Ringer run down?

No one will argue that Javon Ringer has had one heck of a season. He has 20 touchdowns, 1,905 total yards and 353 carries. But has Michigan State used him too much?

(BTW, I wanted to look up his stats, googled him and found www.ringer23.com. Sweet.)

Comments

[TDP]

What happened to Feather??

[mikewright]

He gets a lot of yards because he carries the ball so much. Against an atrocious Purdue defense he averaged less than 4 yards per carry. Why is a two hundred yard game impressive if it takes 45 carries to get it. Not a bad player, but an ordinary one who potentially has a future in the Canadian Football League.

[Nate]

Last time I checked a strong defense was all Purdue had going for them (its their offense that has been atrocious). Ringer has had a great year and knocking his 200 yard games because they took 45 carries is a bit ridiculus. Michigan ran Mike Hart that way for several years and all anyone could say was "what a remarkable talent." Give me a break. The NFL needs running backs who can take a pounding over the course of a season as well as give consistent performances. He may not be a starter, but is clearly NFL material. And finally, what Ringer has achieved this season is remarkable when you consider the fact that teams have game planned specifically to stop him. I suppose MSU's first eleven opponents all thought he was just "not a bad player" too because you normally game plan to stop the "not bad player" on the other team. As I said earlier, give me a break.

[rooster]

The entire Spartan team looked tired and beat up Saturday..not just Ringer.
Most important he has class and character.

[Psyc]

Good point Nate! If Mike Hart gets drafted by the NFL, Javon is a no brainer.

Ringer has good size, good speed, decent quickness and is obviously tough as nails. He catches the ball well and is probably one of the best pass blocking RB's in the country. What sets him apart though is his leadership and football IQ.

As long as he is able to run MSU has not used him enough! I am glad he is no longer returning kicks, and I wish a few of the garbage carries in the 2nd and 3rd Qs would have gone to a backup but how can anyone argue given the way things have worked out?

Trolls who use number of carries to lessen JR's worth are just being ignorant!

[DoctorWorm]

Ringer is an unbelievable player. Defenses load the box with 7-8 guys just to stop him, and he still manages to grind out 4 yards per carry? That's amazing. He's a big reason this season has been so successful.

Ringer for Heisman!

[rexrode (evil Twin)]

scientists should study Javon's body to figure out how its not been reduced to some kind of gelatin. the pounding he takes day in and day out has to take a toll. just think about the michigan game, i mean the guy seriously hurts his hamstring like 3 days before kickoff and then just brushes it off and comes back to have one of his best games of the year. someone mentioned class earlier and thats a big part of it too, because once defenses starting keying in on him, its the offensive line that began to let him down. they need to step up and provide better blocking, and the coaches need to start moving him to the outside. he is so good out in space i dont know why they dont give him more screens and pitches to the outside. i guess that would be very tiring because he would actually be running a longer distance to get to the outside, but you have to think he would take less of a pounding. every time he goes up the middle i cringe. like the next hit could be the one that takes him out. i worry a little for next year because so far none of his backups have shown they could handle a load like this. the passing game will need to be better next year, thats not a knock on hoyer, the receivers need to get over the drops

[Mitchqs]

Class, Character, Selflessness, Spirit, and Heart. I wouldn't trade Javon Ringer for anybody. Javon Ringer is everything a school or a community could ever want out of a football player and more. I don't need to talk about his performance on the field becaus ethat speaks for itself. www.ringer23.com says it all. But the most remarkable thing about this young man is his personality. If there were more players like him the Sport of football would be far better off.

[susanne]

I agree that state needs to use Ringer on the outside and more short passes to open up the up the gut run- right now everyone knows he is going up the middle. Unless he gets better upfront blocking, he can't go far when the box is stacked. Against bigger and stronger defensive front lines, Ringer can only go so far. But I really love his power,his class. Give him some holes, he will find them.

Concern- lack of scoring. 21 pts on purdue isn't groundbreaking. The offense won't get away with games like Wis and Purdue against Penn State ( Or in a bowl game)

[kateri]

Mark Feather... Promotion, job transfer, paternity leave or firing????
We seriously want to know!!!

[Big Sean]

I'm proud of you fella's that recognize more than Ringer's athletic abilities. Ringer's only down-fall is his offensive line is solid not good and I'll say the same for the passing/receiving.

[vnflcards]

I think the bye will do Ringer the most good of anyone and hopefully will get him energized for the finale against PSU.

Ringer has looked tired in the last 2-3 games. He took a lot of punishment against Michigan and just hasn't been running with any burst since then.

[Robert]

Mitchgs, you're right on with your comment. Deserving of our respect in every --- and I mean every way. That's more than you can say for a helluva lot of top-level college football players today. Javon should long be remembered (like Mateen for the same attributes) among the Spartan faithful.

[mikewright]

Nate, you get no break even though you requested one! The week prior to MSU, Purdue gave up 42 points at home to UM. They gave up 38 to ND, who struggles to score and was blanked last weekend. Claiming Purdue has a good defense is the type of wildly unsupported statement that precludes the possibility of a break being given to you!

[DoctorWorm]

Good point "mikewright". I'll ignore the fact that matchups mean everything in college football, and scores vary from game to game, and assume you're right.

Purdue also scored 48 (!) points on Michigan's vaunted defense, the same defense that was laden with seniors and was supposed to carry the team. They scored 7 on Michigan State, and that came at a last minute pity touchdown. Why would Michigan State try to run up the score when they're ahead 21-0 in the fourth quarter? We have a classy coach; something you might be unfamiliar with. We don't try to extend our winning margins to make ourselves feel better. We know how good we are.

