Clark Injury updates from Conf Call 11/16 - Ethan Joyce

[booneboy92]

I didn’t want to start another thread about this, but just noticed ULL’s game against Central Ark. is cancelled this weekend.... They’ll have a rest week, and we’ll have a short week. Not that I don’t think it’s something else we can deal with, but man it seems like the deck keeps getting stacked higher...

Wait! My bad! I was a week ahead of myself, so no issue other than the COVID stuff is within ULL’s program. They’re shut down for now.

[AppSt94]

I didn’t want to start another thread about this, but just noticed ULL’s game against Central Ark. is cancelled this weekend.... They’ll have a rest week, and we’ll have a short week. Not that I don’t think it’s something else we can deal with, but man it seems like the deck keeps getting stacked higher...

Wait! My bad! I was a week ahead of myself, so no issue other than the COVID stuff is within ULL’s program. They’re shut down for now.

They are playing ULM the week before us. That’s like a bye week.

[booneboy92]

I didn’t want to start another thread about this, but just noticed ULL’s game against Central Ark. is cancelled this weekend.... They’ll have a rest week, and we’ll have a short week. Not that I don’t think it’s something else we can deal with, but man it seems like the deck keeps getting stacked higher...

Wait! My bad! I was a week ahead of myself, so no issue other than the COVID stuff is within ULL’s program. They’re shut down for now.

They are playing ULM the week before us. That’s like a bye week.

Lol! Very true!... IF they get to play them

[NashvilleNeer]

Hope Clark is playing mind games saying Heusman will be running triple option and this turns out to not be the case.. Would be insanely dumb to say this to the media and go out and try and run it on Saturday

[NashvilleNeer]

Yep. Georgia State gave up 51 points less than 14 days before we played them, in their own house. I don't want to hear about their D-line or LBs playing downhill. Our offensive performance was nothing short of embarrassing.

I trust coach when he says he lit a fire under their ass and I hope that's the case.

WHO WON THE GAME??? - WHAT WAS THE ULTIMATE PRIZE FOR THAT DAY???

Lol, imagine if Belichick had this small minded attitude towards his teams. "Welp boys, we beat the Jets by 4 and looked terrible doing it, but we won so see y'all next Sunday! Mission accomplished."

No, you can identify weaknesses and areas to improve even in the shadows of a victory. The offense has to improve for us to be successful moving forward. More specifically, it has 3 more days to get right before a game that decides this season.

It’s not a small minded attitude at all. Most of you are expecting similar outcomes from years past with guys with less experience and potentially less ability. Christian Wells is good, but he isn’t Sutton. Harrington, Peoples and Williams aren’t Evans.

Just a thought on not being able to replace players. I’m guilty of thinking we have lost some guys we can’t replace but that simply shouldn’t be true. Yes we will recruit some guys that are much better than we could have expected and we will have some guys who grow into P5 type of players. But as much success as we have had, we should be recruiting better and better players. We should be bringing in guys now that can compete for starting roles in there freshmen and sophomore years. I think it was about year 3 of our FBS transition that we had a freshman class that was ready to compete for starting positions right away. I would say 2018 and 2019 should have netted us some guys who can play right now.

Most teams in the country don't have freshman coming in and starting. Look at UNC's recruiting classes the last few years since Mack came back and notice how high they have been, but they don't have freshman starting outside of some WR's and QB last year. It takes time for five and four stars to adapt as well. Our classes have been a lot better, but it still takes time.. I'd like to see us hitting the transfer market and JUCO's a little harder, but our talent is getting better.

[AppSt94]

Transfers and JuCos are problematic if not handled correctly. A couple here and there to fill gaps in recruiting misses are fine, but bringing in too many guys that are short term guys has the potential to erode the culture. See Arky St.

[bigdaddyg]

Hope Clark is playing mind games saying Heusman will be running triple option and this turns out to not be the case.. Would be insanely dumb to say this to the media and go out and try and run it on Saturday

He was joking. You don’t start running the TO in a week. The joke went straight over the heads of the reporters.

[EastHallApp]

If ZT can go, he will get the snaps. Could likely be a game time decision.

Hopefully, our opponent doesn't know either. Thus they will have to plan and practice for two diff styles, strengths, and talents of QB's. Might be our only true advantage.

