George as a true freshman had 4 tackles. As a true sophomore he had 1. He didn't become a contributor until his Junior season. How badly did we need that depth if he only had five tackles in his first two years? Did the net positives he provided as a true freshman outweigh the net negatives of not having him as a fifth year senior?
Epps playing as a Freshman?
- Thread starter RustShack
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George as a true freshman had 4 tackles. As a true sophomore he had 1. He didn't become a contributor until his Junior season. How badly did we need that depth if he only had five tackles in his first two years? Did the net positives he provided as a true freshman outweigh the net negatives of not having him as a fifth year senior?
K-State beat us by 4
Texas beat us by 3
Texas Tech beat us by 3
The team might as well have not showed up against Kansas and got blown out by a historically bad team.
It isn't just about how good the player is, it is about how good they are above the guy playing in their place. And last year our linebackers were really bad. An NFL caliber linebacker could have easily been the difference in any of those games.
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Depth goes farther than playing the assigned position for the player. Depth means having capable players to play special teams roles, you know the phase of football that many people consider the most important phase.
That's the thing about depth. You never know when you need it, so you better have someone with a little experience ready so you don't get torched.
Listening to the coaches, I think George developed a little slower than they thought he would. I think they were expecting a 3 year starter, when he actually only started 1 and a half.The only one that I would take issue with is Miller, and that just seemed to be a complete misread of Miller's abilities.
Could be, but if I remember correctly, weren't down to either walk-ons or pulling his redshirt for the 2-deeps that season?
That was 2013, which would have been Knott and Klein's redshirt senior year. I was talking about 2014, when we lost 45-48
Hindsight is 20 20 you bunch of arm chairs. You can take a chance that you won't get anyone injured and keep their redshirt our you can try to kick start their development. Easy as that.
People would probably consider me a hater but I love it. Get your best players on the field, regardless of the circumstances.
Once again you have to look at the whole picture and the entire program, not just a single year for an individual player. If George had been on the team last year, I doubt very much if Jordan Harris would be around to start for the next two years. A player in JH's situation would have looked for a program that appeared to have a need for a newcomer to step into a starting position. As it turned out it didn't happen last year, but the end result is that he is available for the next two seasons.
...Go on. What are you implying get I am missing? My premise throughout the thread has been we play to many true freshman and the resulting lack of a fifth year from those freshman has been a net negative for the program. Note that I have been clear that I don't believe that every single freshman should redshirt, just that we burn too many redshirts. I've used Jeremiah George as the best example of this. What do I need to learn?
That we don't burn many redshirts at all. Teams do this because they need players to be ready just in case of injury. Most teams aren't going to let a better player RS just because you might want him another year later. If a freshman is good enough to be the starter or the backup, you don't RS him. If said starter gets hurt you're glad that freshman has a little experience and time to adjust instead of just pulling the RS towards the end of the season when you need him after the starter gets hurt. Sometimes you get lucky and the starter doesn't get hurt, but then nimrods like you complain. ST's is also a lot more important than you think, and its a great place for freshman to get a feel for D1 football.
