'24 MO RB Aneyas Williams (Notre Dame Signee)

peadeam · Wednesday at 5:29 PM

HouseofPain said:
This IMHO, doesnt make sense. What top level team has problems running the ball versus bottom half teams? Look at Bamas NC years - Dominating with the run and just demoralized the cupcake teams they played against with the run. Ran against top half teams. Not saying just Bama. A top team pushes its will against inferior competition, especially a HS team like Rice. Should dominate in every area of the game and when you dont, you arent a true top team.

I agree but these games where the defense dominates are odd and hard to get a feel for reality. Defensive TDs and short fields get points but not stats and I think we were substituted liberally by the second quarter. OL, RB and WR were all going to back ups before halftime. people were bitching last week over the passing down field passing and we showed that this game.

Dale · Wednesday at 5:42 PM

FWIW:

Williams needs to be more patient. But I think making a big thing out of rush totals with backups up 49 may not be useful. We’re really playing at tiny sample sizes here.

TracyGraham · Wednesday at 5:49 PM

Jiggafini19Deux said:
Precisely, but Walton is the new toy, so that's who everybody wants playing until the next new toy comes and Walton is suddenly old news. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The lack of logic and critical thinking skills is the issue here. Walton saw zero snaps at Lambeau against Wisconsin. Doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out why that is.

Aren't all three relatively "new toys"?

Jiggafini19Deux · Wednesday at 5:54 PM

TracyGraham said:
Aren't all three relatively "new toys"?

Run with that narrative if you want to. Aneyas is on year three in the program. That's crypt keeper old for some of these recruitnik star chasing mouth breathers.

Walton had 8 carries for 48 yards against the garbage time Rice squad and the chatter is already kicking up.

Let's monitor the carries that matter from here and see what's what.

Dale · Wednesday at 6:17 PM

Jiggafini19Deux said:
Walton had 8 carries for 48 yards against the garbage time Rice squad and the chatter is already kicking up.

I don’t take as much as people are making it either way what the total was but I don’t believe it’s accurate to say he played Rice’s scrubs. From what I can ascertain from the snap counts I believe they heavily rotated throughout but there was no mass wave of Rice 3rd stringers coming in

TracyGraham · Wednesday at 6:25 PM

Jiggafini19Deux said:
Run with that narrative if you want to. Aneyas is on year three in the program. That's crypt keeper old for some of these recruitnik star chasing mouth breathers.

Walton had 8 carries for 48 yards against the garbage time Rice squad and the chatter is already kicking up.

Let's monitor the carries that matter from here and see what's what.

I just want ND to have a rb that matches the rest of their talent. This is the year where everything else seems to be aligning. For the first 2 games Nolan and Williams looked mediocre at running and Walton seemed to have an extra gear. Hopefully it was just a really bad draw/small sample size and Williams/Nolan are better than they looked.

Valpodoc85 · Wednesday at 6:35 PM

Williams numbers will improve as the OL does

BleedBlueGold · Wednesday at 7:46 PM

Valpodoc85 said:
Williams numbers will improve as the OL does

Did you watch Landon's video, or no? This isn't entirely on the OL...

Plenty of time to get things worked out, but through two games, the explosives in the run game just aren't there and that was a huge part of the offense the last couple of years. RB situation is worth monitoring until otherwise proven wrong, imo.

Ophiocordyceps · Wednesday at 9:26 PM

Walton will continue to get more carries. If he hits an explosive the depth chart will look different.

Veritate Duce Progredi · Wednesday at 9:33 PM

Jiggafini19Deux said:
Precisely, but Walton is the new toy, so that's who everybody wants playing until the next new toy comes and Walton is suddenly old news. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The lack of logic and critical thinking skills is the issue here. Walton saw zero snaps at Lambeau against Wisconsin. Doesn't take a rocket surgeon to figure out why that is.

No, this is dumb. Walton has a burst and great contact balance and he runs hard through tackles. When we had J Love and Price, I wasn't calling for the "new toys" because of what we had. When we see a starting player or players playing then we see the backups come in and there is a noticeable difference in acceleration and effectiveness, it's hard to fight that back.

It feels like Williams has been running into the pack. Kedren looks....off. Nolan James has been great. I think as the year goes on Aneyas will either figure this stuff out or he'll cede playing time to the younger backs (assuming they're improving at their weakest areas - i.e - pass pro).

Logic and critical thinking lead me to believe that if we have a pedestrian running game with our starting RB, our most contested matchups will be painful. I hope he improves but more importanly, if he doesn't, I hope the coaches don't hesitate to ramp the young RBs up so we can be as lethal as possible against BYU, Miami, SMU and the playoff field.

