Wistrom Disciple

Big 10 officiating does not make sense. Might as well just start the home team in the bonus every game. It is hard to watch and it's not surprising why Big 10 teams struggle in the postseason.

Gonna be a 5 vs. 8 sort of day. Very favorable home court for Sparty.

The only information we've heard about Satt is speculation and heresay as far as I know. I suspect Barthel had some say in who got snaps, but he seems to have flown under the radar. So while Satt deserved some blame, I don't think the other coaches should be given a free pass. We must also consider the information is coming from one side and there is no way to verify. I do think the staff was trying to force different players too much. in part, they were trying to get touches to Rahmir and feed Dowdell after his early season success.

Sure, but we shouldn't just dismiss productive players for looking around either, especially when they often went overlooked here. Again, I hope he comes back because I think he's talented and a very good leader for the program. FWIW, I put together his numbers and exactly half of his carries and yards this year came in the last four games. Last season, our final four games accounted for 60% of his carries and 53% of his total yards. In other words, we only seemed to use him when others were hurt. If the coordinator was the only piece that changed, I can understand why he might feel that next year would be more of the same in terms of usage and being featured.

Money is always a factor for everyone to at least some extent. However, Emmett's case is apparently tied to feeling misused. Carriker's comments (here) were pretty informative without divulging too many details. Tie that in with Holgo's press conference comments about coaches sticking to their favorites too often. Having an outsider (Holgo) come in and cut through any favoritism or worrying about recruitment or seniority ties/promises made a clear difference and allowed Emmett to excel, much like he did late last season. Hopefully Dana is able to work some magic, but I'm not sure how easy it'll be to mend fences in this case.

I think you might be focusing on loyalty to the school a bit much. Most of these guys don't come to UNL out of a pure love for the University or the state. For most, they come here because of the coaches that recruit them, the scholarship/NIL money, and the belief that this opportunity can springboard them to a better future. Take one of the key factors away (position coach with close relationship) and a lot of the appeal gets divided. Whether right or wrong, that's just the way it is nowadays and until the portal and NIL get under control, we're going to continue to see these sorts of mass changes more frequently.

Yes, 20 scholarship opportunities are added and ~65 walk-on spots are being removed, net loss of 40-45 players to the program. Therefore, how many of those remaining ~55 position players will be allowed to stay on the roster 3+ years before making meaningful contributions as was the case with John? I think it will be more and more rare for P4 programs to hold multiple spots for mutli-year developmental projects. Instead of having several players developing within the program for years, as Rhule intended and Osborne had perfected, many will likely need to prove it at a different school and transfer in later on, as @Husker in WI had noted.

Yes, you are making my point. We will not be able to hold roster spots for multi-year projects very often at all. If a player isn't contributing or hitting the two-deep within two years, I anticipate the staff shuffling players in and out.

It hurts, but realistically, only ~3 of the defensive portal guys are an actual loss and none of them were program changers up to this point. I also have to wonder whether any were a mutual decision or if they were all player-driven. It will be interesting to see how many land at FSU versus going elsewhere. A returning front seven nucleus of RVP, Lenhardt, Shavers, McGahee, and Jeudy are a solid start, though that's assuming none of these five leave. The first four would be especially difficult to see go so I hope they stick around. I'd be curious if we're kicking the tires with the defensive linemen at Purdue given that at least three of them have entered the portal, including the younger Karlaftis. They've had some pretty good run stoppers and aggressive attacks over the years.

Definitely seems like that will be the case. As Rhule mentioned, we probably won't see a case like John Bullock again. The coaches probably won't be able to allocate roster spots for guys who may take 3+ years to grow into a role if the roster is limited X number of spots per position.

Yes, sounds like he's healing up though. Unsure on exact issue or timeline.

Merritt mentioned coming off injury so I'm not sure that he'll do anything physical, but having the guys at practices and learning early will definitely help.

Might want to rethink the phrasing on that one. As for tomorrow, there may be some people signing just to keep a spot at wherever they are committed. Top prospects will be able to find a spot anywhere, but middling or under the radar guys might be jumping on a roster. Wouldn't make sense to risk losing your spot to a transfer with experience in many cases.

15-20 or roughly 2 per position group more than likely. The roster reductions will have a lot of consequences for all programs, but especially for programs that do not have the proper scouting or connection bases (HS coaches, area recruiters, etc.) to connect quickly with potential targets. Unfortunately, if this 105-man limit holds for next year and beyond, programs will be more reluctant to have redshirts. Development will need to be rapid or else programs will have to move on. Taking a flyer on a player like a David Hoffken (redshirt from Germany this year) will be almost non-existent as programs simply won't have the space to offer projects very often. Poorly thought out decision and should have been phased in over a few years.

Committed to Shorts & Kentucky last week. I wonder if that changes with Shorts coming here along with his teammate (Jamarion Parker) set to sign this week.