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Najee Clayton to Linebacker

Knight Shift

Knight Shift

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May 19, 2011
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http://www.app.com/story/sports/col...ayton-really-wanted-position-switch/82387868/

Clayton wanted the position switch. He has bulked up to 217 and plans to keep bulking up.
Ash said he’s been “really impressed” with Clayton and proved it by inducting him into the Champions Club – a reward for the best offseason work ethic – before spring practice started.

Interesting note: Clayton’s main competition for playing time on the strong side is former walk-on running back Greg Jones. T.J. Taylor, who missed all of last season with a torn ACL, is getting reps at all three spots.
 
“The way we’re using our SAMs, with all the spread offenses that are out there right now, that guy is kind of a hybrid between a linebacker and a safety,” Niemann said. “So he possesses really good movement skills. And obviously having been a safety, that’s going to serve him well moving into the linebacker spot.’’
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Going to be nice to have a D coach who realizes that we are playing spread teams.
 
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There are so many changes going on between scheme and personel that it is hard to wrap my head around how the team will be. It sounds to me like we will be getting the max out of what we have but it is still a mystery. I imagine it will be just as hard for a team like Washington to prepare for us.
 
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"217? Just looked at the weights of our LB's my Lord we need to get bigger."

Yea it would be nice, but "speed kills" and against spread teams he will be covering receivers more then pile driving with linemen.
Yes B10 teams tend to be running road graders so on those games he is out and a slug LB comes in.
I like the move as I think he would come up short at playing time (this year) in his old position. Even in road grader games he will for sure come in on 2 or 3 and long.
 
Dpgru said:
There are so many changes going on between scheme and personel that it is hard to wrap my head around how the team will be. It sounds to me like we will be getting the max out of what we have but it is still a mystery. I imagine it will be just as hard for a team like Washington to prepare for us.
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Indeed, U-Dub will not know what it's up against. Should make for an interesting game.
 
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imbazza2 said:
"217? Just looked at the weights of our LB's my Lord we need to get bigger."

Yea it would be nice, but "speed kills" and against spread teams he will be covering receivers more then pile driving with linemen.
Yes B10 teams tend to be running road graders so on those games he is out and a slug LB comes in.
I like the move as I think he would come up short at playing time (this year) in his old position. Even in road grader games he will for sure come in on 2 or 3 and long.
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he's a 19 year old kid with 6 months before the season. He can get to 225-230 easy. Ash is making these kids eat and drink like crazy, not as issue.
 
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AreYouNUTS said:
217? Just looked at the weights of our LB's my Lord we need to get bigger.
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First off. Yes!!! We def need to get bigger but..:
217 now will be 222 in the fall. And 222 means a program listed weight for the media of 225-230. Which is just fine
 
Please guys you all sound like Pro scouts (who think they know what they are talking about) this is college ball, big time college ball,yes but still college ball.
It is the size of his heart not a few pounds here or there.

This is one of the reasons I hate Rutgers being in Jersey.
The pedantic pro mentality prevails. I.e. regurgitation of metro sports talk and it does not translate to college ball and every time you spew this pro inferences down to the college level it is like listing to parrots. Really stupid parrots at that
 
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Rokodesh said:
he's a 19 year old kid with 6 months before the season. He can get to 225-230 easy. Ash is making these kids eat and drink like crazy, not as issue.
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"easy"? No, not really, because he'll be outside sweating off weight in August and putting on 13 lbs of muscle, in that time period, is a lot (he's not a OL'men who can have some belly to him..). If he can put on 5 lbs of muscle, for this season, that would be a start. Then you get him up to 230 for the 2017 campaign.
 
RU#1fan said:
:flushed:

Yes, that weight is the avg. weight of Safety's in the B1G.
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You are saying 217 lbs is the AVERAGE weight of safeties in the BIG? I don't think so. In 2012 the average weight for Safeties in D1 was 200 lbs and the average LB was 226 lbs. The BIG is above average for sure but not not 17 lbs bigger than the average.

Looking at the Mich St Roster for 2016 the guys not listed as ILB (OLB or just LB) weigh 228,233,216,235,209,220,210,230,200,223 - avg = 220.4 lbs
guys listed as Safeties weigh 209,185,200,200,220,192,200 - avg = 200.85 lbs
 
Yeah Baby said:
You are saying 217 lbs is the AVERAGE weight of safeties in the BIG? I don't think so. In 2012 the average weight for Safeties in D1 was 200 lbs and the average LB was 226 lbs. The BIG is above average for sure but not not 17 lbs bigger than the average.

Looking at the Mich St Roster for 2016 the guys not listed as ILB (OLB or just LB) weigh 228,233,216,235,209,220,210,230,200,223 - avg = 220.4 lbs
guys listed as Safeties weigh 209,185,200,200,220,192,200 - avg = 200.85 lbs
Click to expand...

If the AVERAGE FBS LB weight is 226 then, as I've been saying for a while now, we've got to get bigger at this position group (and I'm sure the B1G "average" is more than 226...). Plain and simple. We've got 15 listed LB's with 2 over 225, 3 @ 225, and 10 under (many of them WELL under) this weight.
 
Michigan St LB's average 220.4 not counting their ILB's who are in the 230 range. We are light there because we are young there but yes, we do need to get bigger at LB.
 
