Sit Tank Bigsby?

[aubiefifty 17,487]

saturdaydownsouth.com

 

Sit Tank Bigsby? Why Auburn should give the star running back a week off vs. Alabama State

Connor O'Gara | 24 hours ago

6-7 minutes

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If I’m Bryan Harsin, I’m not letting Tank Bigsby even suit up Saturday against Alabama State.

No, that’s not a disciplinary issue. The star Auburn tailback didn’t do anything to earn a spot in his new coach’s doghouse. It’s the opposite.

Bigsby is too good and too impactful to see a single snap against an FCS foe that had to grind out a 14-13 overtime win against Miles College in Week 1.

Does that sound soft? I don’t care.

Any other position, I say those reps are important. But Bigsby isn’t just another position player. He’s not just one of the nation’s best running backs. He’s the heart and soul of that Auburn offense. If the Tigers are going to keep their heads above water in the SEC West, it’ll be because Bigsby took that Year 2 step and broke tackle after tackle.

There are 2 obvious reasons Bigsby shouldn’t play Saturday.

One is that a gauntlet awaits Auburn in the next month. After Saturday, the Tigers will face Penn State (in Happy Valley), Georgia (at home) and LSU (in Death Valley) in 3 of the following 4 weeks.

Ya think Auburn might want/need Bigsby to score a touchdown or 2 to win those games?

I’m not sure if you saw the beef that Georgia and Penn State have up front in Week 1. It’s, um, just a touch different from Akron, which probably could’ve had 22 defensive players and still not stopped Bigsby.

Georgia was the No. 1 run defense in college football last year, and all Jordan Davis and Co. did was hold Clemson to 2 rushing yards. For the entire game. Penn State, meanwhile, held Wisconsin to 3 yards per carry in Camp Randall, which I didn’t think was physically possible. And say what you want about LSU’s defensive woes, but even at its worst, a trip to Death Valley is still always an uphill battle for an Auburn team that hasn’t won in Baton Rouge since the Bill Clinton administration.

You know what would be nice? Making sure Bigsby is at 100% for that stretch.

We saw Saturday that Auburn can dominate weak competition without Bigsby getting 20 touches. Between Jarquez Hunter and Shaun Shivers, the ground game is more than capable of moving the chains without unnecessarily having Bigsby take 10-plus hits.

Even if Bigsby often delivers the blow on his carries, he’s still absorbing contact. You only get so many hits as a tailback, especially if you take on hits like Bigsby does.

The bonus would be seeing how Bo Nix functions when the defense isn’t entirely locked in on Bigsby. Nix looked comfortable in his first game in Mike Bobo’s offense. Would he look as comfortable without Bigsby? Against Alabama State, I’d hope he’d be comfortable stepping into throws in the pocket.

Encouraging performance aside, there are things Nix still needs to figure out in the passing game. This would expedite that process a touch.

Will Harsin ever make such an unconventional move? Probably not. Harsin spits out coaching clichés like sunflower seeds. He’s not exactly someone you’d expect to consider the non-football guy approach. The football guy approach is Alabama State is a capable opponent, even though as far as I can tell via the program’s official media guide, it hasn’t ever beaten an FBS opponent. This isn’t Dan Mullen sitting a mostly healthy Kyle Pitts against LSU and then watching the Tigers stun the Gators in The Swamp.

Still, though. Maybe Harsin would consider it disrespectful to Alabama State to rest Bigsby. Or perhaps he did briefly consider it, but then thought about how the last thing he’d want is his team in a close game late against an FCS team with his star player on the bench.

For what it’s worth, Harsin still had Bigsby listed as RB1 on Monday’s depth chart. I fully expect Bigsby to play, and if I’m betting on an outcome, it’s that he makes it through Saturday’s game just fine. If he went untouched for a 70-yard touchdown run, that wouldn’t be surprising.

But think about this. If you’re an Auburn fan, do you want to see Bigsby on the field on Saturday? Like, for anything other than your own entertainment value? And if you’re a fan of Penn State, Georgia or LSU, wouldn’t you prefer to see Bigsby on the field on Saturday?

That’s the argument that carries more weight than any. Bigsby doesn’t need reps in this offense, and if there’s any push to pad his stats so that he can earn some season-end accolades, that’s a pretty flimsy justification, too.

