Toledo had a freshmen lineman who the coaches said would be in NFL when we were on the official visit. Same yr as my kid. I'm guessing he was in top five when he arrived. He red shirted. Started four years straight after red shirt. Now year three NFL. I would bet my house he red shirts. I want him too, because that means we are getting better each year with depth and skill level of line.
Trevor Downing... burn the redshirt?
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Toledo had a freshmen lineman who the coaches said would be in NFL when we were on the official visit. Same yr as my kid. I'm guessing he was in top five when he arrived. He red shirted. Started four years straight after red shirt. Now year three NFL. I would bet my house he red shirts. I want him too, because that means we are getting better each year with depth and skill level of line.
I don't think either of your examples is very good. The only reason Kene had a redshirt year available to him is because he didn't redshirt his freshman. He would have lost a whole year had he not had that redshirt year available. And as someone else said, Campos was in no position to play as a freshman. He needed the redshirt year to gain strength and weight.
Ok so I see I'm not doing a very good job of getting my point across. I'm getting a lot of dislikes on my posts without responses so I better clarify myself.
First of all, my point is that if a guy can enroll early and he's physically and mentally ready to make a significant impact that first fall, and he's needed, play him. Red shirting is great, but the future isn't guaranteed. If you have a known commodity today, use it.
Next, Kene is a great example of this. He was ready. We needed him. He played. Had we red shirted him just for the sake of not burning eligibility, he would have missed 2016 (red shirt) and 2017 (injury). Essentially, he would have lost a full year. As it is, he's lost nothing.
Campos is the opposite. We redshirted him his freshman year. I have no idea if he was ready or not (probably not) but he ended up missing all of 2016 due to injury and lost 2 years. 2013 (red shirt) and 2016 (injury). He could have applied to get another year, but we heard the same reason cited as we've heard time and time again. His body was ready to retire.
Not everyone's body can physically handle 5+ years playing big time football. Those NFL guys you see with long careers are the exception-- not the rule. The other 95% play maybe 1 or 2 years after college or retire after their senior year.
This obviously all becomes moot if Downing isn't ready to go.
Kleinow was injured as well, and that roster hasn't been updated since before the 2017 season. I'd be willing to bet he's near 300.
I don't think Kleinow and Nogaj will be contributing this year. The coaches have rarely talked about either one since practice started except to say that Nogaj has been banged up this spring. I think Kleinow is still a little too small. At 6-6, 279, he's practically a string bean.
This kid has been on ISU’s campus for 3 months, hasn’t even gotten through spring ball and you’re already saying he’s got size, strength, intelligence and has an NFL future?
Very rarely do true freshman start/play, so if he’s playing next year he’s either an absolute monster or our OL is in some serious trouble. I’ll bet the house that he doesn’t see the field this year.
Don't get me wrong, I want him to redshirt as well. All I was saying is that if he has the talent and beats the others out to be a starter, I don't see how you keep him off the field.
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Kids starting on the OL as true freshmen means they are either elite players or being put in because of desperation. Hopefully the OL is beyond this at this point, but things were pretty bad when CMC was hired. Lots of attrition and major injuries (some career ending) in the last 2 years of CPR.
I think you're overreacting to my post.
I do think he has NFL potential, regardless of what he does this fall.
Actually it was his coach that said he already had a lot of the physical tools and was picking up the playbook really quick.
Freshman start on the OL at some of the best programs in the country every year. It is a reflection on the quality of kid they are recruiting, not always the quality of kid that is already in the program. Historically, we haven't recruited kids that are ready to play OL as true freshman. CMC is recruiting bigger OL, it is just a matter of time until we have a freshman recruit that is just too good not to play. I think CMC has consistently shown he will play the best guys.
This shouldn't be too difficult IMO. If CMC and company feel he's one of our 5 best OL and should start, then you play him. If he's not, then you dress him for games, but don't play him.
Should someone get injured, then the coaching staff has some decisions to make at that time.
But up until the point where the coaches feel they must put him in a game, you don't put him in and save that RS. It's not like before the season starts you're required to state whether or not you're RS someone.
IMO, it was still in transition to the type of line we want from spread to larger and more punishing. Pretty sure we're more experienced overall coming into this year than we were going into last, and a lot of guys have more time in the system too.
I'm not overreacting, i'm going off of what you've said. i'm not sure how you can say someone has pro potentially when they haven't even played a snap of college football.
I'm going to assume coach Myers is just pleasantly surprised by the progress he's made thus far, but if Downing plays this year, we're in trouble.
I'd bet you're right, for sure. Also, I do recall early last fall camp that Kleinow and Hudson were standing out. After that, iirc, nothing heard about Kleinow until we heard he had been injured. During recruiting, if coaches were truthful, he was said to be a mean, aggressive son of a gun. Here's hoping Alex has a fine, healthy recovery.
Last year I remember hearing Bruns on the Pregame for the OKSt game say we had a limited number of guys the staff felt comfortable playing on the Oline and based on that number I believe he stated we were one injury away from pulling a redshirt.
Basically I took it as though they'd use everyone they felt comfortable w/ prior to burning a RS but they wouldn't hesitate if they felt they were out of viable options
Basically I took it as though they'd use everyone they felt comfortable w/ prior to burning a RS but they wouldn't hesitate if they felt they were out of viable options
my guess is Bolton backs up Meeker for now, and if there's a non-Meeker injury, Meeker slides over to fill the gap and Bolton fills in.
