Jordan Stevenson to Play on Saturday

[ColoradoHusk]

^ Every player is different, too. Some want to play a lot more than others. This is how guys like Niles Paul, Marlon Lucky, Prince Amukamara, and other players who turned out decent had largely minimal true freshman years. In a lot of cases it isn't on the coaches, it's a player who really wanted the chance to prove himself and then it turned out he wasn't ready that year. Other players are more accepting of a redshirt year, perhaps wisely.

Is that the case with Stevenson? You never know.

It seems strange to me. If he is good enough, then pull the redshirt in Game 1.

One of the reasons they redshirted him is because he wasn't well conditioned enough after arriving late. They may also have anticipated far less struggle from the other group of RBs. They like Newby and have really tried to make him a feature back.

When Stevenson came in out of shape, got injured, and had to miss some practice time, I said "get him in shape for conference play and see if he can contribute then". Well, it's now conference season. If he's ready to play, play the guy.

 

[RADAR]

It seems strange to me. If he is good enough, then pull the redshirt in Game 1. We already have 3 losses, why waste a redshirt for half a season, especially if he only gets 10 plays per game. At the same time, get the athletes on the field. We have too many RBs. Lets have some position changes,

He was still out of shape from being injured during fall practice. He has only been with the team for 10 weeks. Really not so strange

 

[cg_8]

If you want to be the kind of guy that looks for some positives, I've got another good one for ya.


A few weekends ago when Janovich had his break out game, I said here on Huskerboard that I hoped the staff saw that and would use Janovich in the offense a lot more, both running and catching. To me, that was worthy of praise for this staff to see Janovich busting his tail and having success, and reward the guy with more opportunities.

Low and behold, Janovich is out there playing RB even more and even caught a pass or two?

Got to give credit when it is due. I credit this staff for recognizing that and I hope they keep on finding ways to utilize the guys they've got the further along we get in the season.

We have to remember as fans, these coaches are still evaluating their own roster and learning what each guy can and can't do. I know people don't want to hear that, but it's the truth.

Agreed with this. I was talking to my buddy about Jano and how he's the hardest runner we had. I half jokingly said that we need to line him up at RB.

Sure enough, he was lined up behind Tommy in pistol, to which I immediately said "They listened to us!!"

If JS can make plays enough to change the running game mentality of Langsdorf, that would be great! It's obvious that the other guys weren't doing it for him.

 

[BIGREDIOWAN]

The season isn't completely gone people, just because we lost to Illinois doesn't mean we should just write the rest of the games as a loss. Trust me, I think we win 4-6 games at most this season, but say they put Jordan in and we win a bunch of games because of it and it helps get things clicking. Was it worth it then? We still have an outside chance to win the west, don't realistically think we will, so the coaching staff has to do what they can to accomplish that. At this point Northwestern and Iowa look like the leaders in the west, but let's not just surrender it because we lost to Illinois. There is still time to turn this thing around so wins are wins at this point.

 

[zoogs]

If you want to be the kind of guy that looks for some positives, I've got another good one for ya.

A few weekends ago when Janovich had his break out game, I said here on Huskerboard that I hoped the staff saw that and would use Janovich in the offense a lot more, both running and catching. To me, that was worthy of praise for this staff to see Janovich busting his tail and having success, and reward the guy with more opportunities.

Low and behold, Janovich is out there playing RB even more and even caught a pass or two?

Got to give credit when it is due. I credit this staff for recognizing that and I hope they keep on finding ways to utilize the guys they've got the further along we get in the season.

We have to remember as fans, these coaches are still evaluating their own roster and learning what each guy can and can't do. I know people don't want to hear that, but it's the truth.

Great post, true. Sam McKewon touched on this point in his fiery podcast (WELL worth the listen!). In his view, the staff will play the players they think will help them. Right decisions every time? Nobody can know except in retrospect. But they're quite willing to make changes.

