[Mick]

I think it's more germane to compare our use of Love this year against McCaffrey last year and other recent Stanford RBs than against the Niners with Montana at QB.

McCaffrey is a great route runner with great hands and great moves after the catch. He could start at either RB or WR in the NFL as a rookie. So when we had him we took advantage of those skills.

Love presumably isn't so outstanding as a receiver and so we're using him more like we usually use RBs. He isn't necessarily bad at catching the ball out of the backfield; it just isn't the most effective way to use him. Instead we tend to keep him in for blitz pickup on passing downs and throw the ball to receivers.

Except that when Hogan was the quarterback, McCaffrey caught the ball 45 times for a 14.3 ypc average -- and Love caught 15 balls for a 16.7 ypc average, which was 1/3 of all of Love's touches.  He clearly can do it.

[Mick]

I think it's more germane to compare our use of Love this year against McCaffrey last year and other recent Stanford RBs than against the Niners with Montana at QB.

McCaffrey is a great route runner with great hands and great moves after the catch. He could start at either RB or WR in the NFL as a rookie. So when we had him we took advantage of those skills.

Love presumably isn't so outstanding as a receiver and so we're using him more like we usually use RBs. He isn't necessarily bad at catching the ball out of the backfield; it just isn't the most effective way to use him. Instead we tend to keep him in for blitz pickup on passing downs and throw the ball to receivers.

Except that when Hogan was the quarterback, McCaffrey caught the ball 45 times for a 14.3 ypc average -- and Love caught 15 balls for a 16.7 ypc average, which was 1/3 of all of Love's touches.  He clearly can do it.