Scouting The Aggies - Jorvorksie Lane

by BSD on Dec 11, 2007 9:01 PM EST in Football

No doubt you've heard about him by now. Two Hundred and ninety pounds of rumbling mass that is the Texas A&M running back, Jorvorskie Lane.

NCAA Football Highlights on Veoh.com

Good God. Does anyone else have terrifying visions of Dan Connor and Sean Lee hanging on this guy as he marches ahead for six yard gains all day?

Lane reminds me a lot of Jerome Bettis. Not particularly fast, but he has quick feet and he gets his momentum going forward quickly. It's only nine plays but from the highlights it looks like A&M uses him almost exclusively up the middle. So I suspect like Bettis if you can get him going sideways he'll fall like a house of cards.

This is why it's important that the defensive tackles clog the middle. Just park there and eat up blockers and don't give up ground. I bet Phil Taylor is eating a second cheesesteak right now. But even if they do stuff the middle I don't think they will get Lane to run sideways. He only lost nine yards on the ground all season. So that tells me even if the middle is jammed he's going to run it straight ahead anyway.

If the defensive tackles can't stand up to the offensive line we're going to be in for a long day. But if they can stand them up and force Lane to lose his momentum it's up to Dan Connor to bring him down. If he can't and we have to depend on Scirrotto or Justin King to bring him down...well, let's not think about that. The defensive ends and outside linebackers will be occupied looking for the fake handoff to Lane to set up the outside option plays. This will leave Connor one-on-one in the middle quite often. How well he does or doesn't do will be a key factor in the game.

**Jorvorskie Lane Season Statistics**
Carries	Rush Yards	Rush TD	YPC	YPG	Catches	Rec. Yards	Rec. TD	YPC
159	746	16	5.0	62.2	9	82	1	9.1

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I'm not too impressed.

If this is our greatest concern, then I think we have a good shot. We may have let Mike Hart get us for 100+ yards, but this guy is no Mike Hart, nor has he gone up against any Big Ten defenses (I say that like I somewhat know what I'm talking about, but could be incredibly wrong. I don't know much about Big 12 defenses).

by ignition719 on Dec 11, 2007 10:04 PM EST 0 recs

I saw him play once and he stunk

I saw him play in the Miami game. They shut him down early and he stopped playing. The entire time the announcers were ragging on him.

It looks like other than that game though, he is a hell of a player.

by psu legal lion on Dec 12, 2007 1:06 AM EST 0 recs

Less concerned than BSD

This guy is big, yes, and has quick feet, yes, but he runs upright and doesn't seem to gain any speed at all until getting at least a 15 yard running start. There are two things about our defense that I really like as far a matchups go.

One is that I don't remember Connor or Lee ever being run over by anyone. If one of them gets suck with Jake Long they aren't making a tackle, but Hart, Wells, ect. never ran any of our LBs over.

The second thing that helps is that Scoroto always seems to get to the running plays quickly, he has a great sense for the play type. While he is small, he can tackle, and definetally finish it off if a D lineman or LB get there first.

All in all, our problem has never been the run but rather the 5 yard slants on third when we play 10 yards off the ball. That means teams don't mind the 3 and 4 yard gains all day, Hart ran the ball over and over again, but the truth is what killed us was not his running but rather the few passing plays we refused to stop.

This is setting up the same way. The run will be stopped...2-4 y/c with a couple long third downs that will make the difference. Morelli and the offense will look exactly the same, and I'm gussing might put up 17-21 points. If we hold them to FGs and don't give up and Purdue-like special teams plays, we'll win in the lame fashion we always do: 17-9 with no big plays on either side.

by Big 11th on Dec 12, 2007 8:41 AM EST 0 recs

lane

It looks like they decided to start giving the ball to a lineman, I also watched the Miami game and he was a non factor as stated. If we can hold the ball and get a lead we will do fine. If we throw a pick six or two it will be a long day. Lets throw off their defense and start clark with cadogan lined up at RB and repeatedly run the option/dive/screen on first/second/third down.

by PSU86 on Dec 12, 2007 10:17 AM EST 0 recs

The Linebackers did not look great

against msu - I love em - but they were getting knocked around in that game - Caulcrick - 6-0 255lbs - made our run defense look "meh." -

against osu - Wells (6-1, 235lbs), and the rest of the tosu offense, made our defense look like swiss cheese and gained 133 yards.

against wisconsin - Hill was running - but wisconsin insisted on trying to pass - they'd get 5 - 6 yards (he ended up averaging around 4 yd a run) and then revert to the pass - incompletions, interceptions - PSU wins the game. If they'd stayed on the ground - maybe not.

So I can see from where BSD's concern stems.

That said - I adore our linebacker core - and I think that they are just the best. And I think that they will be well prepared for the game against t a&m -

by PSUgirl on Dec 12, 2007 10:39 AM EST 0 recs

What you all don't realize...

Is that Franchoine never fed this kid the ball like he should have. He had that triple overtime game where he was crushing people in 100 degree weather early in the season, but other than that he never put him in to wear a defense down. I like the kids ability to hit the hole and square up, he looks dangerous there, and he does keep his feet moving, BUT they won't give him the carries he needs to wear us down and break us. He won't be a big factor in this game.

by carolinaeasy on Dec 12, 2007 11:24 AM EST 0 recs

Yea I was thinking

the same thing, people are bringing up the miami game and it's funny because he only had 2 carries. Franchonie never ran him enough, so I'll just wait and see what this interim coach does with him. It's obvious they like to run, considering the qb had a game where he ran 35 times for 167 yards. We contain the option and we should be good to go, besides McGee looks like he doesn't know what the hell he's doing when running the option sometimes lol.

