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Guy Thomas

cdriftt24

Redshirt Freshman
Dec 29, 2012
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Everything I read about this kid is that he's so special and he kills in practice. He will be dominate..... if I'm Riley and company, and I have a guy like that and my rear end is on the line, I don't give a crap about his redshirt, I'm playing him. Anyone have any info on him? Is he really not ready to play?
 
Everything I read about this kid is that he's so special and he kills in practice. He will be dominate..... if I'm Riley and company, and I have a guy like that and my rear end is on the line, I don't give a crap about his redshirt, I'm playing him. Anyone have any info on him? Is he really not ready to play?

Do you really think they're worried about his redshirt? Off the top of my head I can think of 3 true freshman getting snaps this year (DeontreThomas, Tyjon Lindsey, Avery Roberts) Why would they treat G. Thomas any differently if they thought he was ready to play?
 
Everything I read about this kid is that he's so special and he kills in practice. He will be dominate..... if I'm Riley and company, and I have a guy like that and my rear end is on the line, I don't give a crap about his redshirt, I'm playing him. Anyone have any info on him? Is he really not ready to play?
Supposedly needs to add quite a bit of weight to hold up. He could probably play situationally but why burn a year for a few snaps when you've got guys that know the scheme better and with their size hold up better no matter what the offense throws at them on any given play.
 
He is an OLB. And that is an area of concern
Thomas wasn't here for spring ball was he? IF guys with a spring and fall in the system are still making mistakes that turn in to big plays I'm not sure throwing a true freshman out there would be a good thing.
 
Thomas wasn't here for spring ball was he? IF guys with a spring and fall in the system are still making mistakes that turn in to big plays I'm not sure throwing a true freshman out there would be a good thing.

If mistakes are going to be made, what difference does it make if its a freshman or a senior. I would rather the freshman be out there, he could potentially have 3 years to further develop.
 
Thomas wasn't here for spring ball was he? IF guys with a spring and fall in the system are still making mistakes that turn in to big plays I'm not sure throwing a true freshman out there would be a good thing.

See QB. Get QB. That could be Guy's role right now. NIU had a field day against us rushing undersized guys off the edge. I watch a lot of football on Saturday's and it amazes me that we have not found a solid edge rusher SANS Randy Gregory since what...Adam Carricker/Jay Moore?
 
Supposedly needs to add quite a bit of weight to hold up. He could probably play situationally but why burn a year for a few snaps when you've got guys that know the scheme better and with their size hold up better no matter what the offense throws at them on any given play.
I could be wrong but I thought he was already up to around 230lbs. From pics he looked pretty stout in fall camp. This whole redshirting thing is overrated. Based on our terrible start I say all hands on deck and get them out there contributing!
 
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If mistakes are going to be made, what difference does it make if its a freshman or a senior. I would rather the freshman be out there, he could potentially have 3 years to further develop.

MY biggest pet peeve of the staff to date. I would have all the young guys out there playing and roll with them. Get the fastest and most athletic kids on the field and live with it.
 
MY biggest pet peeve of the staff to date. I would have all the young guys out there playing and roll with them. Get the fastest and most athletic kids on the field and live with it.

I haven't done extensive roster review of who has played but I think we are pretty young or at least inexperienced across the board. Maybe this afternoon I can look at that.

The other side of the coin is expectations. There is a fine line between just playing young players and giving the impression that you have given up on the season. Riley isn't in a position to "fail with youth", he should have year one, but I believe Riley inherited job that wasn't exactly what he was told it was, but that is another topic entirely. With that said...

Since the scholarship numbers dropped to 85, and especially now with the onset of guaranteed 4 year scholarships, I have been an opponent of redshirting players. It was a valuable tool when you had 25 OL, half of who were walk ons. That isn't the case anymore. I try to break it down into groups and then do a risk/ reward sort of evaluation.

Group 1 is the stud recruits. These guys come to play and play immediately. Lamar Jackson, Bookie, Parsons, are examples. If they are as good as advertised, they won't be here 5 years anyway, so don't waste the time redshirting.

Group 2 is your average recruit. The average recruit is what he is. And there are more of them then any other recruit. Some develop some don't. The guys that develop will play and the guys that don't won't. The guys that don't will be replaced annually by other average recruits, where again some will work out and some wont. Again what is the reward for keeping a guy for 5 years when similarly talented players come into your program every year.

