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Colleges

For Seminoles to go far, their RBs must go farther

By GARY SHELTON
Published September 13, 2006

At a time when the schedule is set up for a good run, what a shame it is that FSU cannot.

The Seminoles run like used appliances: undependable and all in one place. They run like your first automobile, billowing smoke and noise and threatening to break down again at any moment. They run like a monk's mouth during a vow of silence.

In other words, FSU doesn't run. Not very often. Not very far.

In the run-to-daylight sport of college football, FSU sort of trudges toward the night light. These are dark days, all right. The running game has become a running joke.

Two games in, and the Seminoles have the worst running game in college football. They have huge, athletic linemen, and they are averaging 23 yards per game. They have fast, elusive backs, and they are averaging 0.87 yards per attempt. They have a legendary coach, and they have been thrown for losses 18 times in 53 attempts.

Here's a number for you: The Seminoles are averaging 31 inches per rush. Inches.

Every carry, they run for the length of a cheerleader's belt. Every attempt, they ramble the width of a birdcage. You have a longer shirtsleeve. You have a larger TV screen. If an FSU back ever manages to break loose for the size of your coffee table, the coaching staff will probably call timeout and give him the ball.

At 31 inches, officials do not bring out the yardsticks for a measurement. They bring out a microscope. At 31 inches, you are not tall enough for this ride.

If this were not so amazing, it would be embarrassing. And the other way around. It was one thing when FSU was running 25 times against Miami for 1 more yard than a dead man. But on its first 18 tries against Troy, FSU gained 19 yards. The last person Troy shamed this bad was Brad Pitt.

"It's kind of a mystery to me," FSU coach Bobby Bowden said Tuesday. "We have not run well at all. I look at the film, and it's one of those deals where four of the five blockers are doing pretty well."

Shoot, Bobby, it's simple. Find the fifth guy and get him out of the game.

Bowden laughs, because when a coach is 2-0, he can afford to chuckle. But, yeah, if his team is going anywhere, Bowden knows his team has to run part of the way. He has never been a grinder like Woody Hayes or Tom Osborne, coaches who ran so often you would think they were driving cattle. Still, there are glaciers that move more than 31 inches at a pop.

"It's obvious," Bowden said. "We have to have more balance, or it's going to catch up to us somewhere along the line."

In other words, yeah, the Seminoles might face another opponent as fearsome as Troy.

Here's the sad part. FSU was horrible running last year, too. It averaged only 94 yards on the ground, its lowest total since that let's-take-up-football season of 1947. It was the 109th-ranked rushing attack in college football. It was like watching the Four Horsemen, only with turtles.

After two games, however, FSU fans might refer to 2005 as "the good old days."

Remember how tailback Lorenzo Booker was aiming at the school record of 1,242 yards? Poor Booker. After two games, he has 1,227 to go. He's averaging 7.5 yards per game, which means he needs a 166-game schedule to break the record. That should take him to the year 2021, assuming he doesn't go pro.

Troy? It shouldn't matter if Troy is playing 10 men and a wooden horse in the box, the Seminoles should be able to run. They couldn't, and embarrassment almost caught up.

This would have been worse than N.C. State losing to Akron. It would have been worse than Colorado losing to Montana State. It would have been a national punch line.

So what's the deal? Are the 'Noles stuck in the mud because of inability or inattention? Is it the plays called or the plays changed?

"A lot of it is that we're not running as much as we should," Bowden said. "There are times we check out of a run too much so we can throw."

Part of it, too, is Bowden's legendary impatience. When he is behind, he wants to catch up all at once. When he is ahead, he wants to score three times on the next two plays. He has never been a coach with an appreciation for a gain of 2.

"I'm probably the most impatient coach on our staff," Bowden said. "Even back when Mark Richt was here, if we weren't running the ball, I'd say, 'Let's throw the runs out and throw the stinking ball.' "

For an old-school coach, Bowden has never been a guy who tried to pound the defense into surrender. He'll argue that a team can win by throwing the ball most of the time. But you have to run it some.

It is dangerous to put a young season so completely on the shoulders of a young quarterback such as Drew Weatherford. To win big, a team needs to be complete. It has to run it sometimes. It has to be able to control the clock and dictate field position and adjust to the weather and protect a lead.

Glance at the schedule. Between now and the Florida game, FSU plays only one team in the top 25 (No. 23 Boston College, at home). In other words, there is a chance for the Seminoles to run away and hide. And there is that word again: Run.

In the meantime, FSU is running on empty, running blind. Blame the backs. Blame the line. Blame Jeff Bowden; now that Chris Rix is out of town, I don't think he has anything else scheduled.

Eventually, however, a team has to be able to run. Otherwise, defeat will catch it from behind.

Game of inches, football.

And 31 of them isn't enough.

[Last modified September 13, 2006, 06:29:06]