The roster

The critiques of Lamar Jackson are fine for this game. But he's among the Big Ten's leaders at his position. One bad game doesn't mean he's having a bad season.

Not going to go too far to defend the guy. He has a lot of work to do on his game. But let's look at the whole season, not just one bad game (that he owned up to).

 
ColoradoHusk said:
Again, I like what Nelson has to offer in terms of athleticism, strength, and effort.  But, when people wonder why the backups aren't playing when the starters aren't producing, his play comes to my mind.  But, that's the problem with the roster right now.  We have a bunch of older guys who just aren't that good, and the young guys who have more talent and more desire, just aren't ready to make consistent plays.

Not trying to be a jerk, but I don't get what Nelson being from western Nebraska has anything to do with his talent or play.
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Maybe he’s been watching Mo Barry too much! Bad angles and over pursuit. 

Seriously though, I think he’ll learn to control the emotions and the motor and play aggressively and under control. The kid really plays fired up. He does need a lot work with the hands in order to get off blocks better, when blockers get into him he seldom can get disengaged. 

But one one thing is for certain, he’s a smart, extremely coachable kid who will work his tail off doing what the coaches say in order to get better. And he’s a leader (or will be as he gets older). It seems that along with Wandale we have a really good foundation in that area. 

 
So we have a 2017 recruiting class that's just as disappointing as Star Wars Episode 1 when it dropped. 

Even though we have a very young roster, are there any kids we could conceivably play right now and not hurt their development? Or is what we have on the field all we have available?

 
Said this before and some people mocked and ridiculed me but I’ll say it again. 

Most of the southern Texas-California type players did not sign up to play at Camp Randall in -30 wind chill.

Most of the top northern recruits are beholden to some local team.

Its tougher to recruit now.

 
Hayseed said:
Said this before and some people mocked and ridiculed me but I’ll say it again. 

Most of the southern Texas-California type players did not sign up to play at Camp Randall in -30 wind chill.

Most of the top northern recruits are beholden to some local team.

Its tougher to recruit now.
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Michigan, Penn St, and Ohio State don't have a problem pulling kids from the South - so I don't buy this excuse. 

 
Hayseed said:
Said this before and some people mocked and ridiculed me but I’ll say it again. 

Most of the southern Texas-California type players did not sign up to play at Camp Randall in -30 wind chill.

Most of the top northern recruits are beholden to some local team.

Its tougher to recruit now.
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I think this plays a part in recruiting, but if these kids really have NFL aspirations they better realize like half the franchises are in equally or colder locations, ha. 

 
There's zero indication yet that Nelson is a guy

Nebfanatic said:
"We've recruited better than that team we should be more talented!"
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I understand the point you're trying to make. But in another thread I carefully examined Wisconsin's defensive front seven's recruiting rankings for the guys they play on the field to our front seven for the guys we play on the field. Not some high-level class rankings; talking about the starters that both team fields. And they're not more talented than the guys we're playing.

So when that theory that "we just have a bunch of talent-less Riley players" gets blown out of the water, it's 'next excuse up' time - "We just don't have the right culture and these guys are toxic and aren't serviceable because they were coached by Riley."

It's a salve to the psyche. And it will be used next year if/when Chinander's defense again can't compete with even mid-tier teams in this conference because then the narrative will be that "we're a young team."

What will the excuse be in year four? I'm asking genuinely - what excuse will exist at that point?

 
knapplc said:
Piggybacking off this tweet by Jack Mitchell, we have some pretty good players to build around.


And, apparently, we lose:

Wyatt Mazour

Kanavai Noa

Carlos Davis

Khalil Davis

Darrion Daniels

Mo Barry

Alex Davis

Lamar Jackson

Mostly off the defense. The offensive core remains intact, including most of the O Line (barring guys winning competitions for spots)

And frankly, mostly the guys we lose on defense (with the exception of Lamar) won't be that hard to replace. Daniels is replaced by his brother, and we just need him to keep doing what Darrion is doing. The twins are not impact players. Alex Davis has been out of position as much as in position all year. Lamar will be a loss (and it's amazing to think that after what he went through last year!) but we have guys to step up.
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I'm a little worried about NT next year. Little Daniels still doesn't have the endurance we need. We saw what NT trouble does last year. I don't think we want to burn a RS for a player that isn't ready and I don't think Green is a natural NT. 

The rest of the line is going to be fun I think as long as our strength and conditioning did its job. Robinson's waiting, Wildeman, Rogers. I think we still have some good potential sitting out there. 

Losing Lamar will hurt, but we've recruited well. 

I think on Offense, we're going to be looking good. The infusion of talent will help on the line. It's broken, but the guys are young and we'll get some bigger bodies next season. We need a big body WR. If we can bring in Manning, I think we'll finally see the O we've been looking for. 

I think the biggest question is going to be what happens at LB. We have a lot of incoming guys, but there's going to be some shuffling. 

I think that next year the problem is our murderers row schedule at the end of the season. OSU, Penn State, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minn with no weeks off. My prediction, we start strong, fan base gets too excited, we hit a losing streak at the end of the season, people want the head of a coach. 

 
Undone said:
There's zero indication yet that Nelson is a guy

I understand the point you're trying to make. But in another thread I carefully examined Wisconsin's defensive front seven's recruiting rankings for the guys they play on the field to our front seven for the guys we play on the field. Not some high-level class rankings; talking about the starters that both team fields. And they're not more talented than the guys we're playing.

So when that theory that "we just have a bunch of talent-less Riley players" gets blown out of the water, it's 'next excuse up' time - "We just don't have the right culture and these guys are toxic and aren't serviceable because they were coached by Riley."

It's a salve to the psyche. And it will be used next year if/when Chinander's defense again can't compete with even mid-tier teams in this conference because then the narrative will be that "we're a young team."

What will the excuse be in year four? I'm asking genuinely - what excuse will exist at that point?
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You can't use Wisconsin as a fair example though. Have they had this kind of attrition? Or do they bring in the guys they want and have a system that has been in place for 2 decades for developing these unheralded recruits into all conference players? We can build that but it takes more than a year and a half. We have no consistency. The juniors and seniors on defense have been pulled in 4 different directions throughout their career. I'm sorry but that is a recipe for bad play. Players can be talented but if they haven't been brought along their entire careers in a consistent direction their talent can be stunted.

Also, zero indication Nelson is a guy?? Are you serious??

 
Undone said:
You clearly missed the point of the exercise of comparing apples to apples on the recruiting rankings.

Please tell me which example is fair and I'll look up those recruiting rankings for us all to again (easily) prove the point. I'm being serious - tell me which school is a fair example.
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And what I'm saying is its not apples to apples. Tennessee maybe? 

 
Nebfanatic said:
And what I'm saying is its not apples to apples. Tennessee maybe? 
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Thanks. According to this site:

https://www.ncaa.com/stats/football/fbs/current/team/22

Tennessee currently ranks #42 in total defense. And at the time of the games played, they have already played the #1, #3, and #9 team in the country.

We rank #72. 

I am in no way claiming that this one cherry-picked example somehow bookends my case. But I do firmly believe that Chinander has an incredibly long way to go in terms of getting guys ready and to draw up schemes to match the opponent and adjust when needed.

I'm really hoping that Barrett Ruud winds up being as good of a coach as he was a player, because our inside linebacker group looks poorly coached & prepared, week in & week out.

 
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