Old Man Mike · Wednesday at 9:52 PM

I'm ready to be wrong because this is so small a sample size, but:

1. I believe the OLine has not gelled and they all know it, so that's in the RB's heads.
2. I believe (concurrently) that the RBs are not trusting the plays and ripping at the holes as designed.
3. I believe that this is far more the Carr Offense anyway, and the RBs will be much less used (even if that's not ultimately the greatest idea.)

So, I believe that a lot of subtle "psychology" is going on here -- and that will "cure" itself.

SportsingHard · Wednesday at 11:14 PM

OrlaNDomer said:
Nobody is saying ND is happy with their run game, but it's hard to argue ND didn't "demoralize" Rice. It was 52-0 and the bench played virtually the entire 2nd half.

1) OL will only get better baring injuries and could significantly improve if some injured guys come back
2) RBs are only going to get better; either Aneyas starts performing at the level expected or other guys will get their shot or both
3) ND pretty clearly is using a vanilla gameplan so far and not unloading the clip against Wiscy and Rice

If I recall correctly, ND forced seventeen fumbles on Rice's first four plays, returning six of them for touchdowns. Not only did ND dominate and demoralize Rice, I'm pretty Rice wanted to head home after the first hit.

Jiggafini19Deux · Thursday at 8:10 AM

Veritate Duce Progredi said:
No, this is dumb. Walton has a burst and great contact balance and he runs hard through tackles. When we had J Love and Price, I wasn't calling for the "new toys" because of what we had. When we see a starting player or players playing then we see the backups come in and there is a noticeable difference in acceleration and effectiveness, it's hard to fight that back.

It feels like Williams has been running into the pack. Kedren looks....off. Nolan James has been great. I think as the year goes on Aneyas will either figure this stuff out or he'll cede playing time to the younger backs (assuming they're improving at their weakest areas - i.e - pass pro).

Logic and critical thinking lead me to believe that if we have a pedestrian running game with our starting RB, our most contested matchups will be painful. I hope he improves but more importanly, if he doesn't, I hope the coaches don't hesitate to ramp the young RBs up so we can be as lethal as possible against BYU, Miami, SMU and the playoff field.

This is what it boils down to. We don't make the decision based on 48 yards rushing against Rice at home in mop up time.

I'm letting the coaches handle this because the inevitability of getting our first glimpse of Walton was going to lead us down this path.

GowerND11 · Thursday at 8:38 AM

Dale said:
FWIW:

View attachment 3064779

Williams needs to be more patient. But I think making a big thing out of rush totals with backups up 49 may not be useful. We’re really playing at tiny sample sizes here.

People see the YPC and not the total carries. Now, do things have to get better? Of course. But with a game like this, there's no volume. There's no chance for Williams to, maybe, take his 10th carry for 15 yards. His 12th for 10. Hist 15th for another 10. Those all boost the average, but when there is no more carries... this happens.

IrishLax · Thursday at 8:50 AM

Curious if there are any "yards above expected" stats for him and James. See them all the time for the NFL, would really do a lot to say how much the OL is or is not a factor.

anarin · Thursday at 8:55 AM

As much as I want to see him succeed, I do not feel he is an every down back. He lacks vision and patience. On I believe his 1st or 2nd carry against rice it was a run to the right that he easily could've bounced outside, but he chose to run into traffic instead, and most of his runs look the same way dating back to his freshman year.

Again I hope he succeeds, but unless he improves I do not see him ending the year as the starter.

bcole2 · Thursday at 9:19 AM

I know everyone is high on Walton it seems, but I think it's Nolan James that has shown something for me personally. The run against Rice where he spun and broke the defenders ankles and then almost scored was really impressive. Tengwall talked about that one in his video. His catch and run for a TD against Wisconsin shows he has speed. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts to take control of the backfield.

TracyGraham · Thursday at 9:51 AM

bcole2 said:
I know everyone is high on Walton it seems, but I think it's Nolan James that has shown something for me personally. The run against Rice where he spun and broke the defenders ankles and then almost scored was really impressive. Tengwall talked about that one in his video. His catch and run for a TD against Wisconsin shows he has speed. I wouldn't be surprised if he starts to take control of the backfield.

IDK looking at Nolan I expected him to be a beast, but he seemed to go down way too easily on some runs against Wisconsin if I remember correctly. He looked great as a receiver though.