That's very likely a factor. Clark listed Harrington on the depth chart last week with a torn ACL; there's no way he's saying who's at QB Saturday before gametime whether he knows or not.

[EastHallApp]

Lol, imagine if Belichick had this small minded attitude towards his teams. "Welp boys, we beat the Jets by 4 and looked terrible doing it, but we won so see y'all next Sunday! Mission accomplished."

No, you can identify weaknesses and areas to improve even in the shadows of a victory. The offense has to improve for us to be successful moving forward. More specifically, it has 3 more days to get right before a game that decides this season.

It’s not a small minded attitude at all. Most of you are expecting similar outcomes from years past with guys with less experience and potentially less ability. Christian Wells is good, but he isn’t Sutton. Harrington, Peoples and Williams aren’t Evans.

Just a thought on not being able to replace players. I’m guilty of thinking we have lost some guys we can’t replace but that simply shouldn’t be true. Yes we will recruit some guys that are much better than we could have expected and we will have some guys who grow into P5 type of players. But as much success as we have had, we should be recruiting better and better players. We should be bringing in guys now that can compete for starting roles in there freshmen and sophomore years. I think it was about year 3 of our FBS transition that we had a freshman class that was ready to compete for starting positions right away. I would say 2018 and 2019 should have netted us some guys who can play right now.

Dude. You are delusional if you truly feel that way. Have you taken a deep dive into our recruiting? Go back and look at our ten highest rated players. How many made an impact their first year? Or at all? We aren’t Bama. It isn’t as cut and dry as you want it to be. Kids get arbitrary ratings based on talent. That rating doesn’t factor in heart, character, and head space. You clearly set your expectations based on nothing but what you want.

No I’m not delusional, and you really didn’t need to go there. I didn’t even criticize your statement. My point is simply this, based on the success and increased visibility of our program we should be able to recruit better and better players and that has happened. If we keep doing well that will hit a plateau. I never once mentioned stars or ratings of recruits. It was more of a general statement of what should happen. There are a lot of variables but I stand by the statement that as far as recruiting goes we should still be on an upward trajectory. Pretty much ever time we have a really good player leave we have another step up. We could never replace Cox and then there was Moore. We could never replace Moore and then there was Evans. Have a good one.

Agree with this. We turned over pretty much the whole starting 22 in 2016 and 2017 when a ton of three- and four-year starters left... and we got better because the guys who replaced them were, as a group, better athletes.

Nobody's saying we should be heavily relying on true freshmen (though it's not unrealistic in 2020 to have a few first and second-year players stand out at the skill positions). But this idea that "well we lost Darrynton Evans, so we'll never have as good a running back as him again," I don't get that. Good football teams have good players, those good players move on, and good programs replace them with more good players. That's college football, and that's been App football over the years.

We're still doing that for the most part. But there are a few positions that give reason for concern.

[AppSt94]

East.

You are going to have misses with every class. We have missed on several QBs over the recent years that should raise some concerns. But that’s just part of recruiting and evaluation. We have missed on guys that we thought were going to be next man up and that didn’t pan out. It happens. We have recruited some good players for sure but it’s difficult to rely on consistent production from a Freshman or Sophomore. We have had some good backs over the years. But the only one that came in ready to play from Day One was Marcus Cox. The others got better with game reps and film study.

[NewApp]

WHO WON THE GAME??? - WHAT WAS THE ULTIMATE PRIZE FOR THAT DAY???

Lol, imagine if Belichick had this small minded attitude towards his teams. "Welp boys, we beat the Jets by 4 and looked terrible doing it, but we won so see y'all next Sunday! Mission accomplished."

No, you can identify weaknesses and areas to improve even in the shadows of a victory. The offense has to improve for us to be successful moving forward. More specifically, it has 3 more days to get right before a game that decides this season.

It’s not a small minded attitude at all. Most of you are expecting similar outcomes from years past with guys with less experience and potentially less ability. Christian Wells is good, but he isn’t Sutton. Harrington, Peoples and Williams aren’t Evans.

Just a thought on not being able to replace players. I’m guilty of thinking we have lost some guys we can’t replace but that simply shouldn’t be true. Yes we will recruit some guys that are much better than we could have expected and we will have some guys who grow into P5 type of players. But as much success as we have had, we should be recruiting better and better players. We should be bringing in guys now that can compete for starting roles in there freshmen and sophomore years. I think it was about year 3 of our FBS transition that we had a freshman class that was ready to compete for starting positions right away. I would say 2018 and 2019 should have netted us some guys who can play right now.

