I've always felt that I get more growth out of freshmen that have already served a RS year than I do out of non-redshirted freshmen fresh out of HS.

That is, I recruit Smith and Jones at the start of S51, then RS Jones.  It usually seems like Smith's S51 growth isn't as good as Jones's S52 growth, especially in, say, the first five practices of those seasons.  This doesn't quite make sense, as the growth Jones got in S51 should put him closer to his caps, but it seems to be the case.

Example: John Harris is up 8 through the first three practices.  It's almost like after a year in street clothes, they're so happy to hit the floor that they're working their ***** off, and the playing time gives them a real chance to develop their game.



While I realize this probably isn't true and I'm only going on a gut feeling... does anyone else have that feeling?

I have always felt guys improve the most sophomore year so it would make sense that a RS freshman does. In general they get more playing time which also factors in

Posted by cornfused on 3/8/2012 1:28:00 PM (view original):
I've always felt that I get more growth out of freshmen that have already served a RS year than I do out of non-redshirted freshmen fresh out of HS.

That is, I recruit Smith and Jones at the start of S51, then RS Jones.  It usually seems like Smith's S51 growth isn't as good as Jones's S52 growth, especially in, say, the first five practices of those seasons.  This doesn't quite make sense, as the growth Jones got in S51 should put him closer to his caps, but it seems to be the case.

Example: John Harris is up 8 through the first three practices.  It's almost like after a year in street clothes, they're so happy to hit the floor that they're working their ***** off, and the playing time gives them a real chance to develop their game.



While I realize this probably isn't true and I'm only going on a gut feeling... does anyone else have that feeling?

I think it's more likely the result of the fact that people generally redshirt recruits with a ton of high potentials.  Here's an example of some guys on my team that compare to John Harris...

http://www.whatifsports.com/hd/TeamProfile/Ratings.aspx?tid=7168

These are all after 3 practices:

James Tomlin (true freshman): 9pts
Joshua Jorgensen (true freshman): 8pts
Victor Adams (true freshman): 7pts
Robert Head (true sophmore): 7pts

 

The guy you redshirt is almost always ready for more minutes than the true freshman as well, since he's been upping his IQs for a year.

Posted by llamanunts on 3/8/2012 4:42:00 PM (view original):
The guy you redshirt is almost always ready for more minutes than the true freshman as well, since he's been upping his IQs for a year.

This, and I'm usually careful not to redshirt guys who don't have stout WEs.   If they accept the redshirt gracefully, a high WE ought to give them more improvement their redshirt and freshman seasons and make them much more usable earlier.