Thursday, September 22, 2011

Robert Clay doubtful against San Jose State

Aggies starting running back Robert Clay will likely not play this Saturday against San Jose State after he injured his shoulder last week in NMSU’s loss to UTEP.

Does the loss of Clay hurt? It does — he’s the team’s starting running back and could have helped grind out yards on the ground against San Jose State this weekend.

But the Aggies haven’t had a rushing attack this year with or without Clay. No matter who’s running the ball for the Aggies, the team has to improve its scheme, and block better.

To me the loss of Clay doesn’t really affect Matt Christian — I’m still not worried about the veteran QB. It’s not like the team is throwing a rookie in there under center.

Kenny Turner has been getting snaps at running back this weekend — he played H-back in the Aggie offense up until last week when he had a bad game against UTEP. Turner’s a space player — good in the open field — and I don’t see him as a between-the-tackles pounder.

Victor Johnson is a big back who showed something against Minnesota two weeks ago. And freshman Brandon Betancourt could get his shot this weekend against SJSU.

The Aggies will also start Sioeli Fakalata at right guard this week and rotate Valerian Ume-Ezeoke and Andrew Kersten at the other guard spot.

Clay’s a good running back and will be missed, but the team has to get better in the running game as a whole with or without him.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hurt? Nah.

Can't hurt if you can't rush anyway.

Nice slate of college football on TV.

Anonymous said...

No starting QB, no starting RB, no pass protection and, to make things worse.
Kenny "hands of butter" Turner is going to get more touches!

ESPN Bottom 10, here we come. Heaven help us!!

Anonymous said...

This is a good opportunity for NMSU to get some mommentum before traveling unm next week.

Let's see if they have put a dissapointing loss behind them.

Anonymous said...

I would say that this is a bigger game than last week. Its a conference game, plus it gives us an opportunity to see how the Aggies bounce back from adversity.

Anonymous said...

It gives the Aggies the opportunity to pad a conference foe's win total for the year.