Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now: Jacody Coleman

(If, god forbid, you don't get the reference in the headline.)

We got a bit of a scare earlier when we found out that backup MLB Jacody Coleman, who had played extensively in 2007 as a true freshman, had decided to transfer after Pat Angerer had beaten him out for the spot (and put a stranglehold on it for 2009). It sort of made sense; it's not fun to stick around a team after you get demoted, regardless of whether it's merited.

But at the same time, he can choose to not play this season at all (which, let's be clear about this, SUCKS) and then play two seasons at some brand new school, play this season and next at a I-AA school (he's got a redshirt season to burn on a transfer, but that won't affect his "junior" status either way), or he can choose to barely play again this season and then--ostensibly--have one last season at the top of Iowa's depth chart.

OR, as Iowa's coaches have apparently convinced Coleman to do (check out that thread, specifically where Blair breaks the good news and the tone of the thread changes substantially), he can spend that redshirt/transfer year at Iowa, then use his last two seasons of eligibilty as the early favorite to start at MLB. So that's apparently what happened, which--if true--is great news for the program (especially since he was a member of the influential Leadership Council in 2008).

Why are we adamant that this is great news? Let's take the wayback machine to 2007; what if we'd told you this?

It looks like Pat Angerer is leaving the program. He didn't play much, he's had a history of injuries, and word around the program is that he's partying too much instead of focusing on football. He's not a 2-deep mainstay and wasn't projected to be a major loss. Next man in.

Honestly, nobody would have flinched at that 15 months ago; as a matter of fact, I halfway expected Angerer to leave the program. Attitudes change with playing time. It happens.

But a program like Iowa can't just keep bleeding 2-year veterans who haven't had a lot of playing time, replacing them with freshmen, and expecting Iowa to compete at high level. Doing so requires depth and experience, two things most freshmen just can't provide; no offense to the incoming kids or anything, but I'd say about 3-5 of them will play this season, and something would be wrong if that number rose.

So we'll see where the Coleman situation ends up, but for now, we're content to keep holding his #55 jersey. And again, that'll probably end up being a better thing than is immediately apparent right now.