November 1st, 2015 at 1:32 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 7:08 AM ^
Bingo! That's the key: Newsome earned this, and it is selfish of a team to keep a guy off the field who has earned the right to be on it.
As you say, an excllent message to send. Make sure Newsome is the host for some OL recruits, or at least tells them that story.
November 1st, 2015 at 1:40 AM ^
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November 1st, 2015 at 4:14 AM ^
He may be better than the 6th for all we know...but at this point, you don't mess up the chesmistry if he's better than say, Braden or Kalis unless it's just night and day.
November 1st, 2015 at 1:54 AM ^
Yo this is real life college football. It's not NCAA Football 14
November 1st, 2015 at 1:33 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 7:57 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 8:42 AM ^
Stanford has one of the best OL in the country, and 3 of their starters played as true freshmen (and Andrus Peat last year who left early for the draft was another that would make 4). Ohio State has two starters that played as true freshmen. These are two of the best OL in the country.
November 1st, 2015 at 1:58 AM ^
Burning a freshman OL redshirt in the 8th game of the season is pretty hard to swallow. To support the move, you're accepting the argument that a handful of plays from Newsome is worth an entire year of his development. Sorry, but that's horseshit.
November 1st, 2015 at 1:07 AM ^
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November 1st, 2015 at 1:09 AM ^
I was wondering if I should trust Harbaugh and his first-rate staff to make this decision, but I see you've cleared it up for me.
November 1st, 2015 at 1:12 AM ^
People said this exact same thing about Rodriguez and Hoke. "Trust the coaches!" Come on. Are you seriously arguing that the marginal difference between Newsome and the next best player for a few plays is worth one year of his eligibility?
November 1st, 2015 at 1:21 AM ^
Yes, unequivocally.
November 1st, 2015 at 1:17 AM ^
Great, I'll mark you down as a person that will never question anything Harbaugh does...
November 1st, 2015 at 7:12 AM ^
Great. I'll mark you down as a person who that will never pass up an oportunity to engage in bullshit hyperbole...
November 1st, 2015 at 12:12 PM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 11:47 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 12:15 PM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 12:36 PM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 1:00 PM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 1:13 AM ^
Not really, you're just accepting the argument that the best players are going to play, period. His play today helped us win a very close game that we very nearly lost. Harbaugh's job is to win games and he does that by putting the best players on the field, not by holding on to redshirts.
But I'm sure you'd be okay with losing, since preserving Grant Newsome's redshirt is clearly the most important priority.
November 1st, 2015 at 1:19 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 1:26 AM ^
Who said Morris is the backup? It seems pretty clear that Speight has been the backup all season.
November 1st, 2015 at 1:29 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 1:35 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 1:38 AM ^
Has Shane Morris been taking the majority of reps in practice after Rudock?
November 1st, 2015 at 7:16 AM ^
Wilton Speight says he knew all week he was the No. 2 QB.
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) November 1, 2015
Harbaugh made the decision to move Speight to No. 2 'a few weeks ago.' Says he stopped being nervous every time Speight threw.
— Nick Baumgardner (@nickbaumgardner) November 1, 2015
November 1st, 2015 at 8:00 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 10:19 AM ^
he has to sit a year if he transfers to Div 1.
November 1st, 2015 at 10:06 AM ^
That is great to hear. While I want Rudock to play and finish this season, I am hoping Wilton gets to play a little bit in the next few games before OSU. That will be a good experience for next year competition. I really would like to see him hit a few deep balls. This fanbase will go crazy and a true QB controversy, at least in the fanbase's mind, will start. Fun times ahead. Glad we have a true backup.
November 1st, 2015 at 1:36 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 1:50 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 5:03 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 5:43 AM ^
That being said there are exceptions. Look, if the kid is that much better or equal to all of the other offensive lineman on the team then he should play. This team is after a Big Ten title right now and I'm sorry if it hurts your feelings for this kid but I'd be willing to bet that Grant wasn't like, "hey guys please don't put me in during this big game to burn my redshirt". Shut the face! If the kid is that good you wouldn't have him into his 5th year anyway and shit happens as we all know. Not going to say the I word.
