How do freshmen earn playing time?

[Irish Legend]

It looks like earning playing time requires wasting a year on the bench(except Sam Young)! I think if you have 4 or 5 star talent they should be able to play. If they go to class and practice hard, I think they have earned it! Why waste a year on the bench or play 1 or 2 plays with :38 seconds left in the game. Especially at ND where playing 5 years is not that common an occurence.
I know, I trust Charlie's decisions but I think he's too old school with his earn it mentality.
IMHO

Thoughts?

 

[marv81s]

I think whoever starts earns that right, whether they are freshman or a 5th year senior. I don't believe anyone on the ND coaching staff has a seniority based system. The best players in the eyes of the coaching staff were on the field this year.

 

[Mattmags]

I think whoever starts earns that right, whether they are freshman or a 5th year senior. I don't believe anyone on the ND coaching staff has a seniority based system. The best players in the eyes of the coaching staff were on the field this year.

Agreed. Charlie said he would start the best player regardless of class. just because a 4 or 5 star guy came out of high school doesn't mean he's automatically better than the 3 or 4 star senior. I too have been impatiently waiting to see the fresman get more playing time than they have, but we have to work down the depth chart and not up it.

 

[scooper]

It looks like earning playing time requires wasting a year on the bench(except Sam Young)! I think if you have 4 or 5 star talent they should be able to play. If they go to class and practice hard, I think they have earned it! Why waste a year on the bench or play 1 or 2 plays with :38 seconds left in the game. Especially at ND where playing 5 years is not that common an occurence.
I know, I trust Charlie's decisions but I think he's too old school with his earn it mentality.
IMHO

Thoughts?

You earn playing time by being the best prepared physically and mentally at your position at the time. If you can help the team now, you play. Period.

I don't see how Charlie's decisions are old school. David Grimes played a lot in 05. As did Asaph Schwapp, who ended up a starter. Turkovich was #2 at one of the tackle spots and played some during real game situations.

This is just off my head, but here are guys that played significant time as freshmen in 06. Significant meaning a starter or a #2 who played during real game situations (not mop up)

James Aldridge-it took awhile but he got carries against USC which says something
Munir Prince-though he dissapeared late
Morrice Richardson-played a bit of nickel DE.
John Ryan-Abiamiri's primary backup who got a lot of reps with the 1's in relief.
Darrin Walls-actually got a start
George West-was one of the primary kick returners
Will Yeatman-played in some two or three tight end sets as a blocking end
Sam Young-well duh.

That's a high percentage of true freshmen who played in real game situations. That's probably a higher percentage than a lot of freshman classes at other ranked programs.

Many others logged some game time.

A few of the sophomores played extensively this year as well.

This was a senior laden team. There were very few instances where a true freshman was the guy most ready to help now. In the cases where they were, Sam Young for example, that player played.

Charlie Weis has no ingrained tendency to play guys strictly by seniority.

 

[tommy]

i know people might not like this but adversity will make this team better. im not saying i want to see people fumbleing and making mistakes but it was good in a way to get the young guys in there and let them feal a little bit of the pain that goes along with loseing . it should make them work that much harder .

 

[Clotho]

The players who deserve to play, play. Walls was playing a ton until he started getting shown up really badly. Prince played a ton until it became clear that he wasn't getting it done. And so on. Lots of freshmen played.

 

[Famboo28]

Reuland was also the 2nd tight end for the last 2 games and Richard Jackson played a good amount of special teams. Didn't Burkhart kick a little bit earlier in the year?

 

[Indydomer]

Sergio Brown played ST as well.

 

[jmg21]

I think the key word here is Trust. Who does Charlie trust to go into the game and execute? It can be hard to trust a freshman because there is no college game experience to build it on. Obviously, some guys like Young, West, and Walls were able to earn it from Weis early on. It's understandable that Charlie, or any coach for that matter, would have more faith in a guy who's been in the system for a year and has already shown something on the field.

Next year, Charlie will be forced to trust some guys that he doesn't necessarily have a ton of confidence in because of the lack of upperclassmen. It should be fun to see which players rise to the challenge.

 

[irishX25]

i dont know maybe

 

[ndsteve15]

maybe