I don’t know it’s necessarily a hot take, but I am more dubious on Barthel compared to other assistants like those on the Defensive staff. If we are only going to (inexplicably) only take one RB/year, as seems to be the current MO, Barthel’s recruiting leaves a bit to be desired. We scrambled last year to get an unranked Ives (despite multiple UConn RB’s in the portal), and we are scrambling this year for a plan B after the Lacy de-commit. Feels very Verduzco-ish with our QB recruiting under Frost.
Barthel also ran off AJ Allen and is known to be a bit of a hard-ass, which is fine, but you’d then expect our RB’s to play more disciplined. He got dealt a tough hand with injuries this year, but he’s also been questionable at managing the RB rotation at key times and has not yet solved some of the fumble problems his backs have had this year.
All in all, I am hopeful he will develop, but I’m cautiously watching to see. He has unquestionably developed E. Johnson so that is a definitive positive.