Isaiah Crowell and the Disappointment of Unrealistic Expectations Unrealized

Just because of the immense promise he shows, coupled with the bewildering way he has acted on and off the field in his freshman season. When he’s on the field, he’s a dynamite threat.The problem is he’s too often not on the field, and the indications seem to be, be it from suspensions or an inability to play through pain, that it’s largely of his own doing. I never played football, so I have no idea how difficult the rigors of running into SEC defenses are, but the fact that it was often Crowell himself pulling himself out, not the coaches or trainers, is a large part of it.

I hope he stays and I hope Marshall’s presence provokes some kind of spark in him, because he seems like a special talent. But he’d need to show more drive than he has so far for me to believe that that is going to happen.

Without really knowing the reasons that he was suspended and without being around him on the team, it’s hard to know. Of course, that hasn’t stopped some people from pigeon-holing him. When he was healthy, he was very good- I would say up to expectations. The injuries are a little bit of a concern, but his HS coach said he had some injuries last year and probably wasn’t in tip-top shape coming to Athens. He definitely deserves a little more mercy from the fans to get healthy and more importantly, get his mind focused and put away whatever distractions he has. Having the majority of Dog fans slamming him, doesn’t really help anyone at this point.

As I pointed out on this week’s podcast, Isaiah Crowell is the Rorschach test of our Georgia fandom. He is the emblematic figure upon whom we project all our hopes and fears for the Bulldogs’ future.

are why they pay you the big bucks.

The point that he carried the ball more times this year in the SEC than he did last year, in high school is an important one. I would add that in the SEC there are exactly four other players who have carried the ball more the Isaiah Crowell.

I’m voting an unqualified “no” on the disappointment.

I believe Crowell has all the tools to be what we need, the question is does He WANT it enough. Hershel will not be repeated, too much has changed. Do you think even He could replicate his production against all the bigger/faster athletes in the sec today?

My opinion is some of the older guys on the team need to get with him, mentor and rally behind him and the other newdawgs coming in to buy into what could potientally be a very very special team next year. As long as he buys into the standard set and what is expected of players on and off the field I think we’ll see a new and improved player in him of course a full off season in the S&C Program wont hurt either. T. Kyle has it right about booing too, the true fans dont do that they rally behind the team no matter what

about Crowell’s lofty ranking and gaudy high school numbers. Part of the problem regarding his perception among Georgia people was the inevitable, “is Isaiah Crowell the next Marcus Lattimore” question that permeated through the August two-a-days and was perpetuated by the mainstream media and blogs. Everyone was guilty at some point of wondering this, which is the natural by-product of signing the next big 5-star thing.

That is never a fair question, yet we all wondered before we took the field against Boise, “Well, is he?” We build these kids up to a point to where we want to believe our own unrealistic expectations which more often than not fall short. There may never be another Herschel Walker. There may never be another Marcus Lattimore. Isaiah is unique and flawed and talented and, at the moment, a bit enigmatic. His season was hardly a failure, mostly a success, but he did somethings what freshmen typically do that makes you shake your head.

I genuinely believe he’s been hurt, but I also believe he came into this season exactly as you illustrated: Not quite ready, but still pretty damn good. If Crowell can rest his body, focus on his schoolwork and mature a little bit from his freshman to sophomore year, he may just have the kind of season in 2012 that most of us unfairly expected of him in 2011. He will benefit from a full off-season of S&C, campus life and hopefully some guidance. I hope he can cut it because he showed some brilliance at times that made everyone collectively say “wow.”

And just a thought: Were people really booing Isaiah in the Dome last weekend, or where they acknowledging “Boo” Malcome’s return to the field after starting the game? Because that’s my impression of what happened while watching TV.

Great post, Kyle.

can be hard to watch. To me this quote by Kye says it all:

“We question his attitude, and forget that he has been told since middle school by multimillion-dollar college football coaches that he would be the next big thing, and that, after hearing that over and over again, it’s not unreasonable to think he might have begun to believe it.”

