Dyer v. Lattimore: The thread

[AUChizad]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/09/scarbinsky_dyers_time_is_comin.html

Scarbinsky: Mike Dyer's time is coming
Published: Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 5:57 AM

Kevin Scarbinsky, Birmingham News

AUBURN

Curtis Luper has been looking forward to the day for a long time. He always wanted to see Mike Dyer and Marcus Lattimore in uniform in Jordan-Hare Stadium.

Of course, the Auburn running backs coach wanted to see them in the same backfield. Some con­sidered it a pipe dream, but he recruited them with that vision. Half his wish came true.

Come Saturday, the true freshman Dyer will line up at tailback for Auburn, and the true freshman Lattimore will do the same for South Carolina. A head-to-head comparison that's destined to last at least three years will go face-to-face for the first time.

"It'll be pretty exciting to see Mike and Marcus on Saturday, for me," Luper said.

That's a pretty healthy attitude, especially toward the one that got away.

"Marcus is a great kid," Luper said. "He has a great family. He's first-class. I'm happy for him and his success."

The Great Freshman Tailback Debate will be even more exciting if Auburn finally unleashes Dyer the way South Carolina has turned loose Lattimore.

Dyer has 39 carries through his first three college games for 212 yards. Lattimore carried 37 times for 182 yards against Georgia alone, sparking ridiculously early comparisons to legends Herschel Walker and Bo Jackson.

Hysteria is no match for history.

I never saw Herschel in person, but I know Bo. I covered him during his senior season at Auburn. Bo and I aren't exactly friends, but Lattimore is no Bo.

Neither is Dyer, for that matter. Until further notice, the only college running back that belongs in the same sentence as Jackson is Walker, and vice versa.

Back to reality, the only thing that's separated Dyer and Lattimore to date is opportunity. Dyer has the higher average yards per carry (5.4 to 4.8). Lattimore has the higher average yards per game (111 to 70.7). Did not realize Dyer had the higher YPC.[/color]

Mention that Dyer hasn't had the touches, and Luper says, "He'll get 'em."

Bring up breaking in Dyer slowly, and Luper says, "He'll have his time. He'll have his days when he carries it 25 and 30 times. That's just not where we are right now with him. He'll probably carry it more this week."

What? Did he say more? What does that mean?

More than he's carried it in a single game so far? Dyer's personal best was 16 attempts against Clemson last weekend.

More than Lattimore will carry it this week? His lightest load was 14 carries in the opener against Southern Miss.

Please. Tell me more.

"It's a tough transition from high school to college," Luper said. "We've tried to do everything we can to make the transition easier for Mike, but he's ready to roll."

Why hasn't Auburn depended on Dyer so far the way South Carolina has leaned on Lattimore? That's a good question. Luper has a good answer. It goes something like this.

Auburn has a quarterback with legs in Cam Newton. He needs to run the ball too, especially since the Tigers started the season with just three tailbacks. That's a perilously low number in this league.

"You need a minimum of four," Luper said. He promised that the Tigers will sign two tailbacks in February.

Break down Auburn's current trio. One of them, Mario Fannin, has broken down, and not for the first time. He injured a shoulder against Mississippi State and didn't play against Clemson. Fannin said he'll return against South Carolina, but his best position may be H-back.

Speed-sweep specialist Onterio McCalebb still weighs only 170 pounds. He's a threat to get broken in two if he takes too many hits.

And then there's Dyer.

"We can't just give it to him 35 times this week, next week and the next week," Luper said. "In this league, he won't be here Week 12 when we need him."

But as the weeks go by, expect Dyer's workload to increase.

"He's 215 pounds," Luper said. "He's built for it. That's what he's done all of his life. He's carried the football 20 to 30 times every Friday night for four years. He's accustomed to that.

"We'll get to that with him, but we're just trying to be judicious."

So who's the best freshman tailback in the SEC? You can judge for yourself Saturday. So far, as Auburn expected, it's a two-man race.

[AUChizad]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/09/mike_dyer_marcus_lattimore_nea.html

Mike Dyer, Marcus Lattimore: Nearly teammates, now ready to compete
Published: Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 9:59 PM
Evan Woodbery, Auburn Bureau

AUBURN -- In the days leading up to National Signing Day, Auburn's biggest recruit became the team's top recruiter.

Mike Dyer spent countless hours talking, texting and cajoling Marcus Lattimore, trying to convince the elite running back recruit to join him at Auburn.

Lattimore stuck with his home-state South Carolina Gamecocks; Dyer came to Auburn. On Saturday night, they'll see each other on a college field for the first time.

Both have already made an impact in their young careers. Lattimore leads the league with 333 yards and 5 touchdowns on 70 carries. Dyer has 212 yards on 39 carries as part of the Tigers' league-leading rushing attack.

"(Lattimore) is everything we saw in recruiting," said Auburn coach Gene Chizik. "He's doing a great job."

For much of the recruiting process, it seemed Lattimore might end up on the Plains, part of a star-studded, two-man backfield with Dyer.

Auburn started the recruiting year by targeting three elite players -- Dyer, Lattimore and Texas' Lache Seastrunk.

The Tigers eventually stopped aggressively pursuing Seastrunk, who ended up at Oregon.

Dyer, a Little Rock, Ark., native, was recruited and locked up by offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who has deep Arkansas roots.

That left Lattimore, whose decision was a mystery until the final moments, when he announced his choice at his church.

Although recruiting two elite players at the same position in the same year might seem challenging, Chizik said he didn't think the potential affected Dyer or Lattimore, who were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 by most major recruiting services.

Part of Auburn's pitch was the chance to play together in a two-back offense geared to their strengths.

