What's the longest rushing touchdown by a tailback in the Weis era?

[BGIF]

Trick question it includes ND and the Pats.

According to Michael at Blue Gray Sky it's 45 yds achieved twice, once by Kevin Faulk of the Pats and once by Robert Hughes. Aldridge has the next longest at 43 yds.

The Blue-Gray Sky: July 2009

Last year the longest run was all of 21 yds by Armando Allen.

Michael ponders the merits of the Toss Play as ND runs it or screws it up.

The clip of Hughes loss in Hawaii I though was typical of the run game all season. A comedy of errors. On the snap the WR takes his man to the corner of the endzone while Rudolph is pushed back 4 yards deep in the backfield by the DE. Schwapp has to alter his angle to run around Rudolph. Rather than take the LB threatening to make the tackle, Schwapp tries to take on the deeper man on the outside. The LB knifes behind him for the tackle and the loss.

Play back the clip and watch the rest of the OLine. On the snap Turk fires out to his right and effectively ties up the DT. Olsen and Wenger both pull to the left. Olsen apparently tripped over the white line but it didn't matter there was no one from him to him. The LB who made the tackle is already past Olsen's point of contact. Neither Olsen nor Wenger hit anyone on the play leaving 4 or 5 Rainbow defenders to surround Hughes. They weren't needed as the LB who came in uncontested took Hughes down.

Rudolph was a fine receiver in '08 but the weak link on the OLine time after time. He should have been Mendoza's most important project in the offseason. He has to block a hell of a lot better in '09 if the running game is to improve.

 

[BGIF]

I'm sure Rudolph will improve his blocking from last year. The question with a year of weight training can he take on Div 1 DE that are 21 or 22 years old. Last year he played against DE's that have had 4 or 5 years in Div 1 weight training programs while he had none.

Scwapp taking on the second defender rather than the first happened a number of times last year. Sometimes I thought perhaps he was "zoned in" on a particular assignment and while he was moving forward to engage that defender and other defender flew past him for the TFL. I don't know if he was jutst to slow to adjust to the other defender or just didn't see them.

Hopefully Alford and Verducci will work that out with Aldridge who is quicker than Ace and is a legitmate threat to be a ball carrier where Ace wasn't.

I believe Verducci can work out the chemistry problems on the OLine but unless the TE and FB block effectively it will be more of the same.

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Great analysis of that Hawaii play BigIF. And that is how I think of the Weis running game in a nutshell. So many people unblocked. Another problem is that while the right side did ok, the rest of the line is stepping behind the LOS to get to their blocks. WTF do you think is going to happen? Wabash help me out here.

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Compare the backward movement of the line in the Hawaii play to the line surge (or at least parallel) in this video:

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You can break it down player by player, or get the holistic first impression.

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Watched the Hawaii play again. LG did not scrape off of LT. Blew up the play.

 

[Riddickulous]

Not to be an asshole, but the longest rushing TOUCHDOWN was around 32 yards by Darius Walker in 2006. That's it for Notre Dame. Corey Dillon or somebody probably had a longer one for New England.

 

[jason_h537]

Yeah but Walker had NOOOOO breakaway speed. If AA had some of Walkers holes he would be gone. Walker was more of a scat back, which suited our offense, but now we have legit TB's and no blocking

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

Kinda strange to me to read so many doubtful comments about Armando on some places. I think the guy is magic. He is Rocket given a different assignment.

 

[OCIrish]

Sorry, but I haven't been overly impressed by AA so far. Honestly, I haven't been very impressed by any of our RB's so far, I know our OL play has been fucking terrible at best, but it seems that our backs go down far too easy.

 

[NeuteredDoomer]

It starts with the line.

And maybe what the backs are told to do. That's coaching. ND has good RBs.

 

[Junkhead]

Yeah but Walker had NOOOOO breakaway speed. If AA had some of Walkers holes he would be gone. Walker was more of a scat back, which suited our offense, but now we have legit TB's and no blocking

Walker didn't have great speed, but he did have great vision, which none of the current backs have shown. That said, no human being on earth would be a great back behind the ND line the past few seasons.

 

[BGIF]

Yeah but Walker had NOOOOO breakaway speed. If AA had some of Walkers holes he would be gone. Walker was more of a scat back, which suited our offense, but now we have legit TB's and no blocking

What is a legit TB?

 

[BGIF]

Walker didn't have great speed, but he did have great vision, which none of the current backs have shown. That said, no human being on earth would be a great back behind the ND line the past few seasons.

Like Autry Denson, Walker had great vision, lacked great speed, but didn't need a hole 3 yds wide to run through. Like Denson when he found a seam, he made a quick decision, and frequently made the first guy miss. I think Denson's longest run was 54 and he was chased down from behind. ND's only breakaway threat since Rocket was Julius Jones.

 

[TDHeysus]

It starts with the line.

And maybe what the backs are told to do. That's coaching. ND has good RBs.