Yeah Baby said:
Michigan St LB's average 220.4 not counting their ILB's who are in the 230 range. We are light there because we are young there but yes, we do need to get bigger at LB.
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You don't get to "pick and choose" which LB's you put into the average lol...com'on now!
 
As long as we are getting bigger and faster at the same time we are moving in the right direction. I will gladly let the rest of you argue about the numbers. I am happy that it appears we have a staff that is recognizing the problem and working hard to fix it.
 
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NorthNJRUFan said:
First off. Yes!!! We def need to get bigger but..:
217 now will be 222 in the fall. And 222 means a program listed weight for the media of 225-230. Which is just fine
Click to expand...
If he gets over 220 he will be bigger than many BIG OLB's. I think he needs time to get to 230 lbs but we will, soon find out.
 
I like when a linebacker has some DB experience - it will show up at some point in the coverage game.

Congrats to Najee for turning heads, a lot of people back home in Paterson are really pulling for him to succeed.
 
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SouthJerseyRU said:
Going to be nice to have a D coach who realizes that we are playing spread teams.
Click to expand...


I agree but would like to take it a step further. It's nice to have a defensive staff that appears to be willing to game plan and prepare for whatever the opposition will be doing. Flood always seemed to say here's what we do on off and def - we are not changing - come and get us. I really believe this staff will have multiple formations and packages on both offense and defense and will make adjustments, attack what they believe to be weaknesses, and use the personnel they believe best fits the situation.
 
The article today says he is already at 220 lbs and it is a LB/S Hybrid position. The guy he will emulate from OSU (early first round projection) weighs only 228 lbs.today and came to OSU at 195 lbs. Clayton will be fine.
 
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Yeah Baby said:
The article today says he is already at 220 lbs and it is a LB/S Hybrid position. The guy he will emulate from OSU (early first round projection) weighs only 228 lbs.today and came to OSU at 195 lbs. Clayton will be fine.
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So he added 3 lbs since Monday? Impressive!
 
Would be great if we had two guys like Najee. He's gonna have a great season. Can't believe Flood burned his redshirt.

Not crazy about moving Cioffi to strong safety. He's a guy that makes plays on the ball while it's in the air. I don't think his strong suit is run support. I see Cioffi has more of a Nickel/Dime Guy.
 
El Curioso Impertinente said:
Would be great if we had two guys like Najee. He's gonna have a great season. Can't believe Flood burned his redshirt.

Not crazy about moving Cioffi to strong safety. He's a guy that makes plays on the ball while it's in the air. I don't think his strong suit is run support. I see Cioffi has more of a Nickel/Dime Guy.
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Cioffi has great ball instincts and can hit. He's also pretty quick. If his body can support the workload at SS, he'll be an asset.
 
RU#1fan said:
:flushed:

Yes, that weight is the avg. weight of Safety's in the B1G.
Click to expand...

Looked up the average weight of 4 of the top Safeties in the B1G. Caputo (Wisc), Powell (OSU), Bell (OSU), and Peppers (Mich). Avg weight is 203 so 217 isn't even in the same ballpark.

As a matter of fact, Bell came into the combine at 199 while his program weight is 205.

Rutgers LB's especially MLB are definitely on the light side, OSU for example avg'd 240+ with their MLB 254.
 
knightfan7 said:
Looked up the average weight of 4 of the top Safeties in the B1G. Caputo (Wisc), Powell (OSU), Bell (OSU), and Peppers (Mich). Avg weight is 203 so 217 isn't even in the same ballpark.

As a matter of fact, Bell came into the combine at 199 while his program weight is 205.

Rutgers LB's especially MLB are definitely on the light side, OSU for example avg'd 240+ with their MLB 254.
Click to expand...
Exactly
 
Some of you are going to lose your board cred. The initial article said he has gained 17 lbs and is up to 220 lbs. LOL. I don't mind certain posters busting my chops but get it right at least.
 
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Yeah Baby said:
You are saying 217 lbs is the AVERAGE weight of safeties in the BIG? I don't think so. In 2012 the average weight for Safeties in D1 was 200 lbs and the average LB was 226 lbs. The BIG is above average for sure but not not 17 lbs bigger than the average.

Looking at the Mich St Roster for 2016 the guys not listed as ILB (OLB or just LB) weigh 228,233,216,235,209,220,210,230,200,223 - avg = 220.4 lbs
guys listed as Safeties weigh 209,185,200,200,220,192,200 - avg = 200.85 lbs
Click to expand...

The University of Michigan starting LBs Bolden and Morgan are 236 lbs and 232 lbs. respectively. I am sure OSU are just as big.
217 is not going to cut for us in the B1G. Must get bigger .
 
RU#1fan said:
The University of Michigan starting LBs Bolden and Morgan are 236 lbs and 232 lbs. respectively. I am sure OSU are just as big.
217 is not going to cut for us in the B1G. Must get bigger .
Click to expand...
I think you missed a lot of the comments above. He is 220 lbs and is playing a Hybrid LB/S position that he can play at his current size just like other LB's in the BIG. Clayton is fine.

You are thinking about the MIke and maybe the Will LB's who ideally should be in the 230's. Probably the high 230's. According to Scarletknights.com we have a few guys who are fighting to start listed in the low 230's. We're not that far away. But yeah, a 245 MLB who can move is nice to have.
 
Last edited:
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Bump due to new heights and weights on SK.com. Still think we are okay size wise.
 
You can tell Clayton has gotten bigger. He looks huge!

11234010.jpeg
 
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