Group 3 are your reaches. You hope that you don't have many or any of these but the reality is you will. Again some will play but the majority won't why do you want a non contributor on your roster for 5 years instead of 4.

To me it is always a numbers game. Nebraska is a place where you should be able to recruit to. So getting 25 players a year, shouldn't be an issue. But when you redshirt large portions of classes, you don't bring in 25 per year, its more like 20. Over a 5 year period, without redshirting, you will bring in 125 players, where with redshirting that number is closer to 100. That is 25 more chances to get the stud, or the average recruit that will produce.

I do agree with your thoughts that the most athletic and talented players should be playing. I just don't believe we have a staff, especially offensively, that thinks that way. They seem to value experience more.

I know Jay Foreman or maybe it was Eric Warfield, said that he would rather play a lesser athletic player that knew where to be than an athletic player that didn't. So there is another side to it. Again, like you, I believe over time, the more athletic player will make more plays with pure athleticism than the lesser athlete makes by simply being in the right spot.
 
If they look any worse it's gonna be time to play young guys on both sides of the ball for the sake of showing recruits they can get on the field right away.

Penn State was a trash team with heavy scholarship limits and all they did was pull monster classes, now they're winning. Took their lumps for a couple years and now they're tallying Ws with bigtime recruits. Meanwhile, in Lincoln...
 
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If they look any worse it's gonna be time to play young guys on both sides of the ball for the sake of showing recruits they can get on the field right away.

Penn State was a trash team with heavy scholarship limits and all they did was pull monster classes, now they're winning. Took their lumps for a couple years and now they're tallying Ws with bigtime recruits. Meanwhile, in Lincoln...

Right on. I'd rather take my lumps for a couple of years than continue that past several years of meh football.
 
If they look any worse it's gonna be time to play young guys on both sides of the ball for the sake of showing recruits they can get on the field right away.

Penn State was a trash team with heavy scholarship limits and all they did was pull monster classes, now they're winning. Took their lumps for a couple years and now they're tallying Ws with bigtime recruits. Meanwhile, in Lincoln...


overblown. People still look at the original sanctions. In 2013 they gave back most of the scholarships for 2014 and they were back at full scholarship totals in 2015. OBrien suffered through most of the sanctions not Franklin. They didn't allow Penn st to replace, but they didn't make them cut players so in 2012 they still had almost 75 scholarship players, 2013 they had 65 and then back to 75 in 2014 and 85 in 2015. Bowls were reinstated before Franklin took over. They have done a nice job of getting back, but it wasn't as dire as it should have been or as dire as some make it out to be.
 
overblown. People still look at the original sanctions. In 2013 they gave back most of the scholarships for 2014 and they were back at full scholarship totals in 2015. OBrien suffered through most of the sanctions not Franklin. They didn't allow Penn st to replace, but they didn't make them cut players so in 2012 they still had almost 75 scholarship players, 2013 they had 65 and then back to 75 in 2014 and 85 in 2015. Bowls were reinstated before Franklin took over. They have done a nice job of getting back, but it wasn't as dire as it should have been or as dire as some make it out to be.
Well whatever the counts we can agree that:

1) They had fewer scholarships than other teams
2) The PR on the program was as bad as you can work against
3) Through it all, their recruits were way better than ours
4) They have a trophy and we don't
 
Well whatever the counts we can agree that:

1) They had fewer scholarships than other teams
2) The PR on the program was as bad as you can work against
3) Through it all, their recruits were way better than ours
4) They have a trophy and we don't


Nebraska is never going to out recruit Penn St or Ohio St athlete for athlete up and down the roster. Those schools will always have 1-85 better than our 1-85.. What Nebraska has to do is have a 1-35 or 1-40 that is equal or on par.

They have a trophy, that is correct.
 
As far as the PR aspect for PSU goes....

there's a large element of "I could shoot someone in the middle of 5th avenue, and my voters would still love me" going on there.

The could build a better than decent class with just kids in their own backyard. It only really takes a couple of sympathetic ears outside of that backyard (and really, PSU has loyalty region that stretches well into the northeast and down into the Beltway in Virginia) to be near the top of recruiting.
 
Boys, you're never gonna drag me off the belief that if you can get kids to go to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and live for 4+ years that Lincoln is not out of the question. That town is on the short list of notable shit holes.

