Thoughts on Kelvin Taylor

[Alagator]

Dude, it's a message board. Something to talk about. I think he's average/mediocre....I thought he was going to be better. Like it said, the thread was posted on a message board...to generate discussion. Thanks for participating.

You're welcome. Somebody had to bring something to the table. Glad I could help.


In all seriousness, I hoped you were just drumming up business, looking for something to talk about. But knowing this crowd, it could very easily turn into a hate KT misery fest. Therefore, I thought I'd add my common sense and logic to the conversation early on.... And truth be told, I am disappointed in our run game, not KT. I think it's much more about our OL than any of our RB's.

 

[lagator]

He has good vision, good feet and is showing some patience waiting for his blockers and finding the hole. It is not accurate that the O-line sucks and he is doing it all on his own. They are getting better in run blocking and open holes, but as expected, they close quickly. His problem is he has no second gear or ability to accelerate once he finds the hole. He also has very average power so can drag for an extra yard or 2 but seldom if ever pulls away from a tackler for a long gain. He blocks pretty well and knows the assignments. In other words he's pretty average overall.

 

[GatorStud]

You're only as good as your run blocking OLine... I'm thinking the big show is still before us.

 

[NVGator]

Taylor is a pretty decent tailback. If he had the line fournette had right now he'd prolly be averaging a good bit per carry as well. He's not impressed me all that much but he runs hard and pass blocks well and hasn't really fumbled at all.

Completely disagree. If Fournette was here, even with our OL, he'd still be a monster.

Everyone should try and stop blaming everything on the OL.

 

[TheDouglas78]

Completely disagree. If Fournette was here, even with our OL, he'd still be a monster.

Everyone should try and stop blaming everything on the OL.

Agreed, we have had better backs with worse lines. The issues in our running game aren't just due to the OL. Fournette was a beast last year, behind a line that was extremely questionable at times.

 

[GatorStud]

It would be nice to have a consistent Taylor, Kronk and Scarlett rotation... benefits all and see who can settle in on hitting marginal holes each game.

 

[Swamped Gator]

He's running behind a bad line. If you go back and watch the TN game he consistently made the first guy miss, but was met with a couple more tacklers immediately after the first juke. I think the most important thing that people are forgetting is he was called on in the redzone twice and he punched it in for two TD's in that game. He's not Cubb, he's not Fournette, but he's been serviceable this year behind a subpar line.

 

[Ray Finkle]

As long as he does uga the same this year he will be my favorite back ever

 

[WobbleGator]

I will give credit to KT for be good at ball protection. He rarely fumbles.

 

[Alagator]

Completely disagree. If Fournette was here, even with our OL, he'd still be a monster.

Everyone should try and stop blaming everything on the OL.

Why??? That has been our "go to" move for 5 years now.

Though, realistically speaking it may be more true this year than ever before. When was the last time we had only one...ONE upper classman on the line? What's more, when was the last time our OL rotation consisted of THREE true freshman AND a transfer from a DIVISION 3 program (Though, I'm glad we got him.) ??

Our OL is not good and the most we can hope for is serviceable or maybe marginally average. The good news is we are building for the future. These freshman look good for being true freshman. I like how our OL is shaping up for for the future.

 

[TheDouglas78]

Why??? That has been our "go to" move for 5 years now.

Though, realistically speaking it may be more true this year than ever before. When was the last time we had only one...ONE upper classman on the line? What's more, when was the last time our OL rotation consisted of THREE true freshman AND a transfer from a DIVISION 3 program (Though, I'm glad we got him.) ??

Our OL is not good and the most we can hope for is serviceable or maybe marginally average. The good news is we are building for the future. These freshman look good for being true freshman. I like how our OL is shaping up for for the future.

So if we are going to blame his offensive line for his lack of production, should we take away his longest run because they opened up UT Defense like the red sea. Can't really have the argument both ways.

 

[Alagator]

So if we are going to blame his offensive line for his lack of production, should we take away his longest run because they opened up UT Defense like the red sea. Can't really have the argument both ways.

Not trying to have it both ways. That was a great play. A credit to them. Also to their credit, they pass blocked decently on Sat. ...best so far. Hopefully every game they will progress. I'm not actively trying to bash our guys. I love their heart and their fight.