From 10 years old you get your own rules…and by the time you get to a real program like UGA, you believe it will always be that way. CMR has quite a challenge on his hands, but my money is on him getting this kid up to snuff.

Dawgs, this is as good a place as any to say thanks for a great year and a real view into a program that is the class of the SEC. We cheered you guys like crazy all year and when we left for the New Mexico game it was 10-0 Dawgs against LSU. When the score was announced as 21-10 during the game in Bronco stadium a kind of groan came up in our section. We felt like the good guys were losing to the evil empire. Got a feeling it will be different next year.

Those, of course were largely built due to his gaudy HS numbers and his #1 rating. To be quite fair, he won in HS on pure talent-not on effort and heart-not on true determination and “grinding it out.” Those are lessons he is still learning. He was not ready this season to be the 25-30 carries per game workhorse that his team needed him to be. The perspective that he is a true freshman is a valid one. Perhaps the question we should all be pondering is this: How big is his upside? I say, potentially tremendous. Very possibly, Heismanesque. I will go out on a limb and say that the best thing to happen to IC and his career at UGA could be the arrival of Keith Marshall. Nothing brings out the best in a person like a good dose of competition. I believe we are all about to see if IC truly “has it.”- Stay tuned.

I think the suspensions are what is disappointing, not his season. He had a really good season for UGA this year, even through some injuries. I think people look at what Lattimore did for USCe as a freashman and expected the same from Crowell.

Lattimore, even has a freshman, was obviously physically ready to play in the SEC (and probably the NFL). Crowell is a back who really could have benefited from red-shirting. That was not going to happen due to depth issues and the fact he was recruited with promises of early playing time. I think a full year in collegiate S and C will do wonders for Crowell.

A year in college will also help with the maturity issues. I fully expect Crowell to be lighting defenses up next year.

One is a game the other is real bullets. I`m not a SEAL I do work with them from time to time to know. The intense team oriented philosophy is about all you can really compare.

I’ve been thinking much of this for a while now, but you actually know what you’re talking about and are therefore more qualified to write it. With regards to the “he keeps taking himself out” complaint, I think many of us (and I include myself here) are hyper-aware of when he’s playing and the circumstances under which he leaves the field (much more so than we are with just about any other player on the team). We’re nervous when he leaves because we have little faith in the backups, so of course we take note. And all this talk about how he might be a problem child makes us that much more inclined to look for “evidence” of it. I compare it to the full moon suspicion—it’s not that weird things happen during full moons; we just notice bizarre events more because we’ve been conditioned to believe that it happens more frequently.

To anyone that really believes he shows insufficient interest or respect or what-have-you on the sidelines, I ask you to re-watch a game or two and examine the expressions and body language of all the other players on the sidelines. Is IC really that different? I suspect not.

And one other point: as far as I know, IC has not had “suspensions,” plural. He’s been officially suspended exactly once. The one quarter he sat out was never actually called a suspension (if I’m wrong, someone please correct me). So for all we know, they were trying to rest him for medical reasons. I think the kid’s got enough on his plate without fans assuming the absolute worst and then stating it as fact.

Isaiah Crowell had enough carries to finish in the top 10 in the league every year. Carries per game it was even higher. Among true freshmen only Lattimore had more and Dyer had basically the same number of carries. He still has the bowl game to play where if he gets 18 carries he will break 200 carries for the season. Only 24 players have had that many carries in the SEC in the past 5 years (I only went back that far because at cfbstats.com that is as far as they go back). He did his share this year. Could he be in better shape? Yes. Does he need to stay away from some of the off field things that got him suspended. Yes. Despite those two issues though he had a very productive season. What I hope for him next year is that he has about the same number of carries but with a higher ypc and no drop off from his ypc from the first half of the game to the second half. I think that will happen as his carries per game go down with other running backs carrying more of their share of the load, better conditioning from an off season in a college S&C program and from knowing more what to expect in the SEC. On the field I am not concerned. Hopefully he will mature a bit so the off field issues are not a problem either.

Therefore: yes, disappointing.

has anyone heard how things with the Gala has been going with the recruits?