Bowser should redshirt this year
- Thread starter julescat
- Start date
Absolutely, unless he feels otherwise. And then I probably would anyway, it's just a no-brainer.
Yup. If he wants to play, then let him. I don’t see how we go bowling whether he totes the rock or not.
If not, then let him get healthy and see if a new OC can get something out of this OL.
Come on. What's an OC gonna do when the OL is this weak? Quick pitches? Screens all day? Trick plays? Do we have an OG who can pull and lead?
How long have these OL been in the program? How many OL are upperclassmen and aren’t on the two deep? NU has to be better on the OL. The Fighting Lovie’s played four freshman last year and didn’t look this bad. The Lovie’s got a kid from a local HS that NU never offered and he started as a Freshman. He didn’t come out if HS as a finished product and no way I thought he would start right away. Wasn’t sure he would start at all. Right now he might be as good as any OL we had playing today.
Agreed. I thought Dana Holgorsen’s idea of redshirting his key players once Houston’s season went off the rails was really good despite the public criticism it got.
Of course if they decide to transfer and didn’t help you win games they could have...not so good. It also doesn’t mean they won’t get hurt again.
It’s not like we are playing to lose to get a better draft pick. And if we lose too much you may see a host of de-commits...win if you can, but play the guys with talent and futures, so if you do lose they at least gain experience.
It’s not like we are playing to lose to get a better draft pick. And if we lose too much you may see a host of de-commits...win if you can, but play the guys with talent and futures, so if you do lose they at least gain experience.
Yeah. Why didn't we recruit Palczewski? He was the #2 OL in the state when recruited. He looks very good when I've watched him! Grades? He was All-Big Ten honorable mention (media) and Pro Football Focus All-Big Ten first team last year.
I replied in another thread, but the OC should always have a large say in who is recruited. But yes, some offensive creativity would keep the defenses we face honest. They pin their ears back and kill our players because our system is so predictable.
Bill Parcells said the cook should have the final say in the ingredients, or something along those lines. Is McCall too dumb to identify the OL he needs to run his system?
Why didn’t we offer Rodger Saffold, an Ohio OL who wanted to play at NU badly, ended up at Indiana, and is now on his second $40 million contract in the NFL?
Every staff has recruiting misses. The exception proves the rule, and if CCC can get his guys through then why can’t Fitz.
There have been a bunch of kids who wanted to go to NU but we didn't offer, and they're now in the NFL, some with Super Bowl rings. Dan Feeney (all-American OG at Indiana who blocks for JJTBC now), and Ted Karras (NE Patriots OG) come to mind off the top of my head. Feeney was from Fitz's HS while Karras was a legacy who wanted to come to NU badly but we offered someone else.
I like Anderson's coaching style from the 2 minutes of video I've seen and think the OL will be a strength in a few years with the recruits we're landing now.
Palczewski was injured his junior year and little to no interest from anyone. I don’t think it was grades, but I am not positive. I know his offers came very late his Senior year and came down to Illinois or Vanderbilt. I also believe he had an in season visit to NU and didn’t get an offer. Everybody misses some players in their backyard. I just can’t remember many recent lightly regarded 2 star OL’s that have been productive for NU. In fairness to the staff, I also thought Palczewski was a project and he has turned out better than I would have projected. However, the kid worked and somebody developed him at Illinois. Our development on the OL has been weak and don’t think we have been so unfortunate that none of our guys have the prerequisite skill set to succeed. We just don’t seem to get “lucky” at OL with a surprise.
I have hope on the OL with Anderson. It’s going to take a few years, but I think he’ll get it turned around at some point.
I liked that kid out of HS. I think he went to Palatine. My recollection is that he fell short on the test score. Regardless, recruiting and landing the right kids has been part of the problem but the lack of technique development for the kids that we brought in is just as big a problem. You can't expect Anderson to undo multiple years of no teaching or poor teaching in the course of one offseason. There is a lot of muscle memory that needs to be developed. I think we'll be young but improved next season with a much bigger step up in the following year. Hopefully our QB play also steps up.
He went to Prospect. We had Slater in the class or I could see why NU didn’t offer. He has been good with the Illini and somehow their OL is better than NU’s despite next to no depth.
My bigger concern with recruiting on the OL is why we stoped recruiting Connor McLaughlin this year. As you know, he ended up at Stanford. I realize teams can only take so many players at each position, but it doesn’t seem like NU will have many 5 year players with the upperclassman. It will work it’s way out and will allow a Red Shirt year for some young guy with potential to be that 5 year in the program guy. Skoronski and Priebe will likely need to play next year.
It wasn't his idea. The players and their families decided to shut it down for the rest of the season, and he went along. I imagine that Fitz wouldn't let something like that happen at NU if he felt the player could still contribute to the team that season.
No doubt, the decision to not reciprocate McLaughlin's interest and make room for another OL given what we are seeing with the OL right now is a real head scratcher. Fitz has made some big mistakes in talent evaluation/prioritization on the recruiting front, particularly when it comes to the OL and QB. McLaughlin, Zach Carpenter, Palchaski, Re-Al Mitchell are all example of players that appeared to want NU but ultimately went elsewhere because other guys committed first. In retrospect those appear to be mistakes in talent evaluation that are costing us big time right now.
I’ve been meaning to post the same re: McLaughlin. I’m no recruiting maven so I’m not making any claims of insight. But he sounds like a really solid prospect and given our historical OL issues I was really surprised we backed off. Chose to read it at the time as a vote of confidence in the current OL. But just seems like a mistake / miss at this point. I’m ok if we slightly over-recruit at OL at this point - we’re certainly seeing that nothing good happens if we don’t get better up front.
I can't live with this. Another baseball analogy. We can be the Miami Marlins and win a WS every 20 years or so and otherwise be the worst franchise in the game, or my team, the Indians, who are good nearly every year but no WS.
I will forever be grateful to CCC for breaking the streak, but I think the program is now in a shambles with little medium term hope.
I'll take Fitz approach
I agree that we should have done everything we could to get McLaughlin. My guess is that Fitz has a set plan that puts a priority on an idea that you should take a certain number of OLmen each year and if you deviate from that you mess up the schedule of development and it makes it harder to recruit the next year. Too many this year and next year's top OLment won't commit because they would be stuck behind too many upperclassmen.
Time will tell.
Bowser hasn’t been the same since the end last year. Even at the Championship game he only ran for 60 yds.
There is some injury nagging him ever since.
Agree with the possibility of sitting him out at this point.
I would agree with this approach if the player can get back to playing at 95% or better for the remainder of the games. And, BTW, I hear you and am now worried big time about decommits—particularly from the OL— from what is now a very good incoming class. My reasoning on the redshirt for Bowser ( and also maybe Hunter? ) is that as TampaWildcat says above, he seems really dinged up and why play him at 50%?
And who fills in for Bowser? Not like NU has a loaded stable of backs. They put Hull in and the first time he got really pounded he fumbled the ball. Hull's fine but can use the year on the sideline. Anderson's been better than expected but it will be amazing if he survives the season without injury.
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