Huge win. Now rest the starters

[CatManTrue]

It’s going to be a lot of fun in Indianapolis.

Dear Coaches: Rest as many key guys as possible the next two games. Whether we win both or lose both against Minnesota & Illinois, we’re going to Indianapolis. With four games left in the season - including the bowl - we can play a ton of true freshman and backups, develop depth, and hopefully avoid any more injuries to our starters.

If Hartage, Hall, Doles, McGee, or any other injured started play at all the two games I just might be mighty disappointed.

Rose Bowl or bust! Go Cats!!

 

[pymvpymv]

Well, they are all hurt at least on defense so shouldn’t be an issue.

 

[Alan Smithee]

I like how we've been proactive, resting most of our secondary and both placekickers...

 

[CoralSpringsCat]

It’s going to be a lot of fun in Indianapolis.

Dear Coaches: Rest as many key guys as possible the next two games. Whether we win both or lose both against Minnesota & Illinois, we’re going to Indianapolis. With four games left in the season - including the bowl - we can play a ton of true freshman and backups, develop depth, and hopefully avoid any more injuries to our starters.

If Hartage, Hall, Doles, McGee, or any other injured started play at all the two games I just might be mighty disappointed.

Rose Bowl or bust! Go Cats!!

Not buying this...if healthy, you play your best. Need to keep the momentum going. Let’s finish strong. 1-0

 

[FeralFelidae]

No, because we still want the best record to make it to the best bowl. If we lose out and finish 6-7, we'll get a bottom-tier bowl. Much rather finish with 8 wins.

9 wins would be best, of course! Try to win them all.

 

[CatManTrue]

Not buying this...if healthy, you play your best. Need to keep the momentum going. Let’s finish strong. 1-0

Our team has been made of glass this season and it seems as if half our starters are playing injured. E.g. We almost lost Hall again in the second half.

Intelligent minds differ at times. I also think we should play Thorson in only the first series of each game, then rest him to have him healthy in Indianapolis. We need to gear up for the championship game.

 

[zeek55]

Lots of Bowser and Hanaoka these next 2 weeks. Burn tons of clock, end games quickly.

 

[corbi296]

Not buying this...if healthy, you play your best. Need to keep the momentum going. Let’s finish strong. 1-0

I agree. can’t lose momentum.

 

[Wrestlerneverdiesasacatfan]

It’s going to be a lot of fun in Indianapolis.

Dear Coaches: Rest as many key guys as possible the next two games. Whether we win both or lose both against Minnesota & Illinois, we’re going to Indianapolis. With four games left in the season - including the bowl - we can play a ton of true freshman and backups, develop depth, and hopefully avoid any more injuries to our starters.

If Hartage, Hall, Doles, McGee, or any other injured started play at all the two games I just might be mighty disappointed.

Rose Bowl or bust! Go Cats!!

Rest all of em! Even Clayton and Bowser! Rest em please!

 

[Styre]

I think you play it by ear. I wouldn't rest the starters on principle, but obviously, if someone is in a "hurt, but can still play" state, you sit him. Preventing injury is the most important thing.

For example, if Thorson is getting good protection against Minnesota, let him play. If he's running for his life, put Green in.

 

[zeek55]

Rest all of em! Even Clayton and Bowser! Rest em please!

CT and Bowser will be playing these next two weeks.


Guys this rest stuff is crazy. Winning games is important. We can be ranked the next couple of weeks.

I don't get this mentality. We can play a lot of running plays and play quicker (3 hour) games.

No need to just not try; we should win the next 2.

 

[Wrestlerneverdiesasacatfan]

I like how we've been proactive, resting most of our secondary and both placekickers...

LOL

 

[hdhntr1]

It’s going to be a lot of fun in Indianapolis.

Dear Coaches: Rest as many key guys as possible the next two games. Whether we win both or lose both against Minnesota & Illinois, we’re going to Indianapolis. With four games left in the season - including the bowl - we can play a ton of true freshman and backups, develop depth, and hopefully avoid any more injuries to our starters.

If Hartage, Hall, Doles, McGee, or any other injured started play at all the two games I just might be mighty disappointed.

Rose Bowl or bust! Go Cats!!

If they are injured, but you don't want to lose momentum

 

[Figrating]

The next games are gonna be just as hard-fought as the game today and we want the Ws.

