[thepostman]

You are the only person that can't admit that we had two better backs. One shattered his ankle, and one was just better. We didn't lose games because of talent. We lost games because of an inept head coach.

For the record I completely agree with everything you said in this post...I hate when people think eugene goodman and dre barnes weren't better then Sam Gado...not to take anything away from Sam, because he is very good...but those 2 backs were incredibly talented...they just had some bad luck along the way

[shukcb04]

if a player can't prove himself until others get injured, then he needs to become a better practice player so he can earn the time.

That sounds nice, but what do you do when the first and second string guys are on nearly the same level of talent? What happens when a team gets lucky to have to great players in the same position?

Ex: Joe Montana & Steve Young

well if Liberty had 3 great running backs and they still sucked, then what in the world were they doing recruiting three great running backs who would all play at the same time?

[shukcb04]

the people complaining about gado not getting PT are starting to remind me of the overzealous Kentucky basketball fans who will criticize every single move their coach makes if they don't win a national championship, and those fans are really quite sad and pathetic. exactly why I like D3 better: don't have to deal with idiot fans and media all the time.

[Knucklehead]

I still think Goodman was the best back on that team with Gado #2.
In this case I think both Rashad and terrel are great backs in their own way. Hard to rate a quick cut back better than a basher or vice versa.
JMHO!

[thepostman]

or they just see Sam Gado as the only one in the NFL and think that he must've been better and just don't know the whole story behind the situation....

the other backs were simply better...we didn't win much...because of coaching...I knew from the first time I saw LU play football my freshmen year that with the coaching philosphy the old coaching staff had we wouldn't winning much....we did have some talent, thats for sure

[thepostman]

I still think Goodman was the best back on that team with Gado #2.
In this case I think both Rashad and terrel are great backs in their own way. Hard to rate a quick cut back better than a basher or vice versa.
JMHO!

Dre Barnes was pretty darn good too...but I think Goodman was by far the best back on those teams...

Having Terrel is such a blessing...if it wasn't for him I would be a little worried about our running game...but I am not

[paradox]

if a player can't prove himself until others get injured, then he needs to become a better practice player so he can earn the time.

That sounds nice, but what do you do when the first and second string guys are on nearly the same level of talent? What happens when a team gets lucky to have to great players in the same position?

Ex: Joe Montana & Steve Young

well if Liberty had 3 great running backs and they still sucked, then what in the world were they doing recruiting three great running backs who would all play at the same time?

Say what???


...

[shukcb04]

That sounds nice, but what do you do when the first and second string guys are on nearly the same level of talent? What happens when a team gets lucky to have to great players in the same position?

Ex: Joe Montana & Steve Young

well if Liberty had 3 great running backs and they still sucked, then what in the world were they doing recruiting three great running backs who would all play at the same time?

Say what???


...

i may be misinterpreting, but i applied the joe and steve statement to insinuate that this person thought gado was on the same level as the other 2 supposed great RBs liberty had. so if he was on the same level, then that would mean Liberty had 3 great RBs, and it seems silly to me to have 3 great RBs when only one can play.

[paradox]

The definative LU football denial: Gado wasn't good enough. He was actually third string on our lowly teams that couldn't even buy a win back then. Through some strange and mysterious phenomenon, Gado was actually good enough to play in the pros six months later

Oh, and everyone on here believes it so it must be true. What a joke



...

[paradox]

well if Liberty had 3 great running backs and they still sucked, then what in the world were they doing recruiting three great running backs who would all play at the same time?

Say what???


...

i may be misinterpreting, but i applied the joe and steve statement to insinuate that this person thought gado was on the same level as the other 2 supposed great RBs liberty had. so if he was on the same level, then that would mean Liberty had 3 great RBs, and it seems silly to me to have 3 great RBs when only one can play.

huh?

[shukcb04]

just forget it. if you cant understand by now then im wasting my time.

[shukcb04]

regardless of waht gado did in teh NFL - which wouldn't have ever happened if he wasnt the only RB left on the roster due to injuries, and that isnt saying much about how good gado is by the way - he couldn't cut it at Liberty no matter which way you shake it. oh. by the way, he averaged over 20 yards less a game than the two players ranked ahead of him. yeah i guess samkon gado really should ahve started over the big south offensive player of the year who ranked 15th in the country in rushing yards and just set a school record for rushing yards his junior season. look at what he's done since those few packers game where he exceled because he was the only option on the roster at the time: not much more than nothing.

[SuperJon]

Eugene would be in the NFL if he wouldn't have had a career ending ankle injury.


Oh yea, he took that career ending ankle injury, and said, "You know what, I'm not done yet" and started playing in Arena League 2. He's now playing in Canada and chances are, he'll get an NFL tryout sometime. He may not get the PT that Sam did, but that's completely beside the point. I've seen tape of the kid. He was good. Dre was better than Sam as well. Sam took advantage of the situation he was in.

Tiki Barber has a commercial that says, "Opportunities are seldom perfect but I’ve learned if you’re not ready for them they may not come again." That's what Sam did.

[RagingTireFire]

So....can we officially re-title this thread now?

[paradox]

If Dre Barnes was clearly the better back, then how is it possible that Gado, who replaced Barnes after his injury, actually outscored him career-wise. That's right, Samkon scored more TD's as a eight game starter than Dre Barnes did in his entire career.

