BREAKING: Grad transfer DE Jaylen Pate commits to NU
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
I'm excited, but I spent the last six hours watching basketball and/or preparing for my fantasy baseball draft. Not thinking about football too much now, but I'm happy any time a guy picks NU for football!
Agreed that it was a Great Final Four game.
However, Lou V posts articles on the free board with zero responses. It seems like the free football board has evolved into that wacky free for all board that was deleted in the last year.
Is the WildcatReport the next dead mall series? Is JC Penney or Macy's closing? Asking for a friend?
However, Lou V posts articles on the free board with zero responses. It seems like the free football board has evolved into that wacky free for all board that was deleted in the last year.
Is the WildcatReport the next dead mall series? Is JC Penney or Macy's closing? Asking for a friend?
That, and you missed Louie's ALL CAPS announcement on The Rock a little while back for everybody to give mkilla the silent treatment.
Probably. They tried but couldn't land the right fit. I guess there is still a chance for a summer camp transfer that might interest us to shake loose but I wouldn't hold my breath. It's Hilinski's team.
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It’s a duplicate board from the Rock. The same article is there, why post the same thing on multiple boards?
According to some websites I found, he hails from Chicago and stands 6'3", weighing about 250 pounds. He graduated early and has three years left. Injuries limited his playing time, but he does have a couple of sacks and a few tackles for loss among 27 tackles in a little over a year of playing time. He would have started this year, asserting that he is finally coming into his own and that his best football is ahead of him. Overall, a promising recruit. We have to keep this board alive and resist succumbing to the Rock's attempt to monopolize knowledge.
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The free basketball board has held up much better than the free football board. Interesting…
I hope all those new options will = better playmaking. I'm still more concerned about our defensive scheme. I thought we were going to be pretty solid last year, with adds like Meiser, Peeler, and Sam Miller back. Trevor Kent was hopefully going to finally be healthy and live up to his big potential inside. And we know what happened.
So, my hope for significantly better play from the Front Seven this year is more based on expecting/HOPING that we've truly gotten away from the JON Disaster Read And Don't React scheme that we spent all of last spring, fall camp, and the first 5 games of the season on.... and instead, now are spending this whole spring, and upcoming camp on a more Hank-like scheme that enables the players to just play fast, and to do so from the Get Go this year. I HOPE that's the case.
If anybody has any informed opinion about what our defensive scheme is actually going to look like this fall, please do educate me.
Lastly, just my opinion, but I think the transfers and new pieces on D going into last year, overall looked stronger ON PAPER than this year's new pieces. I'd be glad to be wrong about that. We'll see. What really matters is if we have a Defensive scheme the players can actually buy into ALL SEASON, because it actually works.
If that happens, at least on the defensive side, we could get back a lot closer to good ol' normal, solid NU football this season. Somebody please tell me that is going to happen.
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Why reply when you can only see the first 50 words of the article? I joined the Rock last year with the great promotion, but didn't want to spend a year rehashing last year and seeing grown men be nasty to each other. I wish there were more here, but the price is right.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXQhTmNDTGo
Welcome to Pottervillle. What we remember about college football no longer exists. Hence, the indifference on this board. But maybe there are parallel universes just like in the movies.
Welcome to Pottervillle. What we remember about college football no longer exists. Hence, the indifference on this board. But maybe there are parallel universes just like in the movies.
Do we have any guesses on the 2 deep for the D line this year?
Adebawore, O'Rourke, McLaughlin, maybe this guy Pate at defensive end? Jaiden Cameron? Najee Story?
Butler and Gold at DT. We still don't know if we're going 3-4, right? I saw that Barndt (Indiana State), Holmes (UMass), and Johnson (Stanford) have reported to practice. Duke Olges?
Adebawore, O'Rourke, McLaughlin, maybe this guy Pate at defensive end? Jaiden Cameron? Najee Story?
Butler and Gold at DT. We still don't know if we're going 3-4, right? I saw that Barndt (Indiana State), Holmes (UMass), and Johnson (Stanford) have reported to practice. Duke Olges?
With recent indications we are moving to a star defensive alignment. 4-2-5, 2-4-5 or 3-3-5. What that implies is you'll see on the field most of the time two big bodied DL like Holmes, Johnson, Barndt and Butler, two more athletic edge players like Pate, McLaughlin and SaKa who can play with a hand in the ground or standing up, two sideline to sideline linebackers like Wendell Davis and Gallagher, and five Defensive backs including a guy who can be a hybrid DB/linebacker. The transfers we've brought in certainly are geared to play in this kind of defense but still not sure we have all the personnel and depth to play this defense well.
If you'll all indulge me, lets briefly break down each group of D-Linemen.
DT
Here's who's back: Jason Gold, Jordan Butler, and Najee Story (I assume he's at DT, not certain). Then the new transfers, as Corbi mentioned, are Holmes, Barndt, and Ryan Johnson. And there's incoming frogs Austin Firestone and Brendan Flakes. Also walk on Carmen Bastone.
I have to think that if Gold finally gets healthy, he's a starter and a decent one. I think Butler showed us two years ago that he has a lot of potential, and now we have three new guys who have all played a lot of CFB already. Does that make us better than last year? You smarter guys here tell me.
