I had to say it (as a selfish Cats fan) but next year may likely be his last in Purple... as a redshirt junior next year, he will likely graduate and enroll early for the draft and be a 3rd round pick (maybe higher). What a great DE!! But will he supplant Casey Dailey as the sack king?
Gaziano...
- Thread starter ChappyCat
- Start date
There's a reason AWalk was the first NU player in decades to leave early -- because it just doesn't happen except for an exceptional talent. Gaz has played great, but I see him playing through his senior year and perhaps winding up like Dean Lowry in the NFL.
Players don't come to NU to play/study and leave before they earn their degrees. He isn't another TJ Parker. I think Gaz will give us one more year! Gosh- I hope he does! He sparked the victory with the strip of Lewerke that led to the int..
I don’t think he’ll leave early either.
BTW I checked the box score and they didn’t credit Gaz with a forced fumble on the last play. It should have been recorded as a forced fumble, then a recovery by Lewerke, and then the pick by Nate Hall.
I realize but next year he is a fourth year junior, on track for a degree? Or is set to grad in five? I hope you all are right and we get the rest of this season and TWO more seasons of Gaz!!
Gaziano is a fine player, but his draft stock is not something that would compel him to leave after next season unless he really takes a leap. He's not the disruptive edge force that NFL teams crave. He looks like a guy who could anchor an edge in a 3-4. Lowry was a much more impactful player in college, and his draft day might represent a base case scenario for Gaz.
If it weren't for the Packers, Lowry might have been a FA rather than a 4th round. The Packers (who use our firm's software for ranking draft prospects) saw something in Lowry that most other GMs did not. Most draftniks had him as a late round grade.
If it weren't for the Packers, Lowry might have been a FA rather than a 4th round. The Packers (who use our firm's software for ranking draft prospects) saw something in Lowry that most other GMs did not. Most draftniks had him as a late round grade.
I believe if NU had recovered the fumble, Gaziano would have been credited with a forced fumble *and* a sack (even though he didn't tackle the QB), but since the result of the play was an incomplete pass, it technically didn't even count as a fumble. We all know the reality though, but statkeeping can be strange sometimes.
NFLDraftScout has a rating for Gaz - #39 DE in the 2020 draft class.
http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/dsprofile.php?pyid=1003001&draftyear=2020&genpos=DE
http://www.nfldraftscout.com/ratings/dsprofile.php?pyid=1003001&draftyear=2020&genpos=DE
That wouldn't get him drafted. I think he's better than that.
He had a nice rookie year, but his production this year is lacking. PFF gives him a "poor" rating thus far in 2017.
Hopefully he gets it back together and regains his starting job.
I hadn't noticed that Gaz didn't start a game. Who started in place of him? Just curious, because Miller The Younger seems to have locked down one DE spot.
According to NU's own Game Notes, Gaz has started every game.
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/nusports.com/documents/2017/10/23/08_MSU_Game_Notes.pdf
https://s3.amazonaws.com/sidearm.sites/nusports.com/documents/2017/10/23/08_MSU_Game_Notes.pdf
I think he is talking about the Packers, also, but look at the link and scroll down to about page 8.
A good read from the other side, including a detailed description of Gaziano's strip just prior to Hall's game winning INT.
https://michiganstate.rivals.com/news/dotcomp-where-this-one-got-away-and-what-s-next.
GOUNUII
And produced very little. Last I heard he had lost his starting job.
But all beside the point. The point is that Gaz and Lowry have similar attributes as players, though to this point Lowry was a more productive and disruptive player. That performance got Lowry a 4th round draft position. Using him as a comp for Gaz, safe to say that at this point Gaz, though a good college player, probably goes undrafted. That could easily change, and I suspect it might.
Gaz is still only a (RS) sophomore and is starting to put up some good sack numbers. I agree that at this point Lowry might've been ahead, even without the benefit of a RS, but Gaz seems to have a high ceiling and could get to the Lowry level.
I feel like people here are weird about this stuff. In the offseason lots of people were hand-wringing that Clayton was going to go pro after only 1 more year. I mean, if he does go pro it's likely cause he would have had a great season, which is an awesome. So why is that a bad thing?
If Joe Gaz continues to play awesome football and then steps his level up even higher next year to justify leaving a year early, needing to replace him in the following year (is that 2019 now?) would be an awesome "problem" to have. And he will have made an excellent contribution to NU football in his time, and hopefully earned his degree along the way.
Go Cats
Gaz is only leading the B1G in solo sacks....
Sacks G Solo Ast. Yards Avg./G
Garret Dooley, Wisconsin 8 5 3 37 0.81
Chase Winovich, Michigan 8 4 5 38 0.81
Joe Gaziano, Northwestern 8 6 0 38 0.75
Anthony Nelson, Iowa 8 5 2 27 0.75
Devin Bush, Michigan 8 4 3 43 0.69
Carter Coughlin, Minnesota 8 4 1 24 0.56
Nick Bosa, Ohio State 8 4 0 27 0.50
Shaka Toney, Penn State 8 3 2 31 0.50
Markus Bailey, Purdue 8 4 0 36 0.50
Alec James, Wisconsin 8 4 0 34 0.50
That was a really fantastic write-up by the Spartan Mag publisher. Really good stuff- thanks for posting GOUNUII.
That was one of the best post-game writeups I've ever read. Gaziano feasts on MSU, especially Lewerke... last year with the highlight sack, this year with the strip in the 3rd OT. Also amazing is how our OL gave up only one sack to a team that is above-average on the pass rush. And I liked how the writer mentioned that this NU team could win out. I agree.
