I don't want blood at all. Far from it. If it's going to happen at Tennessee anytime soon, it will be Heupel, obviously. I just think not playing Nico hurt us on the recruiting trail this last cycle, and that's why I was frustrated from the Texas A&M game on. It had nothing to do with W-L record. We had momentum after 2022 and playing Nico more would have really helped. I think we would have had a top 4 class.
call it whatever. It was Milton’s team. Plan was never for Nico to compete to start. Nico said several times it was Milton’s team and he was there to learn and be ready if needed. If you plan on redshirting, you don’t get practice reps and aren’t ready if qb1 goes down.
..we also got 5* wr, Staley kid, 5 OL, a bigtime rb and #1 transfer TE so I’m not sure how not playing him hurt offensive recruiting.
if we woulda landed 5* DL from Louisiana, we jump into top 10. Not landing him has nothing to do with playing Nico.
If Nico comes in and looks like a future Heisman, all sorts of 5* and high 4* rabbit trails open up and you are going to get some of them.
I think Cooper being hurt kept Nico off the field early, he's healthy and I don't believe Milton survives APSU.
This is my thought as well. I'm not sure the plan was always to redshirt, but O line injuries and problems made it make sense.
I have to believe Heupel wants to win and win big. I have seen nothing to make me think otherwise. 9-3 was the ceiling given the injuries, and probably not worth risking next year when there may not be a ceiling.
Yeah, I agree. I'm not sure it was the best move long term or not, but I'll take a coach who uses logic in his personnel decisions over what we've seen out of the last couple of guys. We might have gained a little in recruiting, but I can't point to a game that would have definitely turned on Nico being the starter.
I’m telling you it’s a blessing the way this worked out. Nico, still learning how to read defenses, still trying to gain weight and running 12-15 times against Ga, UF, Bama, Mizzou etc wouldnt have done much for him imo except take a ton of unnecessary hits. He evidently arrived on campus with little knowledge of defenses, but we want to send him out with hurt OL while he’s trying to learn them, and limited wr weapons?
Nico played very in control, he held the ball a little long a few times but he's already more aware of everything than Joe was Sampson and Seldon is a good duo at TB Tyre West replaced Baron easily Pearce is a freak It was a good game to get confidence in your young dbs
That's the only loss that really pissed me off. The other three we could have played better but the other teams were better and earned the win
The DBs didn't get tested much but that interception was as good of a play as any the secondary has made all year. You can build on that performance.
sure some do. But missing OL and against 3 top 10 sec teams and did well? Probably count them on one hand. Then you look at the top 5 qb recruits from this past year. One played, got benched, then transferred. The others didn’t play. Nico is more ready now than any of them and will play more/better as well.
How many of the elite QBs from last year played much this year? Dante Moore? He's transferring, as is Malachi Nelson. I do wish Nico got a little more runout the last half of the season, but it was not bad for him to not be rushed into the gig.
