Wistrom Disciple

Safe move for him for now. Commit to the local school, stay in favor with the community. Who knows what college football looks like two years from now or whether his perspective will change.

The academic benefits cannot be understated. Given how important the university presidents (aka the league shotcallers) view research dollars and sharing academic resources, this would be a significant benefit to all the schools involved. Crazy to think within 12-15 years Nebraska would go from our league partners being Texas Tech, K-State, & Oklahoma State to Stanford, Cal, & Michigan. Massive academic upgrades. That said, the schools offer nothing of significance in the core sports that attract eyeballs and advertising dollars. However, they are fairly dominant in many of the Olympic sports (rowing, diving, water polo, etc.) which add more TV content for the Big Ten Network. I can't imagine there is much more juice left to squeeze on the athletics front with TV, so wrapping in the research dollars and prestige would be the most obvious next step towards maximizing league value. After all, as 2020 taught us, most of the Big Ten university presidents don't care for national championships or athletics as much anyway.

I pulled the top (Air Force), the bottom (Oklahoma), the National Champ (Georgia), the Big Ten champ (Michigan) and two peers from our division (Iowa & Minnesota). I don't believe that it is a coincidence that the top teams in the league were considered among the best in the country in TOP despite relatively limited offenses (Minnesota, Illinois, etc.). I understand the keep away argument and it's fair, however even when losing, many of these teams sit on the ball regardless as it frustrates opposing offenses to have limited possessions and kills any sort of momentum as the game wears on. The fact of the matter is that unless your offense is exceptional, controlling the TOP more often than not leads to success. Team Record TOP Rank Michigan 13-1 5 Ohio State 11-2 46 Penn State 11-2 51 Maryland 8-5 41 Michigan State 5-7 126 Indiana 4-8 128 Rutgers 4-8 87 Minnesota 9-4 4 Purdue 8-6 26 Illinois 8-5 12 Iowa 8-5 108 Wisconsin 7-6 34 Nebraska 4-8 122 Northwestern 1-11 84

I disagree with you. Minnesota is prime example of how time of possession (TOP) leads to winning more often than not. They are not exceptionally skilled offensively, nor splashy with big scoring plays. Instead they routinely sit on the ball for 60-70% of games and gives their defense a limited amount of plays to face. This limitation reduces the opportunities for your defense to get beat and shortens the game dramatically. It is not a coincidence that many of the top teams in the country also lead in TOP and I argue that TOP can be an indicator of success, not success being an indicator of TOP. Below are a couple peers and how the numbers break out from last season. Despite playing three less games than National Champ Georgia, our defense faced only five less plays than them or country leading Air Force playing an extra game, but facing 250 plays less than our defense last season. The additional plays faced exposed our defenders more often as they had significantly more opportunities to be exposed compared to peers. Back to the point... Farmer is not a bad player and we are a better team with him than without him. Team Games Plays faced Avg. plays faced per game TOP (minutes per game) 2022 Record Air Force 13 657 50.54 36.54 10-3 Minnesota 13 772 59.38 34.46 9-4 Georgia 15 912 60.80 33.6 15-0 Michigan 14 879 62.79 33.79 13-1 Iowa 13 883 67.92 28.31 8-5 Nebraska 12 907 75.58 26.67 4-8 Oklahoma 13 1043 80.23 26.38 6-7

I will have to disagree, Farmer saved to us in a few instances over the past couple of years. Sure he got burned a couple times, but he is a decent player for us. I think we are a better team with him than we are without him. It really didn’t help that the defense was regularly facing 80+ plays a game because of the offensive play callers addiction to quick possessions. Not a coincidence that some of our best games defensively were ones where the offense controlled time of possession.

In addition, with our track program quickly improving under St. Clair and his older brother being quite a track athlete, who knows if the brother starts looking for a place closer to home than Starkville. Establishing the roots now is well worth the potential and you're spot on that the landscape of college football could look much different in a year or two.

He mentioned the home opener (9/16 - Northern Illinois) as they have a Bye week in their season.

They have a few prospects, but more likely know that they aren't seriously in the race. Saying they're full saves face and avoids the embarrassment that Proctor pulled with them last year when he flipped to Bama very late. If they thought they had a shot, there would clearly be an offer.

Yes. It is hard to find big bodies that can move well. Would also be good to tap into Mater Dei as well.

The Iowa line coach has a pretty strong resume for recruiting and development so I can't blame the kid for looking there. It's unfortunate that it is our rival, but I think Iowa is due to regress to their mean (7-5) more than they are likely to match their success over the past decade where they were gifted some very, very favorable schedules.

