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“Yeti RB Situation: Where’s Luke Tiernan” - $750,000 bonus - must have interview with Tiernan - June 18
1,791 words
[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Where is Luke Tiernan?
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[div align=\\\"center\\\"]Only being two weeks into the inaugural regular season of the NSFL there are certainly a lot of controversies. With many being so close in talent level and development not everyone has a guaranteed starting spot, worthy performance or not. Even the highly touted prospect, former Rugby star out of Ireland and current Colorado Yeti RB Luke Tiernan. Despite being the second running back to be drafted in NSFL history and the first taken by the Yeti he has been playing the back up role quite heavily. The man dubbed "LT(lieutenant)Smash" found room to shine in the Preseason, taking 14 carries less than his rival turned teammate Kiernan O'Connell but averaging 4.8 YPC to O'Connells 4.0. YPC. Neither of them got in for a touchdown and though largely splitting reps in the backfield they both managed to rake in some decent yardage with O'Connell racking up a total of 236 yards and Tiernan close behind with 222 yards. A stellar Preseason battle from both men leaving a tough choice for the head office of Colorado.
However to the surprise of many in the NSFL and possibly even Tiernan himself they are both playing back up roles. Opting to go with Boss Tweed as their Number 1 and alternating the supplementary spot weekly between the former two. Thus far it has been successful with Tweed and O'Connell bringing in a combined 179 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns in the Week 1 win against the Baltimore Hawks. Tiernan finally did get his shot in the Week 2 win against the Yellowknife Wraiths but, received less than half of the amount of carries his counter parts did with 7 carries for 23 yards. However the run game was pulled back a bit in comparison to the prior week with Tweed and Tiernan running a total of 93 yards and no touchdowns on 13 less attempts.
What caused them to make a decision like this? Was Tweed going to be their guy all along? Did Tiernan get on the wrong side of management or does it have something to do with the recent tragic passing of Luke Tiernans father? Not to mention the the rumors out of Europe regarding an early return to Rugby. Luckily for us we were able to sit down with the man himself and clear the air.[/div]
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"First off Luke I want to thank you for meeting with us. I know its been a very tough week and everyone here at NFSLN wants to wish you and your family well."
LT - "No problem, life moves on."
"To start, Are you surprised with the role you've been given in Colorado?"
LT - "Truthfully, I am a little surprised about my position on the depth chart. Coming in as a high draft pick I dont feel I was complacent but I did feel that I was going to be starting atop the depth chart at RB.. I saw a team setup to have a dominant run game tailer made to how I play the game, but even in preseason I was playing a RB2 role
Even with that I felt I did well when I got the ball, and in my head I did think I had had done enough to earn a decent amount of game time, but look, I am smart enough to know that our GMs know more about this game than I do, so I am not complaining."
"Also,, hats off to Boss Tweed and Kieran O'Connell, they are both great guys that put a hell of a shift in everyday at training and you can hardly fault how they played in the opener.
As I have said since day one, the interests of the Yeti will always come before my own, I was happy to get my pancake block in when I finally got on the field and rest assured I am working harder than ever to ensure that I will do everyone proud should the moment come that I am seeing the ball come my way."
"Do you have any insight as to why you have been moved towards the bottom of the depth chart?"
LT - "No idea, I mean I know they appreciate Boss' work ethic but I honestly feel he is just trying to match me in the effort I put in.
"As I said before I have nothing but respect and admiration for my team mates."
"Is there at all the possibility of starting in the full back position? Is that something you would be open for?"
LT - "Well currently FB spot is split between Kieran O'Connell and myself. He takes the position in the i-formation and I do in pro set. Look, i'm happy to play where the team wants me to play. I just really feel that RB is my position, I have had 7 regular season carries and just haven't been given the opportunity to show what I can do.
But hey, as I've said, I'm willing to wait, and once the team is winning then that is all that really matters."
"You and O'Connell have had quite a few heated spats on Twitter before the draft. How hard was it to bury the hatchet and work together while still competing for a spot after all of that?"
