Too much Ringer?
Posted by kj on Saturday, September 6th, 2008
As I indicated in the comments section of the last post, I wonder whether MSU is overutilizing Ringer. Through two games, here are the number of total touches (rushing attempts plus pass receptions plus kick/punt returns) by MSU players:
Javon Ringer: 70
Everyone else: 59
At this pace, Ringer will touch the ball (i.e., get tackled) 420 times this year.
Regarding the emphasis on the run today (52 rushing attempts vs. 16 passing attempts), Joe Rexrode reports the following:
Dantonio was talking about the theme of the day, which was to pound the ball on EMU from start to finish, but it turned into a discussion about how he’s trying to remake this program. At one point in the second half, Dantonio told Don Treadwell: “You run the football every play.”
I don’t mind the general philosophy, but I do have two questions:
- Does grinding out four and a half yards per carry against a MAC team really prepare the team for Big Ten opponents?
- If we’re going to be a pound-the-ball team, doesn’t the second running back need to get more than eight carries?
As you know, I’m not a football expert by any stretch of the imagination, but it just seems like we’re eventually going to need Hoyer throwing the ball more consistently to win games against teams that match up with us physically. Mark Dell and B.J. Cunningham look like they could be just as dangerous as Ringer as the season progresses.
Maybe I’m overreacting, and that part of the game plan will be developed next week. And, given other Big Ten teams’ struggles against the MAC today, I’m certainly not complaining about a 32-point win. I just worry that Ringer isn’t going to make it through 12 games at the rate he’s going.
Filed in football9 responses so far
9 Responses to “Too much Ringer?”
Dr Huxtableon 06 Sep 2008 at 11:39 pm 1I really wanted to see them air the ball out in the 2nd half, not to run up the score, but because Hoyer really needs the reps. He wasn’t awful throwing the ball today, but he wasn’t exactly good either. I think this was a missed opportunity.
Spartan Sports Pageon 07 Sep 2008 at 9:03 am 2I think Ringer’s excessive usage is mainly due to the fact that they have n’testablished a strong number 2. Andre Anderson looked good on his limited carries and may spell Ringer more often as we go through the season.
wife of a spartanon 08 Sep 2008 at 6:00 am 3We too thought it was a lot of touches. Ringer is quite strong, however,
run, run, run gets predictable. It didn’t seem like we threw on first down enough. I only remember one nice completion on first down, where we said finally a pass play on first down.
If Treadwell is trying to lull the secondary into covering the run, we need to pass too to take advantage of that. Agree that 4-6 yards against EMU does not translate into even 3 yards run in the big ten which will not be enough yardage to get it done.
Cousins looked good, great for him to get some time. Boy are we paper-thin at Safety. At this point i think Wiley is as essential to this team as Hoyer and Ringer.
In fact Cousins and A. Anderson looked like better back ups than Fortner (who did get a lot of quality time with Davis-Clark out), and i’m not even sure of the depth behind them besides the 2 freshmen safeties, one of whom had some off-the-field trouble a few weeks ago. Jenrette needs to get his personal business taken care of
and get back to the team.
kjon 08 Sep 2008 at 8:45 am 4Doesn’t appear the game plan will be changing with respect to Ringers’ touches.
http://www.mlive.com/spartans/.....al_wo.html
At this point, it doesn’t look like offensive coordinator Don Treadwell is inclined to commit to a two-back rotation like last season when Ringer shared the duties with Jehuu Caulcrick.
“We continue to look for ways to get Javon Ringer the ball,” Treadwell said.
witless chumon 09 Sep 2008 at 8:45 am 5It scares me that we’re riding Ringer this much early, too, but I think it may be partly about keeping our full O somewhat under wraps until we hit the meat of the Big 10 schedule. Also, as Coach D says, it’s about physically pounding on EMU (and presumably FAU) and establishing toughness and confidence in the players minds.
It’s also the safer move in a game like this. MSU could lose a shootout with a team that doesn’t match us physically, but we’ll win grinding it out and keeping their offense off the field. MSU held the ball for a long time in that first half, so even when we didn’t score, EMU’s D was getting worn down and their offense was on the field to pull some quick strike score.
DP99on 09 Sep 2008 at 11:00 am 6I don’t buy the theory of the full O being kept under wraps until the Big Ten season. Wouldn’t unwrapping some of the full O been very useful in a winnable game against Cal?
Mark in DCon 09 Sep 2008 at 5:24 pm 7I have no problem with Ringer being our primary back and getting the bulk of the carries. Lots of recent teams have heavily used one back with success. However, I don’t think those teams would have run their primary back 34 times in a blowout win against a MAC team. I think the coaches want to keep Ringer in the Heisman race, and to stay in it he has to get a lot of carries every game or he won’t put up sufficient numbers. I’d have liked to see him spelled a little more in this game, but in the games that mean something I would not have a problem giving him 30 – 40 carries.
witless chumon 09 Sep 2008 at 5:52 pm 8“I don’t buy the theory of the full O being kept under wraps until the Big Ten season. Wouldn’t unwrapping some of the full O been very useful in a winnable game against Cal?”
I was talking about the EMU game and was speculating that was part of the reason they just kept pounding it with Ringer.
Spartans Weblog » FO on Ringeron 29 Sep 2008 at 2:33 pm 9[...] the decline in Ringer’s average yards/carry from 5.9 last year to 4.8 this year. While I certainly agree that Ringer’s workload is a cause for concern for MSU fans–and won’t be good for [...]