[washingtonismoney]

Harbaugh's comments about Luck obviously didn't backfire, but Luck proved to be a remarkably self-motivated, humble athlete. I doubt that this will prove to be the case for every player that Shaw is praising publicly.

Yeah, I mean, this is just one example that came to mind immediately. Really, every coach in every camp says at least some hyperbolic stuff. That's why oman can add 2 wins to everyone's projected win total. Will it spoil the athletes somehow? Perhaps, I suppose. But if they're liable to being spoiled by a quote in the press, chances are they wouldn't've been much good anyway.

That being said, I don't think what Shaw has been saying is terribly hyperbolic. For example, if you look at the full quote where he's talking about the o-linemen, he says, yeah, Peat and Garnett are better than Martin and DeCastro were at the same time--which is probably just true, considering we've heard Martin came in at 260 lbs and DeCastro didn't really know how to pass block--but DeCastro + Martin made as big a leap from year one to year two as he's ever seen. It's hardly as if Shaw is claiming Peat will be Jonathan Ogden right off the bat.

I'm not at all surprised we've got a lot of freshmen who have come in and looked impressive. They're an extremely highly-rated class. We haven't had any that have been as highly-rated as this, but it's pretty common for highly-rated freshmen to come in and contend for important roles.  And while high ratings aren't a certain guarantee, but they do offer some signal amidst the noise. Frankly, I expected a lot of guys from the freshmen class to come in and be really impressive.

[washingtonismoney]

Harbaugh's comments about Luck obviously didn't backfire, but Luck proved to be a remarkably self-motivated, humble athlete. I doubt that this will prove to be the case for every player that Shaw is praising publicly.

Yeah, I mean, this is just one example that came to mind immediately. Really, every coach in every camp says at least some hyperbolic stuff. That's why oman can add 2 wins to everyone's projected win total. Will it spoil the athletes somehow? Perhaps, I suppose. But if they're liable to being spoiled by a quote in the press, chances are they wouldn't've been much good anyway.

That being said, I don't think what Shaw has been saying is terribly hyperbolic. For example, if you look at the full quote where he's talking about the o-linemen, he says, yeah, Peat and Garnett are better than Martin and DeCastro were at the same time--which is probably just true, considering we've heard Martin came in at 260 lbs and DeCastro didn't really know how to pass block--but DeCastro + Martin made as big a leap from year one to year two as he's ever seen. It's hardly as if Shaw is claiming Peat will be Jonathan Ogden right off the bat.

I'm not at all surprised we've got a lot of freshmen who have come in and looked impressive. They're an extremely highly-rated class. We haven't had any that have been as highly-rated as this, but it's pretty common for highly-rated freshmen to come in and contend for important roles.  And while high ratings aren't a certain guarantee, but they do offer some signal amidst the noise. Frankly, I expected a lot of guys from the freshmen class to come in and be really impressive.