Running Porter made sense against SJSU. It did not make sense against Maryland. It will not make sense against USC. Porter sees a pile of bodies and dives in to it for a couple of yards. Warren sees a pile of bodies and runs through/around/over to get the extra yards and potential big play. Porter must look really good in practice. Wait....we talkin' bout practice ???
I don't think we're being impatient with Porter, just recognizing that Warren is obviously better, and saying we have a hard time understanding Herman's "your previous in-game performances are irrelevant in evaluating your skill as a player" attitude.
I thought Young and Carter looked way quicker than Porter. Not just quicker, either. Both of them had side-step moves that garnered an additional few yards. I followed Porter's progress in high school, and he still hasn't shown that burst that he used to have. I think his minor injuries kind of piled up.
From my memory, virtually all very good or great running backs that I have watched at Texas dating as far back as I can remember (early 60s) showed a spark or a burst the first few times they touched the ball. That includes not only the obvious choices, like Earl, Ricky, Cedric, Jamal and D'Onta, but also even players like Hadnot and, for that matter, Kirk Johnson. I just don't see it in Porter.
You noticed Foreman's ability in 2014? http://stats.texassports.com/sports/m-footbl/2014-2015/plyr_3f.htm
Yeah, Foreman was basically a throw-in to get Armanti. No one knew he would gain 40 pounds of muscle and keep his speed back in 2013-14. He wasn't an obvious future Heisman candidate. Porter looked the part of a running back star in HS, making defenders look stupid with his cuts and then blazing by guys with ease. And he did it in a tough 6A division, so it wasn't a fluke. But like I said, his minor injuries kind of piled on, and I think we just didn't have any other options but to play him last season to spell D'Onta. Carter and Young both look better than Porter with the eye test, but obviously the staff doesn't see either as the primary backup. Porter must be doing everything right to keep his spot.
While I understand the whole "play as you practice" mantra, my experience has been it always doesn't work that way. Porter lacks something - but he must be impressing the staff during practice. I suspect his hard work and study is what the staff is seeing. His blocking seems to be fine (which may be what the coaches are looking at). However, until he learns to run from piles instead of into them his game performance is going to leave a lot to be desired by us paying folks.
I rewatched the first half last night. On about 1/3 of runs, Porter makes 2-3 yards after contact. He is not as bad as people are making out here, or what I heard in the stands. Let's see if he improves.
Maybe in practice, it's really strange that Warren isn't getting the ball way more. I know his history of injuries, but that's a generalization. Look at Sean Lee. Texas doesn't have the luxury to "save" players. I'm not talking 40 carries but 20 sounds right. The best power back in college football that's shown he can run at the collegiate level is splitting carries with an unproven, upside back that to be fair has been prone to turning the ball over. It's something off the field or Herman is an idiot
Indeed I did. Now, did I expect for him to be as good as he turned out to be? No. But his early carries were typically not that of a journeyman back.
What would it have proven to give Warren 5 more carries, or 10, or even another 20 against SJSU? Absolutely nothing. Instead we got carries for 4 different backs which saves wear and tear on all of them. The only question I have about our use of backs is why we didn't see all 5 of the guys. Where was Johnson, and why didn't he get any touches? If your panties are in a wad because Porter played early in the first quarter, I don't know what to tell you, because as hammer notes above, Porter was not a liability at any time in the game. So to conclude from Saturday's game that Herman is "trying to be too smart, his real problem", or that "Herman is an idiot" says a lot more about your football IQ than it does about the coach.
We've obit had two (2) games. In the first game, Beck came out riding Shane. RBs didn't get enough carries period. The second game we killed them and they gave carries to everyone they thought they'd need this year. I'm not criticizing Warren's number of carries. I'll criticize coaching if they don't depend on the Oline and RBs against USC.