Seems like there's an impasse. Either KT is bad and the OL is good, OR the other way around. My money is on the OL playing three true frosh and a D-3 transfer.

I'm not bashing them but when asked about KT's performance or lack thereof you cannot ignore the state of our OL. The OL is BTW the reason everyone picked against us in the preseason. I have been pleasantly surprised by them, meaning they are not as bad as everyone predicted. Of course, they haven't faced the DL from Ole Miss, LSU, uga yet either...

We haven't had much of a running game to speak of. Hell the running stats are bolstered from Grier runs after the OL broke down in pass production. (Granted some of those he broke from the pocket too soon). We haven't been very good on designed runs or obvious running plays (no matter who was carrying the ball) most of the time. Obviously this is an area where there is room for improvement and obviously the OL has a LOT of room for improvement here. Truthfully, I think they will keep getting better as the season progresses. But we'll see much more improvement as season from now...

 

[Floridagator]

No Oline blocking, not a fumbler, very good in pass pro, has bursts and vision.

he is not currently great but he is pretty good. Id take him any day. We have had way worse, Moore, Moody, etc. love to have a guy with smarts in the pass pro and ball security

 

[Alagator]

No Oline blocking, not a fumbler, very good in pass pro, has bursts and vision.

he is not currently great but he is pretty good. Id take him any day. We have had way worse, Moore, Moody, etc. love to have a guy with smarts in the pass pro and ball security

What he said.

 

[Floridagator]

So if we are going to blame his offensive line for his lack of production, should we take away his longest run because they opened up UT Defense like the red sea. Can't really have the argument both ways.

yes. KT has zero yards. Now we have it both ways. No OL and 11 people hit KT at the same time

 

[ATXGator]

Even on the long run... if you watch it again. he had a guy who almost got him behind the line... Taylor was avoiding tackles all day behind the line of scrimmage against Tenn and that by itself is impressive.

 

[NavetG8r]

It's kinda hard to put up decent numbers when 3 out of every 4 times you get handed the ball, there's 2-3 defenders already in the backfield.

 

[Captain Sasquatch]

Dances around a bit too much and doesn't get north-south quickly enough, but he practically never fumbles, is great in pass protection, can catch, runs very hard and doesn't go down easy, and has a knack for finding the hole in goal line situations as long as someone isn't eating his lunch the second he gets the ball handed to him. He's been solid so far, hoping he continues to improve.

 

[lagator]

I am in the Camp that KT will show he is a quality RB. If you look at the first two games he split a lot of time with the two Freshmen. He got his first 100 yard game when he was the "go to guy" for the first time this season against a quality defense and with a below average SEC OL (yes that is improving to become average). I think you will see a quality season from KT. If I were to put numbers to it I would say 850-1000 yards this season with about 10 TDs. I know that there would be about half the teams in the country that would take those numbers.

Everyone is saying pretty much the same thing, which is he's basically average. The 100 yrd games are fine, but he doesn't grind out a critical FD when you need it. You can't put the game on his back in the 4th Q. Both JS and Cronk are more explosive but don't block as well. I'd still like to see them get back into the rotation for this game because we're going to need to run the ball better and I think that means more than KT running inside for 2-3 yrs a crack.

 

[Ancient Reptile]

You have to be kidding...How can one even accurately assess his performance? It's been well noted by just about every analyst and journalist how bad our run blocking has been. We've been surprisingly "decent" in pass blocking but horrid in run blocking. He's met in the backfield more times than not. I just read an article today speaking of how bad run blocking has been and said the OL has made it nearly impossible to have a 5.0 run per carry average. No way to know how good he is.

I for one am hoping the OL steadily improves or the two stud RB's we have committed might start wondering if this is the OL they want blocking for them. I'm hoping, assuming it is mostly due to the youth and inexperience we have playing on the OL.

Another factor though is that we have absolutely sucked in our ability to hit a deep ball. Sucked! All we hit are short and intermediate routes. Therefore, the box is crowded leaving much less room to run. If we EVER develop a real deep threat and actually connect on a couple of long balls it'll spread the D out a little more and allow more running lanes...provided of course, the OL can open an actual hole for him to run through.

If the rb's can't see this o-line improving they don't know football. Inability to hit the long ball is disappointing. Grier doesn' seem to know how to lead the receiver, not that our receivers are getting much separation.