"When they're two great players at the same position -- on the outside looking in, is that something you'd think would be bothersome to some guys? It would seem on paper that it is, but I don't know that that was necessarily the case (with Dyer and Lattimore)," Chizik said.

Lattimore and Dyer are both physical, bruising runners who are tough to bring down, but they succeed with different body types.

Dyer (5-9, 215) has quick, churning feet.

"He's like a bowling ball, really," Lattimore said. "He'll run you over. He's not that big, he's not that tall, but he's strong."

At 6 feet and 218 pounds, Lattimore is a graceful runner and receiver who has gotten a good chunk of his yardage after initial contact.

"He breaks a lot of tackles," said Auburn defensive coordinator Ted Roof. "That's one of the marks of a great back."

Dyer and Lattimore still have a relationship left over from their recruiting days, although Dyer was clearly uncomfortable with the media focus on their battle this weekend.

"I'm not going to go out and make a big deal of something that's not," Dyer said. "He's just another freshman on the opposite team. He's trying to do the same thing I'm trying to do -- do what we can to win for our team."

For his part, Lattimore said he and Dyer are "good friends," just not teammates.

"We talked about it," he said, "but it just didn't work out like that."

[AUChizad]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/09/blogger_roundtable_dyer_picked.html

Blogger roundtable: Dyer picked Auburn, AU fans should pick Dyer
Published: Wednesday, September 22, 2010, 11:35 AM

Kurt Branch

*In this edition of the al.com college football blogger roundtable, Kurt Branch of the Auburn fan site WarBlogle.com weighs in on the Mike Dyer-Marcus Lattimore debate.

    Question: It's easy now to see why Auburn kept recruiting Marcus Lattimore so hard, even after Mike Dyer committed. With the Gamecocks coming to Jordan-Hare this week, which back would you rather have? Which will have the bigger impact Saturday? Long-term? Will you secretly dream about what could have been if both had come to the Plains?

The short answer is Michael Dyer because he chose Auburn. He didn't fake out Auburn fans by pulling a South Carolina hat out of an Auburn hat in his signing announcement. He chose the Tigers and is an Auburn man, so he's the running back I would rather have.

If we want to be real, it is really too early to tell who is going to be the better back. Lattimore definitely wins in the stats battle, but that's because he's the only rushing threat the Gamecocks have at this point in the season. Dyer came in with two veterans that seemed/somewhat are perfectly capable of being productive out of the backfield.

On top of that, Cam Newton is another running back in his own right, so Dyer just had to wait his turn. However, it doesn't look like he's going to have to wait that long. He started against Clemson, probably due to Fannin's injury, but Gene Chizik has hinted for the last two weeks that Dyer would soon be the man.

I wouldn't be surprised if Dyer starts this weekend and gets a heavy load of the carries, as the Tigers try to get the running game going, which is something they really didn't do last week. It's going to be a real treat and rarity to see the top two running backs coming out of high school last year, playing against each other in their freshman season, in such a pivotal game. Not many freshman come in and become the starting running back, so that just shows how special these two guys are. They both seem to have a huge careers in front of them, and this is just the start.

Long term, and I'm not just being a homer here, I see Dyer having the better career, even though his stats may not show it for another year or two. Gus Malzahn runs a two-back system with a running quarterback. The carries are going to be split no matter how good Dyer is, but that could be a good thing. Every-down backs get hurt, get beat up, and wear down. Dyer won't have to carry the ball every play, but when he does get it, he's got what it takes to take it to the house.

As I mentioned earlier, Lattimore is all South Carolina has in terms of a running threat. He ran the ball 37 times in the second game of his college career. By the way, I would hope you would gain a ton of yards if you're touching the ball 37 times in one game.

Anyway, the guy is gonna wear down eventually. I think he's a great back, but I just don't see how anyone could continue to stay healthy for three more years at the rate that Spurrier is giving the ball to him. So long-term, it just looks like Dyer will have an easier road, and a better career because of it.

I can't tell what's going to happen this weekend, but it could come down which guy comes in wanting to win, and which guy comes in wanting to prove he was the better recruit. Given the cheesy slight at Auburn in his signing announcement, I'd say Lattimore could be the latter. I'll take Dyer any day.

[AUChizad]

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/09/blogger_roundtable_dyer_or_lat.html

Blogger roundtable: Dyer or Lattimore? Saturday won't tell the story
Published: Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 10:58 PM
Will Collier

*In this edition of the al.com blogger roundtable, Will Collier of the Auburn blog From the Bleachers looks at true freshmen Mike Dyer and Marcus Lattimore and makes his pick for the No. 2 team in the SEC (so far).

    Auburn Question: It's easy now to see why Auburn kept recruiting Marcus Lattimore so hard, even after Mike Dyer committed. With the Gamecocks coming to Jordan-Hare this week, which back would you rather have? Which will have the bigger impact Saturday? Long-term? Will you secretly dream about what could have been if both had come to the Plains?

It's way, way too early to judge either of these guys at this point. They've both looked good; Lattimore has (deservedly) made more of a splash, but he'll have to play against a bunch of top-notch defenses in the next couple of months, and so will Dyer.

We might not even know who has the upper hand after Saturday, since South Carolina and Auburn are right next to each other in rushing defense (#2 and #3 in the SEC, respectively). Like I always say when asked about recruiting and freshmen, "Ask me again in four years."

As far as what might have been, you bet I'd like to see an Auburn team with a Carnell Williams-Ronnie Brown or Bo Jackson-Lionel James one-two punch again. That's a lot of fun to watch--but it's also the nature of the beast that having such combinations is rare. It's possible that AU already has something like that brewing with the current crop (Dyer and Onterrio McCalebb have the potential), but again, way too early.

All that said, Lattimore looks like a great back to me. I'll certainly allow that I'm not looking forward to playing him over the next couple of years.