{"id":79230,"date":"2024-12-28T10:30:04","date_gmt":"2024-12-28T16:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/cam-skattebo-has-the-texas-longhorns-respect\/"},"modified":"2024-12-28T10:30:04","modified_gmt":"2024-12-28T16:30:04","slug":"cam-skattebo-has-the-texas-longhorns-respect","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/cam-skattebo-has-the-texas-longhorns-respect\/","title":{"rendered":"Cam Skattebo has the Texas Longhorns\u2019 respect"},"content":{"rendered":"

Using a trick out of the old Saint Nick (Saban)<\/a><\/strong> playbook, Texas Longhorns defenders were quick to laud the talents of Arizona State\u2019s Cam Skattebo<\/a><\/strong> and called him possibly the best rusher in the nation. Whether they truly believe he is the nation\u2019s best running back or not may be up for debate.<\/p>\n

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What isn\u2019t up for debate is that the Longhorns don\u2019t intend to give a very talented player any extra motivation. Rather, they plan to give Skattebo the respect he deserves in the College Football Playoff quarterfinals. <\/p>\n

Conventional wisdom would say the title of top running back would belong to Ashton Jeanty<\/a><\/strong>. After all, he did win the Doak Walker Award and finished ahead of Skattebo in Heisman voting. Jeanty\u2019s yards after contact total (1,889 yards) is more than Skattebo has on the season. Jeanty is also currently three yards shy of 2,500 yards. <\/p>\n

However there is one area where Skattebo has a clear advantage that the Longhorns will have to factor, and that\u2019s in the receiving game. With 506 yards through the air on 37 receptions, Skattebo has been quite the weapon for Arizona State and is their leading available receiver for Wednesday\u2019s game after the injury to Jordyn Tyson<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

It is that versatility that makes him different than Jeanty, in addition to tallying his numbers against 11 Power Conference opponents as opposed to Boise State\u2019s one. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a big physical guy,\u201d Texas defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski<\/a><\/strong> said Friday. \u201cHe\u2019s got good speed. He\u2019s got good change of direction. He has really good contact balance. He\u2019s got I think a thousand yards after contact through the course of the season. And then as far as a pass catcher he\u2019s just got really good hands. He makes the catches he\u2019s supposed to make, and they obviously highlight him in the pass game.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Michael Taaffe<\/a><\/strong> was asked about Skattebo, this is what he had to say: \u201cI think some people lose sight that he\u2019s just a hard-nose, try-to-run-you-over type of back. And yes, he\u2019s very capable of doing that, but he\u2019s also got great patience, great contact balance, great contact courage to where he\u2019s lowering his shoulder and maybe somebody is trying to go for his legs, and he stumbles up and stays on his feet and go runs for 40 more yards. So the way that he can be so versatile as a running back, jump cutting, running people over, spin move, he\u2019s got the whole package.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t think that means he doesn\u2019t excel in the ground game. When you look at a heat map to see how Skattebo fares toting the rock, you can his versatility shine. He is at his best when he attacks behind or outside of the tackles, which adds an extra layer of danger to the play-action fake to Skattebo. This is a matchup that will potentially make Barryn Sorrell<\/a><\/strong> a few bucks this coming April if he can get a few stops against a bulldozing running back.<\/p>\n

However there\u2019s probably a good reason Arizona State attacks the outside often as they don\u2019t have the big bodies necessary to push people around and run the ball up the middle. That doesn\u2019t mean they won\u2019t run the ball up the nose, their 3rd and 4th most attacked lanes are off of the center. It just hasn\u2019t been the most effective way of attaining yards for the Sun Devils. <\/p>\n

But what\u2019s clear is Skattebo has been the most effective way for the Sun Devils to move the football this season.<\/p>\n

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Leave it to Anthony Hill Jr.<\/a><\/strong> for the closing statement ahead of the Longhorns\u2019 battle with Arizona State in the Peach Bowl, \u201cat the end of the day we have a challenge and we\u2019re an elite defense, so I can\u2019t wait to play against him and see who\u2019s really the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post Cam Skattebo has the Texas Longhorns\u2019 respect<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using a trick out of the old Saint Nick (Saban) playbook, Texas Longhorns defenders were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}