-pressed to even script a better debut for McElroy.
Likewise, even without the presence of Julio Jones, the wide receiver corps looked great. Mike McCoy has basically done everything Julio would have done the past two weeks, and Marquis Maze, Darius Hanks, Earl Alexander, and others have all filled out the rotation nicely. Now obviously I'm not going to be so swayed by the past two games to think that we can miss a guy like Julio Jones against the stretch run of SEC teams and not see a dip in production, but it's still encouraging to see that we can get the job done against lesser opponents with #8 sitting on the sideline.
Mark Ingram and Trent Richardson may very well be the best tailback duo in the conference. Both are big, physical runners with good speed, good field vision, and both are threats to catch the football out of the backfield. There is not another duo anywhere in the country that I would trade for those two right now.
Defensively it was a great day, but honestly things were really vanilla by both the Alabama defense and the North Texas offense. For such a supposed offensive guru, it would be difficult to get much more plain jane than what Todd Dodge put on display today. It was all dink and dunk passes that came out almost immediately, mixed in with a bunch of runs out of shotgun into the interior of the line for no yardage. We were equally vanilla on defense, but there was no reason to do anything else. Terrence Cody and Josh Chapman had a field day with the UNT guards and centers and the 'Bama linebackers were free to roam all day. Our defensive backs were superior athletes anyway, and they were never legitimately tested by the Mean Green dink and dunk offense
The pass rush looked terrible on paper today, as we weren't able to get a single sack on 23 passing attempts. In reality, though, it was no major issue. North Texas was getting the ball out almost immediately on the snap and it really never gave our pass rush a chance. It took all of the edge rushers out of the game, effectively, but it's no major concern. Our pass rush didn't do anything wrong today, and we should still be in good shape moving forward.
It was nice to see Leigh Tiffin getting such great distance on kick-offs, but we still had at least one major breakdown in the kick coverage team, and Tiffin played a huge role in that. Every single kick return that has went for a long distance today has been largely assisted by Tiffin being far out of position. It has gotten so bad that it's practically an 11-on-10 match-up when we kick-off, and frankly I don't think I've ever seen someone consistently as lost on a football field as Tiffin is during kick returns. Again, he had a nice day today in terms of kick-off distance and positioning, but at this point you just have to be honest and say that if we need to rely on Tiffin in any way whatsoever to assist bringing down the returner, we're just out of luck.
And speaking further of Tiffin, the two missed extra points today were ridiculous. What can you say? Just pray that no 'Bama game this year legitimately comes down to a kick. If it does, the post-game drinking is most likely going to be rooted in depression, not celebration.
One nitpick on the Alabama pass defense: Care to guess how many interceptions we have had since the LSU game last year? One... and that one was Mark Barron's relatively meaningless interception very late last week against Florida International. All told, that is seven games and only one interception to show for it all. The pass defense has generally been good during that stretch, but the complete lack of an ability to force turnovers is very frustrating, and honestly it is something that we need to be able to do in order to truly become an elite defense. As well as our offense has performed, we can really be absolutely explosive in terms of point production if our defense can start getting turnovers for our offense.
You know whose playing time has almost been entirely eliminated? Cory Reamer. He's still a "starter," per se, I suppose, but he really has not had a lot of meaningful playing time the past couple of weeks, and honestly most of his time today came late in the game with the back-ups. For a "starter," he's probably played less than anyone with that designation in a long time.
Speaking of Reamer, I think one of the things interesting on defense is that we have largely went with a 3-3-5 look the past couple of weeks. Reamer has gone off the field, and in his place Marquis Johnson has been on the field as a fifth defensive back. And then in long-yardage, obvious passing situations, we move to a dime package with four defensive linemen -- with Rolando McClain the only linebacker on the field -- and the defensive line consists of the two "normal" defensive ends being moved inside, and Dont'a Hightower and Eryk Anders playing with their hand on the ground at defensive end. All in all it's been successful, but it's still an interesting note. We really haven't lined up very much in a traditional 3-4 look (or 4-3 look, for that matter) the past couple of weeks. These past two opponents have been spread teams trying to throw the football, so perhaps the 3-3-5 is the way we're choosing to attack spread passing teams moving forward. Given the success so far it's hard to overly complain.
With the playing time that Star Jackson saw today, there is no question whatsoever that he is indeed our back-up quarterback. We simplified things for him and kept everything short and underneath -- and he did get away with one pass that could have easily been an interception -- but he looked pretty decent. He has good physical tools and he's developing nicely. He's not ready to play right now against high level competition, in my opinion, but we knew that Jackson was a developmental project when we signed him, and to that end he seems to be developing nicely. That said, though, again, he's not really ready to play right now, and if McElroy goes down against quality competition, we're really going to see a drop in offensive production.
Very few true freshmen on the field today, even against North Texas. Trent Richardson, Rod Woodson, Dre Kirkpatrick, Michael Bowman, and Nico Johnson played, but those five players had played already, and to the best of my knowledge no new true freshmen played today. With that in mind, I imagine the general plan for just about everyone else at this point is to redshirt.
Speaking of players who didn't play today, Burton Scott was absent for the third consecutive game. He's healthy, not suspended, and he was dressed out today, but he never went in. Instead, Dre Kirkpatrick, Tyrone King, and Chris Rogers played corner in mop-up duty. I'll be honest, at this point I think you have to say that Scott is going to redshirt this year.
Fortunately, no major injuries today from what we can tell. The only other semi-serious injury was to Demetrius Goode who went down with what was later diagnosed with a hyper-extended knee. Thankfully it doesn't look to be anything overly serious, and hopefully he'll be ready to go in a week or two. Unlike what was the case against Florida International, thankfully the price of victory in terms of injuries wasn't quote so high this week.
All in all, it was just a dominating performance today by the Tide, and with no major injuries confirmed thus far, there is really nothing to complain about. Of course, on the other hand, North Texas was clearly nowhere in our league, so by the same token you shouldn't necessarily draw any hard and fast conclusions about anything from today. Nevertheless, it was a good day for the Tide, we won big and we stayed healthy in the process. Now let's just ready for Arkansas...

