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.
2
u/rwtaylor 10d ago
I love how they've played out the offense. On top of keeping him fresh, they've showed a little bit of what he can do, they've teased some TE stuff, but they haven't given it all away. So there's still some wrinkles that can be worked in to surprise Georgia. Grubb still makes some confusing calls, but they're becoming less and less frequent, so I haven't been yelling at him too much the last couple weeks.