Most teams in the country don't have freshman coming in and starting. Look at UNC's recruiting classes the last few years since Mack came back and notice how high they have been, but they don't have freshman starting outside of some WR's and QB last year. It takes time for five and four stars to adapt as well. Our classes have been a lot better, but it still takes time.. I'd like to see us hitting the transfer market and JUCO's a little harder, but our talent is getting better.

Very very few JuCo's left except Community Colleges. There are none in NC and Georgia Military is now 4 year, I think.

[Mjohn1988]

East.

You are going to have misses with every class. We have missed on several QBs over the recent years that should raise some concerns. But that’s just part of recruiting and evaluation. We have missed on guys that we thought were going to be next man up and that didn’t pan out. It happens. We have recruited some good players for sure but it’s difficult to rely on consistent production from a Freshman or Sophomore. We have had some good backs over the years. But the only one that came in ready to play from Day One was Marcus Cox. The others got better with game reps and film study.

My point was not, and is not that year after year we will have freshman that can play day one. My point is that right now, at this time in our growth, we should be recruiting better players than we did 4 years ago. So some of those new recruits should be able to compete in year one or year two for starting jobs. As I said earlier, if we continue to win and gain visibility will will hit a recruiting plateau and no longer will we have freshman or sophomores who can match the 4 and 5 year guys. We just came off our highest visibility year as an FBS program and we are consistently getting guys into the NFL. If we can’t recruit better players now than we did 4 years ago, we have a problem.

[bigdaddyg]

East.

You are going to have misses with every class. We have missed on several QBs over the recent years that should raise some concerns. But that’s just part of recruiting and evaluation. We have missed on guys that we thought were going to be next man up and that didn’t pan out. It happens. We have recruited some good players for sure but it’s difficult to rely on consistent production from a Freshman or Sophomore. We have had some good backs over the years. But the only one that came in ready to play from Day One was Marcus Cox. The others got better with game reps and film study.

My point was not, and is not that year after year we will have freshman that can play day one. My point is that right now, at this time in our growth, we should be recruiting better players than we did 4 years ago. So some of those new recruits should be able to compete in year one or year two for starting jobs. As I said earlier, if we continue to win and gain visibility will will hit a recruiting plateau and no longer will we have freshman or sophomores who can match the 4 and 5 year guys. We just came off our highest visibility year as an FBS program and we are consistently getting guys into the NFL. If we can’t recruit better players now than we did 4 years ago, we have a problem.

This has me curious. I’m sure someone tracks this and I would love to know how the different guys have done who snubbed (signed elsewhere) at signing day- say over the past 4-5 years. Example Joe Blow signed with Alabama 3 years ago and had committed to App but has never played. John Smith signed with Stink and has been a two year starter. In my mind that would be good stuff and would tell us how we have done in other aspects of recruiting.

[AppSt94]

East.

You are going to have misses with every class. We have missed on several QBs over the recent years that should raise some concerns. But that’s just part of recruiting and evaluation. We have missed on guys that we thought were going to be next man up and that didn’t pan out. It happens. We have recruited some good players for sure but it’s difficult to rely on consistent production from a Freshman or Sophomore. We have had some good backs over the years. But the only one that came in ready to play from Day One was Marcus Cox. The others got better with game reps and film study.

My point was not, and is not that year after year we will have freshman that can play day one. My point is that right now, at this time in our growth, we should be recruiting better players than we did 4 years ago. So some of those new recruits should be able to compete in year one or year two for starting jobs. As I said earlier, if we continue to win and gain visibility will will hit a recruiting plateau and no longer will we have freshman or sophomores who can match the 4 and 5 year guys. We just came off our highest visibility year as an FBS program and we are consistently getting guys into the NFL. If we can’t recruit better players now than we did 4 years ago, we have a problem.

I’m not sure what you are expecting can be measured with any amount of subjectivity. We go after guys that fit what we do on the field and off the field. I’m sure that the coaches have plans for incoming recruits. Most get Red Shirted, some will play. I don’t think that our coaches recruit for immediate need. If it works, it works.

[Mjohn1988]

East.

