You always hear about a lot of our best prospects "protecting their draft stock"

I know this isn't exclusive to A&M, but it seems like the good guys suffer quite a bit with this. Players "taking plays off" as their college career winds down.

Are incentives an answer? Bonuses for big plays.

How do other programs keep their guys playing hard?

You have to be a bot.

Stop touching yourself, OP. It's the only way.

20ag07 said:

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You have to be a bot.

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My robotic mind immediately thinks of 2010 when A&M had a future Top 2 Draft Pick and Butkus Award winner named Von Miller.

He played in the bowl game against LSU. Risking his "Draft Stock" in the process.

Fast forward to the present and our 3 best D-Line players all opt out in the bowl game against USCw

Why is your robotic mind thinking about 2010 in Feb of 2025?

There is no answer.

If you were a brighter bulb you'd realize that I was comparing something to the present.

ETA: I'm not getting into the mud with you over nonsense. You're adding nothing to the topic but passive aggressive insults.

The real question is why would you think it would matter?

We could throw the 85 Bears out there on Kyle field and they'll go 8-4

LETTUCE PRAY said:

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You always hear about a lot of our best prospects "protecting their draft stock"

I know this isn't exclusive to A&M, but it seems like the good guys suffer quite a bit with this. Players "taking plays off" as their college career winds down.

Are incentives an answer? Bonuses for big plays.

How do other programs keep their guys playing hard?

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Is this real? Why would anyone take plays off wanting to go to NFL and draft eligible? The tape is the resume

LETTUCE PRAY said:

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20ag07 said:

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You have to be a bot.

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My robotic mind immediately thinks of 2010 when A&M had a future Top 2 Draft Pick and Butkus Award winner named Von Miller.

He played in the bowl game against LSU. Risking his "Draft Stock" in the process.

Fast forward to the present and our 3 best D-Line players all opt out in the bowl game against USCw

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Because all college players do this now. No one risk injury for a meaningless game. Have you been out of the country last 10 years?

montanagriz said:

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Is this real? Why would anyone take plays off wanting to go to NFL and draft eligible? The tape is the resume

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Ahhh, this is the part where you tell me to not believe my lying eyes.

You really don't think that some blue chip prospects take plays off as they near the end of their college careers? It happens all the time. You don't need to keep adding tape once enough has been established. Especially when you have the Combine and your Pro Day to showcase more of your skillset. I personally think Scourton faded on purpose at the tail end of this season.

I think you're being naive.

Quote:

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Because all college players do this now. No one risk injury for a meaningless game. Have you been out of the country last 10 years?

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In your first reply you laugh at the notion of players taking plays off and then in your second reply you acknowledge that players are generally more prone these days to opt out of meaningless bowl games. Do you not see the trend?

Btw: Elko didn't seem to think that game was meaningless in his post game presser. Fans on here didn't either. Haters on others sites sure didn't. Did you not care when A&M lost?

In the age of NIL maybe we should pony up a few bucks to get guys to play in these "meaningless games"

It would have been nice to hit 9 wins for once.

Prestige and all.

You can pony up all the dollars you'd like to backload a NIL contract.

(My highly logical guess is that you aren't ponying up much of anything at all.)

The fact of the matter is, unless the market backloads NIL deals to meaningless bowl games, A&M can't either. Because Ole Miss, TX, whoever else were competing with have deals that don't include that.

So unless you're buying it yourself, you're just waxing poetic.

the best way to keep players engaged and playing hard all season is to win. if your playing for a championship players play and risk injury.

there will always be Me players that don't care either way but for the most part winning will stop this issue.

We were playing for an SEC title appearance until our last regular season game ended. None of the players were "protecting their draft stock" by intentionally taking plays off.

With regard to the bowl game, there is no reason why those guys should play in a glorified scrimmage. If they start opting out of playoff games, then yeah I'll agree it's a problem.