Running Back Success Rates vs. FIU: Grant, Ingram, Goode

Nico2.0 — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 15:33:58 -0000

More photos » by Butch Dill - AP

Terry Grant runs for a 42 yard TD against FIU.

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Earlier this week, I posted the RB success rate data and charts against FIU for Roy Upchurch, Julio Jones and Trent Richardson. Some real life business that I had to attend to earlier in the week prevented me from doing all six carriers at once and so now I present the other three ball carriers from last weekend's game: Terry Grant, Mark Ingram and Demetrius Goode. In the future, these will be posted the Monday after the game.

For a brief reminder of what makes a carry a successful carry:

1st down: Runner gains 40% of the necessary yardage
2nd down: Runner gains 60% of the necessary yardage
3rd & 4th down: Runner gains 100% of the necessary yardage

vs Florida Intl / 9.12.09	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Terry Grant	6	69	11.5	1	0	0	0	0

A very small sample size to work with, but basically, Terry got the job done when we put the ball in his hands last weekend. Though he only had six touches, he created a lot out of them gaining 69 yards and a TD. He only had two unsuccessful carries: a three yard loss on his first carry and a gain of three on a third down when four yards were needed. In the instance of the 3rd and 4, it was late in the game and we were just trying to kill the clock off and not kick a field goal/run up the score, so we went for it on 4th and 1 and Grant converted it. Needless to say, his highlight moment was breaking off a 42 yard touchdown run.

vs Florida Intl / 9.12.09	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Mark Ingram	10	56	5.6	1	4	47	11.8	0

We weren't really sure how much we were going to see of Ingram against FIU, but he wound up playing a pretty good bit all things considered. He had 10 carries and four receptions for 103 all-purpose yards. Not too shabby for someone that probably wasn't functioning at 100%. Ingram got the lion's share of his carries in the first half and his three second half carries all occurred when it was still 20-14. Needless to say, we're deep at the position and could rely on others to wear their defense down. His percentage would've likely been higher if not for making a carry on the statistic-skewing down of 2nd & 25.

vs Florida Intl / 9.12.09	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Demetrius Goode	4	24	6	0	0	0	0	0

Goode made four of the last six carries of the game. Needless to say, it was clock killing time. That being said, he kept the chains moving and accomplished what he was sent in to do.

As OTS mentioned in the comments of the first post, this isn't very telling against Sun Belt defenses, but it's still good to look at. Once we get into the meat of the schedule, this kind of analysis will really tell us a lot more about our running game performance. I'm hoping to get the Virginia Tech game stats done tonight and posted this evening or tomorrow so we can see some data about our running game against a BCS defense.