If you look at their yards per carry, they're practically identical. So, Samkon could have and would have put up similiar yardage numbers had he started. He actually proved it when he filled in as starter during his senior year and gaines 900 yards at 6.5 per carry. However, when you look at their touchdowns per carry ratio, Gado has a huge edge over the starter Barnes. Barnes had three of the biggest seasons ever by an LU back yardage-wise, but he would only score about 4 TD's per season.....


Apparently some people have something against scoring touchdowns




Famous quote: "Chris Carter, all he does is scores touchdowns." -Buddy Ryan after reluctantly releasing Pro Bowl reciever Chris Carter, while under strong pressure to do so by upper management.


...

[SuperJon]

Could it be that Sam was bigger and was put in for goal line situations?

I could name 3-4 situations like this in the NFL every year. The NY Giants for a few years (Brandon Jacobs), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (Alstott), Steelers (Bettis at the end of his career), Falcons (Duckett when he was there).

[Cider Jim]

At the time, while in college, he [Gado] was the third best back on the team.

I wonder if anyone thought that beside Karcher.

I would love to know what Lou Holtz thought about that whole situation when he spoke on campus that year (i.e., how does a DIAA bench player at Liberty start the following year for the Packers? Does that reflect more on the player or the former coach?).

[Casper]

In my opinion a healthy Dre Barnes was the best back on that team. I love Sam but Dre was unreal. His size was a major problem though. As far as touchdowns go and Sam outscoring him, it was definitely because Dre would work us all the way down the field into the redzone. Then KK would put Eugene or Sam in. It was like clockwork. It was a running joke amongst my friends and myself. Everybody remembers the VMI game, I believe it is a perfect example of this. I think Dre had over 200 yards but Eugene had all the TD's. (Somebody check my facts, it was a while ago.) All three backs were awesome thoough.

[TDDance234]

Dre' Barnes was something else. I would have loved to see him with a respected passing game and the 'hogs we have up front paving the way. I love Samkon but while 'Dre's time here at Liberty, he was the best back. It's neck and neck but the edge goes to Mr. Barnes, IMHO.

[jcmanson]

I hate this on a lot of levels

Care to elaborate?


Does anyone have a link to the article?

[Rocketfan]

You are the only person that can't admit that we had two better backs. One shattered his ankle, and one was just better. We didn't lose games because of talent. We lost games because of an inept head coach.

Wrong again John, im with Dox to a point. Gado was on par in talent with both of those guys but he just had a different running style. You saw them all during what one season?

[SuperJon]

I've only seen tape, but I've seen a lot of tape. Sam is a different type of runner, I agree. He just wasn't the best producing back in our system.

[LUconn]

This is tough to argue because they all proved that they were great runningbacks, but Sam being in the NFL is not a good reason as to why he was better. That, senior year, before anybody got hurt, I had heard that there was talk about Gado having an NFL body and a good prospect of at least making a practice squad somewhere after the college season. I personally think Dre was the best runner I've seen at this school, but his knock was always that he was too small. Too small to pound it in at the goal line, and too small to play at the next level. That doesn't take away from his absolute domination in college.

you guys ahve lost your freaking mind. you do realize that the only reason gado even got any PT at all in college and the NFL is because of injury. he couldn't do a good enough job in practice to prove himself capable of getting Pt until the people ranked better than him got injured. he had to wait for others to ALLOW him to prove himself because he obviously hadn't done anything on his own to deserve a chance to prove himself. if he had done something to deserve a chance to prove himself then he would have gotten that chance somewhere along the line. but no, in college and the nfl he had to wait until he was dang near the last option to prove himself. basically, everyone ranked better than him went down and couldn't play and the coach goes to him and essentially says "well looks like I have to play you now."

This is once again a situation where you don't understand the big picture. It's true that Sam started because everybody in front of him got hurt. While we all like to think that if you show you are the best player in practice, you start, that's not always the case. I'm not saying Sam was the best. In fact I can say that he wasn't. But a rookie who is better than the current veteren ahead of him in his sopt, will almost never start unless the team has a lot of money invested in that. Normally, a guy in his situation would have to wait a year or 2 to get into a rotation. He got lucky with some injuries to teammates and saw immediate time. And he performed better than anybody had hoped. And the case in college, you're way off. He was going to be redshirted because we had more than enough talent in the backfield. Injuries forced Karcher away from that plan.

[Rocketfan]

I've only seen tape, but I've seen a lot of tape. Sam is a different type of runner, I agree. He just wasn't the best producing back in our system.

In speaking directly with Karcher the only reason Sam didn't get an oppurtunity at the #1 or #2 position is because he was originally supposed to red-shirt. Stuck behind those 2 for two years i know he wasn't given the oppurtunity to be the best producing back in any system. Watching a lot of tape is great but talking to all the coaches at the time, they regarded the overall talent of all three as pretty even if memory serves me. Dre liked to dance for extra yards, Eugene was a downhill runner and had deceptive speed, and sam is just a bigger guy who would knock the taste out of your mouth if he got the chance, but also was pretty fast in his own right. Those are my takes at least.

[blwall1416]

Willie Parker never played at UNC and look at where he is now. Some people just don't fit in in some situations.

even better than my example! good find.

WP also had fumblitis during his college career. Also, Bunting's coaching staff favored a power running attack. There were numerous times he would bounce to the outside of a play designed for the inside. Sometimes it worked, most of the time it didn't. So, he wasn't on great terms with the coaching staff.

However, I put the blame on the coaching staff. A head coach with no HC experience, & a sub-par staff = disaster (see UNC football from '98 - '06). We should have focused more on speed, which is exactly what Butch & his staff are doing.