We're in the second year of the new scheme, a tweaked and improved one, hopefully. And I have to think we don't get physically manhandled in the middle like we did last year. Those two things should make us better. But will we have a real inside playmaker, like Lowry, John Gill, Cofield, Big Lanny...? We'll see.
DE
We have a LOT of guys coming back: Tommy is of course the set in stone starter on one side. The other side is up for grabs. There's McLaughlin, who's played the most of everybody else. Then there's O'Rourke, Cullen Coleman, Olges. And new transfer Pate. They're the veterans. They've at least appeared in games. Then there's Jaiden Cameron, and soph Aiden Hubbard, and incoming frogs Saka and Kenny Soares. Saka is listed at LB, but Lou reported last summer that he was recruited to play DE.
Regarding Jaylen Pate, we won't see or know anything about what he looks like in a purple uniform until August, but just on paper, it seems he and McLaughlin will fight it out for the starter spot opposite Tommy.
Cullen Coleman is still listed at LB on the roster, but we know for sure he got moved to DE sometime during the fall, and had a handful of game reps late in the season. Olges also played DE in a few games last year. We can assume that one of those younger players, between Coleman, Olges, Cameron and Hubbard, was able to show some significant growth this spring. Which one? Enough to make an impact off the bench similar to Leota a few years ago? Fans wanna know.
At the end of last spring, JON was surprisingly forthcoming (by Fitz State Secrets standards) with some specific intel about certain individual players all over the defense. Hopefully we'll get that again a few weeks from now. Or, maybe Lou can get a little more insight from his sources for us.
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Is Najee Story really playing DT? He's listed at 6'4 and 250. I had been thinking he was at DE.
I am not sure what to think of Jordan Butler. He looked promising at some times when I saw him in, but he was behind Edwards on the depth chart. I am assuming Edwards transferred to Illinois because he didn't think he'd be a starter here, which implies that Butler is similarly situated.
I am not sure what to think of Jordan Butler. He looked promising at some times when I saw him in, but he was behind Edwards on the depth chart. I am assuming Edwards transferred to Illinois because he didn't think he'd be a starter here, which implies that Butler is similarly situated.
I spent last years wondering if Butler was hurt. Plays in the bowl game as a true freshman and poof ... a non-entity. I expected him to hit the portal but he did not which means, in modern college football, that there is probably a non-football issue going on such as an injury. As for Story, I believe that he arrived with a prior leg injury and the plan to move inside was in place. It was pretty certain he was going to sit for at least one year, if not two. I stopped putting any credence in listed weights a long time ago. Would love to Jason Gold get his starting position back.
Story broke the heck out of his lower leg (tibia and fibula) in fall of 2018. This scared a lot of teams off during his recruitment.
That is a multi-year recovery. Jake Saunders had a comparable injury, and his return took the better part of two years. Story's injury was arguably more impactful because it probably delayed two years of physical development, which he needed to become a P5-sized DT.
Someone here reported (Lou? Mike Fitz?) that Story looked very developed this spring. Sounds like he has bulked up quite a bit. So let's assume he's ready to compete for a job.
That is a multi-year recovery. Jake Saunders had a comparable injury, and his return took the better part of two years. Story's injury was arguably more impactful because it probably delayed two years of physical development, which he needed to become a P5-sized DT.
Someone here reported (Lou? Mike Fitz?) that Story looked very developed this spring. Sounds like he has bulked up quite a bit. So let's assume he's ready to compete for a job.
Mountaindrew wrote: "Lastly, just my opinion, but I think the transfers and new pieces on D going into last year, overall looked stronger ON PAPER than this year's new pieces. I'd be glad to be wrong about that. We'll see. What really matters is if we have a Defensive scheme the players can actually buy into ALL SEASON, because it actually works.
If that happens, at least on the defensive side, we could get back a lot closer to good ol' normal, solid NU football this season. Somebody please tell me that is going to happen."
You just hit the nail on the head about the decline in interest on the football board. We either need a better football team, or more good news, like Jaylen committing, out of the program itself.
I think this is mostly right. At DT in particular, with guys like Barndt and others, I'm confident right now we should expect improved production on the interior compared to last year. Will it be up to our usual high standards... of that I'm not quite sure.
At DE I think it's a lot less of a sure thing, but there is definitely a lot of clay to work with if they can get the right guys to step into the roles. After AA there's not a ton of past production though, so we'll just have to see what the coaches can mold.
This board is as dead as I have ever seen it. A couple of reasons, primarily the perceived state of the football program, but also that long time posters have left due to increasing suppression of opinion. Glades--basically gone, one of the most brilliant posters ever to frequent these boards. Turk--crazy as he is, contributed valuable information. And others. It's sad, what are the mods protecting? Keep deleting relevant posts and I'm gone also. Soon it will be only Corbi, GCG, CSC and Lou, god love you for the great job you do. And a few others who all agree. FA will be still requesting free drinks, but he deserves them for all he has done for support of this program.
Back in the days when @Turk was actually a fan before he went schizoid @Wickerpark, and contributed good football kinowledge.
I saw Story and his mother at our hotel during homecoming weekend. He was wearing a boot for an injury unrelated to the leg fractures and he said he was doing very well. At that time Story said he weighed about 265. He is a tall lean kid, who can obviously carry more weight.
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I fixed it.