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balds

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I posted this in response to another thread: Today we had a true Freshman QB lineup next to a true Freshman RB, fake the reverse to another true Freshman RB and throw to a true Freshman WR, who was helped up by a true Freshman TE. Not sure I've ever seen that before.

KFAN post-game show said that we have 16 OL, zero of which are Seniors. I would estimate that 4 of our top 6 OL were either injured or being red-shirted.

We had 3 DL who played minutes that were true Freshman.

If this were a video game and we could play the same 22 guys each week, I think we'd be a fairly good team. The problem is depth. Other schools fill in RS Sophomores and Juniors when players go down, we substitute in true Freshman and Walk-ons.

This team is insanely young, and has had absolutely horrible luck with the injury bug. I'm still fully on board with Kill.
 

People dont realize this and they think that we should be undefeated with this young team. Even tOSU couldnt win the B1G or many games with almost all true FR and SO. We played a good first half and as much as I hate Wisky, they are older, deeper, and better at this point.

Minny is doing good things with Kill and now we need to get deeper and recruit the players we need. We are young and that is exciting because these young players show a lot of potential and are pretty good players at their young age.

GO GOPHERS!!
 

GopherFanatic19 said:
People dont realize this and they think that we should be undefeated with this young team. Even tOSU couldnt win the B1G or many games with almost all true FR and SO. We played a good first half and as much as I hate Wisky, they are older, deeper, and better at this point.

Minny is doing good things with Kill and now we need to get deeper and recruit the players we need. We are young and that is exciting because these young players show a lot of potential and are pretty good players at their young age.

GO GOPHERS!!
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everyone realizes it. how could we not. we are beaten over the head with it constantly.

yes it is a young team. we know.
 

I agree with fatigue from the overall theme of being young. However, I was taken back by the several plays where damn near every skill position player on the field was a true Freshman. There is "young" and there is YOUNG.
 

I say we start recruiting older players.
 


look at the starting rosters of the top 25 and I will bet you most are 3-4-5th yr players. we still need 3-4 yrs, if we can keep these fr. rsfr. and sophs in school and healthy we will be in the fight. Thats a big IF. We have to keep supporting the coaching staff, they have done this before and will do it here, but not in the next yr or 2.. Anybody that thinks they will do it quick will be disappointed.
 

GopherFanatic19 said:
People dont realize this and they think that we should be undefeated with this young team. Even tOSU couldnt win the B1G or many games with almost all true FR and SO. We played a good first half and as much as I hate Wisky, they are older, deeper, and better at this point.

Minny is doing good things with Kill and now we need to get deeper and recruit the players we need. We are young and that is exciting because these young players show a lot of potential and are pretty good players at their young age.

GO GOPHERS!!
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This kind of hyperbole annoys me. When people are disappointed with 2 blowout losses and a mistake filled, 7 fumble effort against NW, that does not mean we think we should be undefeated. There is a lot of middle ground between what we have seen and undefeated.
 

balds said:
I agree with fatigue from the overall theme of being young. However, I was taken back by the several plays where damn near every skill position player on the field was a true Freshman. There is "young" and there is YOUNG.
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balds, no issue with your OP.
 

bleedsmaroonandgold said:
This kind of hyperbole annoys me. When people are disappointed with 2 blowout losses and a mistake filled, 7 fumble effort against NW, that does not mean we think we should be undefeated. There is a lot of middle ground between what we have seen and undefeated.
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+1

Honestly, the losses at Iowa and at WI didn't bother as much. But the NWestern loss really ticked me off. However, as fans, we can be annoyed. We're passionate about the Gophers. The flip side to that would be apathy.
 



The youth thing is 100% valid as an excuse this year, however the thing we don't know is are these guys struggling because they are young and will get better or are they struggling because they just aren't good enough to compete in the Big Ten?

I don't have the answer to this and we won't know for a few years but there is no guarantee that these players Kill is bringing in will be able to compete week in and week out at the BIG level, there is also no guarantee the systems Kill and co. have made a living on will work in the Big Ten on a weekly basis.

All we can do as fans is sit back, enjoy the ride and hope for the best.
 

balds said:
I posted this in response to another thread: Today we had a true Freshman QB lineup next to a true Freshman RB, fake the reverse to another true Freshman RB and throw to a true Freshman WR, who was helped up by a true Freshman TE. Not sure I've ever seen that before.

KFAN post-game show said that we have 16 OL, zero of which are Seniors. I would estimate that 4 of our top 6 OL were either injured or being red-shirted.

We had 3 DL who played minutes that were true Freshman.

If this were a video game and we could play the same 22 guys each week, I think we'd be a fairly good team. The problem is depth. Other schools fill in RS Sophomores and Juniors when players go down, we substitute in true Freshman and Walk-ons.

This team is insanely young, and has had absolutely horrible luck with the injury bug. I'm still fully on board with Kill.
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Who was the third TRUE FR that get minutes on the DL?
Ekpe and Keith...but who is the third?
 

