We ran 91 plays yesterday. Adkins and ToJo each had 17 carries. Adkins went for a little over 100 yards and ToJo went for 60-something. Each had a TD.
I hear what you and others are saying about a back developing a rhythm and all. But football seems to be going away from having a guy carry the ball 30-40 times in a game. Also, I'm not sure that we have a guy who can even take on that kind of workload if we wanted him to.
What I would like to see is for someone to become "the man" and start getting 20-25 carries while our #2 is getting around 10. If anyone on our roster can become that guy, it is Adkins.
I am happy with what we have seen out of ToJo this season, he came out of the gate as our best runner and in the other aspects of the game has done what you would expect of a senior making the most of his last year of football.
At the same time Adkins got off to a very slow start this year with the high ankle sprain he developed in fall practice but looks to be getting stronger every week with an excellent game running the ball this week.
Take this with a grain of salt since I was always to big and slow for coaches to ever consider giving me the football but I think RB more than any other position is one of natural ability developed to maximum effect.
ToJo plays hard and looks like a smart kid on the field. He also has outstanding straight line speed, if he gets into the secondary not many people are going to catch him. The down side and the thing that keeps him from becoming a top RB is that he doesn't get to that speed very quickly, he needs space to run in. He also isn't very good at finding the hole and getting through it unless it is right where it was supposed to be and fairly large. I don't know if it is vision or instinct but on a team that isn't consistently blowing open big holes his effectiveness is going to be limited. Put him behind Wisconsin's line and he might have a bunch of TDs, but then so would a number of other backs.
Adkins frustrates because he also looks like he doesn't have the instincts of a great (and sometimes even good) back. He can miss holes, dance to much, or not wait for his blocks. On the other hand as he gets more carries and gets more comfortable he seems more natural. He got better last year as he played more and is doing the same this year.
He may never be a great back but he looks to be the best of what we have now. I still think we play to win this year but we also should be working for next year and the following years. ToJo isn't going to be around. He isn't likely to get much better than he is now and if he did it wouldn't help us to a bowl game in future years.
I'd like to see a rotation with Adkins getting the majority of the work, ToJo spelling him (and maybe getting the critical third downs when his pass protection skills may give Sefo more confidence) with Lindsay getting the left overs as well as any garbage time.