floridacorn

Rafdal informed the coaches he was entering the portal prior to spring, he participated in 2 days of spring ball, & Becton referenced him during his post practice presser? Is that accurate? Unless he didn't participate in practice & Becton was just covering until the announcement was formal, that's somewhat bizarre.

Olympia has put out a lot of kids, (Chris Johnson, Trevor Siemian, Deandre Francios, Joe Milton off the top of my head) but they aren't a very good program. I also believe Fabian Washington is still coaching over there, so that might be part of the connection here. Don't know this kid, but I do know both his QB's, and they are both, let's be nice and say subpar. So, perhaps there's some upside here.

Physically, Hickman sure doesn't look like a player cross training at Y, not that there's anything wrong w/that... And, I'm sorry, but Rafdal entering the portal after 2 days of spring practice is pathetic and short sighted. Even if you're being completely selfish, you went through winter conditioning, you started spring camp, get the reps, and focus on individual improvement before moving on. Who mentors, advises, parents these kids? From a fan perspective however, glad to see him move on now, more focus on the development of Fidone.

Interesting "read between the lines" storyline trickling out of these pressers is this heavier emphasis on a "power running game" referenced by Austin, Lubick, & Frost. If you put the pieces together, Austin alluded to slowing down, Frost/Lubick referenced Toure starting inside (R), & Becton mentioned cross training Fidone at Y & R. Assuming they aren't referencing going under center, I would speculate this points to usage of more Pistol sets & Veer, similar to what Baltimore runs. It's rarely been utilized, but it has been run by Frost & Co at NU & UCF. From a personnel standpoint, this would make sense with Stepp at RB, & utilizing your best receiving options. If true, we'd see more intermediate route RPO's, and fewer bubble screens & flat RPO's. Time will tell.

That point hasn't been lost at all, some are just better at it than others, as with anything. I don't think coaching has changed, but what you coach has, & the complexity of the game requires you to be very efficient with your time.

If NU is measuring itself against Wisconsin, they are falling short of expectations. NU's success isn't tied to Wisconsin's failure. But, there is no doubt Alvarez has been the driving force behind that program, and it's a testament to him they have remained as consistent as they have through multiple coaching changes because that doesn't/hasn't happened anywhere else that I can recall.

"Epley writes in his book that the indexing is on a 0-1,000 scale in which 500 points represents the Division I average and takes into account the weight of the athlete. " I'm prob getting into the weeds w/this, but as an analyst this invites questions. I'd be curious to know how they determine/acquire the data for the D1 averages? For example, there are notable programs that don't even test 40's, & I can't imagine all, if many S&C programs are all willing to share testing results with competition. If these index scores are predicated on current D1 averages, it's not an apples to apples comparison of index scores from different years, let alone era's. You could theoretically be bigger, stronger, faster, & quicker than player X from the 90's, but so is the average athlete, so your score could still be lower. The value of such a comparison then would be how you compare to today's athlete versus how they compared to the athletes at the time of their testing. Seems like a static performance score similar to Sparq would be more relevant, at least in terms of direct comparisons/leader boards, ect... Regardless, as alluded to above, if Damian Jackson has the extreme burst and short area quickness for a big man these tests suggest, it seems like he could be an effective pass rush specialist from the interior if nothing else.

I don't know about that, but I thought Farniok would be dominate inside, & I would be shocked if he didn't grade out better in pass pro. He rarely got movement & the frequency with which he whiffed or fell off blocks immediately after contact was reminiscent of watching a fat freshman playing on Friday night. The jury is still out on Austin, but it appears he coaches Zone Blocking by having his guys run tracks. I'm not saying that's wrong, I would just suggest he is coaching at the school where the guy who literally wrote the book on zone blocking coached, & that's not how he did it.

I get what you are driving, but It feels like you are conflating issues. NU runs zone read option. To a large extent, the D dictates who carries the ball. Arbitrarily taking away QB runs doesn't equate to them running the ball less & Wandale was running the ball from the RB position. Dismissing or discounting his runs would be like doing the same when Adrian Killins ran the ball at UCF. I'll acknowledge NU ran switch zone or bash concepts far more frequently than say OSU, plays where you anticipate the read to lead to the QB running the ball, but w/o getting technical, I believe that reflected a lack of confidence in the O-line balanced w/a desire to still run the ball. RB play needs to improve, but good teams run those plays looking to cash in. Running those plays at the frequency NU did last year, says far more about the O-line than the RB's to me, & my ?'s around the running game this year are still far more dependent on the O-line than the RB's.

I believe hindsight shows us why programs w/legit RB's like OSU were recruiting Mo as a CB. NU was desperate for talent & there's no ? he had play making ability, but he lacked physical toughness. I expected him to surface at Jackson State, almost interesting that he hasn't. But, I agree w/your point. For whatever reason, bad evaluation, poor development, NU hasn't produced playa's in recent memory, and it's why they've watched programs like Minnesota & Indiana ascend past them, they have. A couple guys on each side of the ball can make the entire team look better.

I would have given 2-1/3-1 odds that Stoll could run sub 4.7, Mills sub 4.6, Bottle sub 4.5, Farniok sub 5.4.

