Jeff Schwartz

And I think to Wayne's call, as soon as you say he's in Lafayette, you know that's a guy who's been watching a lot of Purdue football, saw the excellence of Dylan Thienemann.

Now the freshman year, he burst onto the scene, had a bunch of interceptions, and showed what a ball hawk that he was.

The sophomore year, he did struggle a little bit just making the transition, operating down in the box a bit more, folks having film on Dylan Thienemann, recognizing, all right,

That's the guy who can make a bunch of plays on the back end of their defense.

Let's kind of disguise a few things.

Let's use motion.

Let's throw away from him.

So Ryan Walters, his head coach and defensive coordinator in a lot of ways, was sort of finding different ways to move Dylan Thieneman around.

But then, you know, he's not surrounded by the same type of talent and pass rush and everything at Purdue.

Numbers dip as a sophomore.

But he was still getting a lot of that on the field, in-game experience, and being accustomed to now opponents game planning for him.

Nobody was game-planning for Dylan Thienemann during his freshman season.

Then you get to that sophomore year, and folks are saying, that's the best player.

That's the guy who, if we're going to beat Purdue, we've got to make sure that guy doesn't keep them in the game.

Got game-planned for his sophomore year.

Then he makes the transition, transfers out to Oregon, and is one of the best defensive players on one of the best defenses for one of the best teams in college football this past season.

So it's good that he's been through a few different versions of nationality.

Not only success, but that sophomore season, you can view that as some struggles that he had as well during that time at Purdue.

Then he goes out to Eugene and is one of the splash players for one of the splash football teams in college football.

I would say that day two safety, the Bears certainly could have gotten a guy who had the potential to step in as a starter, especially because that safety opposite Kobe Bryant is somewhat of a void right now.