Again with the overreacting to Bolden being in so much. His high school team played triple option! He practiced against it every day! Sigh. Also worth noting we've had ongoing depth concerns and the coaches appear to like playing a 3 deep (especially against up tempo offenses that continuously swap out entire offensive lines to stay fresh.) Still, no sense having 85 scholarships if only 40 of them are going to play. We could end up running a 4 deep rotation on defense by the time these freshmen are upperclassmen.
Hoke wants to build a great team as quickly as possible, and the only lever he can pull to speed the process is to play the more talented, younger players early. He obviously can't bring in Jucos. A good chunk of those 12 will be lead candidates to start next year (if not sooner), so getting them experience now makes sense. I have been pretty impressed with the true freshmen thus far. With the strong 2013 class lined up for next year, redshirting 2012 guys who are ready to contribute does not make a ton of sense for Hoke.
If true freshmen can contribute, let 'em contribute. James Ross made perhaps the tackle of the game against Air Force, Joe Bolden finished second (IIRC) on the team in tackles that game despite not starting, and we all know what happened with Devin Funchess. These kids are better than their predecessors (Demens was horrible in that game, IMO) and lest we forget that Blake Countess performed admirably as a true freshman last year and that Frank Clark played as a freshman and that ended with an interception in a BCS game.
This ain't Bo's Big Ten any more. If the kids can contribute, get 'em some ultra valuable in-game experience. Nobody is on the field that shouldn't be out there.
Again with the overreacting to Bolden being in so much. His high school team played triple option! He practiced against it every day! Sigh. Also worth noting we've had ongoing depth concerns and the coaches appear to like playing a 3 deep (especially against up tempo offenses that continuously swap out entire offensive lines to stay fresh.) Still, no sense having 85 scholarships if only 40 of them are going to play. We could end up running a 4 deep rotation on defense by the time these freshmen are upperclassmen.
ReplyDeleteThis article goes inline with what I mentioned the other day
ReplyDeletehttp://espn.go.com/blog/collegesMichigan/post/_/id/6921/injuries-pile-up-and-redshirt-decisions-made
Hoke wants to build a great team as quickly as possible, and the only lever he can pull to speed the process is to play the more talented, younger players early. He obviously can't bring in Jucos. A good chunk of those 12 will be lead candidates to start next year (if not sooner), so getting them experience now makes sense. I have been pretty impressed with the true freshmen thus far. With the strong 2013 class lined up for next year, redshirting 2012 guys who are ready to contribute does not make a ton of sense for Hoke.
ReplyDeleteIf true freshmen can contribute, let 'em contribute. James Ross made perhaps the tackle of the game against Air Force, Joe Bolden finished second (IIRC) on the team in tackles that game despite not starting, and we all know what happened with Devin Funchess. These kids are better than their predecessors (Demens was horrible in that game, IMO) and lest we forget that Blake Countess performed admirably as a true freshman last year and that Frank Clark played as a freshman and that ended with an interception in a BCS game.
ReplyDeleteThis ain't Bo's Big Ten any more. If the kids can contribute, get 'em some ultra valuable in-game experience. Nobody is on the field that shouldn't be out there.