2009 Alabama Fall Football Roster (as of 8-5-09)

kleph — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:05:56 -0000

You know Alabama football is starting to get crackin' when the first fall roster is released. And, lo and behold, here it be... all 105 players who have officially reported for fall practice as of yesterday.

Number	Name	Pos.	Class HT.	WT.	Hometown/Last School
82	Earl Alexander	WR	Jr. 6-4	212	Phenix City, Ala./Central
32	Eryk Anders	LB	Sr. 6-2	235	San Antonio, Texas/Smithson Valley
28	Javier Arenas	DB	Sr. 5-9	195	Tampa, Fla./Robinson
49	Jonathan Atchison	LB	Fr. 6-2	220	Atlanta, Ga./Douglass
4	Mark Barron	DB	So. 6-2	214	Mobile, Ala./St. Paul's
7	Kenny Bell	WR	Fr. 6- 1	160	Rayville, La./Rayville
44	Alex Benson	LB	Sr. 6- 1	225	Trussville, Ala./Hewitt-Trussville
86	Undra Billingsley	TE	Fr. 6-2	276	Birmingham, Ala./Woodlawn
93	Chris Bonds	DL	Fr. 6-4	280	Columbia, S.C./Richland Northeast HS
67	John Michael Boswell	OL	So. 6-5	306	Northport, Ala./Tuscaloosa County
88	Michael Bowman	WR	Fr. 6-4	210	Rossville, Ga./Ridgeland
87	Drew Bullard	LB	Jr. 6-3	238	Florence, Ala./Florence
77	James Carpenter	OL	Jr. 6-5	300	Augusta, Ga./Coffeyville[Kan.] CC/Hephzibah
99	Josh Chapman	DL	So. 6-1	313	Hoover, Ala./Hoover
62	Terrence Cody	DL	Sr. 6-5	354	Fort Myers, Fla./Gulf Coast C.C,/Riverdale
57	Marcell Dareus	DL	So. 6-4	296	Huffman, Ala./Huffman
16	Thomas Darrah	QB	So. 6-5	227	Newnan, Ga./Newnan
79	Drew Davis	OL	Sr. 6-7	306	Evergreen, Ala./Sparta Academy
96	Luther Davis	DL	Jr. 6-3	275	West Monroe, La./West Monroe
95	Brandon Deaderick	DL	Sr. 6-4	306	Elizabethtown, Ky./Elizabethtown
51	Michael DeJohn	LB	Jr. 6- 1	241	Hoover, Ala./Hoover
85	Preston Dial	TE	Ir. 6-3	233	Mobile, Ala./UMS-Wright
40	DeMarcus DuBose	LB	So. 6-1	232	Montgomery, Ala./Jefferson Davis
13	Rob Ezell	WR	Jr. 5-10	170	Athens, Ala./Athens
97	P.J. Fitzgerald	P	Sr. 5-11	204	Coral Springs, Fla./Stoneman Douglas
76	D.J. Fluker	OL	Fr. 6-6	340	Foley, Ala./Foley
58	Nick Gentry	DL	So. 6-1	264	Prattville, Ala./Prattville
11	Brandon Gibson	WR	So. 6-2	192	Mobile, Ala./UMS-Wright
6	Demetrius Goode	RB	So. 5-9	191	LaGrange, Ga./Troup/Hargrave
29	Terry Grant	RB	Jr. 5-10	190	Lumberton, Miss./Lumberton
33	Hampton Gray	DB	Sr. 6- 2	196	Northport, Ala./Tuscaloosa County
23	Robby Green	DB	So. 6-0	181	New Orleans, La./John Curtis Christian
34	Jeramie Griffin	RB	So. 6-2	224	Batesville, Miss./South Panola
15	Darius Hanks	WR	So. 6-0	184	Norcross, Ga./Norcross
54	Glenn Harbin	DL	Fr. 6-5	257	Mobile, Ala./McGill-Toolen
5	Jerrell Harris	LB	So. 6-3	227	Gadsden, Ala./Gadsden City
30	Dont'a Hightower	LB	So. 6-4	255	Lewisburg, TennJMarshall County
40	Baron Huber	RB/TE	Sr. 6-4	263	Knoxville, Tenn./Powell
22	Mark Ingram	RB	So. 5-10	212	Flint, Mich./Southwestern Academy
3	Kareem Jackson	DB	Jr. 6-0	193	Macon, Ga./Westside/Fork Union
2	Star Jackson	QB	Fr. 6-3	206	Lake Worth, Fla./Lake Worth
24	Marquis Johnson	DB	Sr. 5-11	191	Sarasota, Fla./Booker
78	Mike Johnson	OL	Sr. 6-5	303	Pensacola, Fla./Pine Forest
35	Nico Johnson	LB	Fr. 6-3	225	Andalusia, Ala./Andalusia
75	Barrett Jones	OL	R-Fr. 6-4	289	Memphis, Tenn./Evangelical Christian School
8	Julio Jones	WR	So. 6-4	211	Foley, Ala./Foley
26	Phelon Jones	DB	So. 5-11	195	Mobile, Ala./LSU/McGilk-Toolen
36	Chris Jordan	LB	So. 6-3	230	Brentwood, Tenn./Brentwood Academy
81	Kendall Kelly	WR	Fr. 6-3	216	Gadsden, Ala./Gadsden City
20	Tyrone King	DB	Sr. 5-11	203	Birmingham, Ala./Grambling State/Minor
