2023 Chris Johnson Jr

One of the major hurdles of an ACL injury is the mental part when coming back, after the rehab is complete.

I was a D1 baseball player. I tore my ACL freshman year in college. I was out 12 months. The mental barrier for me was huge and I can only imagine what it’s like as a football player due to the physicality of the game.

I wish Chaney nothing but the best this year and I’ll be rooting hard for him. My expectation is that by week 5-6 for him to be getting a bigger bulk of the carries if healthy.

Where'd you play? If you don't want to share the school, what conference?
 
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Not discounting any of this, I totally understand the mental side. I'm curious though, what year was this?
For me, 1997. Missed 2nd half of my Freshman year and half of my sophomore year. D1 sports become very political. Barely played my sophomore year trying to get back into form and overcoming competition. I was done playing by my junior year. 🤷🏻‍♂️
 
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Not a surprise (Chaney would be a surprise but coming off injury with new staff he hasnt built up any goodwill) for anyone reading the tea leaves.. We got a deep stable and there is not enough carries to go around.
We do have a deep stable but non of the guys we got are that good. We have good RBs. It’s time for Chaney to prove that he is what many said he was coming out of HS. There is no one the roster that should stop him from being the alpha. I can’t speak on Citizen cause we haven’t seen him yet, but at the same time, unless Citizen is the second coming of AD, a true freshman should not take,carries from Chaney.
 
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For me, 1997. Missed 2nd half of my Freshman year and half of my sophomore year. D1 sports become very political. Barely played my sophomore year trying to get back into form and overcoming competition. I was done playing by my junior year. 🤷🏻‍♂️

****, sorry for that luck. I’m sure that was a devastating time for you.

My point more than anything though, is that in 1997, torn ACLs were borderline death sentences for careers. That was a REALLY bad injury in 1997. The technology and medical advancements were just getting to the point where you felt you could make a full recovery, but we were honestly not that far removed from a torn ACL legitimately threatening your career. And for sure, 18 months was a nice, safe target. But it’s hard to even put into words how different this injury is in 2022 vs 1997.

The injury now is about a 9 month injury. Yes, everyone is different. Everyone reacts mentally differently to the injury. It’s certainly not a paper cut. But it’s not the end of the world anymore. And if it’s just an ACL, doctors will tell you they can have you good as new in well under a year. You gotta put in the work, but the rehab begins immediately. I’m guessing they didn’t have you jogging in a few weeks after surgery in 1997 like they do now.

Nick Bosa is one that just popped into my head while writing this. Torn ACL in Week 2 of 2020. Started all 17 games in 2021, led the league in TFLs, was 4th in the league with 15.5 sacks. He was quoted before camp even started last July saying he felt he was 100% and even stronger than pre-injury, just shy of 10 months earlier. If Don had surgery in September and it was ACL only, he should be fully ready to go right now. IIRC, he was participating in spring ball 5 months ago, albeit with no contact. If you can put a helmet on and do agility drills in February, you’re ready to rock in August. His time is now. Or it’s never.
 
I went to a college that belonged to the Colonial and several teams left from there to go to the A10. My college never did (went to Patriot).
American?

A10 baseball back then used to have their conf tourney at Bear Stadium in Boyertown. Way to small for a D1 aluminum bat tournament. I had a few buddies that played at SJU/Temple back then.
 
****, sorry for that luck. I’m sure that was a devastating time for you.

My point more than anything though, is that in 1997, torn ACLs were borderline death sentences for careers. That was a REALLY bad injury in 1997. The technology and medical advancements were just getting to the point where you felt you could make a full recovery, but we were honestly not that far removed from a torn ACL legitimately threatening your career. And for sure, 18 months was a nice, safe target. But it’s hard to even put into words how different this injury is in 2022 vs 1997.

The injury now is about a 9 month injury. Yes, everyone is different. Everyone reacts mentally differently to the injury. It’s certainly not a paper cut. But it’s not the end of the world anymore. And if it’s just an ACL, doctors will tell you they can have you good as new in well under a year. You gotta put in the work, but the rehab begins immediately. I’m guessing they didn’t have you jogging in a few weeks after surgery in 1997 like they do now.

