[Goose]

<p>

</p><p>Excellent post.&nbsp; This is also a development I am concerned about.&nbsp; Players, on the whole, used to complete their eligibility.&nbsp; With Shaw's penchant for red-shirting all but a tiny minority of players, it often means we only get two years of solid production out of really good&nbsp;players before the lure of the NFL becomes (economically) irresistible.&nbsp; Costello already flirted with the draft last year (after his red-shirt sophomore year!).&nbsp; Imagine if JJ and Kaden Smith had returned for their final years of eligibility (JJ played three years, Kaden only two).&nbsp; In any case, it is a development that needs to be taken into account, together with the phenomenon of grad transfers.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>

</p><p><br></p><p>I agree that it is a problem. I suspect the staff is fully aware of it, but there may be little they can really do to adjust. I think that Shaw has shown that he will play the best players, even if they are freshmen. It may be that the staff has preferred "veteran" players too much, but I think that is changing. The problem really is that the pool of admissible players who are able to really contribute is small, and not increasing in size. If we now get fewer years out of these players, we are going to have fewer players, period. Yes, it would be great if we had 10 good or at least adequate OL candidates available this year. However, were there 10 such guys who could get in and actually contribute? Having more players on the roster who aren't very good doesn't help us. Other schools can attack the problem by just recruiting more guys. More guys will go through the program but will stay for less time. We can't really do that, the pool is too small.</p><p><br></p><p>One area where we could possibly get more players is the Grad Transfer route. However, the really good football players tend to go to the NFL, not grad school. There are exceptions (Brennan Scarlett). We need to find those guys. This will help a bit, but there really aren't enough of them to matter a lot. Hopefully, it can at least cancel out our losses due to Grad Transfers. It should be noted that many grad transfers are by guys who lost their starting job to another player. That kind of limits the quality of what you can expect to get. Sometimes it is a "fit" issue, and those players can actually be quite good in a different scheme. There are also some players who are moving up from FCS or lower to play in the "big leagues". We have to monitor the "transfer wire".<br></p>

[Goose]

<p>

</p><p>Excellent post.&nbsp; This is also a development I am concerned about.&nbsp; Players, on the whole, used to complete their eligibility.&nbsp; With Shaw's penchant for red-shirting all but a tiny minority of players, it often means we only get two years of solid production out of really good&nbsp;players before the lure of the NFL becomes (economically) irresistible.&nbsp; Costello already flirted with the draft last year (after his red-shirt sophomore year!).&nbsp; Imagine if JJ and Kaden Smith had returned for their final years of eligibility (JJ played three years, Kaden only two).&nbsp; In any case, it is a development that needs to be taken into account, together with the phenomenon of grad transfers.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>

</p><p><br></p><p>I agree that it is a problem. I suspect the staff is fully aware of it, but there may be little they can really do to adjust. I think that Shaw has shown that he will play the best players, even if they are freshmen. It may be that the staff has preferred "veteran" players too much, but I think that is changing. The problem really is that the pool of admissible players who are able to really contribute is small, and not increasing in size. If we now get fewer years out of these players, we are going to have fewer players, period. Yes, it would be great if we had 10 good or at least adequate OL candidates available this year. However, were there 10 such guys who could get in and actually contribute? Having more players on the roster who aren't very good doesn't help us. Other schools can attack the problem by just recruiting more guys. More guys will go through the program but will stay for less time. We can't really do that, the pool is too small.</p><p><br></p><p>One area where we could possibly get more players is the Grad Transfer route. However, the really good football players tend to go to the NFL, not grad school. There are exceptions (Brennan Scarlett). We need to find those guys. This will help a bit, but there really aren't enough of them to matter a lot. Hopefully, it can at least cancel out our losses due to Grad Transfers. It should be noted that many grad transfers are by guys who lost their starting job to another player. That kind of limits the quality of what you can expect to get. Sometimes it is a "fit" issue, and those players can actually be quite good in a different scheme. There are also some players who are moving up from FCS or lower to play in the "big leagues". We have to monitor the "transfer wire".<br></p>