 

[hdhntr1]

It’s going to be a lot of fun in Indianapolis.

Dear Coaches: Rest as many key guys as possible the next two games. Whether we win both or lose both against Minnesota & Illinois, we’re going to Indianapolis. With four games left in the season - including the bowl - we can play a ton of true freshman and backups, develop depth, and hopefully avoid any more injuries to our starters.

If Hartage, Hall, Doles, McGee, or any other injured started play at all the two games I just might be mighty disappointed.

Rose Bowl or bust! Go Cats!!

With Fitz trying for another ten win season the hard way???? Needs to win the next 4. If they are injured, yes but otherwise, gotta keep the momentum

 

[phatcat]

Not buying this...if healthy, you play your best. Need to keep the momentum going. Let’s finish strong. 1-0

Plus I can't stand the next two opponents

 

[CatManTrue]

With Fitz trying for another ten win season the hard way???? Needs to win the next 4. If they are injured, yes but otherwise, gotta keep the momentum

Who cares about the 10 win mark, it’d Just be gravy. We’ve been to the Rose Bowl twice in our school’s history and getting back to Pasadena should be the imperative. I don’t really care if we beat Minimum-sota & Illannoy yet again; we did that last season.

Plus I can't stand the next two opponents

Me neither. Thus it’d be All the sweeter to beat them with our backups. We clearly need to build OL and DB depth anyway.

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

Who cares about the 10 win mark, it’d Just be gravy. We’ve been to the Rose Bowl twice in our school’s history and getting back to Pasadena should be the imperative. I don’t really care if we beat Minimum-sota & Illannoy yet again; we did that last season.


Me neither. Thus it’d be All the sweeter to beat them with our backups. We clearly need to build OL and DB depth anyway.

Resting to rest is just a bad idea. Resting to recover from an injury and come back at full strength makes sense. Note- even if we suffer a consequential injury, I would have the same stance. This is football. You have a certain element of injury risk during every play.

Win the games. Momentum is huge in college football. I’ve seen the rest thing in the NFL lead to lethargic performances. Losing to either the Boat Rowers or Lovie’s is not how you should be going into a championship game. Neither is a good team and we should be able to beat them with even an average performance.

 

[CatManTrue]

Resting to rest is just a bad idea. Resting to recover from an injury and come back at full strength makes sense. Note- even if we suffer a consequential injury, I would have the same stance. This is football. You have a certain element of injury risk during every play.

Win the games. Momentum is huge in college football. I’ve seen the rest thing in the NFL lead to lethargic performances. Losing to either the Boat Rowers or Lovie’s is not how you should be going into a championship game. Neither is a good team and we should be able to beat them with even an average performance.

I agree with your initial premise. However keep in mind that we nearly lost Hall again last night and this is a list off the top of my head of players who are either injured or have been injured and out for snaps this season:

Hall
Hartage
McGee
Newsome
Williams
Hance
Doles
Slater
Skowronek
Green
Vault
Moten
A. Miller

That’s a lot of starters and I’m sure I’m missing a few - on top of Thorson’s return from an ACL tear, Larkin’s early retirement, and Fisher maybe playing injured (he’s seemed a step slow this season). I say we gear up for the Rose Bowl and rest any injured players, and see which of our backups can compete at a Big Ten level by pounding the Gophers & Illini. It’s called strategerie.

 

[NUCat320]

I agree with your initial premise. However keep in mind that we nearly lost Hall again last night and this is a list off the top of my head of players who are either injured or have been injured and out for snaps this season:

Hall
Hartage
McGee
Newsome
Williams
Hance
Doles
Slater
Skowronek
Green
Vault
Moten
A. Miller

That’s a lot of starters and I’m sure I’m missing a few - on top of Thorson’s return from an ACL tear, Larkin’s early retirement, and Fisher maybe playing injured (he’s seemed a step slow this season). I say we gear up for the Rose Bowl and rest any injured players. and see which of our backups can compete at a Big Ten level by pounding the Gophers & Illini. It’s called strategerie.

I’d agree with resting the first five on the list. The defense is solid 1-25, it has seemed. I assume the next time we see Newsome is in January.

Offensively, I can see Skowronek getting a breather if he’s in secret “questionable” status. Same for Nagel if he’s dinged.

The RBs mentioned have been non-entities this year, sadly. I’d support resting Vault if the idea was for him to return in December as a kick returner only. Otherwise, he needs to be valuable.