Would be a very nice get. The Hawaii connection only makes it better for future classes.

I understand that your roll is to troll... but the last Omaha tight end that went to Iowa left on bad terms due in part to some of the racial issues caused by Iowa's coaching staff. Kind of sad because those same issues played a part in Proctor out of Des Moines bailing to Alabama last year. Any truth to the rumor that Ferentz wanted the throwback all-white uniforms?

Safe to say if they aren't in the state title game this year, it's a failure?

I'm not so sure Bo gave up versus the staff couldn't guarantee that the administration would allow them to stay more than on a year to year basis. If you recall around that time, Bo and his staff had actually put together a solid couple of classes in 2012-2014 with the likes of Randy Gregory, Maliek, Westy, Armstrong, DPE, VV, Davis twins, Stanley Morgan, etc. Unfortunately, the AD and Chancellor wanted him out badly and made recruiting rather difficult.

Since Pelini, the coaches chased highly offered recruits only to either strike out and settle for last minute replacements or sign the widely offered kids and fail to coach them up. While I think some of these players could have waited for full ride offers, I can't help but wonder if getting some of these guys on board now will help put some pressure on others to make decisions. Additionally, Cooper handles this position group so he must see the clay enough to develop. As for Texas, almost half the class is out of Texas right now where our current plans include exactly zero games in the state. I'm not sure how much of the class you're expecting to come from the state, but should we come out strong this season, we'll see improved interest from Texas along with many other regions of the country. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that until the program can get back to winning enough to make bowl games, we're going to struggle to attract too many of the highly sought after recruits.

Agreed that it is near Olympic level speed, but it should be noted that the 10.15 was wind aided so the "official" time was slightly higher. However the sentiment is correct, he makes fast people look not so fast.

Maybe not as polished as a player, but you can't easily teach that level of speed and his family's athleticism is rare*. The development of athletes at Rhule's previous stops makes me believe that their emphasis on loading up with athletic kids, despite however polished they are as football players, is the right move and makes the team more dangerous. *His older brother just finished 11th at the NCAA championships in the decathlon, highest scoring freshman in the event this year.

Could also be referring to past recruits who left already for that matter. Woods & Dickerson still haven't found landing spots yet.

Could also be referenced with the tweets from Omar Hales & Mike Wallace with the "2FiveCrew"... would be an awesome splash. Would love to see Rhule allow him to wrestle if he wants to as well. I'm sure Mark Manning would've appreciated having a few of the guys wrestle over the past few years, namely the Polar Bear.

The fact that he's wearing the Husker gear out and around other recruits indicates that we're at least in the mix. It's also a nice PR opportunity for us if nothing else. I've heard he's looking at a visit for the Michigan game when his team has a BYE week. Either way, nice to see we've made a good impression on him so far.

Nice to see the emphasis on New Jersey remaining. Paramus has a history of putting out quality college football players. Good to see us get in first on him too as Michigan has a pipeline to the program with their Linebacker coach (Partridge) being an alumnus.

I agree with you that the schools need to join this century regarding night games. The $40 million for the title game and the extra payments for cutting short the 2020 season are minor in the grand scheme. However, the commissioner's office is supposed to understand the expectations of those he represents and more importantly, communicate with the schools and administrators. Based on the article, Warren wasn't communicating or transparent and made deals he didn't have the authority to make. You're right though, there had to have been some others from the conference in the discussions making some of these agreements.

In short, yes the conference came out ahead. I think the schools are more pissed that they have to make these concessions after the announcement. The former commissioner pumping his resume and ego prematurely put them in a difficult spot of working out the details and finishing the deal. It is not the way Delaney handled the conference and presumably how the schools preferred to work.

Beyond giving up ~$5 million per school (when factoring in the other repayments), it is the fact that the commissioner of the league couldn't perform the basics of due diligence. This TV contract deal is arguably the core piece of the commissioner's job and he couldn't even take that across the finish line. The move also soured the Fox/Big Ten relationship which is being mended, but could take some time. Combined with his other poor performances (ie - handling Covid & 2020 season), there are plenty of examples of poor leadership. One could argue that franchise has been dysfunctional for years

I hope so. I must mention that highlight tapes are supposed to show the good plays and generally leave out the bad stuff. I was simply not impressed enough to think he was worthy of a scholarship at this stage. The fact that he also split time at QB as a Junior, as @sho mentioned, isn’t encouraging after they went 7-4 despite having some very talented players. Obviously the coaches thought differently so hopefully they can coach him up.