DEL.ICIO.USCOLLEGE FOOTBALL: GEORGIA
Moreno vs. Ringer: Who’s the better tailback?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Friday, December 26, 2008
They were born five months and some 600 miles apart, which may be the most dissimilar thing they’ve ever done.
For 21 years later, Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno and Michigan State’s Javon Ringer have grown to become, at least to football personnel people, the best two college running backs in the country. Come Thursday, the Capital One Bowl becomes their own scouting combine.
Johnny Crawford/jcrawford@ajc.com
Knowshon Moreno rushed the ball 227 times this year and become the only Georgia back to record consecutive 1,000-yard seasons since Herschel Walker.
Gregory Shamus/Getty Images
Michigan State’s Javon Ringer (23) led the nation in rushing attempts with 30.8 per game and had a nation-best 21 touchdowns.
“People are going to talk about it, but we’re not playing against each other,” Moreno said.
True, but for NFL teams looking for help in the running game, the game amounts to one-stop shopping. Ringer, a senior and the stockier one (5-foot-9, 202 pounds), is apt to get the ball every other Spartans snap. Moreno, a redshirt sophomore and the nimbler one (5-11, 207), is apt to hurdle someone.
Compile any list you want: Clemson’s James Davis, Iowa’s Shonn Greene, Oklahoma State’s Kendall Hunter, Georgia Tech’s Jonathan Dwyer, Connecticut’s Donald Brown Jr. All fine talents, but the NFL will have its eye on Orlando.
“Ringer is probably the best senior back,” said long-time NFL personnel man Gil Brandt, a senior analyst for NFL.com. “And Moreno is most likely the best [third-year player].”
Ringer is the most durable back in college today. He led the nation in rushing attempts (370 or 30.8 per game) and twice had 40 or more carries. That led to 1,590 rushing yards (No. 2 in the country) and a nation-best 21 touchdowns.
After he blasted Notre Dame for 201 yards in 39 carries, Irish coach Charlie Weis told reporters, “You can hit him and hit him and hit him and he just keeps on coming.”
Said Brandt: “He has a more compact body than Moreno does and looks like he would be a better inside runner, but he’s really better outside. He has a very low center of gravity and because of that, it enables him to get extra yards.”
Pro Football Weekly ranks Ringer its best senior back prospect, but draft analyst Nolan Nawrocki had a caveat, writing, “After multiple knee injuries, [he] does not play to the 4.3 speed he registered in high school and will struggle to produce in the pros the same way he has in college.”
Moreno, who maintains is he undecided about declaring for the NFL draft, rushed the ball 227 times this year, the most in the SEC, but still 143 fewer attempts than Ringer. He joined Herschel Walker as the only Georgia back to record consecutive 1,000-yard seasons, but Ringer out-produced him in every rushing category, save one: a 5.9-yard per-carry average (to Ringer’s 4.3), which indicates something about big-play capability.
Moreno also was aided by Georgia’s passing game, which ranked No. 1 in the SEC. Bulldogs quarterback Matthew Stafford threw for nearly 1,000 yards more than MSU’s Brian Hoyer, which played to Moreno’s advantage. Not only did Stafford help open the field, but Moreno wound up with twice as much receiving yards (329) as Ringer.
“To me, he’s Tiki Barber,” said Pat Kirwin, a former NFL personnel executive and scout, recalling the former Virginia player. “He runs with more power than his size suggests. He’s illusive. He can catch the ball. I think he’s going to end up having a Tiki Barber career.”
Kirwin has been watching Moreno since spotting him at Middleton South (N.J.) High School, and while he won’t project him as a better prospect than Ringer, or even as a first-round selection, he still offered high hopes.
“You get the whole package with him, top to bottom. A safe pick,” Kirwin said. “The way the running back population is going in the NFL draft, people are really looking. [Tulane’s] Matt Forte [now starring in Chicago] was a second-rounder. Guys are really trying to hold off taking a back in the first round.
“In his final grades, [Moreno] might be downgraded a hair on his size, which would put him at the top of the second round. But I think he would be an instant success is pro football.”
One will wear red Thursday, while one will wear green.
“But otherwise,” said Brandt. “those two guys are pretty much the same.”
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