If you’re mapping out the scenarios for the wheels to fall off in Year 1 of the Harsin era, basically all of them include Bigsby getting hurt, right? So then if that’s the case, why risk it against Alabama State? And for anyone saying it’s extremely unlikely because of just how inferior the opponent is, do non-contact injuries mean anything to you?

It certainly did for Minnesota’s Mohamed Ibrahim, who was expected to be one of the best running backs in college football until he went down with a non-contact, season-ending leg injury in Week 1:

That happened while Minnesota was in a dog fight against No. 4 Ohio State. Imagine if that happened to Bigsby in a game against Alabama State with the schedule that awaits. Harsin would get blasted for that. Hindsight would say Bigsby shouldn’t have been out there in the first place, but shouldn’t foresight also say that?

There’s nothing wrong with being a little extra conservative with Bigsby, given the nature of the task ahead. Maybe it’ll cause a stir if Bigsby suits up and doesn’t play, but if Harsin simply says in the postgame press conference “we ask a lot of Tank, and I wanted to make sure his body is ready to handle this long season,” then there’s nothing to figure out.

I want to see plenty of Bigsby in 2021. I’d just rather see him in sweat pants on Saturday.

[DAG 34,119]

Some of these guys just write anything. Thankful he isn't the head coach. Thanks for the article fifty. No load management around here.

[Quietmaninthecorner 1,959]

No way.    He needs to stay in the flow of things.  May be not use him as often in the game this week to make sure he is fresh next week,  but he needs to be out there.

[AUGoo 2,671]

Bet he Sits after the first quarter.

[auburnphan 6,050]

Definitely not, he missed some holes on some reads and needs a good dozen carries.

Besides, sitting players because it should be an easy win does not seem to fit Coach Harsin's mind set or where he wants his teams head to be either.

[gravejd 3,281]

I give him 1 or 2 series and then let the other RBs get a shot. Shivers had 2 carries the last game and Jackson had 2 or 3. Let those guys and Hunter get most of the reps. Load management is not a phrase fans like to hear about but its a real thing that coaches keep in mind. Our schedule is crazy backloaded so there may not be many chances for breaks after week 4. 

[gr82be 14,570]

I don't Tank would take that sitting down, no pun intended. Players want to play. He can play without be overworked. As we saw this week with Allen Flanagan, players can get hurt doing anything. 

[aubiefifty 17,487]

i know he probably wants that heisman. that is more than fine with me. and i do not think harsin will overwork him like gus has done to some of our running backs in the past but i think the guy is right. if tank gets hurt every single one of you would take back your opinions. my take is let him play some and sit him quick. but then i am a fan and not an expert. birng it on guys because i stand by what i said.

[Hank2020 3,232]

3 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

i know he probably wants that heisman. that is more than fine with me. and i do not think harsin will overwork him like gus has done to some of our running backs in the past but i think the guy is right. if tank gets hurt every single one of you would take back your opinions. my take is let him play some and sit him quick. but then i am a fan and not an expert. birng it on guys because i stand by what i said.

I can’t for the life of me remember any time a great player is completely held out if a game (by coaches) to prevent injury. There is usually a point in the game where most people would agree he needs to come out but not to not play at all.

[aubiefifty 17,487]

3 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

I can’t for the life of me remember any time a great player is completely held out if a game (by coaches) to prevent injury. There is usually a point in the game where most people would agree he needs to come out but not to not play at all.

i might have said that badly. let him play a few snaps and then give him that extra rest for penn state. that just seems like a great strategy to me. we have good running backs and it lets worm get more carries in case we need him more down the road.

[AUstere 13]

Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Akron 2.0. 

[AuburnEagle79 2,171]

Honestly, it's not the worst idea. I hope we limit him to a quarter or so and limit the touches even when he's in. It doesn't take many carries for him to his stats.

Just keep him game ready and then get him out of there. 

[The Freak 2,530]

He needs 10 or so carries and 100ish yards.  Shivers needs a few carries, too.  Let the younger guys get the rest.

[Mikey 16,781]

No. We should pull Tank out for the rest of the game when we pull the QB and other starters out. Not one snap earlier. This team is a work in progress and they need the work.

