Daniel Thomas About to Go Packing?

 
Mike Gillislee is 5 11 208 pounds, he arrived in Gainsville from DeLand Florida with high expectations as a top 10 recruit. Despite playing all 13 games in his freshman season behind the shadow of Tebow, Rainey, and Demps he only had 31 carries for 267 yards and one TD; however he did rush for 78 yards on 5 carries during his teams win vs. Cincinnati in the Sugar Bowl. As a sophomore he scored 7 TDs but his carries were still limited only had 58 carries for 325 yards. As a junior he had fewer touchdowns with a less than ideal workload. With 56 touches for 328 yards and only 2 TDs. Before the 2012 season Gillislee stated that his goal was to rush for 1,500 yards, and 24 touchdowns. Even though at that moment that sounded unlikely to some, he wasn’t far off with a larger workload he reached 1152 yards on 244 carries scoring 10Tds.

 

  Strengths: Solid, durable, runner who can be a featured back when asked to carry the load. He posses the amount of power and size, very strong at cutbacks which help him avoid direct hits. He keeps his feet moving and is very good at pushing of defenders with his hands. Ultimately he is a very good pass catcher, who can adjust to high passes and make the first defender miss making him an asset in the passing game.

 

  Weaknesses: Mike is agile guy who can make a guy miss, however sometimes he has a lot of wasted movement and steps. Another issue with Gillislee is that he can be inconsistent in taking what the defense gives him because he tries to look for the big play which results in him not been able to gain the yards available to him. Cuts a lot of runs to the outside where NFL defenders will hunt him down. As far as pass blocking goes he needs to learn how to anchor, and learn how to react better when he gets cut blocked.

 

  Overall: Daniel Thomas can start packing in my opinion. As we remember last year he missed multiple games, had fumble issues, and was in the dog house with Coach Philbin. I’m perfectly fine with Gillislee been an early contributor (as in day 1), and think he will make a great 1 2 punch with Lamar Miller.