Originally posted by MadDog49er:
Question to ponder for fans who love Leonard Fournette: Why did LSU's Derrius Guice average 1.1 more yards per carry than Fournette in 2016?
Guice is a tremendous back, but are both guys a product of a studly run blocking unit at LSU?
They're both awesome RBs behind a pretty good offensive line. LSU thought Fournette was better which is why they relied on him against their best opponents even though he was banged up. Hard to penalize him that much for having a stud teammate at the same position.
Fournette averaged 6.5 YPC against a ridiculous schedule considering he missed the Missouri and Jacksonville State games which is a very good number. He would have averaged more if he was fully healthy this year and able to play the rest of his schedule. I don't expect Guice to average 7.5 YPC again in his career now that he's the primary RB and will have to carry the ball against Alabama.
Some reasons Guice had more YPC than Fournette include:
- Fournette played hurt this year.
- Guice had more carries late in games after the two of them had worn down defenses, especially in games LSU was up big (up big in the 4th quarter, there was no reason to risk Fournette to injuries).
- Fournette had the majority of carries against the best defense LSU faced.
Wisconsin, Auburn, Alabama, and Florida were the four best defenses they played all year. Fournette had 68 carries in those games (more than half his 129 carries on the year). Guice only had 26 of his 183 carries in those games. For all intensive purposes, Fournette played against a much tougher schedule than Guice even though they're on the same team.
Having said that, it's hard to call Fournette a once in a generation player when there are guys like Saquon Barkley and Derrius Guice coming out next year who aren't far off. Right now there are a lot of good RBs in the league and a lot more coming into the league so I can't see Fournette being a good value at 2.
[ Edited by eastcoast49ersfan on Apr 26, 2017 at 5:16 PM ]