Are you sold on Hilinski?

[Titanium999]

I know for a fact that the coaching staff is very high on Ryan. He worked very hard in the off season (including the weight room & nutrition). Remember that he was new to our program last year and the off season gave him more time to familiarize himself with Bajakian and our system. Lastly, his supporting cast on offense is pretty damn good.

He is fantastic

 

[Titanium999]

I was thinking of this a lot last night in the fourth quarter of the Purdue game. Purdue's passing offense is better than their rushing offense, but the fact that they threw one incomplete pass after another when trying to salt the game away was crazy. They really blew a chance to win over the evil Penn State. And as a result, they're now already one game out of first in the Big Ten West.

Can’t run 🏃‍♀️ the ball!

 

[mkilla]

Thanks for all you insight into the team. Do you have any info on injuries? You were right on Mangieri being out. I’m guessing they were being very cautious in not playing him as I had heard he was set to play.

Curious about Gold, Olsen and Mangieri in particular.

Gold and Butler are practicing in full. Olsen is in full pads but not kicking yet but looks like he should be ready. Mangieri, who knows, he has a large brace on one of his knees, but looks like he's progressing. Staff is super conservative about injuries just like in game decisions.

Also, Gold is above 300lbs, no question.

 

[corbi296]

I hope Hilinski stays another year to help with the Aidan Gray transition. Gray is the future

Where is going to go? He’ll be here next year.

 

[corbi296]

I am happy with the wins, but its also likely that some of those one-score games should have been two or more score games, but that isn't Fitz' style.

Which way?

 

[CoralSpringsCat]

Gold and Butler are practicing in full. Olsen is in full pads but not kicking yet but looks like he should be ready. Mangieri, who knows, he has a large brace on one of his knees, but looks like he's progressing. Staff is super conservative about injuries just like in game decisions.

Also, Gold is above 300lbs, no question.

Great news on Gold. We’re going to need him this year.

 

[mountaindrew]

Fitz loves to run the ball to burn clock when he can, then rely on his defense to close the game out. It's not about lack of trust in Hilinski as it is about trusting the running game & defense to finish off opponents. This end of game strategy has been successful for him so why change?

Plus this was the PERFECT situation and opportunity for our OL to prove to themselves and to their teammates/coaches that they are a completely different unit than the one that played like utter dogshit against this same Nebraska team last year. I was also nervous about the 3rd down conservative calls earlier in the 4th quarter when we were only up by 3. We were really fortunate it didn't bite us.... AND we got the big bonus of the OL proving themselves in crunch time. Invaluable step forward.

 

[mountaindrew]

Hilinski looked really good against Neb. I thought his first few throws were a little shaky but Washington and Navarro made good catches, and I think he settled down from there and got comfortable in the pocket. He finished the first half 20-23, but only 7-15 in the second half. Hope he continues to improve.

20 of 23 in the first half, while very frequently throwing off his back foot, instead of stepping into his throws. We'll take that.

 

[mountaindrew]

The mean streets of Montpelier - where even the Governor wasn't immune from "snowball violence" coming out of church (not me, my brother).

Yeah, right. We believe the guy who says he attended weekday chapel at Wheaton very grudgingly.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

R Hilinski won his opener this year, H Johnson lost his last year. Enough said (at least so far).

Hilinski didn’t win the game and Johnson didn’t lose the game

 

[HappyNUyear]

Hilinski’s freshman year performanceincluded only five total interceptions, including two over his final eight games, a total of 287 passes. (One was a blowout loss to App St, one was a tightish loss to Clemson.)

Last year being what last year was, that ability to protect the football fits in very well with what NU is trying to do.

So, while I’m not “sold”, I’m pretty optimistic. The pieces around him put him in a much better position to succeed.

Also, one game flipped me from 3-9 to 9-3. Such is life as an NU fan.

Don’t forget Hilinski beat #4 Georgia between the hedges in OT his Freshman year