MNVCGUY said:
The youth thing is 100% valid as an excuse this year, however the thing we don't know is are these guys struggling because they are young and will get better or are they struggling because they just aren't good enough to compete in the Big Ten?

I don't have the answer to this and we won't know for a few years but there is no guarantee that these players Kill is bringing in will be able to compete week in and week out at the BIG level, there is also no guarantee the systems Kill and co. have made a living on will work in the Big Ten on a weekly basis.

All we can do as fans is sit back, enjoy the ride and hope for the best.
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Well stated.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
Who was the third TRUE FR that get minutes on the DL?
Ekpe and Keith...but who is the third?
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Cockran, and I apologize, he was a red-shirt FR. Don't see how that affects my OP, but carry on. You got me on a technicality.
 



balds said:
Cockran, and I apologize, he was a red-shirt FR. Don't see how that affects my OP, but carry on. You got me on a technicality.
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And if you look at the RSFr, there's not a lot to get excited about. It's still early and plenty can change, but the guys that redshirted last year don't look like they're going to be a lot of help down the road. Sure, some will emerge, but if they're burning all these redshirts, that's not a good thing.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
And if you look at the RSFr, there's not a lot to get excited about. It's still early and plenty can change, but the guys that redshirted last year don't look like they're going to be a lot of help down the road. Sure, some will emerge, but if they're burning all these redshirts, that's not a good thing.
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That's the name of h=the game. RS as much as possible. These FR will be Jr's and Sr's and will be damn confident and damn good.
 

I don't think all redshirts are created equally.

For positions like OL and DL, I think it's much more critical to redshirt; skill position players, with the possible exception of QB, not as much. I don't have any issue with Rod Williams, and several others, getting in and getting some minutes if the staff thinks he's ready, and he has looked fairly good. I'm not even that upset about Nelson losing his redshirt. 4-year starting QB's at BCS schools are EXTREMELY rare. I have my doubts that Nelson starts the next 40+ games for the Maroon and Gold.

Now if they had to burn redshirts for guys like Hayes and Pirsig, I would have a VERY VERY hard time with that. Not having 4th and 5th year players on the OL is a huge reason they're struggling offensively like they are.
 

Ogee Oglethorpe said:
I don't think all redshirts are created equally.

For positions like OL and DL, I think it's much more critical to redshirt; skill position players, with the possible exception of QB, not as much. I don't have any issue with Rod Williams, and several others, getting in and getting some minutes if the staff thinks he's ready, and he has looked fairly good. I'm not even that upset about Nelson losing his redshirt. 4-year starting QB's at BCS schools are EXTREMELY rare. I have my doubts that Nelson starts the next 40+ games for the Maroon and Gold.

Now if they had to burn redshirts for guys like Hayes and Pirsig, I would have a VERY VERY hard time with that. Not having 4th and 5th year players on the OL is a huge reason they're struggling offensively like they are.
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I don't like losing the extra year on Williams because he's a very similar back to Kirkwood. I guess the good thing is that the staff will pull redshirts on anyone but the linemen. Weber started a boatload of games, but he was a RS Freshman when he started.
 

Breakin' The Plane said:
I don't like losing the extra year on Williams because he's a very similar back to Kirkwood. I guess the good thing is that the staff will pull redshirts on anyone but the linemen. Weber started a boatload of games, but he was a RS Freshman when he started.
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And the other options were? At the time I thought that Weber at QB and Q at WR was the best option. But I can't really think of any better configurations.
 

Unregistered User said:
And the other options were? At the time I thought that Weber at QB and Q at WR was the best option. But I can't really think of any better configurations.
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This is not a rip on Weber. I was just saying that he started a lot of games, but he got a year to watch before he won the job. They didn't have another viable option, although Gray should have gotten more snaps after the outcomes of games had been decided.
 


MNVCGUY said:
The youth thing is 100% valid as an excuse this year, however the thing we don't know is are these guys struggling because they are young and will get better or are they struggling because they just aren't good enough to compete in the Big Ten?

I don't have the answer to this and we won't know for a few years but there is no guarantee that these players Kill is bringing in will be able to compete week in and week out at the BIG level, there is also no guarantee the systems Kill and co. have made a living on will work in the Big Ten on a weekly basis.

All we can do as fans is sit back, enjoy the ride and hope for the best.
Click to expand...



+1
 



We are not young at the LB position (starting 2 RS SR and a RS JR) and yet that is one of our biggest weaknesses. I honestly believe this coaching staff is in over their heads at the B1G level. Wish I was wrong, but IMO it is becoming more and more obvious. Only time will tell if I am right or wrong.
 

While the offense is very young, the defense isn't. You could probably even say they are on the older side of things. A senior and junior start on the d-line, 2 seniors and a junior in the lb core, and 2 seniors and 1 junior in the secondary. Given the problems we've had stopping the run between the tackles this year, I'm not sure how it improves next year with the same group.
 

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