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Official Spring Practices Thread

He is buried on the depth chart, but you know he can be a pass-catching specialist?

Relying on young guys with talent is so spooky and scary for CU fans, but plenty of teams do it all the time. I will take those chances over expecting fifth-year seniors to magically break out (aka the Mike MacIntyre strategy).
Given the right circumstances there is nothing wrong with it.

For example: Darrion Jones with loads of athletic talent is now buried as the 3rd senior TE and he might even be behind Russell and Poplawski on the depth chart. But he is a specialist as a pass-catching threat at TE. He has had little to no coaching or experience with our past staff who never used the position in a game and probably never spent much time in practice with them either.

Give him an extra year with the current staff and maybe he can be an effective downfield/redzone threat for us next year. Or we can have 2 scholarship TE's next year and hope both of them stay healthy (not realistic considering past history) or rely on redshirt freshman or hope for another JuCo transfer.

The coaches know or will know very quickly what they have in Jones and what they have in the other players on the roster as well. If Jones has that much potential to make a difference they will figure out a way to get him out there now, it isn't rocket science. If he isn't then Duff is absolutely correct, you recruit a young guy with better talent and put your time and effort into him.

One of the things that always bugs me is when fans use the reasoning that "We have to see what we have." as if no decision can or should be made until the fans get to see a guy get playing time. I have seen the same arguments with Bish at RB.

News for fans. These coaches are professionals, they don't need to "see a guy get his chances in a game" to know when a guy doesn't have it. Generally when a guy is down the depth chart it is because of two things. One is that he has great players in front of him or second is that he isn't that good. Reality is that this CU team doesn't have a lot of great players so if a guy is not fresh out of HS and is down the depth chart it is usually safe to assume that he isn't that good and isn't going to miraculously become a player he isn't now.
 
With now 3 seniors at TE does it intrigue a prospect (Fauria) from a perspective of playing time?
 
That playing time is there regardless. Bish is patchwork this season.
Truth, but I wonder if coaching staff would sell it that way. "We need a player with your talent to come in and replace the 3 seniors we are losing this year."
 
I hope Bish succeeds. No need to bash the kid.

I am not bashing him. But he is not a RB at this level. I don't know if the previous coaches talked to him or not, but trying to change positions in your senior year is tough. I wonder what type of career he would of had at TE or LB if he would of switched 2 years ago. Appears to be a good athlete but did not find a position.
 
Relying on young guys with talent is so spooky and scary for CU fans

WTF are you talking about? Nobody said anything remotely close to that.

Who is this "young guy with talent" that you are vaguely conjuring up to make your point of view seem right?
 
Given the right circumstances there is nothing wrong with it.

For example: Darrion Jones with loads of athletic talent is now buried as the 3rd senior TE and he might even be behind Russell and Poplawski on the depth chart. But he is a specialist as a pass-catching threat at TE. He has had little to no coaching or experience with our past staff who never used the position in a game and probably never spent much time in practice with them either.

Give him an extra year with the current staff and maybe he can be an effective downfield/redzone threat for us next year. Or we can have 2 scholarship TE's next year and hope both of them stay healthy (not realistic considering past history) or rely on redshirt freshman or hope for another JuCo transfer.

WTF are you talking about? Nobody said anything remotely close to that.

Who is this "young guy with talent" that you are vaguely conjuring up to make your point of view seem right?

I kinda thought your post was pretty self-explanatory. You posited it would be beneficial to redshirt Jones or the other options (i.e, your last paragraph) were worse options. Who cares if we have to rely on freshmen? Fact of life in college football now.

The talented players are the tight ends in the 2020 class. Given the early interest at the position, I think the odds are good the coaches sign at least a couple good TEs, which means we will be much younger at the position, but likely better off.

If Jones is as good as you think he is, the coaches cannot afford to redshirt him this year anyway.
 
WTF are you talking about? Nobody said anything remotely close to that.

Who is this "young guy with talent" that you are vaguely conjuring up to make your point of view seem right?
Duff IS right.

Let that sink in...I'M agreeing with Duff.
 
I kinda thought your post was pretty self-explanatory. You posited it would be beneficial to redshirt Jones or the other options (i.e, your last paragraph) were worse options. Who cares if we have to rely on freshmen? Fact of life in college football now.

The talented players are the tight ends in the 2020 class. Given the early interest at the position, I think the odds are good the coaches sign at least a couple good TEs, which means we will be much younger at the position, but likely better off.

If Jones is as good as you think he is, the coaches cannot afford to redshirt him this year anyway.
I never said Jones was amazing. I just said that he could possibly fill a role for us next year after gaining an additional year of coaching.

I never said I was "afraid to play freshmen". I would love for us to recruit 1 or 2 elite tight-ends in one class but until it happens I'm skeptical.

If the coaches think Jones sucks so bad that he isn't worth keeping then I don't care. Geez you act like anyone spitballing ideas on a website forum should know some inside information with every post. I just asked if redshirting Jones (who has talent but was very raw when he came to CU) or Bisharat (who just switched positions) would be beneficial to us next year.
 