You are going to have misses with every class. We have missed on several QBs over the recent years that should raise some concerns. But that’s just part of recruiting and evaluation. We have missed on guys that we thought were going to be next man up and that didn’t pan out. It happens. We have recruited some good players for sure but it’s difficult to rely on consistent production from a Freshman or Sophomore. We have had some good backs over the years. But the only one that came in ready to play from Day One was Marcus Cox. The others got better with game reps and film study.

My point was not, and is not that year after year we will have freshman that can play day one. My point is that right now, at this time in our growth, we should be recruiting better players than we did 4 years ago. So some of those new recruits should be able to compete in year one or year two for starting jobs. As I said earlier, if we continue to win and gain visibility will will hit a recruiting plateau and no longer will we have freshman or sophomores who can match the 4 and 5 year guys. We just came off our highest visibility year as an FBS program and we are consistently getting guys into the NFL. If we can’t recruit better players now than we did 4 years ago, we have a problem.

I’m not sure what you are expecting can be measured with any amount of subjectivity. We go after guys that fit what we do on the field and off the field. I’m sure that the coaches have plans for incoming recruits. Most get Red Shirted, some will play. I don’t think that our coaches recruit for immediate need. If it works, it works.

I agree, I’m not looking at stars or recruiting rankings. Just looking at what happens on the field. And I most certainly hope our coaches don’t chase “stars” when recruiting. We need guys who fit our team. I’m just of the opinion that at this particular point in time we should be able to get better all around players who are a good fit for App.

[AppSt94]

I’m not sure that we haven’t gotten better players year over. Just because they don’t start or beat out a more seasoned player isn’t a very good barometer. IMHO.

[EastHallApp]

I’m not sure that we haven’t gotten better players year over. Just because they don’t start or beat out a more seasoned player isn’t a very good barometer. IMHO.

I think there are certain positions where that explanation is wearing thin. There’s plenty of opportunity right now (to say the least) at WR, and while Wells is showing promise, no one has been able to step in and produce consistently with Sutton out and Hennigan gimpy. And it’s hampering the offense.

At DE, our top five players are all seniors, including a walk-on transfer who came in and apparently leapfrogged every underclassman in the room. At least two of the others are former walk-ons too. At least Pallant is starting to get some snaps. But no recruited player in the last four classes has been able to earn consistent playing time? That’s not ideal.

[AppSt94]

I’m not sure that we haven’t gotten better players year over. Just because they don’t start or beat out a more seasoned player isn’t a very good barometer. IMHO.

I think there are certain positions where that explanation is wearing thin. There’s plenty of opportunity right now (to say the least) at WR, and while Wells is showing promise, no one has been able to step in and produce consistently with Sutton out and Hennigan gimpy. And it’s hampering the offense.

At DE, our top five players are all seniors, including a walk-on transfer who came in and apparently leapfrogged every underclassman in the room. At least two of the others are former walk-ons too. At least Pallant is starting to get some snaps. But no recruited player in the last four classes has been able to earn consistent playing time? That’s not ideal.

Very true. But past success is also a problem, as much as it should be a positive. Given that our top WRs the last two seasons have been underclassmen, playing time wasn’t guaranteed and guys that are good enough to see the field early, aren’t willing to sit a year and most certainly two years waiting for Sutton, Hennigan, Virgil, and Williams to matriculate. Same for the DEs.

[AppStateNews]

I am not sure where the issue is... so far this year we have seen at least 6 of 26 true freshman see playing time... that's 23% of our true freshmen (including walk ons) seeing the field. That is a pretty dang high number...

The number could even be higher. I simply went through and counted how many I remember being in a game (Horn, Wright, Noel, McLeod, Castle, Wilson). If I have the time I will go back and look at the participation reports -- I bet you with special teams and the free year, that number is even higher than 6.

[Mjohn1988]

I am not sure where the issue is... so far this year we have seen at least 6 of 26 true freshman see playing time... that's 23% of our true freshmen (including walk ons) seeing the field. That is a pretty dang high number...

The number could even be higher. I simply went through and counted how many I remember being in a game (Horn, Wright, Noel, McLeod, Castle, Wilson). If I have the time I will go back and look at the participation reports -- I bet you with special teams and the free year, that number is even higher than 6.

I haven’t said there is an issue. I started this by simply saying our success and increased visibility gives us the tools to recruit better and better players and that those players should be able to compete for playing time in their early years. Looks like that might be happening.