Nick Bosa is one that just popped into my head while writing this. Torn ACL in Week 2 of 2020. Started all 17 games in 2021, led the league in TFLs, was 4th in the league with 15.5 sacks. He was quoted before camp even started last July saying he felt he was 100% and even stronger than pre-injury, just shy of 10 months earlier. If Don had surgery in September and it was ACL only, he should be fully ready to go right now. IIRC, he was participating in spring ball 5 months ago, albeit with no contact. If you can put a helmet on and do agility drills in February, you’re ready to rock in August. His time is now. Or it’s never.
That's an overstatement.. Even in the 80s and early 90s guys could come back from ACLs, granted the surgery, rehab, and recovery were way worse than today, and they never came back 100%. There are also varying degrees of tears/overall damage. Frank Gore's 2 weren't bad enough to derail his career, Yatil Green's was.
 
Maybe I’m a cynic, but I don’t get where the Chaney love comes from. Maybe it’s the Belen Cabral; and I hope he proves everyone wrong…but where is everyone getting the hype from?

7 Carries for 23 yards against Bama with a long of 4? Take away a 20 yard rush against App St and he went for 24 yards on 10 Carries in 2021 before getting hurt?

As a freshman…9 for 62 against Duke and 8 for 52 against UAB, sure. How about the Rest of the regular season…

Louisville: 7 for 10
FSU: 7 for 35
Clemson: 1 for 8
Pitt: 5 for 18
UVA: 10 for 43
NC State: 3 for 14
VT: 8 for 35
UNC: 4 for 5

That’s 45 Carries for 168 yards….good for 3.73 ypc. Take out the one carry against Clemson, and now you’re looking at a 3.63 ypc.

I get it - players should improve upon previous seasons, no doubting that. He certainly has some talent, but he hasn’t proven anything to deserve these shoe-in first-team reps y’all are talking about.

He’ll have to earn it just like everyone else. And if he’s third or fourth on the depth chart…just don’t be surprised if he bounces.
I agree Chaney will have to compete and first team shouldn't be given, and Mario won't.

However, your formula to analyze Chaney is very one sided and manipulative. You can't just take a players best run, or his two best games out of the formula then say look how mediocre he was.

Do that for our other running backs. Shoot, I think if you would take out Cam Harris top run of each game, his average might have been in the negatives.

Also, you discount the fact that our oline for the last two years has been abysmal from a run blocking standpoint. Oline Completely overmatched against Bama, and one of his rushes against app stat was a 1 yard td, so that hurts his average.

Point is, Chaney passes the eye test. He has size, speed, vision, tackle breaking ability. I'm sure that's what ppl see.

If he can stay healthy, I also believe he is the most talented back (not including Citizen bc I haven't seen him in CFB)
 
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That's an overstatement.. Even in the 80s and early 90s guys could come back from ACLs, granted the surgery, rehab, and recovery were way worse than today, and they never came back 100%. There are also varying degrees of tears/overall damage. Frank Gore's 2 weren't bad enough to derail his career, Yatil Green's was.

I said borderline. I'm not going to get into the exact nuances of year by year, case by case. You're not wrong, plenty of guys recovered pre-1997, and plenty didn't. My point is simply, in 1997, this was a very big, scary injury. In 2022, it is not. If we're sitting here in December and Chaney was outplayed by several other backs on the roster, nobody is going to convince me it's because he's had bad luck. It's because he's not as good as we hoped/the other kids.
 
I agree Chaney will have to compete and first team shouldn't be given, and Mario won't.

However, your formula to analyze Chaney is very one sided and manipulative. You can't just take a players best run, or his two best games out of the formula then say look how mediocre he was.

Do that for our other running backs. Shoot, I think if you would take out Cam Harris top run of each game, his average might have been in the negatives.

Also, you discount the fact that our oline for the last two years has been abysmal from a run blocking standpoint. Oline Completely overmatched against Bama, and one of his rushes against app stat was a 1 yard td, so that hurts his average.

Point is, Chaney passes the eye test. He has size, speed, vision, tackle breaking ability. I'm sure that's what ppl see.

If he can stay healthy, I also believe he is the most talented back (not including Citizen bc I haven't seen him in CFB)

Never really understood the “but if you take away XYZ stats” line. Why are we taking them away? Do they not count or something lol? We can pick and play that game with every single athlete in America with their sport.
 
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Never really understood the “but if you take away XYZ stats” line. Why are we taking them away? Do they not count or something lol? We can pick and play that game with every single athlete in America with their sport.
It's really bizarre. Like if you take away all of Jerry Rice's long TD catches he's a pretty average WR.
 
American?

A10 baseball back then used to have their conf tourney at Bear Stadium in Boyertown. Way to small for a D1 aluminum bat tournament. I had a few buddies that played at SJU/Temple back then.

Yep, American. American used to be in the colonial with teams like SJ, VCU, GMU, GW, etc that all went to A10.
 
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