Monday July 19, 2010

Breakout Candidate

Breakout Candidate
This past weekend we saw a breakout performance from Louis Oosthuizen as the South African won the British Open by seven shots. Few outside of the tour had heard of him despite the 27-year old despite his 54th world ranking.

On my radio show this morning we asked listeners who they thought would be Clemson’s breakout performer this season.

A breakout season is subjective. The qualifications are not set in stone and you can’t have two breakout seasons. In my opinion Rashard Hall had a breakout season last year so he is ineligible. DeAndre McDaniel is also not a candidate because he has proven it at this level. We still are not sure if Kyle Parker is coming back or not but he would also not be eligible for a breakout season this year.

We had votes for Da’Quan Bowers, Jamie Harper, Tajh Boyd and DeAndre Hopkins but I wanted to add a few more names like Dalton Freeman, Dwayne Allen, Antoine McClain, David Smith, Andre Branch, Kourtnei Brown and Corico Hawkins.

But my number one breakout candidate this season is Andre Ellington. In fact, I predict Ellington will be the 12th player in Clemson history to rush for 1,000 yards in a season.

Raymond Priester, James Davis and Woody Dantzler did it twice each, so Clemson has seen 14 seasons where a Tiger rushed for over 1,000 yards. Buddy Gore was the first to do it in 1967 when he gained 1045 yards. C.J. Spiller did it last year with 1,212 yards. Priester has the top two rushing seasons in Clemson history with 1,345 yards in 1996 and 1,322 yards in 1995.

Raymond Priester, Terrence Flagler, Kenny Flowers, Terry Allen, James Davis, Cliff Austin, Woody Dantzler, Buddy Gore, Travis Zachery, Lester Brown and C.J. Spiller are the 1,000-yard rushers that Ellington might join this season.

Ellington showed us some signs last season. In fact, Ellington had the third best yards per carry average in Clemson history (minimum of 400 yards). Only Billy Hair’s 1950 season where he averaged 7.39 and Spillers 2006 season where he averaged 7.27 yards per carry were better than Ellington’s 7.22 yards per carry last season.

It was obvious that Spiller was the focal point of the offense last season but Ellington showed signs that he was ready to take over that role in 2010. The sophomore had 491 yards rushing on only 68 carries.

His career high for carries is only nine and that was in his first college game last year in the season opener against Middle Tennessee. So Ellington has never carried the ball more than nine times in any game and half of the games last season he had five or less carries.

Ellington has yet to have a 100-yard rushing game. His high rushing mark in his freshman season was the 88 he had against Coastal Carolina.

It was not the 88-yards against Coastal or 72 against Middle Tennessee that impressed many. His coming out game last season was the Florida State game where he had six carries for 54 yards and a touchdown.

The knock on Ellington is that he does not have the break-away, top end speed that Spiller possessed, but then again who does? I will point out that Ellington did five carries of 30 or more yards last season including a 55-yarder and a 43-yarder.

The other knock is that he does not catch the football like Spiller and that too is true. However, he did have 11 receptions for 55 yards.

Andre Ellington is not C.J. Spiller. He is not the all-purpose performer that Spiller was or the big-play threat. But Clemson is never going to ask him to be Spiller. They will instead ask him to be a different kind of back. Ellington may be better than Spiller between the tackles so look for him to be given more chances in that aspect of the running game.

Ellington hits the hole hard and runs much bigger than his listed size (180 pounds as a freshman). He runs with an attitude which is a part of his ability to break tackles but it is Ellington’s balance that is the key. He reminds me a little of former Clemson great Terry Allen who was not the fastest but had tremendous balance. The red-shirt sophomore appears to have good vision and the ability to accelerate through the hole. He runs behind his pads and has the ability to fall forward more times than not. But it is his balance that sets him apart.

The projection of a 1,000-yard season is not only based upon Ellington’s ability. If Kyle Parker does not come back, the Tigers will most likely depend upon the running game. I would also point out that the wide receivers are still a question mark and the offensive line looks like a strength at this point.

Clemson’s offense will most certainly look different this season but there is not panic among the offensive staff. They really like this offensive line and feel Ellington and Harper can have a very productive season.

A lot will depend on his health and his opportunity but I feel pretty confident Ellington us set for a big year. Tomorrow I will take a look at other breakout candidates like Da’Quan Bowers, Jamie Harper, Tajh Boyd, Dalton Freeman, Dwayne Allen, Antoine McClain, David Smith, Andre Branch, Kourtnei Brown and Corico Hawkins.

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Prayer List
We have started a prayer list on the blog. Here are the guidelines:
*If you are offended by prayer or prayer lists then I apologize in advance. The blog is free and the prayer list will be on the bottom of the page so you don’t have to read it.
*If you would like to add someone to the list please e-mail me at mickeyplyler@hotmail.com
*If you want the reason for the prayer to be added to the name please specify in your e-mails.
*Please let me know when it is appropriate to take the person off of the prayer list

Those who need our prayers include:
Finn Brookover, RTG-Pawsitive Tiger, Mary-Louise Pawlowski (John's daughter), Jo Ann Bachman, Kenneth Bryant, Pruitt Martin, Got igers and his family, David Rowland, Leonard, Gillespie and his family, Jim S, Christine Hepfer, Daniel Rosborough, Amy Murphey, The Huffman family, Nancy Winkler, John Reeve, Ethel Southard, Vinnie Brock, Kaitlyn L, Susan Miller, Joyce Harley, Steve Proveaux, Jeffrey Greene, the Hutto family, Sherl Drawdy, Caleb Kennedy, Teresa O'Connor, Matt Jacobs,Perrin Seigler, Carole White Begley, Candee Massee, Lindsey Jordan, Sam Catoe, Tyler Felch, Steve Cato, the Nicolopulos family, Cason Palmer, Scott Jackson, "the Jacksonville, FL guys", Kim Sims, the Coyle familty, Ryleigh Tedder, Steve Lee, Richard Crawford, Kelly Trakas, Jimmy Moore, Steve Williams Jr, Steve Williams III, Kim Thomas, Reid Thomas, Sam Thomas, Linda Wiggs, Emily Claire Young, Dr. Wallace Honeycutt, Stacy Fowler, Kitty Bowers.