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S Vonn Bell (All B1G, All-American, National Champion, Cincinnati Bengals)

Truthfully, if he can't crack the lineup over some of the people that have been playing back there, I think it's a legitimate concern freshman or not.
He's been practicing with this team for 2 months. Your concern is extremely premature.
The fact than another freshman is starting on the DL, where the talent is deeper, makes me believe his lack of playing time has nothing to do with his age.
The DL is not deep and Joey Bosa is a freak for his age. Vonn on the other hand is a typical undersized freshman.
 
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Truthfully, if he can't crack the lineup over some of the people that have been playing back there, I think it's a legitimate concern freshman or not. The fact than another freshman is starting on the DL, where the talent is deeper, makes me believe his lack of playing time has nothing to do with his age. That being said, coming out of the bye, I expect that he will be rotating, if not starting in place of Corey Brown. The idea that the defense somehow can't live with his freshman mistakes is laughable to me since it's been an essential track meet back there with upperclassmen back occupying every spot on the two-deep all season.

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He's been practicing with this team for 2 months. Your concern is extremely premature.
The DL is not deep and Joey Bosa is a freak for his age. Vonn on the other hand is a typical undersized freshman.

The concern I expressed is not meant to be an indictment of his long-term potential. I'm just saying that since (1) there's no inherent opposition to playing freshmen and (2) the competition at the position is shaky and there is no possible way he can yield more big plays than those already on the field, I can't see why he wouldn't be able to secure solid minutes coming off a bye week and heading into a stretch of bad conference games.
 
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The concern I expressed is not meant to be an indictment of his long-term potential. I'm just saying that since (1) there's no inherent opposition to playing freshmen and (2) the competition at the position is shaky and there is no possible way he can yield more big plays than those already on the field, I can't see why he wouldn't be able to secure solid minutes coming off a bye week and heading into a stretch of bad conference games.
Then we're probably pretty close. I think it was definitely an indictment of the position in september. I hope he or someone else can step in and provide some help for the stretch run. Bryant was the lone bright spot at the safety position (though Barnett had a few pretty good weeks in a row), but the star and backup safeties have had a rough go of it so far.
 
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He's been practicing with this team for 2 months. Your concern is extremely premature.
The DL is not deep and Joey Bosa is a freak for his age. Vonn on the other hand is a typical undersized freshman.

To further this point - the cerebral differences between a freshman and an upper-classmen at safety would be the deciding factor. Physical stature 2nd place.

Knowing the defensive scheme, making secondary checks and calls, understanding not only your responsibilities but the other DB's and linebackers. Then a attempting to digest the speed of the game doesn't happen much for any frosh safety.

This as opposed to playing Dline, which requires a temper and maintaining your gap assignment - hopefully that helps clarify why even some of the very best safety recruits don't see bundles of playing time.
 
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NCAA 24th ranked scoring allowed defense. Not horrible. Michigan State is ranked 7th. A lot of Big Ten teams ranked in defensive scoring. So, either that's a sign of good defenses or bad offenses.
We know that MSU has a horrible offense so make of these stats what you will.
On Special Teams, Bell is having an impact. At least we're getting something from his freshman year. He'll be needed to step up/step in next year.
 
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NCAA 24th ranked scoring allowed defense. Not horrible. Michigan State is ranked 7th. A lot of Big Ten teams ranked in defensive scoring. So, either that's a sign of good defenses or bad offenses.
We know that MSU has a horrible offense so make of these stats what you will.
On Special Teams, Bell is having an impact. At least we're getting something from his freshman year. He'll be needed to step up/step in next year.


Due to Bryant's injury, we can't really afford to wait until next year. He's not needed this year, but I haven't seen many other safeties take over the vacant spot and make their presence felt. Brown has the spot by default because of seniority, not based solely on talent
 
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I remeber hearing/reading a quote from Tom Herman the other day that went something along the lines of "most of the stuff said on message boards is never even discussed inside coaches meetings."


That's a lie.

I guarantee you they talk about what a fat bastard Hoke is, how bad scUM sucks and what a complete douchebag Bert is.
 
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