WE ARE, PENN STATE!

by LinebackerU on Dec 12, 2007 11:44 AM EST up 0 recs

Jorvorskie

Where do you get a first name like that?

by MarkoMancuso on Dec 12, 2007 11:52 AM EST 0 recs

javorski

When they asked his mom what the baby's name was she started to say jacob but sneezed and a new name was born. Please don't tell him I wrote this.

by PSU86 on Dec 12, 2007 3:53 PM EST up 0 recs

Heh

We wouldn't want him to eat you.

by MarkoMancuso on Dec 12, 2007 6:42 PM EST up 0 recs

Lane

You can't run the option with Lane, and I do not believe that he is a great pass reciever. So when he is on the field you are looking at either a run up the middle or a play action pass. When he is on the field aTm's offense is highly predictable, hence only two carries against Miami and the ongoing discussion why he didn't get more carries throughout the season.

If he gets going early, and aTm is in the game, we'll see a lot of him, and based on the Michigan State game, that could be trouble. Our defense is not especially big. But If PSU can get up by a couple of scores, we won't even know he is on their team.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Dec 12, 2007 11:57 AM EST 0 recs

UH? You ever hear of the VEER?

You go to the spread, or shotgun and you can run the option all day with Lane. You have him run the dive, and the QB and other back run the option route. I am pretty sure when you key that he will bounce it outside on you, their QB doesn't seem like a total morroan.

by carolinaeasy on Dec 12, 2007 2:56 PM EST up 0 recs

Yea I've heard of it, but

But aTm does not run the veer (triple option). They run the shotgun spread, which is different. If you are going to run the veer you have to commit blockers to it which you can't really do with three or four wide outs.

I think you misunderstood what I wrote anyway, I meant that they won't run option pitches to Lane. Lane runs straight ahead only, there is no such thing as a 290 lb. back with sufficient lateral speed to get away from Connor and Lee.

If Texas A&M runs the veer, Penn State will be just fine.

For the Glory National Champions 1982, 1986, 1994,

by jesse. on Dec 12, 2007 3:14 PM EST up 0 recs

I seem to remember them running the Veer...

From the spread and you can do it with only 5 blockers because you have to read the DT you let go, and the DE your QB attacks...Unless you are up in an 8 or 9 man front the Veer can destroy this....Lots of teams are running it out of a two back 3 wide set....I am not totally sure if they have run it I will try and do some research and see if I can turn it up, even if they did run, you are correct and that is what I posted, Lane will have the dive play and your other back will take the pitch from the QB. Franchione is obviously a better coach than I am, BUT I would be running the Veer with Lane and that QB and a third back.

by carolinaeasy on Dec 12, 2007 3:34 PM EST up 0 recs

Playing Oregon State next year instead of Ak St.

http://pennstate.scout.com/2/710717.html

by gbd106 on Dec 12, 2007 1:44 PM EST 0 recs

Hallelujah!

Angelo

by nittanyroar on Dec 12, 2007 2:07 PM EST up 0 recs

oregon state

It's great to play a quality pac 10 oponent, unless they beat us.

by PSU86 on Dec 12, 2007 2:10 PM EST up 0 recs

His nickname is

the Hamburgler.

by nittanynutz on Dec 12, 2007 2:44 PM EST 0 recs

Haha

Not surprised.

by MarkoMancuso on Dec 12, 2007 2:47 PM EST up 0 recs

Just to clarify

Since I've seen just about every J-train play this year and last, I thought I'd weigh in.

As stated, the Miami game was a joke and 90% of the criticism was because J-train had 0 carries in the first half and 2 total(?).

A&M does run the spread option or what have you, but we also run the "VEER" triple option and do run the option with lane from time to time, although from what I remember, it's more of a designed mcgee keeper with lane outside, but we will run it, and he'll take the pitch.

The coaches also say that lane has some of the best hands on the team. He will catch passes. He's obviously not a receiver, but he will get dump off passes and such. Last year he had a superb one handed catch on 4th and 15 or something in OT I think.

The main concern you should have about J-train is just his presence. As stated, he makes our offense a little more predictable. When he's in, you want to cram the box, but he's also our best pass blocker. He'll run the option, he'll catch, he'll run over the best players in the country. About every 2 or three games we run a HB toss pass play that's about a 50% TD chance. I have a good feeling it'll come up in the bowl if you're playing tight.

Basically, if the coaches actually give him carries, we usually win. I'm sure there's one of those charts that say when he has 20+ carries or something we win. I'd believe it. If we can establish a run game and control the clock....watch out.

Also, I know a friend who has a blog that has kept track of his 3rd and 4th down carries. He's at least 90%.

One last thing, most people think he's a short yardage back. This is basically true. But, watch out, he's averaging 5 YPC. With him and Goodson(the speed guy), you never know where we're going to hit you (or at least, that's the idea).

by carsondude on Dec 12, 2007 9:17 PM EST 0 recs

Great Input ...

Thanks for coming over and making a good post, after reading your post I think one of the big storylines in this game will be can the Big Two of PSU stop Lane? It should be fun to watch!

by carolinaeasy on Dec 13, 2007 10:33 AM EST up 0 recs

blog

do you have a link to that A&M blog? I've haven't been able to find anything.

With the PSU dline healing up, and a new secondary coach that, maybe, could result it a bit of a different strategy for the cornerbacks, I think this could be an fun 'old school' game to watch.

We know anything about their defense? Agressive? Weaknesses?

http://thebigeleventh.blogspot.com/

by Big 11th on Dec 13, 2007 2:00 PM EST 0 recs