If we are thinking of the same guys, I would say yes. These are all guys that have played or that came in as strong recruits but have played little because they've been derailed by injuries. I think the potential of them coming back and contributing meaningfully next year in some capacity is greater than any recruit we could land at this stage of the process. Keep in mind I believe we have four scholarships to give before we even consider not inviting these guys back. We would need to have 5+ strong recruits in the pipeline to warrant not asking these guys back. I don't see that many at this stage. I am not sure we even have 4 lined up now that Aaron Young decided to be the third RB commitment in MSU's class rather than be the only RB commitment in NU's class.
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If we are thinking of the same guys, I would say yes. These are all guys that have played or that came in as strong recruits but have played little because they've been derailed by injuries. I think the potential of them coming back and contributing meaningfully next year in some capacity is greater than any recruit we could land at this stage of the process. Keep in mind I believe we have four scholarships to give before we even consider not inviting these guys back. We would need to have 5+ strong recruits in the pipeline to warrant not asking these guys back. I don't see that many at this stage. I am not sure we even have 4 lined up now that Aaron Young decided to be the third RB commitment in MSU's class rather than be the only RB commitment in NU's class.
Wiltfong from Dennys is the worst with this. He put in a crystal ball for NU on Friday, then flipped it to MSU on Sunday when he got inside info on the commit. His “record” on crystal balls is not to be believed.
Fair point and at least two of the three have unfortunately been beset with bad luck on the injury front. I don’t mean any disrespect to the young men, but it’s a tough road getting fired up to put your beat up body through another off season to be an insurance policy. OTOH we have had some guys come completely out of nowhere to be major contributors. A lot of factors to consider.
Also, the dual signing period seems to have shed a new approach from the staff of going after guys that have verballed to another school. Don’t sign on the first date and you effectively aren’t committed. This may increase the late activity. We have also done pretty well recently in grabbing these late commitments. XWash, Hartage, McGee and Stovall (hasn’t seen action but in the two deep) are recent late additions. I excluded Nagel as his situation was unique. I think we can land some guys late even with quite a few scholarships left. The question to me is how many?
I agree with the one for certain - also think the more obvious DB is likely gone as well. Would like the see the WR back, with an injury-free off season to see what he can do. Hiller not on the field yet (shares a number with Bowser)
Why are we talking in code?
I would be surprised if Reese is back for a fifth year, as he hasn't contributed much on Saturdays besides his famous hip thrust video. Fessler has the physical tools to help, but has yet to carve out a clear role in the offense. Mayo seems to have been beaten out by Ruiz and Campbell for backup CB reps.
As an aside... holy smokes the true senior/redshirt junior class (class of 2015) is thin. Didn't quite realize the number of guys no longer on the roster until looking just now: Lloyd Yates, Adam Lemke-Bell, Andrew Otterman, Tommy Vitale, Simba Short, and Jacob Murray all either retired or left. That's 6 guys out of a 20-man class, plus potential departures noted above. Eesh.
Have no idea - everyone else was
Those are the three I was looking at as well. Not sure who the other DB Corbi mentioned is (if Campbell, he likely has two more years).
Have no idea - everyone else was
Those are the three I was looking at as well. Not sure who the other DB Corbi mentioned is (if Campbell, he likely has two more years).
Campbell played as a true freshman, then redshirted last year after a training camp injury. This is therefore his second season of eligibility and he has two more remaining.
Got it.
Only said likely in that if he doesn't see the field next year, he may also be gone.
Since you have mentioned specific names, who is the 4th 5th year guy you don’t believe will come back? You mentioned up to 4 in your original post. The three you mentioned are the three I was thinking of. I’d like to see Fessler and Mayo (assuming they want to) come back unless we have some good recruits that we identify late in the recruiting cycle.
GCG said three - the same mentioned prior.
You mentioned four - "As far as 5th year guys not coming back, there is one clear cut candidate in my opinion. There are 3 more candidates (1 WR and 2 DBs) that I can think of but they are experienced guys who could easily see the field next year if injuries happen in front of them."
I am curious to hear whom you think is the fourth?
My mistake. I thought he said 4 at the beginning of this thread. There aren’t many more candidates given how thinned out that class has become.
