2019 Roster

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ST_Lawson
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R-Fr LB Cole Tandy is no longer listed on the roster. Redshirted last year without playing time.
He is still listed in the university directory, and nothing is mentioned on his twitter.
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letsgonecks
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Looks like Kendon Walker is transferring out. Only appeared in 4 games, so looking to use his redshirt and have 2 years somewhere else.

Could have been a homerun hitter with his speed, but not with this line.
WIU2DC
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letsgonecks wrote:Looks like Kendon Walker is transferring out. Only appeared in 4 games, so looking to use his redshirt and have 2 years somewhere else.

Could have been a homerun hitter with his speed, but not with this line.
I have a feeling he will be the first of many transfers to come. You only have a few years to compete and try to make it to the NFL. Why waste it on a program, that you are not tied to, and that is playing poorly? (More for the JuCo recruits)


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meganeck
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WIU2DC wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 8:04 pm
letsgonecks wrote:Looks like Kendon Walker is transferring out. Only appeared in 4 games, so looking to use his redshirt and have 2 years somewhere else.

Could have been a homerun hitter with his speed, but not with this line.
I have a feeling he will be the first of many transfers to come. You only have a few years to compete and try to make it to the NFL. Why waste it on a program, that you are not tied to, and that is playing poorly? (More for the JuCo recruits)


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that's why i think they need to try to rebuild with mainly high school kids and with a minimal use of JUCO and transfers. Seems like they have been relying on JUCOs and transfers a lot more lately.
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meganeck wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 11:30 pm
WIU2DC wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 8:04 pm
letsgonecks wrote:Looks like Kendon Walker is transferring out. Only appeared in 4 games, so looking to use his redshirt and have 2 years somewhere else.

Could have been a homerun hitter with his speed, but not with this line.
I have a feeling he will be the first of many transfers to come. You only have a few years to compete and try to make it to the NFL. Why waste it on a program, that you are not tied to, and that is playing poorly? (More for the JuCo recruits)


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that's why i think they need to try to rebuild with mainly high school kids and with a minimal use of JUCO and transfers. Seems like they have been relying on JUCOs and transfers a lot more lately.
JUCO transfers can work, especially if you're strong in some areas but need a bit of a boost in others for the short term. Relying on them repeatedly and "long-term" is not a recipe for success. The problem lately though is that it doesn't seem like we've been able to get enough of the kids with "DI talent" to choose to come to Western in the first place to really build a team around. We've gotten some, for sure, but not enough. The number of other DI offers a kid gets can be an indicator. It doesn't always mean anything, we've had great players with no other DI offers, but when it becomes a trend...? If you look at who else offered the kids that chose to go with us, many of them didn't have any other DI offers.

On the recruiting front, we're not beating out our fellow MVFC schools for recruits other than an occasional kid who had an offer from Indiana State...in some cases we're not even beating out some of the better DII schools for recruits. People look at NDSU as the "gold standard" of the FCS (and rightly so...they've had more success than pretty much any team in the history of the subdivision) and how they rarely take in transfers and prefer to build their team around kids they bring in as freshmen. The difference is, the kids they're getting out of HS often have offers from much of the rest of the MVFC, and in some cases MAC and Mountain West schools. They have the talent to play in the MAC, but choose to go to NDSU.

My hope is that a big part of the recruiting difficulties of the last few years is due to the state financial situation and the bad press that followed, and that as things turn around on that front, as well as (hopefully) the enrollment starting to tick back up, recruiting good kids who are solid DI football players will become easier. That's a long process though and it's going to take a few years before we start to see improvement on that front.
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GV Dad
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We have some studs in the last two classes. The RS- Fr and Fr classes. Missed on some JUCOs, but also got some 3x3 and 4x3s as well, so they still have time to develop. Problem is, we have 6 or 7 studs per class, where schools like UNI or ISU are getting 10-15 per class. We need to upgrade the facilities to compete in recruiting. This is where the grad transfers and JUCOs help. We have room for them, where other schools don’t.