Top-tier recruiting has been done at Nebraska before. It paved the way for 3 titles in 4 years, maybe should have been 4 in 5 depending on your thoughts on that Orange Bowl against FSU.

Is it as easy as in is in high population states? Probably not. Is it possible? It sure ought to be.

This idea of, "We'll never recruit with the big boys, we gotta 'tough farmer' our way to victory" needs to go and die somewhere. National Champions have elite classes before they win it all. Period.
 
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See QB. Get QB. That could be Guy's role right now. NIU had a field day against us rushing undersized guys off the edge. I watch a lot of football on Saturday's and it amazes me that we have not found a solid edge rusher SANS Randy Gregory since what...Adam Carricker/Jay Moore?
Except you know full well that isn't how Diaco's system runs. You put him out there on an end and say go get the QB and they'll figure that out immediately and account for him. MIght as well run the 4-3 then.
 
If mistakes are going to be made, what difference does it make if its a freshman or a senior. I would rather the freshman be out there, he could potentially have 3 years to further develop.
We've been making fewer mistakes as we go on D it appears. I don't know how many times the kid has great plays in practice versus mental mistakes that cause big plays so I don't second guess Diaco or Bray on who is playing. IF he were ready and they thought he could help they would probably play him don't you think? Diaco has not shown any hesitancy to throw true freshmen out there if they thought they were better than the older guys.
 
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Boys, you're never gonna drag me off the belief that if you can get kids to go to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and live for 4+ years that Lincoln is not out of the question. That town is on the short list of notable shit holes.

Top-tier recruiting has been done at Nebraska before. It paved the way for 3 titles in 4 years, maybe should have been 4 in 5 depending on your thoughts on that Orange Bowl against FSU.

Is it as easy as in is in high population states? Probably not. Is it possible? It sure ought to be.

This idea of, "We'll never recruit with the big boys, we gotta 'tough farmer' our way to victory" needs to go and die somewhere. National Champions have elite classes before they win it all. Period.

I think its a little of both.

Take a look at the Williams duo. Two of the best recruiters in the country and they are fighting for their lives getting top talent to campus and winning their fair share of battles.

And when we get folks on board with a commitment, they are having to do an inordinate amount of playing keep away (Kdub in particular) compared to if they were at a Coastal school or say an OSU/Mich/PSU.

So yes I think its possible position coach by position coach to go grab some of the best recruits in the country, but if it takes basically the top recruiter in the country at each position to get you in the conversation with those recruits, I don't find it highly realistic that NU is going to be a Top 5/10 recruiting school on an annual basis. At least not until we prime the pump with more winning on a big stage.

And that's before we have the conversation about whether or not our penchant for including a few hometown kids "for heart" weigh us down a little, even though they are worthy of the offer.
 
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Boys, you're never gonna drag me off the belief that if you can get kids to go to Tuscaloosa, Alabama and live for 4+ years that Lincoln is not out of the question. That town is on the short list of notable shit holes.

Top-tier recruiting has been done at Nebraska before. It paved the way for 3 titles in 4 years, maybe should have been 4 in 5 depending on your thoughts on that Orange Bowl against FSU.

Is it as easy as in is in high population states? Probably not. Is it possible? It sure ought to be.

This idea of, "We'll never recruit with the big boys, we gotta 'tough farmer' our way to victory" needs to go and die somewhere. National Champions have elite classes before they win it all. Period.


What you are failing to realize is that most of the kids they recruit come from the same type of "shit holes". Driving through East Texas, Lousiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, Tuscaloosa is just like every other town in the southeast.
 
What you are failing to realize is that most of the kids they recruit come from the same type of "shit holes". Driving through East Texas, Lousiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, Tuscaloosa is just like every other town in the southeast.
And that's fine, it reinforces my point. People act like nobody would ever want to come to Lincoln because it's Lincoln. It's not about the town.
 
And that's fine, it reinforces my point. People act like nobody would ever want to come to Lincoln because it's Lincoln. It's not about the town.

Its also a refutation though. Its not because of the town, either.
 
And that's fine, it reinforces my point. People act like nobody would ever want to come to Lincoln because it's Lincoln. It's not about the town.

