Player News From Wednesday Practice.

[bengalcub]

By Kelvin Ang

Hey fans, here are some notes from football practice today, including a not-so-good piece of news.

Read the rest:
http://www.pocatelloshops.com/new_blogs/sports/?p=4747

Sounds like the Bengals are the walking wounded, expect more kids to possibly burn redshirt year...

Potentials:

RB Skylar Morgan (maybe)
WR Shaqulle Senegal (maybe)
RB Darius Coleman (not likely)
OL/FB Mark Clampitt (maybe)

Five TRFR by my count are already playing with 6-9 POTENTIAL total for the year. WOW!

 

[spazdog1]

In the short term, it sounds like tough times. It's good to see some of the guys working thru the bumps and bruises. But, there's a bright side to true freshmen playing. And that is... experience. There is no substitute for playing time, especially as freshmen. Sure you can simulate a game, even situations but it's particularly hard to simulate game speed. This could be huge later in the year and over the next three years.

 

[bengalcub]

I agree and it may balance out the classes some. However, if they are going to play these kids, play the hell out of them. No use burning a year for 5-10 carriers or 5-10 receptions. I hate to see that happen and I don't think it is fair to a kid to do it.

If anything it illustrates a lack of depth in the program. As a good friend of mine told me--if you are counting on TRFR to win games you are probably in deep shit.

Nothing against the young pups, it just is not ideal.

 

[bengalfanatic]

If anything it illustrates a lack of depth in the program. As a good friend of mine told me--if you are counting on TRFR to win games you are probably in deep shit.

Nothing against the young pups, it just is not ideal.

Unless your USC lol

 

[Skippy]

Just an observation: Weber State started two true freshmen at DT last week because of injury. I don't think it's unusual for Big Sky teams not to have great depth, particular on the O and D lines. A couple of key injuries can kill a good season for most Big Sky teams.

 

[bengalcub]

I would agree that depth can be a problem for teams in the BSC. This is especially true at Weber State, Montana State and Sacramento State because they have had reductions in scholarships because of APR penalties imposed by the NCAA. When you lose 5 scholarships in essence it is like losing 25-30% of a recruiting class. Weber State and Montana State in particular are feeling the pinch this season because of it.

Here is how it came to be:

The Wildcats, already competing with a reduced number of scholarships, learned they'd lose additional scholarship athletes as a result of continued struggles in the classroom. Instead of being able to offer the FCS (formerly I-AA) norm of 62 full scholarships, WSU now has only 57.14 full scholarships to hand out. That's like stripping the scholarships of about eight percent of Weber State's roster.

The average FCS football team had a multi-year APR of 931.

Additionally, WSU is restricted to offering only 18 initial scholarships per year.

"This is mostly stuff from the past," McBride said. "It's going to hurt us."

To make matters more difficult for the Wildcats, the NCAA is reducing the number of hours the team is allowed to practice each week.

Instead of the normal 20 hours per week, WSU will have just 16 hours of practice. McBride and his coaching staff have decided to cancel Monday practices this coming season and replace them with a team study hall.

"The NCAA is sending a strong message that there is no room for poor academic performance in athletics programs," WSU vice president for administrative services Norm Tarbox said in a statement. "The university and the football program must continue to make progress toward the NCAA standards if we are going to remain competitive on the field and in recruiting."

Some of Weber State's problems may be attributed to the transfer or drop-out of several athletes during the transition from former coach, and current athletic director, Jerry Graybeal to McBride a little more than three years ago.

The Wildcats were previously working with a reduction of 3.68 scholarships. The new 5.86 number includes the restrictions from past seasons.

To try and keep a full roster, McBride will likely be forced to split scholarships between players or accept a higher-than-usual number of walk-on players.

 

[biobengal]

I believe the FCS limit is 63. Regardless, I hope ISU isn't headed this way.

 

[bengalcub]

I am 90% convinced that ISU football in particular is headed in that direction.

I asked about this on the coaches show Monday. How is ISU sitting with regards to APR? Coach Z basically said that he is not NOT SURE where ISU is at this point. He said his total concentration is going into winning games. He said the APR is a double edged sword that basically forces coaches and teams into keeping players in the program even if they are not a good fit or a discipline problem. He mentioned that he had decided to get rid of some of the problems in the program last spring. Immediately after, he also stated that other teams in the BSC have been punished in the past. He made reference to Weber State, Montana State and I believe Sacramento State without being asked about the other schools.

If ISU struggles again this season AND is penalized by the NCAA--things become more difficult for ISU football.

In the end, I may be wrong and I hope I am wrong.

 

[isusid]

Remember, the penalties happen when you get an 0-for-2 kid, one that is ineligible and then leaves school. Viser, miller, and Gibson are all 1-for-2s, because they all stayed in school. Those other kids that got the boot were eligible, but not retained, so they are 1-for-2s as well. Those things drag down your overall score, but you only get a penalty on the 0-for-2s. There's a lot of other factors at play including funding, how the athletic department does in comparison to the rest of the general student body, so when John says he's not sure, he isn't sure. Matt Steuart is our guy who fills all that stuff out, but you just never know. The good thing is we haven't suffered any penalties to this point.

Certainly, getting rid of the kids that were not keeping up their end of the bargain (the three shoplifters) was the right thing to do, and it might cost you some APR points, but that's the inherent flaw in the system that everyone is struggling with.

Hope that answers some of it.

ISUSID

 

[bengalcub]

Thank you sharing the information, Frank.

I agree, you need to weed out problems and I am not advocating that these kids should still be on the team. What I will say is this--with the amount of turnover in the football program over the past two seasons, it is imperative that the football program really evaluates who and how it recruits.

Maybe this is something that has happened with this last recruiting class and maybe this is something that is being looked at moving forward.

Either way, you cannot build a strong foundation for a program with a 30-45% washout rate on your incoming class. I don't think that I am 'crying wolf' by stating that.

One question, does ISU recoup some of these points if a player stays in school, retains eligibility and ultimately graduates?

Here is an interesting document on how Montana State is looking to nip some of these problems in the bud. I would assume that ISU is doing some of the same.

http://www.montana.edu/cpa/pdfs/msureport1.pdf