Hindsight is 20/20.
There's no way Golden would've offered a 5'7" Linebacker anyways. And I'm sure if he had this board likely would've lost their minds.
Just cause he excelled at Tulane doesn't mean he was an ACC caliber Linebacker. He's only getting a look from Washington. If he does end up making the roster it would be somewhat of an anomaly.
I rag on Golden for his poor evaluations all the time but I wouldn't blame him for this one.
It's not just a look. It's not a tryout. And even if it was, he is performing well in camp, and performance is the only measure that matters. If he keeps performing, Washington will not cut him.
And there have been PLENTY of people who criticized Golden for being too particular with height-and-weight metrics about recruits who got offers. There are always debates about whether Ray Lewis III or Jeff James deserved offers, but nobody "lost their minds".
Finally, people can slag Tulane all they want, sure the "competition level" isn't the same, but people tend to forget that talent levels are inconsistent too, and when a guy on a lesser team still plays at a high level, it means something. The fact that Nico had great production at Tulane when he was clearly the best player on defense, and thus was often game-planned for and/or double-teamed, is something that often translates even at the NFL level. Plenty of great NFL players came from non-Power-Five programs.
Quality is quality.
LOL. How do you know he was game-planned for and double-teamed? You have game film?
C'mon dude. Don't just make-up asinine stuff to try and prove a point.
Like I said, a 5'7" Linebacker who happened to do well at Tulane University and earn a look from the Washington Redskins is an anomaly, not a miss-evaluation. There's a hundred other D1 colleges that didn't think he was worthy of an offer as well.
Yeah, you're right, opposing teams NEVER prepare a game-plan to neutralize the top tackler on the defense they're trying to score on. Yep, they just line up the starting 11 offensive players and hope for the best, like Randy Shannon.
Well, at least I see you're flipping your opinion now.
Again, my desire to have had Nico play at UM is not based on the concept that Golden "missed" on an evaluation, or that Nico would have been a 4-year starter. It is based on the fact that his father represented the underdog mentality that many of the greatest Canes had, and I feel like that spirit is worth TAKING A CHANCE ON. not every risk pays off, and as I pointed out, UM never stood in the way of Ray Lewis III or Jeff James leaving.
But good lord, if you can take a chance on some of the 2 and 3 star kids that Golden signed, then you can certainly take a chance on a UM legacy BEFORE another kid who is an unknown quantity.
What people have a problem with is when coaches use arbitrary metrics AND WON'T EVEN RECRUIT A KID. That does not mean that every undersized kid will become the next Tyrann Mathieu, I only used him as an example to PROVE that, at his height, IT IS POSSIBLE to excel in college AND the NFL level.
Tyrann Mathieu is just evidence that metrics, while helpful, are not a barrier to success, if the player works hard enough and develops.
Seriously, man, it's like some people on this board cannot grasp simple argumentative logic and sentence structure.
I never guaranteed that Nico Marley would succeed at UM, or at Washington, I merely stated that I wished Golden would have recruited and signed him.
Nico's subsequent success is just him showing off his heart and talent, which would have been great attributes to bring to UM, even if Golden and D'Onofrio were going to coach us to .500 anyhow.
