DeMarco Murray: The Chris Simms of OU

by wishiwasalonghorn on Dec 2, 2008 8:23 PM CST

It’s amazing to me how people jump on a player’s band wagon and ride the hell out of it. Murray is Back!!! Look at all that confidence!!!! Instead of automatically claiming Murray has returned to greatness, lets look at the numbers. But wait, would that possibly lead a person to the logical conclusion that Murray hasn’t returned to greatness, that maybe, just maybe, the opponents got weaker? Lets look at it the numbers and then decide.

DeMarco Murray has had 5 games with 100+ rushing yards this year. Since the texas game, where he had an awesome average of 0.9 yards per carry, he has had 3 100+ games. Everyone, especially the media, now claim he got his confidence back in his knee, and that’s why he is doing so great. Conversely, that’s why he was doing so poor at the beginning of the season; his confidence was gone, silly!!!!!!. On a whim, I started thinking, maybe those teams just weren’t great at stopping the run. Maybe his confidence wasn’t in his knee, it was in the poor run defense of his opponent.

Here are the facts: Since the Texas game, and his resurgence of "confidence", every one of the teams Murray rushed for over 100 yards against gave up a 100 yd rusher the very next week!!!!!!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME, THE VERY NEXT WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- vs. K-STATE Murray rushed for 104 yards, the very next week Jake Sharp rushed for 181 yards against K-state

-vs A&M he rushed for 123 yards at, I will admit, a very impressive 17.6 per carry. The very next week though, against Baylor, Finley had 116 yards, a season high I should note, against A&M

-vs Tech, his last 100 yd game, he rushed for 125 yards, at 6.9 per carry, another good showing no doubt. The problem is the very next week, against Baylor, Tech nearly gave up two 100 yd rushers. Griffin was 18 for 99 yards and Finely had 105 yards on 15 carries.

-Baylor’s Finley had 2 100yd games this year, both were against teams where Murray regained his “confidence”.

-Jake Sharp’s season high was against a team where Murray regained his “confidence”

-Washington was Murray's first 100yd performance against a D1 team, the very next week Stanford’s Anthony Kimble had a season high 157yds against Washington.

Really people, lets look at the facts before we make excuses for his poor performances like, "he just didn’t have his confidence in his knee". It’s easy to lose your confidence against a team that shuts you down and then later magically regain it when facing a team whose run defense sucks. Chris Simms always seemed to gain his confidence at the most convenient times, too.

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Don't understand the hate for Simms

I don’t really understand Longhorn nations hate or dislike (can’t really think/come up with the word to describe your feelings towards him) for Simms. I actually enjoyed watching Simms play and thought he was the better quarterback than Applewhite. I thought he gave Texas the better chance to win. If you break them down they essentially had the same careers. I guess the underdog nobody will always be more liked than the son of football royalty with the good looks. The people that should be held responsible is Mack Brown for the way he handled it. He should have said in either ’99 or 2000 that Simms or Applewhite was the guy and that was it.

Sure Simms may have imploded in big games against Colorado and OU, but you guys seem to forget that Applewhite was involved in some bad losses as well. He started the beat down you received at the hands of OU in 2000. He started against KSU when you guys lost in 1999. He was the quarterback when we beat you guys in ’99 and fumbled on the game winning drive.

I always thought that you guys didn’t give Simms his due. He was a class act and a great guy. Sure he didn’t deliver when it mattered but there were other guys that didn’t step up as well. Before Young and Colt McCoy came along you could have argued that Simms was the best or second best quarterback in Texas history.

I think what hurt him more was than anything was Brown taking off Simms’ redshirt in 1999. If he had one more year I think he could have led you guys to a national title game appearance that year.

by PrimeTime2012 on Dec 3, 2008 1:34 AM CST 0 recs

actually

He was the quarterback when we beat you guys in ’99 and fumbled on the game winning drive.

Chris Simms started the ‘99 A&M-texas game, and was pulled after consecutive sacks in the 4th quarter, when the Wrecking Crew made him crack and got into his head. I believe he had thrown an interception on the previous drive to the one in which he was pulled, but would have to look it up to be sure. Applewhite didn’t start the game because we had Dinsh Patel hire someone from the CIA to provide us with botulism, with which we poisoned Applewhite’s pizza the night before the game (according to the t-sips, anyway). Applewhite came down with food poisoning, and was only allowed in the game after they pulled Simms.

I would argue that Mack’s biggest mistake with Simms was that early on in his career, whenever Simms made a costly mistake like throwing an interception, Mack would immediately pull him from the game. He never let Simms come back in and fight through adversity, and I think it cost him later. Simms was actually becoming a serviceable starter at QB in the NFL before the spleen injury curtailed his career.

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by Beergut on Dec 3, 2008 1:46 AM CST up 0 recs

Murray is overrated

He had a solid game against Tech and other than that he really didn’t do much. He barely got over 100 yards against weak defenses and even the “great game” he had against us more than half his yardage came on one run his 60/70 yard run against us. Against OSU he had that touchdown and that was it. Florida/‘Bama will expose him as a better kick returner than runningback. I think Brown is, actually OU’s better back.