Was this the uptown funk you up post? I'm also pretty sure no thread in this forum is complete w/o the doomsday cult of nothing matters cuz Frost sux and there is nothing to be positive about except his firing like ever!

I'm not 100%, but I'm pretty sure QC/Analysts coaches were allowed to participate in practices last season as a special allowance for the Covid delays. If so, Alabama prob had what, a staff of 25?

I agree, but these 2 teams haven't been immune to having QB's hit the transfer portal, primarily because they have pushed the best QB forward regardless of class, even ahead of established starters. Re-watching Smothers HS film, he threw a nice ball, but didn't drive it when needed. Similiar to a Wuerfel minus the shot put throwing motion. It will be interesting to see how he's developed, if he throws outs, & across the middle w/more zip.

There are enough plays in his highlights where he stands in and/or makes a read post snap that he's not as raw as his sandlot in pads highlights present imo. A lot of this is coaching. First, he typically drops back WAY too far out of the gun. Second, they run a lot of deep routes w/o check downs. If he was bypassing check downs to go full fledged Tarkington, I'd be more concerned. Third, and I see this a lot in HS, they run so many different plays, he doesn't instinctively know where his secondary options. But, he has really bad habits as a result.

Stai was a volunteer coach at one point. But, the bottom line is that leadership comes from within. If Peter thinks he's going to change the culture with a bunch of in my day speeches, whatever. If he & Foreman develop leaders within the program so that they can lead the program forward, ok.

This topic comes up frequently and to the consternation of many. I'm old enough to remember when an offer was an offer and what proceeded offers were LETTERS. What changed that? When Nick Saban went to Alabama. He started shot gunning offers across the country, offering early became the new MO for getting in on recruits, & now we have uncommittable offers replacing letters to large degree. Of course, today Saban has his pick of recruits, & whines as much as anybody about the recruiting culture he created. NU's offer list will go down when their recruiting interest is reciprocated at a higher rate. Recruiting is a numbers game and right now NU needs a higher volume of offers to generate the mutual interest they covet.

I've seen Milton play since well before HS, he's a dual threat QB the way Haskins & Cardale Jones were. Kid has a cannon for an arm though. As an aside, I saw James Franklin on NFL network go out of his way to make the point Micah Parsons only opted out after the BIG cancelled the season. I didn't think that sounded accurate & a 30 sec trip through the interwebs confirmed it. Why people lie about irrelevant stuff...

Agreed. If I were Frost looking at the talent on the roster, I would be experimenting with using Fidone & Hickman as the slot receiver similar to how UF utilized Pitts, or moving them around between slot, TE, & H-back as KC does w/Kelce. Most spread option offenses have an interchangeable big H or H-back & a little h or Duck-R in NU's scheme. Outside of Bubble Screens & triple options, which NU doesn't execute very well, & has rarely been run since the early Oregon days, you lose very little scheme wise.

You are essentially blitzing your way into the 46 defense w/out of position LB support. If I could make 1 simple suggestion, twisting your weakside ED is redundant, Your weakside B is already playing contain & he's prob one of your better athletes. If you slanted the weakside E & blitzed your weakside B off the edge, now you are in the 46 on the backside w/your D in position to support everything you could face.

Couldn't agree more & that was the point I attempted to make w/that last point. When I said delayed gratification built the middle class, I wasn't just using it to make a metaphor for the non-star athletes, I was also implying these kids are throwing their real life opportunity away.

The practice is worse than that: Impact players are being recruited off rosters & going through the charade of entering the portal. But, honestly, we live in an era where Coach K is as dirty as any coach in America, so it is what it is. For many more, these are the same kids who simply would have quit, been encouraged to transfer by their coaches, or simply not had their scholy's renewed (depending on the school). The portal is little more than a false sense of control for these kids & I suspect reality comes quick and is hard. For the rest, as they say, delayed gratification built the middle class in America, and the need for instant gratification will be it's demise.

This would be my 5 as well. It's not just talent & production, it's what they were asked to do. All 5 of these guys were Revies Island & I'm not sure I've ever seen a more impressive individual performance than Miles vs Chris T Jones. Pickens, Booker, & Washington were better pro prospects than CFB players IMO. I would probably take Erwin Swiney over all 3 & Prince is probably closest to those 5 for me.

I will preface this by acknowledging McCaffery had limited experience as a QB and it's likely his mechanics fell apart under the pressure of live action as a result. But, Verduzco is essentially a trainer taking up a coaching staff position because Frost values his ability to teach QB's to spin the ball. He himself frequently talks up his ability to improve his QB's "stroke". In this era of 7 on 7 offseason leagues & position trainers at the HS level, it is rare to see a CFQB throw the ball as poorly as Luke did last season. I'm not even talking about decision making, I'm talking about the simple ability to throw a spiral. And, I say this as a non-QB coach who works with QB's, the easiest pass to teach a kid to throw well is the bubble screen away from his dominant hand, & yet Martinez still has issues with that. I trust Frost more than most, but I question his faith in Mario.

I was going off a claim Todd Bowles made in an interview. According to an article I found referencing nextgen stats, Suh was doubled 3rd most in 2020 behind Donald & Kenny Clark. This isn't a I'm was wrong, but I was right statement, but I still find that pretty telling given the # of talented interior lineman in the league, & pretty remarkable given most feel Suh is past his prime.