Obviously. That’s why we play so many true freshmen at DB and WR.
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Official 2018 Fall Camp Thread
- Thread starter Buffnik
- Start date
You know why those freshmen were playing in the national champ game for Bama? Because their recruiting sucks.
Yeah. Based on how the hiring process went when they were looking to hire a LB coach.....that comment pissed me off. Not towards Els, because he took a job that was offered to him, but more towards MM. That said, the comments from the players about how much they enjoy playing for Els were enough to offset my frustration on this issue. I expect to see the entire front seven play at a much higher level this year, and it will be telling to me if they don't
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Bliff Cranch
Well-Known Member
Yep, agreed. My point was there are no excuses. Talent loss, staff disruption are valid reasons for decline. But, it was much worse than it should have been.
I get that there are generational players that come around from time to time and playing them as Freshmen makes perfect sense. We aren’t Alabama. We don’t get those kinds of players usually. I can’t understand why it’s so hard to understand the fact that a good player as a Freshman will be a better player as a Junior, and that all things being equal, you’d rather play Juniors than True Freshmen. Apparently, that’s just crazy talk, though, because I get an argument every time I bring it up.
If the true freshman is better than the upperclassmen. He should play. Period.
Especially because as a true freshman he will not be able to leave until his Junior year anyway. If the kid is that good, better to get 3 years of production instead of 2.
Especially because as a true freshman he will not be able to leave until his Junior year anyway. If the kid is that good, better to get 3 years of production instead of 2.
You mean Shenault and KD who played as True Freshman? As for the DBs, fortunately, that’s been a major strength in the two see and they haven’t needed to play true freshman.
Antwine playing a lot has been expected ever since he signed w CU. Both he and his dad, along w the CU staff, made it pretty clear that was the reason he flipped from OSU.
I would never dispute that. If the coaches are doing their jobs, it’s a very rare occasion that a Freshman will be better than somebody who has been in the program for three years. Obviously it happens, but if you’re playing a ton of true Freshmen, you either had a killer recruiting class or your previous classes were sub-par.
Or both.
Antwine was easily the most heavily sought after front seven recruit currently on our roster, save for maybe Lang. Not Sure why it’s so hard to understand that he might be better than many of the older guys as a true freshman?
It doesn't take a generational talent to play as a true freshman. All it takes is for the guy to be more talented than older players on the roster while also being physically ready. Experience is nice, but you can get a guy experience through practice and game reps. A coach can't make a player more talented than he is. That's why true freshmen play at every program.
The transition right now is that CU's freshmen who play aren't doing so because they've got no one else and had to pencil in a true frosh before he ever stepped on the practice field. That was true in 2013, for sure. Now it's because the beat out competent vets who don't have all-conference type ability.
Wouldn’t it be nice if we never needed to play true freshmen? That’s been my point all along. Why is that such a difficult concept?
Because we should all be wanting to recruit players that are talented and physically mature enough to play as true freshman. Would be nice to not even need them to play in year 1, but we should all be aiming for recruiting those kinds of players.
That’s what I’ve been saying all along.
Antwine is one of those players. Why do you seem irritated that he is going to be playing then?
Who said I was irritated that he’s going to be playing?
I’m thrilled about it. I’m just pointing out that he is, in fact, a true Freshman and we might want to tap the breaks on the hype machine just a bit.
I also would like to be in a position where we have two upperclassmen who are just as good as he is on the roster ahead of him so we could redshirt him.
Agree. Lewis and Gamboa can’t play as many snaps as last year.
If you are not playing true freshman, you need to up your recruiting.
We've gone over this. Nobody is hyping him up. Saying he's expected to play a lot is not hype; it's just the coaches saying he should play a lot. As for the RS, it's been mentioned that if you recruit well, there are going to be players that leave college early, regardless of whether they RS or not. If they're good enough to play as a True Freshman, why would you sit them on the bench and waste one of their years in the program?
Nothing worse than watching a RS-Soph leave for the NFL in terms of bad roster management.
SerenityBuff
Well-Known Member
Antwine is the next Warren Sapp. This hype machine goes to 11!
Assuming that player was actually ready to play as a True Freshman. I'm sure there are guys out there who needed a year of development, both physically and mentally, but from what we are being told about Antwine, he is there physically.
If the dude is ready, you play him, period. Sure, some schools, like Alabama, can be more selective with that than others. They do it too though. Hell, I think any coach worth a damn would do the same. In CU's case, it's a no brainer imho.
Medford M.
Well-Known Member
Totally wrong. Ask any coach worth his salt, if you have an older guy and a freshman who are equal, you play the freshman.
SerenityBuff
Well-Known Member
A great hockey coach once said "Young players get better, old players just get older."
Finally, been waiting all Summer for this!
jizzrag85
Well-Known Member
You keep flip flopping. If you’re not playing freshman you’re not recruiting well enough. Sorry, but Alabama won the NC with their backup freshman QB. Go look at the top 100 high school players. They’re top 100 because they look like 25 year old men. You don’t redshirt 4-5 star players in the top 300 unless you have someone who is NFL quality in front of him. If CU gets to the point where they’re never playing freshman because they’re so loaded they can’t justify playing a top 100 player you should probably throw all your money on the Buffs in Vegas.
You joke, but the other night I watched a replay of our 2015 game against AZ and our special teams were probably the worst in the country at that point. FG attempts that were 10 yards wide and 20 yards short, punts that seemed to go nowhere but get there quickly (unless they were blocked, of course)- it was a sh*t show .