LT - "Certainly for me it wasn't hard at all, to me the whole twitter thing was just harmless jostling. I get on great with Kieran, I just hope he doesn't change now there is a bit of added competition with Boss currently picking up the majority of the carries."
"Boss Tweed seemed to come out of nowhere to go straight into the starting Job would you care to suggest as why this was the case?"
LT - "To be honest I don't know, perhaps team management already had their mind made up and felt that they didn't need to play Boss in the pre-season games, I don't know - it certainly wasn't communicated to me.
But I've got nothing but love for Boss, he's been playing great over the past couple of games, and you aren't going to hear me say a bad word about the guy. He works hard day in day out - a consummate professional."
"Now as you stated you have a ton of respect for your team. If it comes down to sitting and waiting. How long can you stay content on the bench? Do you ever see yourself requesting a trade?"
LT - "It's far too early in the season to be talking about trades. I'm still delighted to be part of such an organisation and more than willing to keep my head down, keep working hard and hopefully showing off my skill set when the time comes to it."
"At the same time, should the opportunity crop up whereby a team wants me to be their feature back, it'd be foolish for me to not even look at such an offer."
"In terms of overall team philosophy, Yeti are 2-0 but they've surprised a lot of people with their playing strategy, throwing a lot more than envisaged. Any comment?"
LT - "Sure, I was surprised at the amount we are throwing the ball, we have arguably the best running back core and an absolute beast of a run blocker in Bender Rodriguez, but again, you can't argue with results. 2-0 is 2-0."
"Some rumors coming out of Europe have suggested that you might make a return to rugby sooner rather than later, and that your NFSL career is short lived."
LT - "That's news to me to be honest, I am committed to the game of American Football and committed to the Yeti."
We were able to reach out to Colorados head GM Incitehysteria for some insight on the matter
"Obviously you have a ton of talent in the backfield. What led to the decision to run with Tweed as RB1 with O'Connell and Tiernan playing the more supplementary role?"
IH - "I am trying to get us a 3 headed monster here. I would like to get everyone a chance to play. Someone might separate themself at the moment. But right now Tweed looks to be the frontrunner. But I still really love Tiernan and O'Connell. I just feel like what is best for the Yeti at the moment is trying to get everyone a chance to play. We might have a couple come out heads and shoulders ahead of the others. But right now, it's tough!"
[div align=\\\"center\\\"]All in all things are going well in Colorado. They are the only undefeated team and on top of that they're leading in rushing yards with a total of 272 yards and 4.5 YPC. Quite a hefty amount for only two games and these were against what some folks would say are the more formidable defenses in the league. It will be interesting to see how they perform against a weaker front line. However they have 3 studs in the backfield and, while I agree its an effective strategy, its hard to say how long starting caliber players will settle for backup roles. Some feel GMs risk losing them to possible expansion teams and there's always the chance of a player losing hope or, interest and, mentally checking out. Though after the long talk with Tiernan today I don't feel the latter is going to be an issue for him.
This was always going to be a risk heading into the draft for QBs and RBs. We had a lot of talented players in these positions but, so few teams really needed them. When everyone is at such a close level of talent tough decisions have to be made and they may not make sense to anyone on the outside or maybe even some members of the team. Someone has to lead in this position and the others gotta back him up. I think the head office over at Colorado has handled things on the field the best way possible by letting all of the stars get their time. But maybe communication in the LR is lacking. Though this is just an outsiders perspective and should be taken with a grain of salt. By no means do I have nearly half the details.
I think our man Lt Smash has a bright future ahead of him whether he has to show what he can do through his back up role or if another team gives him that chance as their main guy. He is going to put up numbers and terrorize defenses for seasons to come that i'm quite sure you can count on that. This guy was the second RB taken off the board for a reason folks if anything these past few weeks put a nice big chip on his shoulder. So watch out.[/div]
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[div align=center]NSFLS INAUGURAL JOKE POPE
(September 12th 2017 - September 12th 2017)
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[div align=center]NSFLS INAUGURAL JOKE POPE
(September 12th 2017 - September 12th 2017)
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