I guess I don't get the point. If the states of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and South Dakota had the amount of talent that is in Mississippi, Alabama Louisiana and Georgia, most of those kids would go to Nebraska, Kansas, KState, Iowa, Iowa St and USD. Going to Lincoln wouldn't have a negative effect on them because it is just like the "larger towns" in their areas. Where going to Tuscaloosa would be a different freaking world.
 
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I haven't done extensive roster review of who has played but I think we are pretty young or at least inexperienced across the board. Maybe this afternoon I can look at that.

The other side of the coin is expectations. There is a fine line between just playing young players and giving the impression that you have given up on the season. Riley isn't in a position to "fail with youth", he should have year one, but I believe Riley inherited job that wasn't exactly what he was told it was, but that is another topic entirely. With that said...

Since the scholarship numbers dropped to 85, and especially now with the onset of guaranteed 4 year scholarships, I have been an opponent of redshirting players. It was a valuable tool when you had 25 OL, half of who were walk ons. That isn't the case anymore. I try to break it down into groups and then do a risk/ reward sort of evaluation.

Group 1 is the stud recruits. These guys come to play and play immediately. Lamar Jackson, Bookie, Parsons, are examples. If they are as good as advertised, they won't be here 5 years anyway, so don't waste the time redshirting.

Group 2 is your average recruit. The average recruit is what he is. And there are more of them then any other recruit. Some develop some don't. The guys that develop will play and the guys that don't won't. The guys that don't will be replaced annually by other average recruits, where again some will work out and some wont. Again what is the reward for keeping a guy for 5 years when similarly talented players come into your program every year.

Group 3 are your reaches. You hope that you don't have many or any of these but the reality is you will. Again some will play but the majority won't why do you want a non contributor on your roster for 5 years instead of 4.

To me it is always a numbers game. Nebraska is a place where you should be able to recruit to. So getting 25 players a year, shouldn't be an issue. But when you redshirt large portions of classes, you don't bring in 25 per year, its more like 20. Over a 5 year period, without redshirting, you will bring in 125 players, where with redshirting that number is closer to 100. That is 25 more chances to get the stud, or the average recruit that will produce.

I do agree with your thoughts that the most athletic and talented players should be playing. I just don't believe we have a staff, especially offensively, that thinks that way. They seem to value experience more.

I know Jay Foreman or maybe it was Eric Warfield, said that he would rather play a lesser athletic player that knew where to be than an athletic player that didn't. So there is another side to it. Again, like you, I believe over time, the more athletic player will make more plays with pure athleticism than the lesser athlete makes by simply being in the right spot.


Why not redshirt guys who aren't physically or mentally ready to play their freshman year. If after their redshirt junior year (4th year of being on scholarship) they aren't in line to get any playing time as a senior, cut them loose then. Explain it all up front and no one should have much of a gripe. That way future contributors would get the advantage of the redshirt year, and non contributors are still gone after 4.
 
Why not redshirt guys who aren't physically or mentally ready to play their freshman year. If after their redshirt junior year (4th year of being on scholarship) they aren't in line to get any playing time as a senior, cut them loose then. Explain it all up front and no one should have much of a gripe. That way future contributors would get the advantage of the redshirt year, and non contributors are still gone after 4.

too much hassle for me. Every freshman comes in and learns. Some play, some don't. Most players only play significant minutes for 3 years. Redshirting would be used for injuries not development. It's just my philosophy and one I would use as a coach.
 
To me it is simple. This season is lost. We will be doing well just to be 6-6. We are now playing for the future. Get young players experience, and do not burn redshirts no matter the need.
 
To me it is simple. This season is lost. We will be doing well just to be 6-6. We are now playing for the future. Get young players experience, and do not burn redshirts no matter the need.

The season is far from lost. We could still win the west, the B1G, the championship!
 
too much hassle for me. Every freshman comes in and learns. Some play, some don't. Most players only play significant minutes for 3 years. Redshirting would be used for injuries not development. It's just my philosophy and one I would use as a coach.

Fair enough. I don't see how it would be much more of a hassle than not redshirting, and you'd get the benefit of the extra year for late bloomers. O-lineman especially could use the extra year of physical development in my mind.
 
The season is far from lost. We could still win the west, the B1G, the championship!
We could, true! But after losing to a 4-8 team from a season ago and their new coach, and then losing at home to a MAC team that already lost to BC, a team that will probably be the worst in the ACC, I am reasonably skeptical.
 
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