Tony Barnhart posted yesterday about the five departed SEC players he believes will be missed the most this season by their respective schools. Leading the list is ol’ number 24:
Knowshon Moreno, RB, Georgia: How could I pick Moreno instead of QB Matthew Stafford, the No. 1 draft choice? Simple. Right now I think Georgia is more confident about the play of senior quarterback Joe Cox than it is at the running back position. If Moreno was back to run behind this veteran offensive line, I believe the Bulldogs would be good enough to make a serious run at Florida in the SEC East. Georgia has some good running backs. I just don’t see any GREAT running backs. At least not yet. Moreno was a great running back.
Now, only someone who’s insane or a Georgia Tech fan would argue that Moreno wasn’t a great back, so I’m not going there, but it seems to me that Barnhart’s larger point sort of begs the question of whether Georgia having a stable, veteran offensive line this season makes up – at least somewhat – for Moreno’s departure. I mean, didn’t we just come off a year when every pundit and his brother from Montana told us repeatedly what huge losses Sturdivant’s and Vance’s injuries were to Georgia’s chances? So now they’re back, they’re healthy, but that evidently doesn’t mean as much as we were led to believe.
Color me confused.
Get The Picture 
Here’s another, sort-of-related, question: Let’s say one season you have a single feature back who rushes for 1,400 yards. The next season you have a platoon system where you have three guys rush for 750, 250, and 400 yards, respectively. Is there any reason why the second situation is quantifiably worse than the first?
Granted, there are factors that this hypothetical doesn’t take into account — namely, Knowshon’s shiftiness and the boundless energy that enabled him to jump right back up after a bone-jarring hit and set up to break off another 9-yard run. Obviously we can’t just assume that any of our RB contenders this year, much less all of them, will have those characteristics in spades. But if they manage to total 1,400 yards between them and provide enough of a threat to take some heat off Cox, does it really matter at the end of the day whether that yardage production came from one guy or three?
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Your question assumes that all the rushing production in the first year was by the single back, then too there were other ball carriers, add that to your 1400, then let the “other three” reach that number and your case is made.
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I agree that Moreno will be more missed. Stafford’s super arm will be missed but there was a limit to what an arm like that adds to your offense at the college level. Case in point, I would take David Greene as my starter right now over Matt, and God Bless Him. But Moreno comes along once in a blue moon and the guy’s special talent was more transferable on the college playing field. Then there’s my feeling that yes, we do feel better about Cox stepping in than about Moreno’s replacement(s).
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