Saying Purdue's defense played well isn't "wildly unsupported". If I said Michigan's defense "played well" against Minnesota, I would be wrong by your logic, because they did not play well against Purdue. Brilliant as usual. Go home.

[MayoSpartan]

Why ask this question?

Ringer is the ideal prototypical RB that allowed MSU's cocahes to have a balanced offense when needed to win this year. His ability to get the tough yards and the threat of his breakaway runnung abiity opened up the passing game. And his blocking and receiving skills made him versitile in any situation without telegraphing passing plays.

If his durability and productivity were questioned by the coaching staff, he wouldn't have carried it as much as he did, nor would he have lasted this long without serious injury... and MSU wouldn't be winning. And winning this year is all that matters to Ringer, his fellow seniors, coaching staff and us fans.

It's unfortunate that a dependable bigger bruising back like Ashton Legget did not contribute to take the load off Javon against more challenging D-lines like OSU, Wiscy and Iowa. With a second back, a smash mouth Spartan game plan may have had a better results against all opponents this year and Javon may have broken a few more big gainers and have ten 100+ yard games. But it ain't been a bad year!

So if the carries may have been too much, Javon is a team player and knows its best not to air dirty laundry!

Go GREEN!

[ChiSpartan]

mikewright, Purdue gave up 300 total yards to Michigan. UM stayed in the game due to their special teams play. Also, Kiper and most of the other draft boards have Ringer as a first round pick this spring. These are just the type of wildly unsupported statements that precludes the possibility of anyone thinking you have an IQ matching Ringer's yards per carry.

[dreamcrusin]

mikewrong -

You are a hoot dude! You have made so many ridiculous statements here you have no - and I mean zero - credibility. Speaking of hoots, Mike Hart was an outstanding athlete but has no class whatsoever. He could learn a great deal about character from Ringer - and so could you!

[karatechop6]

I agree with Mayospartan in that if we had another solid back to carry some of the load it would help Ringer a ton. Especially if we had a larger back to pound the opponents D. Right now Ringer has to tire out the defense all by himself.

He will be just fine in the NFL. Before the season started Mel Kiper had him listed as the #1 running back in the draft. I don't think he hurt his stock this season. And he might throw up some crazy numbers at the combine.

On a side note, I also was wondering where Feather went. Met him at MSU vs. Northwestern this year. Seemed like a good guy.

[MSULordyoda]

Mikewright (and Susanne too), For the record, OSU did NOT score an offensive touchdown (at home!) on Purdue. Penn State only scored 20 points at Purdue. And at least one if not 2 of Notre Dame's touchdowns came on the pick 6 or return variety. UM had big returns and even took one all the way. So Purdue's defense while maybe not top 10 nationally is very serviceable. People don't rate our defense as being very good yet we shut out FAU, and held ND and Purdue to 7 points.

[Rufus Xavier]

I used to think that getting a ton of yards on a ton of carries was no big deal, until I saw what it did for UM when Chris Perry had like 230 yards on a million carries against MSU a few years back. When everyone in the stadium knows you are going to run it up the middle; and then you run it up the middle for 4 yards, that's impressive. Also, If the other offense can't get on the field, you win. Being able to put the ball in Ringer's stomach and knowing he's not going to put the ball on the grass, plus he's going to get you 3-4 yards nearly every time is something that should not be underestimated. Look at Ringer's stats from when JLS was here. He can get 6 yards per, in a different offense. Spread the field and see what happens. That's just not the gameplan for MSU anymore. Dantonio's mantra is control the TOP and you'll control the scoreboard.

[zing]

He's clearly hurting and has taken a beating this year. The kid has moxie and the drive to push himself to the limit. And wouldn't tell the coaching staff he needs to sit. the past 2 games he has been holding his shoulder awkwardly after hitting the ground and he hasn't broken any takles in a long time.

The coaches made a mistake by not getting our other RBs more touches. Hindsight being 20/20...obviously.

9-2 is hard to argue against however. Pray Javon's body can recover before the trek to Penn State.

[West Coast Steve]

True that we won't have Ringer next year, but what a lot to celebrate with our 9 wins already in the hole this year. Should we match up with a Georgia in the Capitol One, apparently the most likely screnario among several, what a step forward. I do not assume that this team is an L in that quality of game. Once healed by late December we will be plenty dangerous in a bowl game.

With respect to next year, I'm not at all interested in the old sky-is-falling mantra. We will have a rock-solid group of kids for Dantonio to work with and a superior freshman class with potential break-out players. And, yes, there will be more pass-game experience and skills to draw on, and a bit less of a run game based on what we can see on the surface today.

Let's enjoy this moment and finally gain confidence that our future is bright with this staff, these kids, and nearly 500,000 alums keeping it all in flight.

[Michael Motta]

Whether Ringer has been used too much or not is pretty much a moot point by now as there are only two games left and both are preceded by a longer time off than usual.

Lorenzo White was used even more over the course of his MSU days and he ended up just fine in college and in the NFL (despite playing for probably the least optimal team for him - the Houston Oilers with a run-and-shoot offense that was nothing like the I-formation ground game of George Perles).

[Spartan_Legacy]

I think we haven't used him enough, he is THE reason for our success this year, and he'll be sorely missed next year.

The handful of times we've used other backs has resulted in at least 2 fumbles by my count. At first I saw the fumble and thought "Ringer doesn't fumble!", then I saw it wasn't Ringer...

In all, he's an incredible athlete and an honorable man. He shows that greatness doesn't have to come with ego. He's in the mold of a Barry Sanders, a Joe Dumars, a Steve Yzerman, and someone the state of Michigan should be proud of...