And while I can see getting a few series off for the OL, no chance those guys should rest unless they’re injured. We can’t have an Akron repeat — and a loss to Illinois or Minnesota would be exactly that.

Green is too valuable. These are still game NU needs to win.

College football is strange. Nothing is “clinched”, even when it’s clinched. Perception and dominance matter where they don’t in the pros.

I mentioned our win to a dude in an Alabama jersey last night. He thought it was cute.

 

[mikewebb68]

I agree with your initial premise. However keep in mind that we nearly lost Hall again last night and this is a list off the top of my head of players who are either injured or have been injured and out for snaps this season:

Hall
Hartage
McGee
Newsome
Williams
Hance
Doles
Slater
Skowronek
Green
Vault
Moten
A. Miller

That’s a lot of starters and I’m sure I’m missing a few - on top of Thorson’s return from an ACL tear, Larkin’s early retirement, and Fisher maybe playing injured (he’s seemed a step slow this season). I say we gear up for the Rose Bowl and rest any injured players, and see which of our backups can compete at a Big Ten level by pounding the Gophers & Illini. It’s called strategerie.

And if you look at the list of most other teams this time of year, it is going to be as long, if not longer. I strongly suspect it will be business as usual for us these final two games, except for not opening up the playbook and perhaps resting starters a tad earlier in a blowout, which will likely occur in at least one of these two games...

 

[NorthNJCatsfan]

Play to win — and have the game out of reach by the middle of 3Q. Then, rest the starters.

 

[BigCatFan19]

It’s going to be a lot of fun in Indianapolis.

Dear Coaches: Rest as many key guys as possible the next two games. Whether we win both or lose both against Minnesota & Illinois, we’re going to Indianapolis. With four games left in the season - including the bowl - we can play a ton of true freshman and backups, develop depth, and hopefully avoid any more injuries to our starters.

If Hartage, Hall, Doles, McGee, or any other injured started play at all the two games I just might be mighty disappointed.

Rose Bowl or bust! Go Cats!!

First thing I thought about NU success this morning was how this program would handle this situation.

Here, it is important to compete at a high level - with the balancing of rotating players at a higher rate then before. I would think that We should see 3 deep depth charts and lines rolling.

I would also like to see TJ Green get some reps - over the next 2 weeks for preparation purposes. We should always have 2 ready - this is an opportunity.

 

[MRCat95]

1) Lighten up on physical contact in practice for the vets.
2) Sit guys with nagging injuries or lighten the game reps if doing so is expected to speed recovery.
3) Play 100 MPH to finish 8-1.

Do not sit healthy guys to avoid injury (while the outcome of game is in doubt anyway).

Do rest some banged up guys to get them healthy.

You cannot go 0-2 or 1-1 in the next 2 games and expect to go to Indy and beat Michigan or OSU.

 

[Hungry Jack]

This team is pretty banged up, especially at RB, CB and LB. Hopefully some reduced action can help heal up the walking wounded. Montre’s hammy is probably my biggest concern. If Bowser gets hurt I think we can forget about the B1G championship.

 

[FanatiCat]

I don’t see any way that they would “rest” able bodied guys if it jeopardized winning the next 2 games. The West title and the title game would seem hollow and anticlimactic if we lost to the two worst teams in our division going into it.

 

[CatManTrue]

I don’t see any way that they would “rest” able bodied guys if it jeopardized winning the next 2 games. The West title and the title game would seem hollow and anticlimactic if we lost to the two worst teams in our division going into it.

Why? We lost to the worst team, by far, on our schedule (Akron) which will kill our bowl standing should we lose the BCG.

It doesn’t feel hollow to me. We’re the West champs with two weeks to go, 6-1 and nearly 7-0 in conference. If we win in Indianapolis we’re Rose Bowl bound. Nothing hollow about that.

 

[SmellyCat]

They can "rest" (i.e. not play in any games) between December 2 and December 31.

 

[CoralSpringsCat]

 

[DaCat]

Bad things happen when you start playing with a "not to lose" and "not to get injured" mentality. Let's win out!

 

[ubercat]

View embedded media

And it ain't major league baseball, resting guys before the playoffs.

 

[Wrestlerneverdiesasacatfan]

Clean out the guns and bury the dead. that's a quote from Northwestern running back when we beat Ohio State