What’s killing us now is we missed on a couple JUCOs and transfers on the OL that left us very very young. If we had a couple more upper class men in our line we’d be in much better shape right now. There’s talent there, just not D1 ready yet.
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GV Dad wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 12:02 pm We have some studs in the last two classes. The RS- Fr and Fr classes. Missed on some JUCOs, but also got some 3x3 and 4x3s as well, so they still have time to develop. Problem is, we have 6 or 7 studs per class, where schools like UNI or ISU are getting 10-15 per class. We need to upgrade the facilities to compete in recruiting. This is where the grad transfers and JUCOs help. We have room for them, where other schools don’t.

What’s killing us now is we missed on a couple JUCOs and transfers on the OL that left us very very young. If we had a couple more upper class men in our line we’d be in much better shape right now. There’s talent there, just not D1 ready yet.
Yup...we've got some solid athletes...just not enough of them and they're mostly pretty young. In this week's depth chart (2-deep), the O-Line has 1 senior, 2 juniors, 2 sophomores, 3 redshirt freshmen, and 2 true freshmen. Just for comparison, Illinois State's game notes for this week lists their O-line 2-deep as: 2 seniors, 5 juniors, 2 sophomores, 1 redshirt freshman, 0 true freshmen.

Looking at the number of games that our guys have played, prior to the start of this season, 7 of our 10 2-deep O-line guys had never played a down of DI football before. 2 were JUCO transfers, so they had played some at that level, but that's still half of the guys for whom their last snap prior to the North Alabama game...was in HS. Prior to this year, the total games played at the DI level for all 10 guys....30 (the majority of the games by Austin Hopp and Kyle Sanft).

For comparison, I went back to my "salute to seniors" from 2017 (I forgot to do it last year...sorry). Admittedly, that was a very good and very experienced O-line, but 3 of the starting seniors that year had 40+ games each. James Torgerson had 47 games that he'd played in...that's 11.75 games per eligible year.

Hopefully we can get something going with either the "football building" or the west side stands fairly soon so we have at least something we can show new recruits to help entice them to choose Western, but I hope that the O-line problems this year can just be chalked up to youth and inexperience. I'm sure the players themselves are an order of magnitude more frustrated with how this season has gone so far than we are. I hope they're able to scrape together a win before the end of the season so they have something to hang their hats on.
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rocki
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Hopefully we can get something going with either the "football building" or the west side stands fairly soon so we have at least something we can show new recruits to help entice them to choose Western


I realize this topic is on another page (which hasn't seen any action since August, I checked) but has anyone heard anything from Necksfansince71 or LN57 (been a long time since I've seen him on the boards) about any facilities upgrades, or any independent fundraisers for that? Just curious.
meganeck
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rocki wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:19 pm Hopefully we can get something going with either the "football building" or the west side stands fairly soon so we have at least something we can show new recruits to help entice them to choose Western


I realize this topic is on another page (which hasn't seen any action since August, I checked) but has anyone heard anything from Necksfansince71 or LN57 (been a long time since I've seen him on the boards) about any facilities upgrades, or any independent fundraisers for that? Just curious.
I've asked before but has Danielle, the new Ad, done any interviews or made any statements as to what her vision or hope for the athletic dept is. I don't recall seeing a peep out of her. Yes we definitely need to get something going with improvements to the football facilities.
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rocki wrote: Fri Oct 18, 2019 3:19 pm I realize this topic is on another page (which hasn't seen any action since August, I checked) but has anyone heard anything from Necksfansince71 or LN57 (been a long time since I've seen him on the boards) about any facilities upgrades, or any independent fundraisers for that? Just curious.
71 is around frequently. Last post was last Saturday during the Indiana State game in the game thread: https://www.leathernecknation.net/forum ... 485#p28485

57 pokes around every now and then, but doesn't really post much. I talk to him via text maybe every couple of weeks though and he lets me know his perspective on what's going on.
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