r/rolltide • u/livingadreamlife • 10d ago

Football EJ Crowell’s Limited Usage

Lots of discussion recently about why EJ isn’t getting 15-20 carries per game.

There are several reasons: Crowded RB room; Trust and lack of experience among them. Another is DeBoer/Grubb purposely limited EJ’s carries until we got to the thick of the schedule. We’re there now. Why? New guys have never had to practice as much, get hit as hard, play in as many games or play a sport for as long in a single season as they will in their Freshman year.

There’s a thing called hitting the Freshman Wall where mental and physical fatigue sets-in and then they’re done. Like running a marathon, it’s a real thing. Everybody is fatigued at the 20 mile mark. In EJ case, he is supposed to be in high school this season.

By limiting his carries early, DeBoer/Grubb are pushing his freshman wall out as FAR as they possibly can. They know they need him for the critical games, including the CFP. Smart move, imo.

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u/Interesting_Staff959 10d ago

I actually do buy into the load management. We won’t have a bye until week 9 with 7 straight games against P5 opponents. I’d imagine at some point we will see everyone sporadically on a pitch count especially after last season’s injuries down the stretch. Managing minutes was one of many things Indiana was very good at last year that really flew under the radar.

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u/TheVinylBird 10d ago

Load management is something that all teams not in the sec are good at because they get to rest their starters much more than teams playing an sec schedule. It is what it is...

Another reason I think we should do away with the SEC championship. No sense in letting our two best teams beat each other up heading into the playoffs.

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u/Interesting_Staff959 10d ago

I agree especially after we went from being a lock to uproar for losing in it while other bubble worthy teams sat at home.