Freshman Moving Forward

Flipped to bama.

Soze?

It’s not like the team is flush with guys who’ve been starting for years. I’m guessing they keep going with things as is and younger guys keep getting their chances to play here and there depending on how they’re doing.

As coach likes to say. You get better at playing football by playing football

I don't get upset when the shirts are burned.  While it is nice to have a few solid 5th yr seniors on your team, I don't think most teams have very many of them.  5 years in a program is a long time when these kids are ready to head to the NFL or for most, get on with their lives in some type of earning capacity outside of football.  

Just a handful of guys left from 2013, 2014 and 2015 (small class of 14 to begin with). The guys who are left are playing as starters or rotating in fairly regularly, so there isn't any depth to push onto the field. The coaches must find depth from the '16 and '17 classes to just create the 2nd string, let alone prepare as starters for next year. The defense could be great next year with a true 2-deep roster. The offense still needs to develop a 1-deep at many spots and an entire 2nd string at most spots. Developing depth will also great improve the quality of practice and competition for reps - which is a big benefit at Bama and a OSU with their depth and athleticism across the board.

to play for Michigan !

we will be fine

Every year, going back multiple coaching staffs, we complain about how many freshmen don't redshirt. 

Generally speaking, 5th year seniors are mostly mediocre. There is no reason to stock pile them. Play any and all freshman as soon as they can handle it and save the redshirts for injury.

It is going to be a lot of fun watching this team grow up the next couple years.  A lot of talent on both sides of the ball. 

As it’s over half way through the season, an update to the unofficial two deep would be interesting...

Spanellis is a red shirt freshman they can roll his big ass out there whenever they deem necessary.

Generally, I'd prefer to have a RS.  Sometimes they are marginal players, sometimes they are not.  Generally they tend to either get a RS for injury, be a lower ranked recruit, or need some time to develop and often aren't top 150 type recruits.  If they aren't any good, then you give them the firm hand shake and thank them for their service.  But, I'd rather have that option than trying to break in a young guy that's overmatched.  Hopefully a consistent coacing staff will do away with this reoccurring problem.  But, in general I don't think it's as simple as play the best player.  If your 2nd or 3rd best player at a position is only slightly better than the 3rd or 4th best, but he's a freshman, I don't see any reason to burn his RS for a few meaningless snaps.  I think you have to analyze if it's more beneficial than potentially getting a 5th year out of him, but that's just me.

is a bulldozer as a true FR. Just rewatched the Rutgers game and he walloped several guys. Goal line and he seemed to be looking for a wham and ended up crunching LBs. We are not that far from a road grading run game. Ruiz might actually help next year with his additional 20 lbs on Kugler, while Onwenu and Bredeson get a little more comfortable blowing up guys. TEs are starting to block much better and RBs are running with a little more patience into the power and counter trey gaps.

Let him play.

also comes into play. Any player that still has eligibility come their 5th year can look around the whole college landscape and try to find a better situation. It's almost like college free agency and recruting rolled into one. And, not necessarily out of anything negative. Sometimes it's just the natural course of things, like Shane Morris. If you have the talent to play as a freshman, the head coach might as well try to get something out of you early, rather than lose a full year and not get it on the back end. Kareem Walker will be an excellent test case. Although he was a RS for academic issues, his pedigree and his performance on a few carries suggest he could be a legitimate 1-back. Will it be at Michigan? Will  he stick around for a 5th year if a team like Rutgers offers him the opporutnity to carry the load (Big 10 ramifications aside)? I'm sure, if Harbaugh had his way, he would have redshirted Samuels, but if he's as good as expected, there's no guarantee that he'd last 5 years.

 

 

One of the reasons that our defense has been good this year is because we played so many freshman last year to get them game experience and exposure. If we have freshmen that can contribute, gain experience, and can provide rest to our starters then I am all for getting them some game action. Look at the all of the true sophomores starting and making my major contributions to the defense this year.

Thought I saw Filagia in the game for a play or two when Big Mike went down.