knuckleup wrote:No sarcasm. With a far inferior offense to what ED had, and as single set back Line was able to almost catch ED rushing yards and tied TD record. Just my opinion as both were great.
One could argue that Line wasn't playing the same kind of competition that ED was and the regular season was only 11 games. Not sure how many carries each of them had while playing, but when ED was here, another RB was also getting carries.....as was the QB.
Absolutely, and ED is a Hall of Famer while Line has yet to make the pros. No one, not even Line himself would say they are "equal", just that both were great for their respective times and teams. Love 'em both.
Whoever plays the position has to be able to pass block or gilbert will get killed. That is the primary requirement, not who is fastest or quickest but who can pick up the blitz packages
ghost wrote:Whoever plays the position has to be able to pass block or gilbert will get killed. That is the primary requirement, not who is fastest or quickest but who can pick up the blitz packages
True, but it is nice to see JJ going to the run a little more.
unclebill wrote:Can we say goodbye to Eric Dickerson's records?
Records yes. All due respect to ZL, Dickerson still the the better RB by far
Not that it matters, but with all due respect to ED, Line is the better RB by far.
Love me some Zach Line but they aren't even in the same league. ED was 6'3" with world class olympic speed. Zach might make it in the pros and even have a successful career but with ED you are talking about one of the top 5 RBs to ever play the game. Ever. And in terms of college careers, ED was shredding UT, etc, every year. Zach ran basically 3 plays, the signature one being the delayed draw when defenses were spread out all across the field like soccer playing the pass first. And these were little CUSA defenses (he DID play well against all competition though . . . TCU, aTm, etc, I'll give him credit for that).
Zach's a beast no doubt but there is no comparison with ED. Apples and oranges.
unclebill wrote:Can we say goodbye to Eric Dickerson's records?
Records yes. All due respect to ZL, Dickerson still the the better RB by far
Not that it matters, but with all due respect to ED, Line is the better RB by far.
I almost spat my coffee out on my computer. I'm only 25, but even I know ED is vastly better than Line.
You're talking about a guy who is one of the top running backs in NFL history compared to a guy who has a lot of question marks going into the NFL draft. That being said, Line is a great player and I think he'll have success in the pros, but he's not even close to Dickerson in talent.
Evaluating a player purely on numbers is foolish
"I love coaching here at SMU University" -June Jones
Well i am 29 and i completely disagree. I am not elauating on munbers only as Line was a 4 down back (punt team as well) where ED was only used for running the ball and had lots of breaks. ED was not asked to be a blocking back and rarely had any passes which is why Line surpassed him on all purpose yards. Records and stats are not what I am looking at, ED would have never achieve his numbers with the offense as well as 4 different qb over 4 years that Line had to contend with. All due respect to ED as he did excel at the next level which is where his fame was achieved. Both are great athletes and representatives of SMU.
Ed had to split time with Craig James the whole time he was here and had 4.3 speed. Ed proved he was a Great NFL running back that is in the Hall of Fame. Zack Line is a tough football player with 4.7 speed who will be trying to make an NFL team as a fullback and/or a special teams player. Zack did a great job here blocking and running out of the run & shoot, but he would be the first to tell you that he and Ed are completely different types of backs that are not really comparable. Running out of a run & shoot with potential large running lanes set up because the D is trying to defend the pass is totally different than an I formation in the 1980s where the D knows you are going to run right at them that Ed played against.
Last edited by westexSMU on Thu Feb 21, 2013 8:51 am, edited 1 time in total.
westexSMU wrote:Ed had to split time with Craig James the whole time he was here and had 4.3 speed. Ed proved he was a Great NFL running back that is in the Hall of Fame. Zack Line is a tough football player with 4.7 speed who will be trying to make an NFL team as a fullback and/or a special teams player. Zack did a great job here blocking and running out of the run & shoot, but he would be the first to tell you that he and Ed are completely different types of backs that are not really comparable. Running out of a run & shoot with potential large running lanes set up because the D is trying to defend the pass is totally different than an I formation where the D knows you are going to run right at them that Ed played against.
Mike Ford was the starting QB, Dickerson and James first year. Lance did not become the starting QB until the the 5th or 6th game, his freshman year, of the 1980 season.
This is silly. Line is in a spread offense where the D is playing against the pass and in the era of anti-pass defensive personnel. ED was in a run offense in an era of anti-run defenses.
Line's numbers are 20% or so more than the average June Jones college rushing attack. Credit for his durability but it is not phenominal numbers.
Put ED in the backfield in CUSA in a spread offense and he would put up a billion yards
Dickerson was the starter for only about 3 games as a freshman though. Waggonner and James got alot more carries. Dickerson had some nagging injuries and really didn't play much after Waggonner and James started producing. Both Dickerson and Waggoner had season ending injuries on the same kickoff against Tech and James took the Tailback job from there. Estimates Waggoner (850 yards), James (780 yards), Dickerson 380 yards). For most of Dickerson's career he played against stacked 8-9 man fronts keying on the run while Zach Line played against 3-4 man fronts keying on the pass. Zach would have started at FB carrying the ball 3 times a game in the I and never lined up at TB-EVER because he would have been 4th string behind guys like Waggoner and Dupard too. Also we had some pretty tough blocking fullbacks but I do think he would have worked his way into the lineup strictly as a blocking FB
Last edited by Stallion on Tue Feb 19, 2013 11:32 am, edited 2 times in total.
"With a quarter of a tank of gas, we can get everything we need right here in DFW." -SMU Head Coach Chad Morris
When momentum starts rolling downhill in recruiting-WATCH OUT.
He silliest part about this is that the question about whether we should say good bye to ED's records could only have been in reference to Prescott Line, who was the subject of the thread. Zach is done playing so obviously he will not be surpassing any more of ED's records.
I took the question as being "if Zach almost beat ED's records and Prescott is supposed to be better than Zach, will he beat ED's records?" I would just echo that beating records does not mean he is better than ED and I did not think that was the point of the question.
There is one guy stating Zach is better than ED and he must be trying to pull everyone offsides.
If we get the QB situation figured put then he won't get near the total yardage of Zach. If we don't, we will likely have a different offense and staff in a few years so who knows
AusTxPony wrote:Absolutely, and ED is a Hall of Famer while Line has yet to make the pros. No one, not even Line himself would say they are "equal", just that both were great for their respective times and teams. Love 'em both.
Ditto
ghost wrote:Whoever plays the position has to be able to pass block or gilbert will get killed. That is the primary requirement, not who is fastest or quickest but who can pick up the blitz packages
