CHALLENGE MET: Lanning running with No. 1s at LB

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NetflixAndClone

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Sep 6, 2015
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I listened to the 2 shades of gray and I agree with you that I see this more as a positive than a negative. Lanning is a freak athlete and we need him to be on the field any way possible. I'm glad they found him a spot on the Linebacking corp since we always seemed to be lacking there. We either have too slow of Linebackers that can't keep up with receivers but hit hard or too small of linebackers that can keep up but can't bring guys down. I think Lanning can do both.
 

jbindm

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Dec 2, 2010
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I listened to the 2 shades of gray and I agree with you that I see this more as a positive than a negative. Lanning is a freak athlete and we need him to be on the field any way possible. I'm glad they found him a spot on the Linebacking corp since we always seemed to be lacking there. We either have too slow of Linebackers that can't keep up with receivers but hit hard or too small of linebackers that can keep up but can't bring guys down. I think Lanning can do both.

Yeah, he'll be fine. I'm just glad the staff is doing what it has to do to put their best players on the field one way or another. Speaks well to their flexibility and creativity.
 
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The Rob Gray

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I listened to the 2 shades of gray and I agree with you that I see this more as a positive than a negative. Lanning is a freak athlete and we need him to be on the field any way possible. I'm glad they found him a spot on the Linebacking corp since we always seemed to be lacking there. We either have too slow of Linebackers that can't keep up with receivers but hit hard or too small of linebackers that can keep up but can't bring guys down. I think Lanning can do both.
Thanks for listening to "Two Shades of Gray." Enjoy doing those with Adam. Lanning's simply a winner — and he's seen too little of it, obviously, at ISU. If he can be solid at MLB, would be huge for this season.
 
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CyValley

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I admit it, like so many others here, I really don't know much about what I talk about. Still, doesn't stop me from having an opinion on this subject or that subject.

For decades, college football was a limited substitution game, and players had to be adept on offense and defense. It's a game, it's football, and it's played by football players.

Joel Lanning is a football player, and as much as many of us want to declaim his ability to move to defense, maybe it's not a big deal. Let's consider Joel a sort of test bed, at the end of the season we can make judgments about how well he adapted to linebacker, and how quickly he made that adjustment if, in fact, he did it successfully.

But, here's an indication that maybe Joel is a helluva football player: Last fall, we heard, rookie LB Tymar Sutton would have played if not for a hand injury. And yet, it's Joel, after his first few spring practices, who is running ahead of Tymar at MLB.

Unless a coach tells us differently, I'm going to assume that his four years working within a P5 program (countless hours spent repping, in film study, and in the weight room), combined with his athleticism and personal toughness, is the reason he rocketed to the top of the depth chart.

And if he's there today, at the top, are you willing to bet he won't be there, at the top, when UNI comes to town?
 
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madguy30

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Nov 15, 2011
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Typically it would be an odd move with a senior, but CMC is following a simple formula that works at pretty much any successful college program and that is to get your best athletes in position to make plays.

There was evidence of that last year when the ISU offense looked like they knew what they were doing at times: the best athletes were given the ball out in space.

If this kind of thing is still happening in 3-4 years and there's been no bowl game or something, then things didn't go as planned but right now, keep with the excitement.
 
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Doc

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Aug 6, 2006
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I admit it, like so many others here, I really don't know much about what I talk about. Still, doesn't stop me from having an opinion on this subject or that subject.

For decades, college football was a limited substitution game, and players had to be adept on offense and defense. It's a game, it's football, and it's played by football players.

Joel Lanning is a football player, and as much as many of us want to declaim his ability to move to defense, maybe it's not a big deal. Let's consider Joel a sort of test bed, at the end of the season we can make judgments about how well he adapted to linebacker, and how quickly he made that adjustment if, in fact, he did it successfully.

But, here's an indication that maybe Joel is a helluva football player: Last fall, we heard, rookie LB Tymar Sutton would have played if not for a hand injury. And yet, it's Joel, after his first few spring practices, who is running ahead of Tymar at MLB.

Unless a coach tells us differently, I'm going to assume that his four years working within a P5 program (countless hours spent repping, in film study, and in the weight room), combined with his athleticism and personal toughness, is the reason he rocketed to the top of the depth chart.

And if he's there today, at the top, are you willing to bet he won't be there, at the top, when UNI comes to town?

My concern is that he just won't be able to play fast in such a short amount of time. Most players look faster and faster over time because they make quicker and better decisions due to experience and practice. I'm super intrigued by the move, though.
 

cyclones500

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Jan 29, 2010
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I haven't followed this too closely to this point, but I find the Lanning-to-LB intriguing in concept. I like keeping experienced contributors involved even if it involves position-switches --- It seems uncommon for a QB to go to LB, let alone D, but I'm no expert on that.

Also hoping this speaks to confidence Campbell has in the QB rotation without JL as a primary backup option.