Everyone knows what we have in Lewis, whereas elams career can go drasticly different ways not to mention it would help the defense/Lewis a ton if elam could stay on the field with any consistency.
Elam
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Everyone knows what we have in Lewis, whereas elams career can go drasticly different ways not to mention it would help the defense/Lewis a ton if elam could stay on the field with any consistency.
He did stay on the field with consistency just like most Freshman do....He played several plays in a row on many different occasions in the season. He did well for a Freshman DT in the SEC. He is on course to be a all SEC DT in time. He is gradually improving just like the coaches expected.
Excellent point, and not just about Elam, anyone that is expecting a lot out of true freshmen is usually delusional. It will be nice to be in a position where most true freshmen redshirt before being thrown into battle.
well said "td".... i don't know where ME ends up either, but i know where he is right now... and that's behind Melvin Lewis.
Totally disagree. He played about as many snaps as you normally expect freshmen to play. He was on the depth chart and got snaps that mattered. He gained from this. Could he have gained from a red shirt? Probably. Would have gained more from red shirting than he did playing? Maybe not. There is a case to be made from red shirting but it's not universal. Not all kids benefit the same from sitting out. There is also a case for getting early playing time to get an understanding of where you need to develop. In some cases the player needs to see what he needs to work on for himself or the year off would be wasted.
One benefit that I can see by him not redshirting is that if he gets injured in the future he can use that year to redshirt.
He looked better in the spring practice I went to. You can tell he has lost some weight. He's not standing up out of his stance as much and has improved his technique. He still needs to lose more weight and add strength. Has a lot of work to do on his pass rush where he has no moves other than a bull rush. He will play more this year than last, but Lewis is easily our best NT.
This reasoning is often cited. Occasionally, a player who plays as a true freshman turns out to need the redshirt year later because of an injury. Most recently, Alexander Montgomery and Jeff Badet are examples. Keenan Burton was another. But in reality that is very rare. So I don't agree with this. No coach ever plays a true freshman thinking they can redshirt him later. When they play a freshman, they do it because they decide he is ready to fill a team need. And if a redshirted player gets injured and misses another season, he has an option under NCAA rules to apply for a 6th year of eligibility. Matt McCutchan and Tommy Cook were granted a 6th year. As I said earlier, I believe Stoops played Elam last year to keep him focused on football and motivated for better conditioning. And as tbcat said, Elam played as many snaps as a lot of true freshmen play.
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Oh I agree that he wasn't played as a freshmen so he can be red-shirted later if he had an injury that would be ridiculous. I was just stating that is one thing that can be benefited on if it ever happened.
Coaches do not see Elam as a 5 year player...therefore no RS as a freshman...simple as that.
A RS Dupree, Williamson or Cobb would've just wasted a year we could've had them learning on the field.
A RS Dupree, Williamson or Cobb would've just wasted a year we could've had them learning on the field.
Gotta agree with Grumpy on this point TD. Elam played in all 12 games and was in on 10 tackles. However, I only remember him making cameo appearances. I just don't think that was enough "contribution" to warrant burning a red shirt. He was listed at the back up to Lewis at the 0/1 tech but, playing so few snaps, I think they could have gotten by with other (but lighter) options if they truly wanted to preserve his red shirt. But that is not always the case.
Radio/TV announcers were alway quick to announce "big #69 just entered the game" and sometimes he was out before I could find him. I was at the Mizzou game and when he came in I put my glasses on him and he got man handled by the MO center. I recall he got in on one tackle when the defense forced a Mizzou RB back into the center of the field pursuit.
As I noted he came in to UK at 393# and per a November roster played at 375#. His limited PT and limited contributions make me believe that the staff's decision to play him was driven by something other than what he could contribute as a t-FR. And, if so, that's fine. Every situation is a little different. I'm sure they had a "reason" to play him but I'm not sure it had much to do with expected on field "contributions". All, of course, JMO.
Peace
Make no mistake, just as with that "other" program what a guy does at UK is what matter's to me. The mention of the draft was just that if he manages to distinguish himself or stand out at UK in his last 2 years then that could happen. He was a big recruit for UK, pun intended, and it'd be great for the program, and him if he does well here.
That's a bit misleading to say he didn't make enough of an impact. For starters NT doesn't get as many tackles in general. They mostly try to consume blocks. Matt was the #2 NT and CJ Johnson was the #2 DT. Johnson also had 10 tackles on the year. Douglas, a starter, only had 33. As you stated Matt played in all 12 games. That is getting game experience. He saw what SEC linemen look like and what he needs to be able to do to beat them. To me that's more productive than sitting out with only a vague idea of what you need to work on over the next year. If Matt only played in 3 or 4 games I would agree with you but he was good enough to play in all 12. And even though stats are not the point he did also have 2 pass deflections and forced a fumble. He wasn't a star by any means but his contribution was definitely in line with what should be expected of freshmen.