FightingIrishLover7 · Thursday at 9:55 AM

Im going to laugh with Any runs for a buck fifty this weekend

Dale · Thursday at 10:00 AM

GowerND11 said:
People see the YPC and not the total carries. Now, do things have to get better? Of course. But with a game like this, there's no volume. There's no chance for Williams to, maybe, take his 10th carry for 15 yards. His 12th for 10. Hist 15th for another 10. Those all boost the average, but when there is no more carries... this happens.

Yup James is buoyed by one 15 yard carry. Then dragged down by 2 one yard runs. 6 carries is a joke to make some sweeping claim based on YPC as your argument. Williams I don’t think was good, but bad can become good quickly, like the 2H versus Wisconsin.

NDpendent · Thursday at 10:02 AM

Good news is we have a lot of time to figure it out. Just have to make sure Waltons legs are fresh for the second half of the schedule in case we need him

Dale · Thursday at 10:10 AM

I think Walton is more likely to pass Williams as the “bellcow” then James just skillset wise and with James’ size. But hey maybe he is Kyren and will keep proving wrong.

BleedBlueGold · Thursday at 10:14 AM

GowerND11 said:
People see the YPC and not the total carries. Now, do things have to get better? Of course. But with a game like this, there's no volume. There's no chance for Williams to, maybe, take his 10th carry for 15 yards. His 12th for 10. Hist 15th for another 10. Those all boost the average, but when there is no more carries... this happens.

I agree with the statement about volume (on the basis of sample size). In prior seasons, we've seen Williams be explosive, so he's definitely capable. In his small sample size, he's averaged over 7 YPC over the last two seasons. How much of that was him vs. the OL vs. mop-up time, etc.? Idk. But 7 YPC is eye-catching.

However, this season, through two games (one of which he got 20 carries), he's been around 4 YPC. Even the 9 carries against Rice (albeit half of what he got against Wisc) is right in line with what we saw Price get consistently. And we all know Price did way more with that volume than what Williams is doing.

So yeah, volume on the basis of sample size is relevant. But volume on the basis of carries per game is a different story. It's something I'm monitoring.

Whiskeyjack · Thursday at 11:41 AM

BleedBlueGold said:
I agree with the statement about volume (on the basis of sample size). In prior seasons, we've seen Williams be explosive, so he's definitely capable. In his small sample size, he's averaged over 7 YPC over the last two seasons. How much of that was him vs. the OL vs. mop-up time, etc.? Idk. But 7 YPC is eye-catching.

However, this season, through two games (one of which he got 20 carries), he's been around 4 YPC. Even the 9 carries against Rice (albeit half of what he got against Wisc) is right in line with what we saw Price get consistently. And we all know Price did way more with that volume than what Williams is doing.

So yeah, volume on the basis of sample size is relevant. But volume on the basis of carries per game is a different story. It's something I'm monitoring.

I feel better knowing that BBG is monitoring the situation.

BleedBlueGold · Thursday at 12:40 PM

Whiskeyjack said:
I feel better knowing that BBG is monitoring the situation.

I feel seen.

I wear a headset during games on my couch. It's connected to nothing, so my screams echo into the abyss of my basement.

irishrb · Thursday at 1:30 PM

I'll say it...I know it's early, but he might be the most underwhelming starting running back I have seen at Notre Dame since....literally ever.

JD Irish · Thursday at 1:46 PM

It is very strange because he looked so much better in both 2024 and 2025. I thought he would be great.

zelezo vlk · Thursday at 1:55 PM

irishrb said:
I'll say it...I know it's early, but he might be the most underwhelming starting running back I have seen at Notre Dame since....literally ever.

You didn't watch Cam McDaniel? Jafar Armstrong?

BleedBlueGold · Thursday at 2:37 PM

zelezo vlk said:
You didn't watch Cam McDaniel? Jafar Armstrong?

You keep Cam McDaniel's name out your MF mouth!

south-bend-in-cam-mcdaniel-of-the-notre-dame-fighting-irish-gets-tackeld-after-losing-his.jpg

Old Man Mike · Thursday at 2:38 PM

C'mon. McDaniel was a good back, and the only guy on the team who could block in pass pro.

I might add that we'd just lost some OLinestuds to the NFL. Our best lineman was junior Ronnie Stanley, plus two other guys who unfortunately played the same position (center.) Q was a freshman, and Mount McGlinchey hadn't figured it out yet. Guys like Hanratty started. Harry was OLine coach, but ALSO "Run-game coordinator." Don't think he fit that spot. It was Denbrock's FIRST year as OC.

We were lucky under the circumstances to have Cam to keep the QB alive.

'24 MO RB Aneyas Williams (Notre Dame Signee)

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