Will Any True Freshmen Contribute this year?

[oleschoolaggie]

guys, i was just thinking about this upcoming season for our football team and it occurred to me that we may have to rely on some true freshmen to provide quality depth or maybe even start. so i began to wonder how often it was that a true freshman has been able to step in immediately and have a major impact on our team.

maybe you guys can help me out. i know it happens somewhat often in basketball, but in football, its not as easy. can you think of any past aggie football team(s) that got "major" contributions from true freshmen? if so, who were they?

if used properly, i think raper can contribute immediately this year as a true freshman. they will need to bring him along slowly and probably bulk him up a little. but with his speed, i can see him being a threat this season. maybe do some of the things speedy use to do (if our oline gets it together)...

[Aggie One]

The two that will have an immediate impact is kickoff and placekicker Patrick Courtney and punter Alex Grubb. The deep kicking game is crucial. Houston is fine from short range and PATs.

Way too early and too hard to tell right now about this class but my best guess (and it would be a guess) are four D-line kids (Chris Neal, Darius Dawkins, Darius Hall, and Theo Agnew) then 4 linebackers (Brandon Hoover, Devin Ray, Ivan Coulton, and Brandon Hill) on defense.

On offense, running backs (Larry Raper, Tony Coles, and Donta Payne), O-linemen (Daron Collins and Richard Washington) and QBs Lewis Kindell and Rickey Lewis.

Where they will play or how much time will they get, no one can tell anything in June but I expect these kids are probably best suited physically to make their presence felt at some point during the season.

[JayBee]

Back in the early 70's, Ellsworth Turner took over the starting QB job after a few games as a true freshman. His performance was overwhelming. We have a good recruiting class coming in, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of our freshman contribute this year.

[aggielaw]

Hooker did the same thing. We may be on to something!

[aggielove]

if you're looking for immediate contributions, I'd look at RB's or D-Line like Aggie1 said.
it appears that you can rely on more natural ability to have some success early. now to be great, you have to learn your craft.

[oleschoolaggie]

Jun 15, 2009 19:49:43 GMT -5 JayBee said:

Back in the early 70's, Ellsworth Turner took over the starting QB job after a few games as a true freshman. His performance was overwhelming. We have a good recruiting class coming in, so I wouldn't be surprised if some of our freshman contribute this year.

i didn't realize that elsworth started as a freshman. i saw his last two years and he's the best aggie qb i've ever seen. he led us to our first ever meac championship.

i also saw dwaine "pee wee" board play as a freshman but he didn't seem to have the immediate impact as a freshman that he had in later years. i think its more difficult for a freshman lineman to get acclimated to the d1 level than perhaps a running back.

i'm just hoping that we've got a few redshirt offensive linemen from last year that can step in and make a difference this year...

[Aggie One]

Ellsworth came in as a freshman at the same time I did in '74 in school and set a freshman record at that time for completion percentage (68.3 percent), TDs (13) and yardage (1,212). I think those stats still stand today for a freshman QB.

Hooker blew up as a sophomore. He didn't start as freshman until the final game of the season.

[DECKS]

If we're expectng a lot of contributions from true & redshirt freshmen then it may be another loooooong season.

[numberonebrave]

{He didn't start as freshman until the final game of the season.} I think Hooker started the second game of his freshman year...Grier started against WSSU , Hooker started after that.

[tbrown11]

The last Good Freshman to Help from Day one was the Late Herbert Dixon. Regarding Freshman there are reports that two Dudley signees do not have passing SAT scores. One is Ricky Lewis and the other one is a lineman.......

[Bornthrilla]

That might explain how we were able to sign Ricky Lewis in the first place. Hope that report is not true.

[Aggie One]

Lewis and the rest of Dudley had qualified by signing day. The only one that was waiting on a ACT score was SS/LB Tevin Williams and he's fine now.

There will be some red shirts in this class but not props. Camp starts in about a month. They just need to work their way through the clearinghouse deadlines now.

[jslee850]

Jun 22, 2009 17:30:47 GMT -5 Aggie One said:

Lewis and the rest of Dudley had qualified by signing day. The only one that was waiting on a ACT score was SS/LB Tevin Williams and he's fine now.

There will be some red shirts in this class but not props. Camp starts in about a month. They just need to work their way through the clearinghouse deadlines now.

so what tbrown said isnt accurate then?

[Maxell]

Jun 22, 2009 17:30:47 GMT -5 Aggie One said:

They just need to work their way through the clearinghouse deadlines now.

Could you explain what those are?

[aggiejazz]

Jun 22, 2009 17:30:47 GMT -5 Aggie One said:

Lewis and the rest of Dudley had qualified by signing day. The only one that was waiting on a ACT score was SS/LB Tevin Williams and he's fine now.

There will be some red shirts in this class but not props. Camp starts in about a month. They just need to work their way through the clearinghouse deadlines now.

I see no reason why the certification of players won't be completed by fall camp with maybe the exception of transfers.

Don't ever count on freshmen to play right away.