Agreed. The speculation makes me feel icky. I want to see him as much as anybody, but what we already know he's gone through this year is something most of us have not experienced.
Hunter Johnson listed as 4th string quarterback today even behind Whitaker
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Agreed. The speculation makes me feel icky. I want to see him as much as anybody, but what we already know he's gone through this year is something most of us have not experienced.
Except it was you spewing the nonsense. Get off your mighty high horse...
LOL, now that’s funny. Of all the rampant baseless speculation that continues to be spewed on this board, you want to harp on the one post I made on The Rock speculating that the kid was immature and was struggling with facing adversity for the first time in his life. Unlike others on this board, I immediately regretted the post and apologized. I haven’t seen anybody else do thar.
Maybe you didn’t get the message the first time I posted it. Like I said, screw you!
Again you miss the point. It is not that Fitz should play him when he isn’t mentally prepared to play. He is protecting him, great, exactly what he should be doing. However, he comes out and says he is now “banged up” during last week. Well Fitz, how about you give a little something in your response that continues to protect your asset? Like “Hunter is coming along from the tough situation, he’s working hard, got hit in practice, we thought it was best to hold him out”. No family situation disclosed, but clearly a specific statement of support. The family might appreciate this as well. This is like a soap opera. The family situation comes out and every one understands why he wasn’t playing then he is declared healthy. Then the kid remains on the depth chart, doesn’t get in the game and it takes someone asking a question to get info that he is nicked up. News flash, Hunter is the highest rated recruit in the history of NU at the most important position. A position that we have been God awful at all year. Exactly, what privacy is being invaded that hasn’t already been made public.
I believe fans should be entitled to information that doesn’t violate any privacy laws OR be specifically asked by the player and his family to not share. Some people disagree and that’s fine, but the fans have a choice too, so don’t bellyache about attendance etc while some of us decide to stay home and watch on the idiot box instead of dragging our dollars out to the program. This is a big boy business now.
I don’t see it much differently. It was addressed once publicly and if there is no update since then it’s because nothing has changed, because it’s inappropriate to discuss it further or because the kid doesn’t want it discussed further. The difference is that I give Fitz and the kid the benefit of the doubt. You and others don’t seem to have that trust and want a further explanation. You are not entitled to that.
Your are correct, I am not entitled to didly squat. Just like NU is not entitled to the support of each and every fan they currently have. Both have choices and sometimes one impacts the other.
The Four things we know for sure is ...that we do not know for sure......and Fitz protects his players ....and we dont like to not know.....and Hunter appears uninvolved on the sidelines (again today could not find him with the other qbs) which leads us to speculate even more.
The HJ 'Situation' is being handled very poorly by Fitz. Why would you put him as the backup and suddenly he's fifth string QB after Krause? The disastrous unexpectedly bad season and this unnecessary drama is causing fans of NU football to question what the F is going on at the Fitz Mahal. In this time of uncertainty, he needs to be more forthright. I'm not sure what master his serving but I think he's so out of bounds, I don't think he's really serving HJ or anyone for that matter. I guess we should have seen the red flags when the QB competition was between HJ and TJ during camp.
It’s not complicated. Hunter was the first QB to see the field against Stanford because he was at least as good, if not better, than TJ. He certainly had more potential.
He did fine in Game 2. Struggled against MSU, did mostly OK in the very few chances he got against Wisky until he got hurt.
Sat for health reasons against Nebby. Sat due to family illness against OSU and Iowa.
Played against Indiana when he was ready. Note this was when 6-6 was technically still possible. Got hurt again on a dirty play.
Sat against Purdue. He was presumably not 100% healthy and also a .500 record was no longer possible. Affirming a lost season.
What is the benefit of him playing again at this point this season? We have no receivers and none of our top running backs. Just shut it down, let him get healthy and practice timing with GHP, Kirtz and the other young guys.
IMO Hunter’s lost season specifically adds to the case to strip McCall of his OC duties. If Hunter had progressed in this system, I could see reasons to not make him learn a new playbook in one offseason. But now? There’s little harm in doing so.
I maintain he will start Week 1 next season.
Fitz is terrible this season. He's become a liar and akin to some of the hacks like Harbaugh and Fleck that we like to deride.
Wow, just wow. What a really bad take.
Absolutely. I am an NU fan not just because of what they do on the field, but mostly because of how the program is run off the field and the type of student athletes the program turns out. As long as the program continues to be run with absolute integrity and the type of unparralled off the field success we have experienced under Pat Fitzgerald, I can stomach the occasional season like the one we are having. After all, losing seasons happen to pretty much all P5 programs at one point or another. This year is our turn. I am not going to jump off the bandwagon because of it. Other fans are entitled to feel differently.
