Watts and Blades going JUCO...
- Thread starter HBK4life
- Start date
Class attrition happens, which is one of the reasons you oversign, and why the B1G rule is +3. We didn't do that in the '17 class, which I don't think was intentional. Regardless, we are in the situation we are in.
What you don't count on is losing one of your top two, class headliners (Blades). Not only that, but we were in a situation in the following class were we would graduate 3 DBs. So, yes, we are in a tight spot.
But if you're looking at it from the glass-half-full aspect, there is something encouraging (at least to me). Riley and Co. saw the crunch coming. That's why Donte Williams was brought to Lincoln. Heck, if not for him, we'd only be talking about Watts anyway, because Blades was ALL Donte.
Things are gonna be tight on the defensive back-end for a couple years. Have faith, Diaco will figure it out. That's what NU is paying him to do. After a couple years with Donte pulling in guys, we will be absolutely stacked in the secondary.
What you don't count on is losing one of your top two, class headliners (Blades). Not only that, but we were in a situation in the following class were we would graduate 3 DBs. So, yes, we are in a tight spot.
But if you're looking at it from the glass-half-full aspect, there is something encouraging (at least to me). Riley and Co. saw the crunch coming. That's why Donte Williams was brought to Lincoln. Heck, if not for him, we'd only be talking about Watts anyway, because Blades was ALL Donte.
Things are gonna be tight on the defensive back-end for a couple years. Have faith, Diaco will figure it out. That's what NU is paying him to do. After a couple years with Donte pulling in guys, we will be absolutely stacked in the secondary.
Aaron Williams - Jr
Antonio Reed - Jr
Lamar Jackson - So
Eric Lee - So
Jojo Domann - So - may redshirt
Marquel Dismuke - Fr
Tony Butler - Fr
DiCaprio Bootle - Fr
Avery Anderson - So
All return for the 2018 season, that doesn't include any 2018 signees
I am not sure I would call that tight. the injuries to Domann and Jones will allow for a couple of dudes, that may have been held back from a numbers standpoint, into a position where they have to step in. As good as Blades is, other guys on the roster came in with similar star rankings and potential.
Antonio Reed - Jr
Lamar Jackson - So
Eric Lee - So
Jojo Domann - So - may redshirt
Marquel Dismuke - Fr
Tony Butler - Fr
DiCaprio Bootle - Fr
Avery Anderson - So
All return for the 2018 season, that doesn't include any 2018 signees
I am not sure I would call that tight. the injuries to Domann and Jones will allow for a couple of dudes, that may have been held back from a numbers standpoint, into a position where they have to step in. As good as Blades is, other guys on the roster came in with similar star rankings and potential.
yes - that was 2012. We won 9 games, were 7-1 in the conference and played in the conference championship game (got destroyed). Looking forward, expecting, a very good season this year.
what do you mean...wasnt intentional? Why were we not willing to fill out the class according to B1G standards?
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You have 8 players to start the season. Dime package takes 6. How would you not call that tight?
Considering that list of guys has to cover 5 positions (if you include nickel), and includes walk-ons... I consider that tight. Our OL depth looked better than that for the same amount of positions headed into the '16 season and look where we ended up.
As I said, I did not count the 2018 incoming class. At this point, that number is 3. That puts you at 12. I would assume the 2018 class is in the 4 range.
Secondly I listed 9 players that return.
I definitely think it was intentional not to oversign. The small number of available scholarships in 2018 lead to that. I also believe they had already made the decision to award Conrad and Reimers scholarships going forward.
As always, looking back with 20/20 hindsight is always easy. In Feb, no one saw KJJ having his issues and even if it was a small chance, Blades and Watts were still possible.
Yes, good job listing an injured player likely to redshirt. Should help a lot with depth. And the 2018 class will help a lot, while playing their senior year of high school.
. I figured it had to do with the small number this year. Thanks for the info. I know the game fairly well, but I'm a recruiting novice.
I don't think they were going to +3, but I don't think they were afraid of over-signing either, as they were counting Calvin, which would have put them over, but obviously didn't happen.
read my post please. Paying specific attention to the dates I used.
Secondly DukeofSorrow made mention of losing seniors and being tight going forward.
If you were paying attention to the posts, rather than just trolling me, you would have noticed I didnt have Kalu, Keiron Williams or Boaz Joseph on the list. Nor did I have Chris Jones, who may be back in November.
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I've heard so many numbers ranging from 82 to 87 I have no idea where we were at, or even where we are at now. Does anyone have any actual confirmation?
I mean, if we were at 82, that would imply that we are under 80 now. There's no way.... That would be a huge foul IMPO.
Right now, we are at 78, if you are counting KJJ and not counting Conrad and Reimers.
The numbers you were hearing probably included the senior walk ons who were awarded the scholarships.
Edit- If you would have signed 2 more in the 17 class, and they stuck, those are 2 scholarships you don't have in 2018. The class was already small.
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Speaking of KJJ, how do scholarships work for early enrollees? Who pays that semester that they enroll? Is the scholarship really 5.5 years? Or does it start in January when they enroll and end five years later in December? Or are they just stuck paying the early semester themselves (or relying upon the county scholarships to make up the difference).
If the scholarship already started with KJJ, does that mean we burned that ship for the whole year?
I will answer the 2nd question first. If Riley knows for sure that KJJ isn't coming back, that scholarship can be used. If they believe he will enroll again in January, they need to keep one available for him.
Early enrollees have the same rules as far as eligibility. 5 seasons to play 4. So yes Jan 2017 to Jan 2022 to play 4 years. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 seasons.
Those EE need to fit in the 85. So they are on scholarship.
Thanks for the good info. Since we already used one semester of KJJ's scholarship, does that mean we hypothetically have a scholarship with 4.5 years on it?
He has 4.5 years left to use his 4 years of eligibility. Every player has 5 years to play 4, whether or not they are on scholarship. The scholarship is tied to the player, not the year it was "issued". If KJJ doesn't return, the scholarship can be used on another player. The length of the scholarship, will be tied to the eligibility of the new scholarship player, not KJJ's eligibility. So if it is used for a walk on RS senior, it will be a one year scholarship. If it is used in 2018, the recruit will have 5 years worth of scholarship, to play 4.
Hope that makes sense.
riley isn't the one who fouled things up. There were a lot of holes in the roster under Bo. If Riley filled them up in his first two classes, this class would have been maybe 12 scholarship offers...
He is attempting to balance the roster better, so that moving forward the numbers can be more consistent from one year to the next, but that obviously doesn't fit with your narrative.
IF we have scholarships left, logic would tell one that they will be used to get some early enrollees (DBs and WRs) in here for spring ball. The scholarship isn't necessarily lost or wasted if we can land a few early enrollees which in turn have a much better chance of contributing next fall. You reward a senior walk on which helps the walk on program as well.
There were a couple lower rated 3* type of guys we could have gotten just to fill out the space.
With this years class being tiny, and DW coming on-board, I can see how you'd shift the schollies forward if Lenoir and some of your other higher targets passed.
With this years class being tiny, and DW coming on-board, I can see how you'd shift the schollies forward if Lenoir and some of your other higher targets passed.
Dude, Bo Pelini will never come back, give up.
The current staff does have a bit of a mess on their hands, some of it was from an inherited unbalanced scholarship distribution, and some of it is from either lack of foresight or too much dice rolling in the last recruiting cycle. Nothing can be pinned on one person, or even one staff.
Whatever happened has happened, now we just have to see what they do about it. It's not like the ship has capsized, or it's the end of the world, so stop trying to make it out to be that. We can afford this because this class size is so small this year anyway.
