Saturday, February 9, 2013
Hoosiers coach says freshmen will play
By Vince Verhei
Some coaches like to sit freshmen on the bench and let them adjust to college life before putting them on the field. Not Indiana's Kevin Wilson. The Hoosiers boss tells ESPN.com Big Ten blogger Brian Bennett why he likes to play his youngsters as much as possible.
"These recruits coming in, their skill set may be better than the guys in front of them," Wilson said. "Now the guys in front of them are older, we've been coaching them and developing them and they might be farther along. But the starting points of some of these recruits are higher maybe than previous years with guys that play. So I believe in competition. I believe in the more we can get that environment going where you're fighting to get on the field, and we like to play multiple guys on offense and defense with as fast as we play.
"When you don't play games, it can be a negative. Man, these kids make such a big commitment, in any program. It's year-round training. So, yeah, a guy might be better five years down the road, but sometimes you lose kids and they don't develop right if you don't get them on the field. You get one more year if you redshirt them, but once they play in that game I think the winter workouts, the summer workouts are a lot more positive. We haven't promised any of these guys that they'll play, but I bet you''ll see a bunch of them out there in the fall."
