Running Back Questions

[CriticalJ]

I am in my third season of a UNC dynasty. For the first two seasons, I had decent running backs (Mcgill the first season, Edwards the second). For the third season, I have Rich. He is rated somewhere around 85 with a speed rating of 94. Extremely fast. However, he seems to fall down if someone breathes on him. His strength is only 70 so I am guessing that this is his major weakness.

The previous two years, I passed a lot at the expense of my running game. This season, I decided to run establish the run more. Well, it has been a complete failure with Rich falling down in the backfield all of the time (my qb is my leading rusher). I do have a fb rated over 90. I have been running the flex so I can feature him more often and this has been somewhat successful.

So here are the questions.

What are the minimum scores in strength and speed for a successful feature back? I am guessing 80 in strength and 85 speed.

Would switching my fb to tailback be worth trying? As stated before, he is a stud, but he is obviously not fast.

Thanks for any insight.

[Village Idiot]

Speed, I would put the number at 85. Strength, I happen to think 70 is actually pretty high - very few backs are 80 or higher. The numbers you probably should be looking at are carry and break-tackle.

[Piston30]

I ran over everyone with george bell who started out at i think 76 strength, and was 80 by the time he gaduated

[NoleFan]

I tend to focus more on the type of back I have. In year 3 with Fresno State I have a 'speed' back so I run plays to get him on the edge. In years 1 & 2, I had balanced backs who could run inside or outside. This season though, I have to use my Fr 'power' back in short yardage situations.

[CriticalJ]

I guess I should have mentioned the break tackle stat as well. The RB Rich has a break tackle rating of 80 which seems pretty good. Didn't seem to help though.

What I have done is relegated him to 3rd string and put my third string tailback in the line up (leaving the second string back in place). The third string back has 74 strength and only about 85 speed. His break tackle is 84 though. It doesn't seem to be a significant increase, but the results have been much better. In physical stature, Rich is only 5' 9" and 190. The third string back is 5'10 and 210. Maybe the weight difference compared with the break tackle stat make a difference.

Since Rich was so fast, I have moved him to punt returns and kick returns where he is rated 99. So far the moves seem to be working out.

Oh yeah, moving the 95 rated FB to RB didn't net much either. Too slow to reach the line.