Wouldn't be 100% shocked if Fox looks elsewhere. In fact, I think he's already been removed from the roster:
https://nusports.com/roster.aspx?path=football
Well, that’s news if accurate. That would put another linebacker on my priority list for this class. I hope Wiltfong’s latest prediction about Nick Jackson was as accurate as his fleeting crystal ball prediction for Aaron Young to NU.
From the outside, this is a surprise. I guess I figured he must be hurt, or he'd be starting over Bergin. Something else must have been going on.
Before anybody comes up with a nefarious explaination, Jango’s dad did mention that Jango ran into Fox at the surgeon’s office. It very well could be that he has suffered a career ending injury.
Even so, coaches always talk about getting their "Best 11" on the field. With all do respect to Bergin, I would have thought a healthy Fox, even slightly out of position, would have been part of the "best 11". And now he's mysteriously gone.
Yeah, Jackson was the recruit that I really wanted. Think he will be very good. It doesn’t look good for NU though as I suspect he would have committed by now if he was going to. A nice run of 3 straight victories would really help finish this class.
We have numbers at LB (Gallagher, Jansey, Mann, Rivers, Jones, Anyanwu, Gallagher, and McIntyre in the last three classes alone, plus I think McDonald could grow into the position if/as needed), just haven't seen too much of them. Remember also that Gallagher and Fisher each have two years left after 2018, so Mike and Will seem locked down absent injuries.
Watching Bryce Gallagher's tape also makes me feel better. Kid is a legitimate stud:
In my opinion, he would have been much more than "slightly" out of position playing Sam.
Nefarious? I will need to look that one up as that one doesn’t roll off my tongue to easily. It very well could be anything, just saying the rumor mill has been in full force and certainly wasn’t going to post he was off the team when I wasn’t able to substantiate it. Looks like now he has been removed from the roster. Larkin is still on the roster.
Does anyone know if NU might take on a transfer/or grad transfer at RB?? Has this ever happened. QB Kustok in my opinion was the best transfer for football- hopefully HJohnson will be even better- does anyone have any inside info on this? I can't recall ever taking a transfer rb- maybe this would help our stable of backs??
Byron Sanders turned out pretty well.
Would guess they're at least in the market this offseason, but it's not terribly often that an impact RB is available via transfer.
That’s why I am hesitant to jump to conclusions based on a roster Nusports.com. That thing has been wrong before.
just need the powers that be, who always are the first to find the diamonds in the rough, to find another one. They can't cover the entire country but there are hundreds of thousands of high school players out there, many with the same ability as those who are pursued by the "elites" who also want a college education. And 1 and 2 stars who blossom in their years here. The recruiting period is not over yet. Perhaps[s we can find a "Nagel" running back at the last minute??
I'm sure staff would grab a transfer RB with a fit like Johnson's but that's like lightning striking a second time after we got him.
Still decent RB recruits out there, but I guess it depends on how much of an immediate impact they can have...
Still decent RB recruits out there, but I guess it depends on how much of an immediate impact they can have...
This is a good point. Perhaps a grad transfer could pop up to act as a short term gap filler on our RB depth chart.
We still have quite a bit of time before the initial signing day...even moreso until February. I'm confident a talented back will shake loose at some point as the coaching carousel gets going...this new recruiting process will take some patience as we target better players.
Bookmark alert! https://gradtransfertracker.com/potential-transfers-2019/
Any chance Jalen knows Taj Griffin from his time at Oregon, @steelerchic ? Because... yes please:
Fox is done. It wouldn't be career ending. But Fox will either retire or graduate transfer. He elected to fix his shoulder that he has been playing with because he wasn't playing
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Fox can play Sam quite well as could Jango. Fox elected to get shoulder surgery because he wasn't seeing the field. He could have played on it like he did last season but elected to have the option of transferring healthy. Fox is a very good linebacker.
Sorry to hear that. I thought Fox was going to be a very important contributor year.
Fox was playing on special teams (kickoff coverage) earlier in the season, and he made some solid downfield tackles. Surprised he didn't see any playing time at LB, especially when Hall went down in the Michigan game. Best of luck to him in the future.
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