21	Dre Kirkpatrick	DB	Fr. 6-3	185	Gadsden, Ala./Gadsden City
42	Eddie Lacy	RB	Fr. 6-0	210	Geismar, La./Dutchtown
37	Robert Lester	DB	Fr. 6-2	207	Foley, Ala./Foley
72	Tyler Love	0 L	R-Fr. 6-6	303	Mountain Brook, Ala,/Mountain Brook
33	Mike Marrow	RB-HB	Fr. 6-2	240	Holland, Ohio/Central Catholic
4	Marquis Maze	WR	So. 5-10	179	Birmingham, Ala./Tarrant
10	A.J. McCarron	QB	Fr. 6-4	190	Mobile, Ala./Saint Paul's Episcopal School
25	Rolando McClain	LB	Ir. 6-4	255	Decatur, Ala./Decatur
80	Mike McCoy	WR	Sr. 6-3	215	Rankin, Miss./Northwest
52	Alfred McCullough	OL	So. 6-2	305	Athens, Ala./Athens
12	Greg McElroy	QB	Jr. 6-3	220	Southlake, Texas/Southlake Carroll
56	William Ming	DL	Fr. 6-3	260	Athens, Ala./Athens
59	Brandon Moore	DL	Fr. 6-5	310	Montgomery, Ala./Carver
66	Brian Motley	OL	Jr. 6-3	291	Autaugaville, Ala./Autaugaville
64	Kerry Murphy .	DL	Fr. 6-4	323	Hoover, Ala./Hargrave/Hoover
46	Wesley Neighbors	DB	So. 6-1	210	Huntsville, Ala./Huntsville
83	Kevin Norwood	WR	Fr. 6-2	180	D'lberville, Miss./DiIberville
18	Morgan Ogilvie	QB	So. 6-0	195	Mountain Brook, Ala./Mountain Brook
2	Tana Patrick	LB	Fr. 6-3	235	Bridgeport, Ala./North Jackson
84	Colin Peek	TE	Sr. 6-6	255	Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla./Georgia Tech/Bolles
39	Kyle Pennington	DB	Jr. 5-11	188	Chatom, Ala./Washington County
68	Taylor Pharr	OL	Jr. 6-6	290	Irondale, Ala./Shades Valley
54	Russell Rains	OL	Fr. 6-2	260	Satsuma, Ala./SaWuma
13	Cory Reamer	LB	Sr. 6-4	234	Hoover, Ala./Hoover
3	Trent Richardson	RB	Fr. 5-11	220	Pensacola, Fla./Escambia
8	Chris Rogers	DB	Sr. 6-0	190	Lakeland, Fla./Evangel Christian
74	David Ross	OL	Jr. 6-3	299	Homewood, Ala./Homewood
1	B.J. Scott	DB	So. 5-11	196	Prichard, Ala./Vigor
46	Chris Scott	WR	Sr. 5-11	170	Birmingham, Ala./Ramsay
50	Brian Selman	SNP	Sr. 6-0	210	Vestavia Hills, Ala./Vestavia Hills
94	Darrington Sentimore	DL	Fr. 6-3	280	Norco, La./Destrehan
26	Ali Sharrief	DB	Sr. 5-9	200	Stevenson, Ala./North Jackson
94	Jeremy Shelley	PK	Fr. 5-10	170	Raleigh, N.C./Broughton
48	Travis Sikes	WR	Jr. 6-3	198	Nashville, Tenn./Christ Presbyterian
71	Allen Skelton	OL	So. 6-1	265	Coker, Ala./Tuscaloosa County
17	Brad Smelley	TE	So. 6-3	233	Tuscaloosa, Ala./American Christian
92	Damion Square	DL	Fr. 6-3	272	Houston, TexaslYates
61	Anthony Steen	OL-DL	Fr. 6-3	305	Lambert, Miss./Lee Academy
47	Ed Stinson	LB-DL	Fr. 6-4	240	Homestead, Fla./South Dade
90	Milton Talbert	DL	Jr. 6-4	275	Hattiesburg, Miss./Hattiesburg
99	Leigh Tiffin	PK	Sr. 6-2	212	Muscle Shoals, Ala./Muscle Shoals
51	Carson Tinker	ST	So. 6-1	220	Murfreesboro, Tenn./Riverdale
87	Chris Underwood	TE	So. 6-4	231	Birmingham, Ala./Vestavia Hills
5	Roy Upchurch	RB	Sr. 6-0	205	Tallahassee, Fla./Godby
41	Courtney Upshaw	LB	So. 6-2	249	Eufaula, Ala./Eufaula
73	William Vlachos	OL	Jr- 6-1	294	Birmingham, Ala./Mountain Brook
65	Chance Warmack	OL	Fr. 6-3	301	Atlanta, Ga./Westlake
97	Lorenzo Washington	DL	Sr. 6-5	290	Logansville, Ga./Hargrave
91	Alex Watkins	LB	So. 6-3	225	Brownsville, Tenn./Haywood
55	Chavis Williams	LB	Jr. 6-4	223	Dora, Ala./Dora
60	David Williams	OL	Fr. 6-3	272	Duncanville, Ala./Hillcrest
89	Michael Williams	TE	Fr. 6-6	266	Reform, Ala./Pickens County
9	Nick Williams	WR	Fr. 5-10	165	Fort Lauderdale, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas
27	Justin Woodall	DB	Sr. 6-2	221	Oxford, Miss./Lafayette
18	Rod Woodson	DB	Fr. 5-11	200	Olfve Branch, Miss./Olive Branch

