In the beginning Hooker was doing the same at times. I believe Nico will follow the same path and it will click year 2.
The funny thing is that dude could hit the cross bar from the other side of the 50 with no problem when goofing off but put a helmet on and turn the lights on and its like his brain would go to mush. He was just skittish as shit when it came game time.
The irony of including Nico in this category after one game while standing firmly in the position that starting him earlier in the year wouldn’t have been a good idea.
there are several reasons why starting him during the season didn’t and won’t make sense to me. Among them, Nico developed in the last 3 months. Got bigger, more reps and more time to learn. Additionally, him holding onto the ball v Ga, bama, Florida and Mizzou a few weeks into practice coulda done more harm than good. We are in a great spot going into next year. You wanting an additional 100+ hits on a freshman makes no sense to me especially when most agree due to OL and defensive lapses, the record wouldn’t have changed this year.
And holding onto the ball is nothing. It’s just what people noticed among all the good stuff. Expected it. I’ll repeat, I’m glad we weren’t at Bama with him running 15 times, taking 6 sacks and additional 15 hits holding onto it. I’m not from the mindset it’s always best to get beat up to build character and toughness. What Heupel did this year is much more healthy for Nico’s future than what some people wanted to see.
What was bad was rece had not clue why they were losing it and had no clue what it meant besides what he was reading on the card. also Pat and his guys might single handed save espn