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Half our basketball team transferred out with 1 year. Im not sure what program he is in but if he has a solid graduate school in mind that suits his program then it makes sense. But his playing days here appear over. It would take him 2 more years to figure out McCalls offense.
Agree with most of this except for how you spelled unparalleled.
Also I agree with the fire McCall peeps. But the time to blah blah about HJ ended the day the news of his family came out. Period
I don't think anyone is criticizing HJ
Have we ever had an All Big Ten quarterback? 3 of our last 4 starters made NFL rosters and the 4th (Persa) was probably the best talent out of all of them.
Despite that, our production has been lacking by every metric.
The point is, we have the talent, and it's being wasted
No one is complaining about the defense, because they play up to (and above) par
Wow, the endless speculation is crazy. There is no he is behind the 4th string, 5th string. just getting some guys a chance to play that will never see the field unless you have at 30 point lead on a weak team.
Once you get back into Big10 games and he is health and ready to go, he will see playing time. Sounds like there are a few moving parts in the kids life and being ready to play on Sat this month may not be his top priority and Fitz is willing to give him that. Let’s see how it plays out, good kid from a good family who has lots of potential for the future.
Once you get back into Big10 games and he is health and ready to go, he will see playing time. Sounds like there are a few moving parts in the kids life and being ready to play on Sat this month may not be his top priority and Fitz is willing to give him that. Let’s see how it plays out, good kid from a good family who has lots of potential for the future.
Brett Basanez. Senior year he was 1st team All Big Ten and was co-offensive Big Ten player of the year.
When Turk speculates without knowledge, he often concocts a conspiracy theory. When he can actually see something first hand, his judgements are often right on. Except for the moon landing, of course.
I expect Smith named starter and Marty named backup and HJ nowhere to be found on the two-deep.
Fitz would not have put him fourth string on the depth chart to humiliate him. Just wouldn't do it. I mean, why would he?--that to my mind would be grounds for dismissal. I believe it means he's part of the team (but for whatever reason isn't likely to play now). We don't know, maybe the family situation is worse than we know, and that is none of our business.
How about just saying he isn’t going to play? Not that hard.
Because the only people worrying about it are like 10 dudes on a football fan board.
I’m sure his family knows exactly what is going on, unless you think they are also finding out everything from a coach’s limited remarks to press.
That’s not what I meant.
There have been articles throughout the year on transfers and HJ is usually front and center of the bust category. Many people on this board have opined that he either 1) stinks or 2) is soft. My boy Fitz is protecting HJ, but it could do better if he just says we are shutting him down for the year because it’s in his best interest. Instead, the family news gets made public and shortly thereafter Fitz declares he is not injured. Plays against Indy in relief. He stays as the “or” QB against Purdue and sits the entire game. Fitz says he is healthy. People start talking about his body language and speculating. Stands around the entire UMass game while NU trots out 4 other QB’s. Now out if the blue he is hurt. What we didn’t want to list him as out so UMass had to game plan for him? Stevie Wonder can see HJ is the only QB on the roster that potentially could take NU to the next level. Why not say he is done for the year and will only get in a game if QB 1-3 are carted off on a stretcher? How is the silence doing him or his family any good? The family situation somehow became public, and he can still protect the kid without divulging any more details that we have no business knowing.
McCall was not OC
This proves my point, Siemian, Kafka, Persa and Thorson were all more talented than Baz IMO
Baz was one of the fiercest competitors to ware Purple.
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I don’t have the link handy but Fitz was asked in the UMass postgame presser why he didn’t play Hunter despite 3 other QBs getting snaps and he said it was because Hunter was “banged up” this past week.
Thanks. I read the press conference comments but skipped that one, I guess.
I think Fitz lied when he said that.
Northwestern listed nobody on the injury report on Friday and, as Lou wrote, that means nobody who was on the Monday depth chart was injured during the week. But, come Saturday at 4pm — poof!, he got hurt.
It doesn’t matter, practically speaking, but it would be much better off for HJ if Fitz were to say “Hunter’s not going to play”, or “Hunter, with our full support, has been spending lots of time in Indiana, and he’s not going to play this season”, or “Hunter’s a great talent and he’s had a tough go this year. He’s not going to play the rest of this season but we’re really excited for him to have a great offseason and compete this spring”, or “Hunter’s a unique talent and he’ll enter the spring as our starter, but he’s going to only compete in practice these final two weeks of the season.”
Saying nothing leads to questions, yes, here, but also every day when he sits in class and his classmates stare at him.
I think someone needs to let Fitz know that you can't lie or obfuscate (hopefully, Pat Ryan) without repercussion since there is no tactical advantage to do so when your team sucks. His ego has grown where he's a caricature of a normal person or coach. I like Fitz and the great success he's had but his recent dalliance with fake news is clouding my impression of him as person and coach.
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