^^^This!^^^
And seeing Matt's reshaped body this Spring makes me think he will be a big positive contributor in the up coming season.
Perhaps but the fact he was the second best option on the team at NT even including his deficiencies in technique and conditioning is the more likely conclusion.
If Elam isn't drafted in the first few rounds after his senior year, then everyone saying a RS would've been best will be correct. I don't think that will happen though.
Don't know why some have a hard time comprehending this. Elam doesn't see 5 years either imo. & he did a credible job as a FR playing about 20-25% of plays. I expect much improvement with his ongoing body revamping. He may still be 360 or so - but a much better located & quality 360.
Redshirting "some" players, and there are many factors involved in that decision, is a waste of time. I don't think Elam was ever considered a RS candidate. I think he made enough contributions to warrant playing, and I'm glad the coaching staff threw him out there. The comment about the coaching staff wanting him to play so he would stay focused sounds correct.
No argument there. A much better "contribution metric" would be how many snaps/game he took. As I said, it seemed to me, they stuck him in from time to time, but I don't remember him as part of a regular game long rotation. I'm not sure I ever saw him take more than 3 consecutive snaps. Could be wrong. If he was the Cats second best option at NT last year, so be it.
I am not a big proponent of "automatic redshirting" except along the lines. You just can't worry about whether he will be here in 3 more year (especially when you need to show some progress now). So if a kid is good enough to play, play him. And sometimes you have to play guys whether they are ready or not. But it is very seldom that you see a lineman that is a truly effective player as a t-FR. If I were a coach I would try hard to red shirt my bigs. But in a rebuilding situation like UK's (i.e., need some wins) I would burn a red shirt in NY minute if I thought it would get me a win. JMO
Peace
Is there a more difficult position for a true freshman than DT/NT? It may be more difficult than OLine. How does an 18/19 year old right out of HS compete with the men across the line. Technique is such a huge component that having size is not enough. Should Elam have RSed? Perhaps, but the fact he played and had contributions is pretty amazing, IMO.
Is that percentage accurate? I have not done the math, but would have guessed that high. I would think 20% on the high side of the range I would guess.
The plan was to get Elam in every third possession on defense. IOW, one of each three times the other team began an offensive drive. Of course some offensive drives have more plays than others. How that actually broke down as percentage of plays, I have no idea.
I agree not all kids progress at the same speed. I don't want to step on or hurt feelings with this statement, but UK in the past hadn't recruited kids who were ready to play in the SEC as true frosh, they are getting some of those type kids today. UGA plays quite a few frosh, we had 3 true frosh starting on defense at the end of they year and will very likely have 2 more starting by midseason this year and possibly a 3rd, now the question is this, is our defense going to be worth a crap? We should have a good pass defense, return 3 starters in the secondary and a 4th in nickle package and our pass rush will be elite from the outside. But we still might not be able to stop the run this year, couldn't last year and we are replacing the 2 ILB, NG and 1 DE/DT.
Oh yeah, I would say QB, any O-line spot, LB and safety are all more "difficult" for t-FR. However, OLs and DLs are in a car wreck on every snap and most t-FR regardless of physical size are usually not sufficiently physically mature to handle that beating. IMO, that "physical maturity" thing is the reason why you should alway try to red shirt all linemen. In Elam's case, I certainly saw a huge body but not a "mature" one. Technique-wise, freshman DLs have general tendency to play to high (they got away with in HS due to their size advantage) and that makes them vulnerable to older and wiser college O-linemen.
I have no problem whatsoever with whatever drove the decision to play him as a t-FR but I still maintain his on field "contributions" were did not justify burning his red shirt. JMO, of course.
Peace
You're right. He made a huge impact.
If you don't think he contributed, watch the South Carolina game again. He is the unsung hero of that game.They ran down the field on us in the first two series. 14-0.Elam came in the next series and they went three and out inside the Carolina 10 and we score on a shortened field. He bottled up the line and was an obstacle to throw around in that series. It stopped a potential blowout dead in its tracks, and I think it threw off Spurriers play calling rhythm. People were wondering why he got away from the run? Well, because he's Spurrier. But two is I think Elam made them second guess going up the middle.
I understand wanting to squeeze every drop of potential out of a player. But at some point we have to start winning. You think we lost some recruits last year? Imagine we were 4-8 last year. what we sacrificed was a pittance. We needed his depth last year. We need him experienced and focused this year. We got that. Because of it, you can feel more comfortable going all 3-4 or putting Hyde at fullback. His contributions and experience he gained was more than worth a red shirt.
I predict Elam will be just as disruptive as Lewis by end of the season. You can't teach that kind of size. With the current coaching on technique, I bet he'll be much better.
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