Schnoodler
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I always like to see the story within the story. I like to try and find the info that is behind the story being told and to see if it might also say something interesting. Or in this case shed light on an often talked about subject. The expectations of Freshmen.
One of the arguments against Brewster is that if his recruits were as good as advertised then they would have found the field and dominated regardless of experience. Through this list, the Rivals all freshmen list we are given the opportunity to truly see what contributions the best of the freshmen are making. The first thing to note is just how many of them are red-shirt freshmen. The first argument is that if they were any good we wouldn't need to red shirt them, they'd be good enough. What does this list tell us? There are 24 freshmen on this list. Of those 14 are red shirt freshmen. More than half were red shirted. That tells me that either red shirting a freshmen is highly effective, or that most coaches find that investing in your best talent pays dividends.
The other thing to ask yourself, is if these are the best of the best, how many of these would have been able to push our starters out of the way. Would they have had the playing time to have the seasons they had on our team. Lastly for our freshmen that did get an opportunity to play, we can look and see how they might compare.
Let's look closey at this list.
QB, Forcier. No doubt he did well as a freshmen. And overall about eighth depending on what stats you want to use. pretty good. We don't have to bother comparing to Weber or Gray.
RB, Robinson. Robinson played for Iowa, forced into action by the injuries to the upperclassmen starters. he did very well for himself. He finished fourth in total yards and carries, clearly deserving of this award. However the closer look you could say this award is just as much about opportunity as ability. Still well deserved. The truer stat to use would be YPC. For this he finished 11th, one spot ahead of our own Kevin Whaley (on presumably a terrible run blocking team!).
RB, Willis. The other recipient probably the better stats line of the RB's ended with a YPC of 4.9 which gives him a 9th place finish.
WR, Demetrius Fields. Demetrius considered the among the best of the best of freshmen WR talent this year ended the year with 23 receptions for 199 yards for a 8.7 YPC and one touchdown catch. That is 32nd in receptions, and 43rd in yards in the Big Ten.
WR, Roy Roundtree, Roy probably with the better stat line of the freshmen recievers ended the year with 32 receptions (22nd), and 434 yard (23rd), with 13.6 YPC and three touchdowns.
TE Dion Sims, Dion finished the year with 11 catches for 133 yrds and 12.1 YPC.
Defense
SS Jordan Kovacs, Michigan 75 tackles(218th), 0 sacks, 1 INT, 0 TD's
LB Chris Borland, Wisconsin 52 tackles(581st), 4 sacks, 1 INT, 0 TD's
DT Kawann Short, Purdue 47 tackles(679th), 0 sacks, 2 INT, 0 TD's
LB Mike Taylor, Wisconsin 46 tackles(704th), 1 sack, 1 INT, 0 TD's
LB Keanon Cooper, Minnesota 36 tackles(1022nd), 1 sack, 0 INT, 0 TD's
LB Craig Roh, Michigan 35 tackels(1067th), 2 sacks, 1 INT, 0 TD's
DT Jerel Worthy, Michigan St 34 tackels(2000th), 4 sacks, 0 INT, 0 TD
FS Walter Aitkens, Illinois 32 tackles(1189th), 0 sacks, 0 INT, 0 TD's
CB Terry Hawthorne, Illinois 29 tackles(1268th), 0 sacks, 1 INT, 1 TD
CB Stephen Morris, Penn St 24 tackles(1526th), 0 sacks, 1 INT, 0 TD
DE Quentin Williams, Northwestern 14 tackles(2076th), 0 sacks, 1 INT, 0 TD
Comparisons of note for perspective.
LB Lee Cambell 112 tackles, .5 sacks, 1 INT
FS Kim Royston 71 tackles, 1 sack, 1 INT
CB Marcus Sherels 50 tackles, 0 sack, 2 INT
DE Anthony Jacobs 19 tackles, 2 sacks, 0 INT
CB Michael Carter 11 tackles, 1 sack, 1 INT
TE Nick Tow-Arnett 35 receptions, 458 yds, 13.1 YPC, 2 TD's
WR Troy Stoudemire 23 receptions, 274 yds, 11.9 YPC, 2 TD's
WR Brandon Green 21 receptions, 293 yds, 14.0 TPC, 1 TD
RB Kevin Whaley 77 Carries, 351 yds, 4,2 YPC, 2 TD's
The one thing that I see is that if these are the best of the best freshmen, very few of them could have pushed our starters out of the way to get the playing time required to garner the stats they did. The three defensive players that stand out to me are Kovacs, Worthy, and Short. It's hard for me to believe Worthy or Short, even as good as they are, would have pushed our two seniors out of the way. Kovac?? He might have taken the starting spot.
Probably Roundtree for sure would have found his way to the field, I really don't know about the offensive linemen.
All these players will probably likely dominate by the time they're seniors. Yet I don't think they could have wrestled the starting spots away from our starters even though they are more likely the more talented athlete. That is the power of experience.
