Crowell out of shape?

A lot has been written about Isaiah Crowell not being in as good of shape as he should be. The evidence is in his drop off from his running from the first half to the second half as well as him admitting to the fatigue in the second half of games. I am not arguing that he doesn't need to work himself into better shape but for a true freshman his workload is quite high.

Crowell is 27th in the nation in number of attempts. He is 4th among freshmen in attempts. Of the freshmen with more attempts only one has the same ypc (5.22 to Crowell's 5.2 while playing for Akron). The other two with more carries are averaging 4.08 ypc and 2.84 ypc. The next closest SEC freshman in attempts is Josh Clemmons with 12.2 carriers per game. Crowell is averaging 19.8 . Only Lattimore and Michael Dyer have carried the ball more times per game in the SEC. There are only 7 players in the SEC who average more than 15 carries a game and 13 who average over 10.

As I said before this is not to say that Crowell does not need to improve his endurance but it does go to show that few freshmen in the country are asked to carry as heavy a load as him. For comparison last year Lattimore played 13 games (sat out one due to injury but also played in the SECCG) and had 249 carries for 19.15 (led the SEC) a game and had 1197 yards. He averaged 4.81 ypc. Crowell right now is on pace for 257 carries and 1339 yards with a 5.2 ypc if he plays 13 games. Getting in better shape may not lead to a whole lot more carries for Crowell but could lead to more effective carries as the game wears on. It also shows the importance of Thomas and Samuel stepping up to help share some of the heavy load that has been put on a true freshman.