As we all clamor for freshmen to play, here's a long but telling quote from Pat Narduzzi that shows how strongly he feels about making sure you get the most out of any freshman who plays:
"Some people have the philosophy that, hey, use them and don’t worry about it because, who knows? They might leave you in three years anyway. I hate to look at it that way. They spent a lot of time getting to where they are, and being on scholarship or not, we don’t want to, you know, I want to use them the right way. Even like a Amir Watts; he’s not playing enough and I feel guilty as a coach. We started playing him thinking he was going to get better. He’s kind of, just kind of hung around and not done as well in practice. I feel like it’s his fault and my fault; I feel like I’m at fault when a guy doesn’t progress. You see it and you go, okay, he’s going to keep getting better and by game five he’s going to be on fire, he’s going to get 25 snaps. I want him to get more snaps, but he’s also got to do it in practice, so you feel bad. I don’t want to do that to someone else either. They have to be flat-out better than the guys we’re playing with, right now, guaranteed, before we put a guy out there and all of a sudden go, ‘Ooh, that’s not what we wanted.’
"We were very careful with Maurice Ffrench, and I wasn’t happy with the reps he got - I think four snaps in his first game two weeks ago. I wanted him to have 10 or 12. If we’re going to put him in there, we have to use him. If we get major injuries, there’s no question. But our philosophy is to protect our kids and make sure that - I want them to be playing a lot. It’s tough when you’re not playing a lot and we’re using your redshirt. It’s not fun. And it’s not fair."
"Some people have the philosophy that, hey, use them and don’t worry about it because, who knows? They might leave you in three years anyway. I hate to look at it that way. They spent a lot of time getting to where they are, and being on scholarship or not, we don’t want to, you know, I want to use them the right way. Even like a Amir Watts; he’s not playing enough and I feel guilty as a coach. We started playing him thinking he was going to get better. He’s kind of, just kind of hung around and not done as well in practice. I feel like it’s his fault and my fault; I feel like I’m at fault when a guy doesn’t progress. You see it and you go, okay, he’s going to keep getting better and by game five he’s going to be on fire, he’s going to get 25 snaps. I want him to get more snaps, but he’s also got to do it in practice, so you feel bad. I don’t want to do that to someone else either. They have to be flat-out better than the guys we’re playing with, right now, guaranteed, before we put a guy out there and all of a sudden go, ‘Ooh, that’s not what we wanted.’
"We were very careful with Maurice Ffrench, and I wasn’t happy with the reps he got - I think four snaps in his first game two weeks ago. I wanted him to have 10 or 12. If we’re going to put him in there, we have to use him. If we get major injuries, there’s no question. But our philosophy is to protect our kids and make sure that - I want them to be playing a lot. It’s tough when you’re not playing a lot and we’re using your redshirt. It’s not fun. And it’s not fair."