This also shows me the power of opportunity. Can you imagine Coopers stats if he had been a starter all year playing in place of Lawrence? I guess we'll get to see that next year.
One of the arguments against Brewster is that if his recruits were as good as advertised then they would have found the field and dominated regardless of experience. Through this list, the Rivals all freshmen list we are given the opportunity to truly see what contributions the best of the freshmen are making. The first thing to note is just how many of them are red-shirt freshmen. The first argument is that if they were any good we wouldn't need to red shirt them, they'd be good enough. What does this list tell us? There are 24 freshmen on this list. Of those 14 are red shirt freshmen. More than half were red shirted. That tells me that either red shirting a freshmen is highly effective, or that most coaches find that investing in your best talent pays dividends.
The other thing to ask yourself, is if these are the best of the best, how many of these would have been able to push our starters out of the way. Would they have had the playing time to have the seasons they had on our team. Lastly for our freshmen that did get an opportunity to play, we can look and see how they might compare.
Let's look closey at this list.
QB, Forcier. No doubt he did well as a freshmen. And overall about eighth depending on what stats you want to use. pretty good. We don't have to bother comparing to Weber or Gray.
RB, Robinson. Robinson played for Iowa, forced into action by the injuries to the upperclassmen starters. he did very well for himself. He finished fourth in total yards and carries, clearly deserving of this award. However the closer look you could say this award is just as much about opportunity as ability. Still well deserved. The truer stat to use would be YPC. For this he finished 11th, one spot ahead of our own Kevin Whaley (on presumably a terrible run blocking team!).
RB, Willis. The other recipient probably the better stats line of the RB's ended with a YPC of 4.9 which gives him a 9th place finish.
WR, Demetrius Fields. Demetrius considered the among the best of the best of freshmen WR talent this year ended the year with 23 receptions for 199 yards for a 8.7 YPC and one touchdown catch. That is 32nd in receptions, and 43rd in yards in the Big Ten.
WR, Roy Roundtree, Roy probably with the better stat line of the freshmen recievers ended the year with 32 receptions (22nd), and 434 yard (23rd), with 13.6 YPC and three touchdowns.
TE Dion Sims, Dion finished the year with 11 catches for 133 yrds and 12.1 YPC.
Defense
SS Jordan Kovacs, Michigan 75 tackles(218th), 0 sacks, 1 INT, 0 TD's
LB Chris Borland, Wisconsin 52 tackles(581st), 4 sacks, 1 INT, 0 TD's
DT Kawann Short, Purdue 47 tackles(679th), 0 sacks, 2 INT, 0 TD's
LB Mike Taylor, Wisconsin 46 tackles(704th), 1 sack, 1 INT, 0 TD's
LB Keanon Cooper, Minnesota 36 tackles(1022nd), 1 sack, 0 INT, 0 TD's
LB Craig Roh, Michigan 35 tackels(1067th), 2 sacks, 1 INT, 0 TD's
DT Jerel Worthy, Michigan St 34 tackels(2000th), 4 sacks, 0 INT, 0 TD
FS Walter Aitkens, Illinois 32 tackles(1189th), 0 sacks, 0 INT, 0 TD's
CB Terry Hawthorne, Illinois 29 tackles(1268th), 0 sacks, 1 INT, 1 TD
CB Stephen Morris, Penn St 24 tackles(1526th), 0 sacks, 1 INT, 0 TD
DE Quentin Williams, Northwestern 14 tackles(2076th), 0 sacks, 1 INT, 0 TD
Comparisons of note for perspective.
LB Lee Cambell 112 tackles, .5 sacks, 1 INT
FS Kim Royston 71 tackles, 1 sack, 1 INT
CB Marcus Sherels 50 tackles, 0 sack, 2 INT
DE Anthony Jacobs 19 tackles, 2 sacks, 0 INT
CB Michael Carter 11 tackles, 1 sack, 1 INT
TE Nick Tow-Arnett 35 receptions, 458 yds, 13.1 YPC, 2 TD's
WR Troy Stoudemire 23 receptions, 274 yds, 11.9 YPC, 2 TD's
WR Brandon Green 21 receptions, 293 yds, 14.0 TPC, 1 TD
RB Kevin Whaley 77 Carries, 351 yds, 4,2 YPC, 2 TD's
The one thing that I see is that if these are the best of the best freshmen, very few of them could have pushed our starters out of the way to get the playing time required to garner the stats they did. The three defensive players that stand out to me are Kovacs, Worthy, and Short. It's hard for me to believe Worthy or Short, even as good as they are, would have pushed our two seniors out of the way. Kovac?? He might have taken the starting spot.
Probably Roundtree for sure would have found his way to the field, I really don't know about the offensive linemen.
All these players will probably likely dominate by the time they're seniors. Yet I don't think they could have wrestled the starting spots away from our starters even though they are more likely the more talented athlete. That is the power of experience.
This also shows me the power of opportunity. Can you imagine Coopers stats if he had been a starter all year playing in place of Lawrence? I guess we'll get to see that next year.