I don’t understand the comparison of Simms and Murray. Simms was the face of UT football for about three four years while Murray is the second or third guy on his team. While Murray didn’t have a big game in the Red River Shootout he wasn’t responsible for his teams’ collapses like Simms was.

by PrimeTime2012 on Dec 3, 2008 1:38 AM CST 0 recs

why chris simms

The comparison to simms is do to the confidence factor. back when simms tried his hardest to beat ou, mack brown and co were worried about his confidence more than anything. when asked why we were running 5 yrd routes when it was 3rd and 15 and down by 2 scores brown said" i wanted to build simms confidence" just the same when simms wasn’t allowed to talk to the press, worried bout the kids confidence,
i do agree with you that ut fans are a little hard on simms. what sucks for him is we thought we were a national title team back then, when we realistically weren’t, and he became the scapegoat for our broken dreams

by wishiwasalonghorn on Dec 3, 2008 11:04 AM CST up 0 recs

the Murray-Simms comparison is an apt one

Simms defining career game actually came against us in 2000, when our secondary was absolutely riddled with injuries, and we literally didn’t have a single healthy defensive back on the field. Everyone one of our cornerbacks and safeties was fighting injuries, and texas took advantage of it, throwing deep to Roy Williams and Sloan Thomas and just shredding us. It was supposed to be Simms’ coming out party, but he never reached that level of play again.

If you believe that Murray’s performance this season against us is a result of him facing a weak defense, then the comparison to Simms is apt.

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by Beergut on Dec 3, 2008 1:49 AM CST 0 recs

Moronic.

I’m sorry but this post just doesn’t make any sense. Do you realize that Murray hasn’t even gotten the most carries on the team in that time period since Texas? Brown has 94 carries to Murray’s 87. Let’s assume that Murray was the lone back in the Oklahoma offense and very conservatively give him half of the yardage that Brown got in each game. Here are Brown’s totals:

Kansas – 12 92
K-State – 20 142
Nebraska – 9 89
A&M – 13 117
Tech – 21 108
Ok St 19 98

So if we gave Murray half of that yardage (which we can all realistically say is low balling it) that brings his total over six games to 888 yards for an average of 148 yards/per game. Overrated? Now let’s take the carries that Mossis Madu has received in those six games due to the Sooners pulling the starters and see what happens if Murray had gotten them:

42 carries at 6.5 yards/carry (Murray’s average over those six games) = 273 yards.

Add that to the 888 from before and you are looking at a back who easily could have run for over 1100 yards in six games if he wasn’t giving away over 60% of Oklahoma’s carries.

Now tell me again how you think he is overrated?

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by WoodrowWilson on Dec 3, 2008 9:40 AM CST 0 recs

not neccisarily overated

murray is good no doubt, and he is deserving of all big 12 honors. my argument, with the numbers to prove it, is that all his great games came against teams that gave up nearly the same numbers the next week to sub par rbs. that is the bottom-line. u can give him style point for looking flashy or whatever you want,but when has murray put up great numbers against a team that can stop the run? when he plays average, people give him the excuse that he lacks confidence in his knee. to argue that he has to share carries is not valid. the best running back gets the most carries, period. now, before you start giving me grief about bush/white, or maroney/barber or mcfadden/jones,…brown is none of these guys. uncle rico made the same argument, i woulda won state if coach would have put me in

by wishiwasalonghorn on Dec 3, 2008 11:21 AM CST up 1 recs

I'm giving you a rec just for the Napoleon Dynamite allusion

awesomeness

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by Beergut on Dec 3, 2008 1:35 PM CST 0 recs

great, but numbers do not support all conference

I think Murray is obviously a different back on the field than he was before the tu game. He is more explosive. That said, IMO his numbers do not support an All Conference selection. I think he makes the OU offense explosive and the juggernaut that it is right now. I think he is a much better back than Brown.

by miketag on Dec 3, 2008 6:54 PM CST 0 recs

all i am saying

is every game where he showed his explosiveness, he did it to teams that allowed all opponents rbs to do the same thing. murray needs to show me something remarkable against a team that doesnt usually allow such things before i’m convinced he is back. until then, i give the credit to weaker defenses over his regained confidence

by wishiwasalonghorn on Dec 3, 2008 11:55 PM CST up 0 recs

before the tu game didn’t he play some poor defenses that he did not run well against?

by miketag on Dec 4, 2008 12:03 AM CST 0 recs

sooooooo

because he is running better against poor defenses he has gotten that much better as a playmaker? i guess thats one way of looking at it

by wishiwasalonghorn on Dec 4, 2008 12:09 AM CST up 0 recs

I think his point is simply

that before the texas game, he wasn’t running well at all, even when playing weak defenses, so your argument that his improvement is because he is facing weak defenses would be moot.

I believe he had some hundred yard games before the texas game, though, so I don’t think his argument holds water.

I Am The 12th Man.com

by Beergut on Dec 4, 2008 12:13 AM CST up 0 recs

2

he had two 100 yrd games before texas

by wishiwasalonghorn on Dec 4, 2008 12:29 AM CST up 0 recs

i really dont have an opinon on DeMarco Murray one way or the other,
but I think it is a stretch to even propose this comparison.

by jarrett.adams on Dec 4, 2008 8:56 AM CST 0 recs

true

I don’t really think there is a strong comparison between the two, or that there is a legit comparison at all to be completely honest. That’s why besides the title and closing lines, Simms has nothing to do with the post. I was merely trying to put Murray’s numbers in perspective and maybe take a little credit from his “confidence in his knee” and place the credit on poor defenses. But yes, I agree with you, the comparison is for all practical purposes absurd.

by wishiwasalonghorn on Dec 4, 2008 12:59 PM CST up 0 recs