Red Shirting

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Killjoy

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Red shirting is a complicated and I believe somewhat misunderstood topic. I therefore thought it might be interesting to open up a string and let everybody give their two cents worth. I am going to start out this process by first posting a post from highway that first caught my attention. I will then post my response to his post and finally end with a link to Joe Christensen's article today about who could lose their red shirts this year.

highwayman said:
Minnesota redshirted 17 players and played 10 Freshman in 2012. I think those were very good and very fair numbers, considering where the program has been and where it now is in 2013. We have 27 Freshman in 2013. If 9-10 play, its a very fair number. I think playing will be Jones, H. Ekpe, Santoso, Edwards, Wolitarsky, Harte, Brian Smith, and a couple of the NS defensive players (like Wipson) playing on special teams.

At what position Donovahn Jones plays in 2013 is somewhat irrelevant IMO. We have 7 quarterbacks that are Freshman and Sophomores. Streveler, Conway and Rhoda will assuredly redshirt unless disaster ensues. Jones will not. Whether he plays QB or not, I do not know. If they ask him to play WR, he will--but if he does, he's not playing QB for more than a half dozen plays all year. However, if he plays WR in 2013, nothing stops him from playing QB from 2014-2016. We don't know who will still be here or who comes on board. I think Kill and Limegrover will give him an honest assessment by the end of camp and give him and honest opinion of where he will succeed. I don't think they tricked him to get him here. I think Jones trusts them.

Don't think this is a MarQueis Gray type situation.
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Killjoy said:
I woke up and wanted to check something on my computer and them go back to be but I noticed your posting above. Here is my quick thought before I do that. If you are really going to look at the number of people that you are red shirting you should really separate it into categories, i.e. scholarship and walk on players. This is for all kinds of reasons but I am too tired to say anything more about this now. Maybe I will/can expand on this more when I am awake.
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Click on the link below to access today's article:

http://www.startribune.com/sports/gophers/220606121.html
 

If the scholarship grid is accurate (http://www.thedailygopher.com/pages/football-scholarship-grid), we currently have 10 scholarship players for the "Class of '16" on our roster. Given that you should shoot for 17 scholarship players per class (17 * 5 = 85), and you should account for attrition and walk-ons inevitably earning scholarships later, it's a virtual given that somewhere around 9-10 true freshmen will play. Who those 9-10 are is anyone's guess, but my best estimate as of now is:

Edwards
Jones
Carter
Wolitarsky
Ekpe
Laster
Myrick
McGhee
Santoso

Please, no OL, DL, or TE true freshmen playing, now or ever (unless they're physical freaks who are already Big Ten size). I wish they wouldn't play Ekpe this year, but that seems to be a foregone conclusion given the reports and the fact that he was here in the spring.
 

As I said above there are many different ways of tackling and viewing this topic. One is who and when should you red shirt somebody. My answer to that is that it depends. The Ohio States and Michigans of the world have the luxury of red shirting a larger percentage than we do because they have more depth than we do. Kill needs to establish Minnesota's identity now. A couple of key elements driving our red shirting policy is "If you are the best player you will play" tenet. The other is Kill's use of multiple players in order to be strong at the end of the game. Per the strib article there appears to be again a significant number of potential freshmen that could lose their redshirts. I do believe though for offensive linemen Kill strongly prefers to red shirt them. He realizes that they take the longest to develop.
 

I understand the need/desire to balance classes but at the end of the day the best players should play. If a true freshman is an upgrade and can make a meaningful contribution then he should play. If he will not upgrade the position or would be limited to a small role then he should redshirt.
 

dpodoll68 said:
If the scholarship grid is accurate (http://www.thedailygopher.com/pages/football-scholarship-grid), we currently have 10 scholarship players for the "Class of '16" on our roster. Given that you should shoot for 17 scholarship players per class (17 * 5 = 85), and you should account for attrition and walk-ons inevitably earning scholarships later, it's a virtual given that somewhere around 9-10 true freshmen will play. Who those 9-10 are is anyone's guess, but my best estimate as of now is:

Edwards
Jones
Carter
Wolitarsky
Ekpe
Laster
Myrick
McGhee
Santoso

Please, no OL, DL, or TE true freshmen playing, now or ever (unless they're physical freaks who are already Big Ten size). I wish they wouldn't play Ekpe this year, but that seems to be a foregone conclusion given the reports and the fact that he was here in the spring.
Click to expand...

I believe you have identified another element of designing your red shirt strategy, i.e. balancing classes. In doing that I believe it is not just numbers but also depth at certain positions that need to be considered. JV transfers and giving a walk on a scholarship can also play an important role in doing this.
 


It makes sense to play TrFR at positions that will be weak in the coming year or two. For example, Laster getting experience this year will pay off next year when we will need him. Kill was criticized quite a bit for pulling the RS off of Nelson last year at the time - but few regret it now. If he hadn't we would have 4 QBs all with zero experience this year. Until we can build legitimate depth at all positions we will continue to need Fr and JuCo players to play - even if they won't contribute significantly in that year. The gamble is that they will be better for it the next year.
 

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