MSU Red Cedar Message Board

I doubt Maxwell gets 250; I'm content with any positive yardage from the QB spot.

I also expect Bell to have 1300+. He was at 948 last year, and that's without being allowed to pad his stats vs CMU (8 carries, 81 yards) or Indiana (9 carries, 68 yards). Also, Bell only had 182 carries. If that improves to 250 carries, then he's at 1300 yards even, at 5.2 YPC. If he averaged 5.5 YPC, he's at 1375 yards. If he hits his FR # of 5.7 YPC, he's at 1425.

MSU's best rushing year under MD was 2007, when Ringer had 1447 (245 carries) and Caulcrick had 872 (222). The two combined for 467 carries alone, or more carries than the Spartans had all together in 2009 (419) or 2010 (444). I think MSU needs to pound the rock more this season to take full advantage of Bell. 250 carries/13 games is just over 19 carries/game. That doesn't seem too taxing.

The thing about Bell is that he is an extremely good receiver - better than Caper. As much as I like Larry, there is a drop off between the two.

Larry's a pretty good receiver in his own right. Both are heads and tails better than Baker .

I think Larry had (has?) all the tools to be a top-flight RB. He was really getting it in 2009 until he hurt his knee vs. IL. That turf was horrible; Caper and Winston were tearing IL a new one until both hurt their knees in the 3rd Q, on back to back drives I believe. Larry wasn't the same the rest of the season. Then the hand injury in '10, concussions in '11 . . .

Quite frankly I wish he had taken a RS in '10. Give him a full year to get 100% healthy and let him contribute in '11 and '12.

The thing I love about his running is his balance. He's extremely tough to tackle around the shoulders and really has good vision. Quite frankly, Baker had the worst vision among the 3. I caught the 2010 MSU - PSU game on the Big 10 network this weekend. There was a run where Caper had 7-8 yards or something, but man, he picked his holes, followed his blockers and really got the most out of the play. He was just an effective RB, and if MSU can get that out of him this year, the whole team will be better off for it.

Still, concussions are the caveat to all this.

I also expect Tompkins to play and for MSU to use Hill mostly on special teams.