Huskers' Big Redshirt Investments

[NUance]

Huskers Have Some Big Investments in the Redshirt Market 

By Brandon Vogel   www.hailvarsity.com   April 20, 2020  

 

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Three-point plan for Nebraska to live up to that ranking: 1) Redshirt years must pay off, 2) You have to defend the run in the Big Ten, and 3) Rediscover offensive efficiency.

 

Nebraska has redshirted 83% of the players in its first two recruiting classes under Frost. That’s the highest rate among the class of 2018 coaches at Power 5 jobs and it’s not really close. Chad Morris redshirted two-thirds of his first two classes at Arkansas. Joe Moorhead redshirted 65.7% of his two classes at Mississippi State. Both coaches only got two classes; Morris was fired in November after a 4-18 start, Moorhead in January after going 14-12 with back-to-back bowl trips. Those two had the second- and third-highest redshirt rates. 

Frost’s two-year redshirt rate is also higher than all 11 of the new Power 5 coaches in the class of 2019, the second group of coaches to tackle a new job and early signing at the same time. So far the 24 coaches at this level faced with that exact challenge have, on average, redshirted 49.8% of their first classes at their new jobs. Kelly played 18 of the 27 players in his first class right away, the lowest one-year redshirt rate (33.3%) of any coach in this group. Mack Brown is the second-lowest, redshirting 37.5% of his first class at North Carolina.

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The article says our 83% redshirt rate is very high.  That surprises me.  I mean, with the new rules allowing a player to appear in four games before losing his shirt, it seems like the redshirt rates would skyrocket.  Heh.

 

 

 

[runningblind]

He's only talking about the redshirt rate for schools with new coaches in 18 and 19.  For established programs I bet that number is indeed higher normally than new coaches. Frost is in a unique situation with 5 years,  + 2 added, and being at Nebraska who isn't going to fire anyone again for a while.  Both the comparison coaches with high RS rates only lasted 2 years in the SEC.

 

If Frost went 9-15 at a place like Florida he would be gone also, but he also wouldn't have redshirted 83% of kids there trying to build long term I suspect.

[Gorillahawk]

I think its obvious Frost is playing the long game. Sacrificing immediate gain for long term results. I hope it works!

[krc1995]

Finally, something new to think about. I understand what he’s trying to do and I hope it works, but if some of those guys could have helped us score,  or prevented scoring, 21 points in one or both of those seasons I think it’s too long of a mentality. 
 

I don’t think they had the 4 game in rule in 2018, but I could be wrong. 

[BigRedBuster]

I fully support what he's doing even though it was frustrating last year. 

 

Question:  Back when we had a freshman team, I believe it was also against the rules for a Freshman to play on varsity.  Could a player play on the freshman team during his redshirt season?

 

 

[ColoradoHusk]

3 hours ago, BigRedBuster said:

I fully support what he's doing even though it was frustrating last year. 

 

Question:  Back when we had a freshman team, I believe it was also against the rules for a Freshman to play on varsity.  Could a player play on the freshman team during his redshirt season?

 

 

 

If a player was on the freshman team, it counted as a year against his eligibility.  The best example I can think of is Turner Gill.  He was on the freshman team as a true frosh in 1980, and then had 3 years on the varsity team (1981-1983), starting for 2 1/2 years.

[BigRedBuster]

1 minute ago, ColoradoHusk said:

 

If a player was on the freshman team, it counted as a year against his eligibility.  The best example I can think of is Turner Gill.  He was on the freshman team as a true frosh in 1980, and then had 3 years on the varsity team (1981-1983), starting for 2 1/2 years.

Thanks.  I was thinking that's the way it worked, but wasn't sure.  I'm assuming there were players that played on the freshman team, then took a year for redshirt...then played 3 years on varsity.  Probably quite a few linemen.

[NUance]

3 hours ago, ColoradoHusk said:

 

If a player was on the freshman team, it counted as a year against his eligibility.  The best example I can think of is Turner Gill.  He was on the freshman team as a true frosh in 1980, and then had 3 years on the varsity team (1981-1983), starting for 2 1/2 years.

 

Heh, I did not know that.  Always thought playing on the freshman team was done in a redshirt year.  

[ColoradoHusk]

1 hour ago, NUance said:

 

Heh, I did not know that.  Always thought playing on the freshman team was done in a redshirt year.  

I may not be correct.  My Turner Gill example may not apply because it looks like he did see mop-up duty in games with the varsity team.  So, of course he would burn his redshirt.

 

I now think you and BRB are probably correct in that if a guy doesn't play in any varsity games, he maintains his redshirt (even if he played on the frosh team).

[NUance]

52 minutes ago, ColoradoHusk said:

I may not be correct.  My Turner Gill example may not apply because it looks like he did see mop-up duty in games with the varsity team.  So, of course he would burn his redshirt.

 

I now think you and BRB are probably correct in that if a guy doesn't play in any varsity games, he maintains his redshirt (even if he played on the frosh team).

 

No, I think you were right.  If you check out Jeff Smith's bio he got five years including his redshirt year and the year he played on the freshman team.  LINK

[ColoradoHusk]

7 minutes ago, NUance said:

 

No, I think you were right.  If you check out Jeff Smith's bio he got five years including his redshirt year and the year he played on the freshman team.  LINK

Ha!!  Gotta love how we are going back and forth about an issue which is not applicable to today's college football, but hasn't been an issue for Nebraska for 30 years.