The NCAA has passed a new redshirt rule, allowing players to play up to four games in a season without losing their redshirt status. This change will go into effect for the upcoming season. A rule like this will help teams who have inexperienced rosters. It is particularly advantageous for a team like the Gophers. When looking at Minnesota’s roster, 72% of the team will be sophomores or younger this year. In addition, when factoring in transfers, 77% have been with the program for two years or less. One of the best ways to develop young talent is by giving the players live reps in game action. In the past, this hasn’t been possible without losing redshirts.
Practice can only do so much when you’re trying to evaluate player performance and improve their fundamentals. The coaches can be more strategic about how they develop talent. It also eliminates the need for a player who is injured early in the season to apply for a medical hardship waiver. Instead, they would fall under this new designation.
Not only that, but it limits the need for starters to play through nagging injuries. Other options are now available without losing a redshirt. Last year, there were so many players on the Minnesota roster playing through injuries. Now, they could potentially take a week off or scale back their snaps for a week. As the injuries pile up late in the season, coaches can patch the holes and give young players valuable experience for the future. By the time bowl season rolls around, the small dings start to pile up. This new rule will help team’s stay more competitive down the stretch.
This also can be used as a recruiting tool. Coaches who promise a freshman playing time can reward them with snaps throughout the year. This will serve them well in the future and give the player a taste of areas they must improve before becoming a permanent starter. This type of ruling will force coaches to be more strategic, however, they now can set a path for developing each player.
In addition, if a player is developing beyond expectations as the season progresses, they could play the final three games and the bowl game to give the team a lift. It could add an interesting wrinkle to how teams strategize down the stretch. Coaches could add a wrinkle late in the season for a certain playmaker and catch an opponent off guard. It would give those players a taste of live action and leaves the coaches with the option to cut them off before the redshirt threshold or use their eligibility.
With the Gophers, perhaps they can take a few snaps away from veteran players on the roster. They don’t have a high volume of them, so limiting snaps throughout the year could help the team stay healthy and more competitive down the stretch. This would only be possible for a small fraction of time, but could be a scenario if Minnesota holds a large lead in a game.
For example, think about how much adversity Minnesota faced in the secondary last year. They had players who could contribute, but P.J. Fleck was trying to preserve the redshirts of players. Cornerback Justus Harris lost his redshirt in the secondary because the team simply had no other options. The offensive line had skilled talent like Blaise Andries, but the redshirt again came into play. If he could have played just a couple games, it would have helped the team and his development. The redshirt situation impacted so many things the Gophers did with the roster last year. Minnesota’s staff mentally planned to create future depth at certain position groups. They didn’t want to jeopardize the future to be more competitive last year.
P.J. Fleck was projecting the future construction of his roster through 2019 and 2020. Future planning was important and will continue to be. However, this new rule provides a little flexibility in terms of being competitive as the season progresses. It could help fill some major holes if the coaches and recruiting staff plan correctly.
If the Gophers want to play true freshman quarterback Zack Annexstad for a few games early in the season, they now could. Perhaps the team would suddenly start having success with him at the helm. The coaches could then determine whether they wanted to move forward with him leading the team. If not, they could stop a rotation between Tanner Morgan/Annexstad and hand Morgan the keys. In addition, it’s also a perk if Morgan wins the job and is injured late in the season. Annexstad could finish out the games depending upon how many are left. Overall, it provides some flexibility because a coach doesn’t lose a player’s redshirt if he takes just one snap.
A few other areas where this could be beneficial is at tight end and on the defensive line. Those are two areas that have the potential to be thin. The Gophers could explore using defensive tackle Elijah Teague and tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford to get a sense of where they are at as players. If they still need work, they could get a taste of in-game action and redshirt. If they are making a big impact, then you can forget about the redshirt and allow them to keep playing. This gives the coaches a game or two to see how a player responds to live action. This is going to be a way to develop players, evaluate them better and decide whether you want to play them immediately. It also helps the player adjust to the next level, while finding ways to improve outside of doing the same things in practice every day. Coaches could also save as many of these redshirt games as possible and insert those players later in the season to build a foundation heading into the next season. This could be even advantageous if your team’s postseason hopes are dwindling and you want to further accelerate the roster’s overall experience level.
In addition, at a position with depth like linebacker, the team could play a few young guys in non-conference games to take away snaps from veterans. If the team has a big lead, the upper classmen can rest, while the young players gain valuable experience. However, this is only an option within areas where there is enough depth to handle burning redshirt games.
For example, playing the freshman early within a thin position group could be costly when injuries strike later in the season. The coaches will want to save those four available games when they’re within thin position groups. On the current roster, linebacker is really the only area where this could be the case. Nonetheless, when the coaching staff builds the roster to the level they’d like, the small amount of development early in the season could take the future competitive depth to another level. The key is first building enough depth and upper class experience to ensure you won’t potentially need those young freshmen down the stretch.
Overall, this decision will make an impact on how coaches structure rosters and plan for the future. The flexibility helps teams be more competitive late in the season, especially if injuries strike. It also values the health of players who are fighting through injuries because they know there are no other alternatives.
Finally, teams with inexperienced rosters (ie: Gophers) can give players valuable snaps early in their careers to aid overall depth construction and player development. If the team needs an injection at a certain spot, they can roll the dice by inserting the player and determining whether they want to lose the redshirt.
In the end, it will be interesting to see how different coaching staff’s, including the Gophers, navigate this new rule change to develop talent.