Sam Ojuri vs. Georgia Southern
It was about this time last year when you had to wonder about the future depth chart of the Bison running back spot. D.J. McNorton was a senior and 2011 was his last go-around, of course. Sophomore Sam Ojuri was coming off a year of absence for violation of team rules so he had yet to prove himself on a game-by-game basis. He had 32 carries for 144 yards as a freshman in 2009.
John Crockett was still in the process of gaining eligibility, so his status certainly was questionable. Derrick Lang was a walkon and Matt Jones was redshirting as the top running back recruit. So what do the Bison have with the season opener just days away? A promising mix of speed, power and athleticism.
Ojuri proved himself and then some last year. Crockett has emerged as half of the 1-2 punch NDSU has liked to use in recent years. Lang is the power and is improving in other areas, also, to where he’ll play regularly. Those three have a goal of 3,000 yards, Crockett said this week, with nobody mentioning 1,000 individually and he said the vibe between he and Ojuri has been tight knit since camp starterd.
“Me and Sam have this thing, we just look at each other,” Crockett said. “We speak without speaking to each other. Whoever gets the most yards, we take the other out to dinner. We like to have fun. We understand a lot rides on the running back, we understand that, but we look up to that as a challenge.”
Looks like one of the deepest groups of running backs we have had for years.
Is Matt Jones going to see the field too? He also looks like a very exciting running back.
Great question, Dinwiddie too?
There are five running backs and I believe they are simply the last two on the depth chart. Backup running backs in the past have been valuable on special teams, we’ll see.
Check out the Bison helmet on http://www.cnnsi.com
Rebranding of the Football Championship Subdivision? I wonder what the powers at the NCAA will come up with next? Will it revert back to DI-AA.
The NCAA may just move FCS to be called Division II, Division II to be called Division III and Division III to be called Division IV. It would make it a lot easier since each level of football is so different.
How do you handle the fact that all other division I sports are equal to the power conferences with your analogy?
I say show the scholarship amount for all teams:
Division I (85); Division I (63); Division I (30); Division I (0).
My biggest gripe is that I don’t think they ought to allow non-scholarship football schools be considered division I. I think you clean up the division by saying you aren’t division I unless you offer 63 scholarships at NDSU’s level or 85 scholarships at the Gophers level.
I think it should be the same way in the lower divisions…if you can’t offer the maximum number of scholarships you can’t be in that division. Of course you should be allowed to transition to the limit in a 5 year period.
I know Lehigh is supposedly a non-scholarship team but they offer scholarships they just hide them instead of having 63 athletic scholarships. I wonder how the hidden scholarships play out with Title IX.
What do you mean by “hidden scholarships”? Academic or TA scholarships?
Nobody can hide scholarships anymore. If the Bison had a recruit that got a full ride academic scholarship, it would count against their 63. They can’t have 63 football players on althletic scholarships and then add a player on a full ride academic scholarships. Now, Lehigh might have players on full ride academic scholarships, but their league is not a non-scholie league, they are working their way up in scholies.
Other than that misstatement, your idea is a very good one.
What Bison helmet??? Am I missing something?
The helmet is near the bottom of CNNSI’s page for a blog.
I can’t remember the last time ndsu struggled at RB. Year after year, one just knows that something special is coming……
HAIL THE BISON!!!!!!!!
are they trying to do this in 11 games? or 15?
11 would be 270 yards a game, 15 would be 200.
Also, what was the total last year?
in stead of the running back vibe , it should be the running back vibration
they will shake up everyone in the dome !
Running backs 4 and 5 on our depth chart would start or a lot of carries for all but 2 other teams in our conference and they had FBS transfers to fill those spots. Its tough to have someone as talented as Jones buried on the depth chart but that says how much depth we have.
Matt Jones will still be the one to watch. He is young but if he sees the field he will be running down it with defenders lying on the ground with broken ankles. He reminds me alot of Tony Satter. I have not seen Crockett much, so I am very excited to see if all the hype is correct. Sam is tough and hopefully he stays healthy. I am even more excited to see the receiver play and see how that all goes. Vraa is a playmaker and if Ryan stays healthy he is by far the best slot in the conference if not the country. He just makes Wes Welker type plays.
Can’t wait to get this thing going. Good to see some new posts or names anyway. I am just getting back on board again and am waiting to hear from BisonJeff and some of the old standbys, even Lakesyboy.
Go Herd.
There is a very fine line between “swagger” and “arrogance.”
Not sure how you quantify the talent level of a FBS program to top 40,50 FBS team, but can’t argue a blind statement like that.
“swagger” from local media? Media reports the news…not sure how to add or subtract “swagger” from the news?
But very insightful statements nonetheless.