The line has effected AA's performance for sure. I think he is a player that needs to get the ball in open space. He is not a power back by any means, he is more 1 quick move and he is gone type of RB. I think this is why you see him in alot of screen passes, to get him in open space to take advantage of his best asset - speed.

In basketball terms, AA is a scorer that cant create his own shot. but pass him the ball in open space and he is lights out.

 

[BGIF]

Not to be an asshole, but the longest rushing TOUCHDOWN was around 32 yards by Darius Walker in 2006. That's it for Notre Dame. Corey Dillon or somebody probably had a longer one for New England.

You're not. You're right on the 32 yd Walker TD.

The BGS writer Michael titled his piece The Toss Sweep. He opened the piece with a Trivia Quiz question. Longest TD Run in Weis Era.

The actual article discusses the UND survey of Best Plays in the Weis Era and Michael comments about the scarcity of rushing plays in the Best Play videos. He then mentions not really surprising as the longest run on a Weis Team was 45 yds. I erroneously made those 45 yd runs - TD runs. They weren't. Mea culpa.

At the end of the article, the writer tells us we can find the answer to the trivia question "here". "Here" was link to a u-tube video of Walker's 32 yd TD run. I missed the link completely. Mea maxima culpa.

YouTube - ND longest rushing TD under Weis


Walker could have gotten a couple more yards before being tackled had the goal line be further away but it still would have been less than 45 yds (longest run by a Weis back).

What a difference in blocking on the Walker run against SU in '06 verus the Hughes TFL in Hawaii Bowl. The DLine is sealed off, the FB kicks his man out, and Walker makes quick decisions as he cuts backs and slips between two defenders.


As for Corey Dillon you can take that one up with Michael at BGS. I really care only about the ND part of the Weis era.

I'm still surprised that with all the passes being throw in the Weis era you would think there was would be some big gains. Somewhere sometime the defense would get caught. In '94 I believe it was BC that played tight on short yardage situation and Robert Farmer took the option toss 81 yds for the longest ND run in the last 35 years. The only big ND run under Weis actually a Quinn 60 yd scramble. In the past 4 years with all the QB sacks ND has sustained , a QB has the best ND run on a broken play.

 

[BGIF]

... In basketball terms, AA is a scorer that cant create his own shot. but pass him the ball in open space and he is lights out.

I like that description. But I'll add Allen hasn't shown himself to be an open field runner either. A coupld of times he has gotten to the 2nd level but he still hasn't broken free. Walker got caught from behind but put him one on one with a defender chances are he made him miss. I don't recall seeing that from Allen - yet.

 

[NDinL.A.]

Until the Hawaii game, had you breathed on Allen, he'd go down. He simply gets arm tackled too much. And a player like that is a 3rd down back, sorry to say. Especially playing behind a crappy line, you need a RB that will make people miss, just to make something out of nothing once in awhile.

Having said that, he looked fantastic against Hawaii, even breaking some arm tackles for once (I know, it was Hawaii, but it was progress - he couldn't do it against worse teams). The line has been horrible for him for 2 straight years. And he was young. Now he's older, has an experienced line that seems to be getting coaches for the first time, and he should be stronger. For the first time, I believe in him, and I think he'll be really good this year.

But he has to prove it...

 

[jason_h537]

wellconsidering the injury Allen had maybe he just did't trust his knee. Seemed like a different back in the Hawaii game. Hughes needs to stop being Ron Dayne and accept being a power back. once he does that he will be solid. Jonas Gray will get his chance, appears to have all the tools. Cierre Wood just looks special to me. Oh and Julius Jones was a legit TB (tailback)

 

[BGIF]

... Oh and Julius Jones was a legit TB (tailback)

and what is a "legit TB"?

 

[ShamrockOnHelmet]

At the end of the article, the writer tells us we can find the answer to the trivia question "here". "Here" was link to a u-tube video of Walker's 32 yd TD run.

Does it matter that it was against a pretty God-awful Stanford team. Before I saw the clip, I was holding my breath hoping it was against USC or LSU or something...

[sigh] those were the days...

 

[jason_h537]

and what is a "legit TB"?

legitimate tailback. a really good runningback

 

[WabashFalcon]

For what it is worth... AA can really run the rock in NCAA 2010.

 

[BGIF]

For what it is worth... AA can really run the rock in NCAA 2010.

Who's calling the plays you or Charlie?

 

[WabashFalcon]

Who's calling the plays you or Charlie?

MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Riddickulous]

Armando Allen has a lot of potential. A LOT. But, there's problems with his game that need to be worked on.

- Balance. How many times last year did you see Allen trip, stumble, slip, or fall last year when making a juke or a cut move? I saw it a lot. If you need a good example, look at his kickoff return touchdown against Hawaii. He nearly falls juking out the kicker.
- Vision. Charlie Weis claims Armando has good vision, and it's tough to have good vision with a line as terrible as we have, but Allen could do better with choosing a running lane. He seems to be improving, as during the spring game, he squirted through a tiny little gap in the line and kicked it outside for a 26 yard gain.
- Tackle breaking. Allen goes down too easy.