Running Back Success Rates vs Mississippi State

Todd — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:00:05 -0000

...Mark Ingram with the sole rushing TD by a running back...

To refresh your memories (or if this is the first time you've seen this), each individual rush is considered on it's own, and measured by it's "success." A run is considered successful if it gets 40% of the yardage needed to move the chains on first down, 60% of the yardage needed on second down, and 100% of the yardage needed on third or fourth down. This is a much more accurate overall picture of how well a running back does in a game than just the total yardage or ypc averages because it ignores big run outliers that can skew those kinds of stats. First up, Glen Coffee:

vs Mississippi St / 11.15.08	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Glen Coffee	17	71	4.2	0	1	11	11.0	0

As you can see, Coffee wasn't terribly spectacular in the game with only 71 yards rushing and a mediocre 4.2 ypc. His success rate wasn't much better, finishing at 53% for the entire game (though he did do much better in the second half with 67%). Next up, Mark Ingram:

vs Mississippi St / 11.15.08	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Mark Ingram	13	78	6.0	1	1	5	5.0	0

Even though young Ingram didn't do much better than Coffee as far as yardage is concerned, he was the more consistently "successful" back (and finished with a better ypc average as well). Both Jeramie Griffin and Demtrius Goode got some carries in junk time, and Griffin really stood out:

vs Mississippi St / 11.15.08	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Jeramie Griffin	5	27	5.4	0	1	9	9.0	0

vs Mississippi St / 11.15.08	Rushing				Receiving
	Rush	Yards	Avg	TD	Rec	Yards	Avg	TD
Demetrius Goode	2	3	1.5	0	0	0	0	0

If you recall from spring practice, Griffin was being used as a short yardage power back out of single back sets like LSU used Jacob Hester last year, and just looking at his numbers (while also keeping in mind it was junk time at the very end of the game), he looks like the kind of runner that Saban and the staff covet. Keep an eye out for him in the future.

Finally, the carry percentages:

Now that Coffee has figured out how to keep the ball secure, it doesn't look like there's much danger of Ingram or anyone else taking over his spot as the featured back in the offense. Also of note is a second straight week without a carry for Roy Upchurch, who has been sufferening from neck and back spasms since just before the LSU kickoff. Here's hoping he'll be back and ready for the Iron Bowl.