I never said Jones was amazing. I just said that he could possibly fill a role for us next year after gaining an additional year of coaching.

I never said I was "afraid to play freshmen". I would love for us to recruit 1 or 2 elite tight-ends in one class but until it happens I'm skeptical.

If the coaches think Jones sucks so bad that he isn't worth keeping then I don't care. Geez you act like anyone spitballing ideas on a website forum should know some inside information with every post. I just asked if redshirting Jones (who has talent but was very raw when he came to CU) or Bisharat (who just switched positions) would be beneficial to us next year.

I think I have been pretty clear: outside of injury, redshirting upperclassmen is generally not a good idea because it only prolongs the time a mediocre to bad player spends in the program. I do not see how this is even a slightly controversial opinion.

If you are skeptical on recruiting, this is never going to work anyway, although I think you are overthinking things by going the elite player or bust route. There are decent to good TEs who could help us in 2020 and those players will never be considered elite prospects. The TE depth chart on this team is THAT bad.

We want the 2020 class to be as big as possible. The coaches cannot really afford fifth-year projects.
 
Maybe, it'll work out for him. Hope it does.

Funny thing is he is pretty much going to be the Special Teams captain and is very very good at it, so he contributes a lot to this team, was just hoping to do more in his chosen position. He is a good Buff!
 
So now Jones is a "mediocre to bad football player" when you once posted that he is "everything we need at tight end" upon his commitment.

Excuse me for thinking that the potential that most of us saw in Jones (including yourself) could be tapped by the new staff in a better way.

Harris is the only complete package we have. Poplawski could be but nobody knows for sure. Bish and Jones are one-tool guys who have the same skill set.

Just because he isn't a "complete tight end" and therefore buried in the depth chart doesn't mean he can't have a contributing role. He has only had 1 year of P5 football practices and that was under a staff that forget tight ends even existed.
 
Don't redshirt anyone who can help you win this year.

If an upperclassman can't help you win, make sure he plays enough to move him out in 4 years instead of redshirting him.

It's actually pretty simple.

Regarding 2020 with our TEs, it's about going in with Poplawski and Russell while seeing how many snaps the young guys who come in will be able to earn away from them.
 
So now Jones is a "mediocre to bad football player" when you once posted that he is "everything we need at tight end" upon his commitment.

Excuse me for thinking that the potential that most of us saw in Jones (including yourself) could be tapped by the new staff in a better way.

Harris is the only complete package we have. Poplawski could be but nobody knows for sure. Bish and Jones are one-tool guys who have the same skill set.

Just because he isn't a "complete tight end" and therefore buried in the depth chart doesn't mean he can't have a contributing role. He has only had 1 year of P5 football practices and that was under a staff that forget tight ends even existed.
Dude, it was established when he actually got here and practiced last year, that the potential wasn't there. He's a stiff. We saw good things on film, but what was on his film is all he can do. No fluidity, poor route running, below average blocker, Can't bend to make tough catches. He's a stiff.
 
Given we had a walk-on Freshman take most of the snaps last year, when our starter quit the team, and Jones did NOT redshirt, one can very reasonably conclude that there was something keeping him off the field that was ability related (physically or mentally). If he had great upside, but was hurt or perhaps mentally not ready, the staff could have easily redshirted him last year. They did not.

So if Jones isn't pushing for PT by end of spring, you can write him off. He's got a few weeks to show up.

edit: I called him stiff in 2017! link post #31. I hate it when staff doesn't take my input....:LOL::ROFLMAO:

I am intrigued by Jones but I thought he looked stiff and had trouble running fast in-the-route. He would catch it and turn on the jets. I think he's going to need some coaching.
 
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I never said Jones was amazing. I just said that he could possibly fill a role for us next year after gaining an additional year of coaching.

I never said I was "afraid to play freshmen". I would love for us to recruit 1 or 2 elite tight-ends in one class but until it happens I'm skeptical.

If the coaches think Jones sucks so bad that he isn't worth keeping then I don't care. Geez you act like anyone spitballing ideas on a website forum should know some inside information with every post. I just asked if redshirting Jones (who has talent but was very raw when he came to CU) or Bisharat (who just switched positions) would be beneficial to us next year.
Several fundamental things “wrong” with Jones. Move on.
 
So now Jones is a "mediocre to bad football player" when you once posted that he is "everything we need at tight end" upon his commitment.

Excuse me for thinking that the potential that most of us saw in Jones (including yourself) could be tapped by the new staff in a better way.

Harris is the only complete package we have. Poplawski could be but nobody knows for sure. Bish and Jones are one-tool guys who have the same skill set.

Just because he isn't a "complete tight end" and therefore buried in the depth chart doesn't mean he can't have a contributing role. He has only had 1 year of P5 football practices and that was under a staff that forget tight ends even existed.
How do you fix effort, football IQ, stiff hips and inability to catch ball below his waist?
 
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