 

[molsen]

If JS is as good as people have said that he is then he will probably declare for the draft sooner rather than later. If he is healthy and can give the team a spark now then why not let him play, especially if he probably won't stay around to be a 5th year senior.

 

[I am I]

We talkin about practice? Or are we talking about the game?

 

[MichiganDad3]

Is he that much better than Ozigbo? I thought Ozigbo looked really good last week. And does it matter who the RB is? We all know we are a throwing team.

 

[junior4949]

I think JS needs to keep the red shirt. he can wait till next year to compete for the job.

For his long term benefit, yeah he should keep the redshirt. It's fairly common knowledge that a RB only has so many carries in him. Considering his talent, there's a high likelihood that he'll be playing on Sundays. With the three years removed from high school rule, he needs to limit his carries and abuse to his body. There's already analysts recommending to the LSU RB to completely sit out football next year because of this and the chance of a career ending injury much like what happened to Lattimore. Playing the remaining schedule this year plus the next two years will shorten his shelf life in the NFL.

 

[ColoradoHusk]

Is he that much better than Ozigbo? I thought Ozigbo looked really good last week. And does it matter who the RB is? We all know we are a throwing team.

I like Ozigbo too. I think he's a different back than Ozigbo, and there could be a place for both of them.

Of course, we know all this depends on Langsdorf not wanting to throw the ball at least half the time on offense, so it may be pipe dream.

 

[khaake]

If there were questions as to whether this was actually going to happen, it sure looks to me like Stevenson thinks he'll play:

https://twitter.com/Jordanstevie2/status/652147938110509056

https://twitter.com/Jordanstevie2/status/652148819178602496

Good for him. I hope it's a successful move.

BTW-I don't know if anyone else is seeing the same thing as me but none of your Twitter posts are showing up. They just look like links.

Yeah, he deleted them already, for whatever reason. I edited the above post.

Was his twitter always private/protected? Or did he just make his account like that today? I swear I checked it out earlier in the year and it wasn't protected...

No, it wasn't private before, at least not before Fall semester started.

 

[Enhance]

Count me as excited to see what he can do. It's not a desperation move when you play a guy of his caliber.

I think we need to all keep something in perspective, though. He's still a true freshman who hasn't played a down of college football. It doesn't matter if he would've competed for the starting spot at Wisconsin or not, and it doesn't matter what he did in high school. We still need to give him the opportunity to grow and develop. Right now, we know he has potential, but we don't really know what his caliber is/isn't.

If he does end up playing, obviously the coaches like what he brings to the table. However, let's give him the opportunity to make plays. Obviously, we all hope he's in a position to do good things otherwise it'll be a waste of burning the redshirt. This is one of those things we have to trust the coaches on.

 

[BIG ERN]

Count me as excited to see what he can do. It's not a desperation move when you play a guy of his caliber.

I think we need to all keep something in perspective, though. He's still a true freshman who hasn't played a down of college football. It doesn't matter if he would've competed for the starting spot at Wisconsin or not, and it doesn't matter what he did in high school. We still need to give him the opportunity to grow and develop. Right now, we know he has potential, but we don't really know what his caliber is/isn't.

If he does end up playing, obviously the coaches like what he brings to the table. However, let's give him the opportunity to make plays. Obviously, we all hope he's in a position to do good things otherwise it'll be a waste of burning the redshirt. This is one of those things we have to trust the coaches on.

I say who cares and let whoever play and win games. We seem to have 4 capable RBs alone on this team - lets see who wants to separate themselves. No other position is survival of the fittest like the RB spot. Ameer, Green, Heard all were good, but Ameer showed his worth. Now we have Ozigbo(Fr), Stevenson(Fr), Wilbon(rFr), and Taylor(rSo).

 

[BaytownHusker]

I don't think Taylor will be there next year.. But that's just me. Haven't read or heard any thing.. Just speaking what i think..

 

[MLB 51]

I don't think Taylor will be there next year.. But that's just me. Haven't read or heard any thing.. Just speaking what i think..

Has he even been on the field?