[Sizzle 3,932]

They’re kinda gone do that. He’ll only get a few carries then sit the rest of the game. He don’t need too many carries, I’d rather the other guys got more carries. Especially Shivers, he only got like 4 touches last game 

[homersapien 11,683]

Give him two series.

[aubiefifty 17,487]

11 minutes ago, Mikey said:

No. We should pull Tank out for the rest of the game when we pull the QB and other starters out. Not one snap earlier. This team is a work in progress and they need the work.

you are probably right mikey. i just want us to be a hundred percent when we go to happy valley. those guys take their white outs very serious. but you have to admit if we lost tank it would be a huge blow even tho we have capable backs.

 

[Mikey 16,781]

5 minutes ago, aubiefifty said:

you are probably right mikey. i just want us to be a hundred percent when we go to happy valley. those guys take their white outs very serious. but you have to admit if we lost tank it would be a huge blow even tho we have capable backs.

 

I think it's more important to get this team into full operating mode before going into Happy Valley. You don't hinder that because of fearing an unlikely injury. If this game turns into the blowout it should be, we'll probably do the same as last week. Put the starters out there for the first series of the 2nd half and then let the reserves play. That's pretty much the norm for "easy" games across all of college football.

[80Tiger 904]

You can't play scared of injury, but you can play smart. He needs the work just like all the other backs. Just be smart about it.

[AUpreacherman22 3,908]

2 hours ago, Quietmaninthecorner said:

No way.    He needs to stay in the flow of things.  May be not use him as often in the game this week to make sure he is fresh next week,  but he needs to be out there.

Definitely!!!   I’m very thankful CBH is our coach and not this guy!  Sitting Tank (or anyone else for that matter) for the purpose of “keeping them fresh for PSU” sends way more negative messages than any perceived positives one may think they’re getting from that decision!

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 hour ago, aubiefifty said:

if tank gets hurt every single one of you would take back your opinions.

Don't say things like this, man. Especially not if you're going to complain about the negative discourse in the site. 

Tank has aspirations that depend somewhat upon stats. Games like this are where a lot of those stats happen. Also, the program's aspirations are tied to Tank's and other star players' aspirations. 

And, as others have said, this offense needs practice reps. They're still learning, individually and collectively. 

The premise of this article is unintelligent.

[aubiefifty 17,487]

15 minutes ago, McLoofus said:

Don't say things like this, man. Especially not if you're going to complain about the negative discourse in the site. 

Tank has aspirations that depend somewhat upon stats. Games like this are where a lot of those stats happen. Also, the program's aspirations are tied to Tank's and other star players' aspirations. 

And, as others have said, this offense needs practice reps. They're still learning, individually and collectively. 

The premise of this article is unintelligent.

well mikey added to this so what are you doing piling on? you have been on my ass lately but i am going to be me. i am not perfect and if i lied about my stance then i am wasting my time. i am 66 years old and do not appreciate lectures on a sports board. let me have my fun. i post a ton of articles on here but if i am received to screw up one time here it comes.

Edited September 9, 2021 by aubiefifty
added a point i left out.

[DAG 34,119]

It is a terrible idea and it would be a complete 180 to what CBH preaches. He needs to get his sea legs under him, continue to progress in the offense and gain traction with his blockers. Do any of the best coaches of college football not let their best players suit up, even in games like this? Do people really think NS is going to tell Bryce not to suit up this upcoming Saturday?

[creed 1,697]

Maybe it’s me but I think the game should be coached more from a game management standpoint where the coaching staff faces multiple scenarios that need to be coached around during a ballgame. Now how to simulate that is a tough question. I just think with this new coaching staff that’s where you get the most bang for the buck versus sitting or limiting player reps. 

[IronMan70 3,277]

5 hours ago, Mikey said:

I think it's more important to get this team into full operating mode before going into Happy Valley. You don't hinder that because of fearing an unlikely injury. If this game turns into the blowout it should be, we'll probably do the same as last week. Put the starters out there for the first series of the 2nd half and then let the reserves play. That's pretty much the norm for "easy" games across all of college football.

Agree 100% Mikey. We need to continue getting our timing down, eliminate mistakes and get ready for the conference schedule.  

Edited September 9, 2021 by IronMan70