November 1st, 2015 at 7:21 AM ^
that Speight was #2 and that the plan was to RS Morris. This was after the second game, I believe. To me, this means that he thought that Speight was more capable of being the backup than Morris. I'm not sure what the issue is here with Speight going in and Morris continuing on the RS path when HARBAUGH SAID this was the the plan in a press conference a while back.
Is it because you're one of the people who believe Morris should have started because he was the local 5 star? As a junior. Who missed his entire senior year. Who has always had accuracy issues. And sounds like still doesn't know how to throw the ball slower than bullet speeds. Who was not very good at regional camps.
November 1st, 2015 at 9:26 AM ^
I'm just happy Speight was able to find his helmet.
November 1st, 2015 at 11:51 AM ^
I don't have the exact quotes with me but Harbaugh VERY clearly said that Morris was his # 2 QB earlier in the season. Speight took a kneel down at the end of a game and Harbaugh said the he wouldn't burn an opportunity to redshirt Morris for meaningless minutes.....but that Shane was the # 2 QB.
Apparently something has changed since Week 2 (or whenever that was)......but that doesn't change the fact that Harbaugh never said Speight was # 2.
November 1st, 2015 at 12:23 PM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 1:32 AM ^
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November 1st, 2015 at 1:54 AM ^
This is incredibly idiotic. Playing the "best players" is not a defense to burning redshirts. The relevant question is whether the cost of elminating a year of eligibility is worth the improvement over the next best player for the given number of plays. In this case, I don't see any way to answer that in the affirmative. Grant Newsome just burned a year of eligibility for two plays. I don't care if your coach is Vince Lombardi; that's terrible.
November 1st, 2015 at 3:00 AM ^
Sorry counselor, the relevant question is not "whether the cost of elminating a year of eligibility is worth the improvement over the next best player for the given number of plays." The only relevant question is what is going to give the team the best chance of winning the most games.
Feel free to get your panties in a twist over a burned redshirt if you like, but it is probably the dumbest possible things to bent out of shape over.
There's no guarantee that Grant Newsome is even with the program five years from now. We played Kyle Bosch as a true freshman and redshirted Chris Fox, Logan Tulley Tillman, and Dan Samuelson. How many of them will play a 5th year a Michigan?
I would worry about winning games, not what may or may not happen 5 years from now.
November 1st, 2015 at 3:41 AM ^
I think that this also reflects Harbough's belief that he can recruit top talent to Michigan. Reload every year. Many of our best players will be gone after 3 years to play on Sundays (ie-Peppers), so why waste that year if they are ready to play.
November 1st, 2015 at 4:56 AM ^
November 1st, 2015 at 3:03 AM ^
Is. To them, it appears the relevant question is whether you reward your best players in practice with game time opportunities to play and contribute in order for everyone on this team to know that the best players play.
November 1st, 2015 at 3:09 AM ^
Careful, you're making it sound like the coaches should be allowed to consider something other than maximizing Grant Newsome's eligibility.
November 1st, 2015 at 11:15 AM ^
And it came down to one play.
What were you saying?
November 1st, 2015 at 8:04 AM ^
Harbaugh has preached from the moment he arrived that there is competition every day. The best player plays. So if you are Newsome and you know you are best at that job. Others KNOW he is best for that job especially the staff. If you don't play Newsome you are shown to be a liar and a charlatan. The motivation you have developed in the players is compromised. If he is the best player for that job and HE knows it and He still wants to RS no problem. Otherwise you have to keep your word! Your word is more important in both the long run and short term than a RS.
November 1st, 2015 at 1:46 AM ^
Again, 95% of coaches and players are generally of a different mindset about redshirts than 95% of us. To them, the mentality is that if you're good enough to see the field, you see the field. There's no guarantee that a player may be around to be a 5th year senior, burned redshirt or not. I understand the puzzlement about it, but here's the thing: the coaches and player's job is to do the best they can to win games. Our job is to overanalyze things on the internet. So let's let them do our jobs and they can let us do ours.