Departures?
- Thread starter Brandon
- Start date
You've got to be incredibly naive to think Burton's loss is the only one that hurts. Depth is a major concern in all sports. Look at the freaking basketball team right now. The ISU football team doesn't have a lot of depth. Losing 20 players hurts. It's not like next years team is going to be special, but when you lose this many guys it absolutely hurts. Now, maybe it won't make a difference. Maybe they'd only win 3 games with these guys on the roster, but it's one of those things that is hard to measure. Trying to bend it into a positive thing is pretty ridiculous though. The only argument for that is that some younger guys will get experience and that will help down the road. It won't help next year though and for that reason it hurts.
Losing 20 players....how many of those actually played much. We are adding 30 players. I thought Allen Lazard helped a lot his Freshman year when he played. He was damn good. Jauan Wesley was damn good as a true Freshman too. So far I haven't seen any loss of players that will severely impact our team other than Burton.
Agree, people getting bent out of shape about losing 20 players are ignoring the 35 plus players being added. The roster is getting better, but not where it needs to be yet.
The key is to have players with versatility to play either side of the field or multiple positions on the line. You don't need to have an entire 2 deep ready to play in order to be competitive. Walden used to say that he needed 30 to 35 guys ready to take meaningful snaps. Unfortunately he probably only had about 20. With more multiple formations today, the target number is probably 35 to 40 ready to go. Special team roles get filled with walk-ons and underclass men.
Yes, I'm sure these freshman are all Allen Lazard types ready to contribute immediately at the B12 level. I never thought of that. Thanks for the insight.
Not doubting you, but I'm not going to update my list until I see his name gone from the website roster. Luke Knott is still on it.
I didn't realize how much D-line we're losing after this year, that's going to be hard to replace with all the young guys we have. I hope they're going to be ready to go in 2017.
They don't need to be Allen Lazard types for us to improve. The my need to be at or above the level of players leaving. So far, very few of the players leaving would be outlandish expectations for a first year player.
From what I have seen of the departures so far, only one departee , was making a significant contribution to our team at the B12 level, and that was Burton, whose career is being ended by injury issues.
Ummm Montgomery started 6 games and was 3rd on the team in receiving yards. Sure that was probably a let down for most people, but to say a guy who started half of the games last year didn't really contribute is blind.Plus he's 6'6 213. Every defense has to account for a body like that out wide.
JT played in all 12 games and led the team in rushing TD's.
Man do you have a weird definition of contributing?
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I agree with Stormin. Those numbers are hard to replace? Am I missing something here?
Talking about big bodies....we do have a guy that red-shirted last year in Hakeem Butler (6'6" 200) who will be better than Montgomery anyways.
Put me on record as stating....David Montgomery will have twice as many yards as Josh Thomas did...TD's might be close.
D'Vario's production and playing time was greatly diminished by the end of the year. He was not playing much at all. I am enthused about Hakeem Butler, a RS Freshman. And we have quite a bit of receiver depth.
As far as Thomas is concerned, I posted an article by Alex from Scout which explains why the loss of true Freshman Thomas is not that devastating. We have had 2 consecutive true Freshmen start in the last 2 years as our short yardage back. And Montgomery has more potential than either. Montgomery is as big or bigger than Josh Thomas and has more speed and escapability. Have you seen Montgomery's highlight reel?
I've seen Butler in person a few times. He looks to be all of 6'6" with long arms. I can't wait to see him play. If someone dared to cover him with a short CB, I would just lob it to him all day.
This. I saw him at last years fan fest and he physically looked like a big time reciever.
We have gone 3-9, 2-10, and 3-9 the last three years. Losing guys and bringing in newer players might not be such a bad thing....
Hopefully this strategy of letting a receiver with a huge size advantage gets utilized with this staff. I remember Lanning coming in and throwing that first TD pass to Lazard, who was single covered, only to have CPR say it was a ball he shouldn't have thrown.
