The biggest thing with Gaskin vs Dillon is that Gaskin did so much more for the program in the 4 years that he was here that even a "who's the better rb" question seems irrelevant.
Dillon is in a group of players where it's nice to just say, "Oh yeah, we had this guy that was an all time talent" even though he's more remembered for playing for the Patriots because he was at UW for like one single quarter.
Receiver it's just too hard to give Odunze credit when McMillian was the most dominant receiver at his position of the 3, by a lot. He was on a different level in 2022 and when he came back in 2023 imo. Straight up nobody besides Michigan had an answer for his automatic first down routes. He was unstoppable in DeBoer's scheme.
As a matter of fact nobody ever talks about how much better the 2022 offensive line (Kirkland + Bain + the JC Center >) and receiving core (Taj Davis + fully healthy McMillan) was compared to 2023 where we were mostly limping along the season and luckily was still better than all the teams in our way.
I picked Dillon over Gaskin because it was a win one game thing. Kaufman is a great choice for that as well. Being local also helps Dillon be more memorable than he could be otherwise.
I'll always keep trumpeting how much it sucked losing McMillan basically for 2023. You could actually easily make a point the offense was better in 2022 than 2023. Even in the losses, the offense was super prolific. Not sure exactly about the OL, but I don't remember 2022 struggling the way 2023 when Buelow was out against Oregon round 1 and ASU. Another forgotten thing was Mele was actually the starter game one and Memmelaar supposed was going to be which if nothing else makes it odd and disappointing how ineffective Memmelaar was in 2024.
I assume teams might have had less tape on the system in 2022.
Yeah you guys mentioned that and if it's just best overall player then Dillon, Reggie, and Penix is hard to argue with. Tight end is another story and seemingly every player you guys bought up has some notable injury thing. It's hard to argue with Stevens because we simply had a great group of tight ends during Pete era but none of them were as complete. Otton maybe the closest.
The ultimate testament against Jimmy and Donovan was they had Otton and could barely get him the ball then the next year he was starting in the NFL catching game-winning passes.
Someone who saw this comment but didn't listen to the pod wanted to know what this was about. On the pod I was telling the story from 1985 when USC running back Ryan Knight fumbled on the UW 2-yard line, and then Chris Chandler and Lonzell Hill drove the Dawgs 98 yards in the final minutes to secure the come-from-behind win. But I mistakenly called him Ryan White and then said "Wait a minute, wasn't he the guy that died from AIDS?"
@WoolleyDoog I disagree, gaskin did way more for us in the run game than Dillon did. gaskin averaged 5.6 and did better in big games when we didn't have an OL, Dillon averaged 5.1 and was good for picking up first but didn't do much otherwise. I'm not too sure on kaufman but from what I've seen I think he's up there with gaskin.
Never thought there would be so much doubt on Dillon. It's a good point that not only did they play less games back then, Dillon also didn't carries until way too late in the season. Yards per-carry I don't know is a great stat when comparing different eras. Modern offenses had skewed those so much and made it easier to be higher which includes more watered down schedules and the game was so much more hat on a hat in the run game. Taulapapa was 6.3 for example.
22 rushing touchdowns in 96 is insane.
It's also impossible, especially if we are in pick a best guy for one game to ignore Dillon's success, especially immediate success in the NFL.
Comments
Thanks Taft!
favorite slot receiver who died from AIDS w/out being molested by Michael Jackson; Go.
Was about to say PGOS but he doesn’t qualify
The biggest thing with Gaskin vs Dillon is that Gaskin did so much more for the program in the 4 years that he was here that even a "who's the better rb" question seems irrelevant.
Dillon is in a group of players where it's nice to just say, "Oh yeah, we had this guy that was an all time talent" even though he's more remembered for playing for the Patriots because he was at UW for like one single quarter.
Receiver it's just too hard to give Odunze credit when McMillian was the most dominant receiver at his position of the 3, by a lot. He was on a different level in 2022 and when he came back in 2023 imo. Straight up nobody besides Michigan had an answer for his automatic first down routes. He was unstoppable in DeBoer's scheme.
As a matter of fact nobody ever talks about how much better the 2022 offensive line (Kirkland + Bain + the JC Center >) and receiving core (Taj Davis + fully healthy McMillan) was compared to 2023 where we were mostly limping along the season and luckily was still better than all the teams in our way.
I picked Dillon over Gaskin because it was a win one game thing. Kaufman is a great choice for that as well. Being local also helps Dillon be more memorable than he could be otherwise.
I'll always keep trumpeting how much it sucked losing McMillan basically for 2023. You could actually easily make a point the offense was better in 2022 than 2023. Even in the losses, the offense was super prolific. Not sure exactly about the OL, but I don't remember 2022 struggling the way 2023 when Buelow was out against Oregon round 1 and ASU. Another forgotten thing was Mele was actually the starter game one and Memmelaar supposed was going to be which if nothing else makes it odd and disappointing how ineffective Memmelaar was in 2024.
I assume teams might have had less tape on the system in 2022.
Yeah you guys mentioned that and if it's just best overall player then Dillon, Reggie, and Penix is hard to argue with. Tight end is another story and seemingly every player you guys bought up has some notable injury thing. It's hard to argue with Stevens because we simply had a great group of tight ends during Pete era but none of them were as complete. Otton maybe the closest.
The ultimate testament against Jimmy and Donovan was they had Otton and could barely get him the ball then the next year he was starting in the NFL catching game-winning passes.
Otton was probably the best overall at the position in terms of abilities
Someone who saw this comment but didn't listen to the pod wanted to know what this was about. On the pod I was telling the story from 1985 when USC running back Ryan Knight fumbled on the UW 2-yard line, and then Chris Chandler and Lonzell Hill drove the Dawgs 98 yards in the final minutes to secure the come-from-behind win. But I mistakenly called him Ryan White and then said "Wait a minute, wasn't he the guy that died from AIDS?"
If they got this far down Derek they’ve already lit themselves on fire
@WoolleyDoog I disagree, gaskin did way more for us in the run game than Dillon did. gaskin averaged 5.6 and did better in big games when we didn't have an OL, Dillon averaged 5.1 and was good for picking up first but didn't do much otherwise. I'm not too sure on kaufman but from what I've seen I think he's up there with gaskin.
That’s an imaginary victory for me
Dillon ran for something like 1,690 yards and 23 touchdowns he didn't even start until week 5 in October. What do you mean he didn't do as much
If we really get bored this offseason we can do a pod on the all-time Woulda-Coulda-Shoulda team.
Guys like Chris Stevens, Chris Hemphill and Kevin Ware in addition to Otton
Ummm…what?
I miss Wendell Broyles on the PA
Never thought there would be so much doubt on Dillon. It's a good point that not only did they play less games back then, Dillon also didn't carries until way too late in the season. Yards per-carry I don't know is a great stat when comparing different eras. Modern offenses had skewed those so much and made it easier to be higher which includes more watered down schedules and the game was so much more hat on a hat in the run game. Taulapapa was 6.3 for example.
22 rushing touchdowns in 96 is insane.
It's also impossible, especially if we are in pick a best guy for one game to ignore Dillon's success, especially immediate success in the NFL.
He had at least one TD in the bowl game loss to Colorado. So at least 23 TDs
Dillon ran for almost 300 yards in the first quarter against San Jose