O-line recruiting

[HiltonHeadVol]

The line play last game was atrocious. Hopefully that was just an anomaly.

As I already stated, Heup's loyalty may be the thing that starts to heat up a seat. The BEST one can hope for is to call CGE asst. head coach (I believe he is now) but letting him hand off the OLine duties to a new (from outside the program) OLine 'up and comer' to interject life into a position group that has been woefully weak for many many years. The other thing is to see how in the world Huep defends the 3/4 man defensive front with roving LB's and safeties used to confuse Nico. I have said for two years, these very sharp Def Coord. around the SEC WILL come up with a plan to hamstring our O and its up to Huep to match that. Problem is, when trying to "hide" poor O tackles one has fewer options. Napier is not a bad schemer at all and in fact some would argue he out-coached Heup last time in Neyland, and certainly did last year in G'ville. So tomorrow is just huge for this team and program.

 

[Tnphil]

Fulmer did that consistently and had really good lines. Heard looks slow.. I hope that was just conditioning because he got beat repeatedly. I'd put Davis back in if that is what we're going to get from him. UF gets a free run or two from that side Saturday i'd yank his azz.

I heard Schnellenberger say when he was coaching at Miami....' I never recruit offensive linemen. I recruit defensive linemen and the ones I didn't want on defense I made them o linemen.'

 

[BucksnortVol]

Guess getting the number one offensive lineman in this years class is meaningless, lol.

He's still playing for his high school team in North Carolina. OP's point is not just about recruiting alone, but development and retention too.

 

[vavolfan6]

The OLine had a very bad game vs Arkansas, but I don't think they are as bad as the reaction has been from that game this week.

Facing a juiced up conference opponent, at night, in their home stadium, can expose the best players. And Landon Jackson did that all night against us.

I think the coaching staff will adjust. They need to get the passing game in rythm. In the past we have been able to neutralize the pass rush with our tempo. But we have to be on schedule. We have to convert first downs. There needs to be more intermediate plays. The scheme and playcalling is the best way to protect an under talented OLine. I don't think we are as hopeless as some make us out to be.

 

[HiltonHeadVol]

Not meaningless. In fact, it's huge. However, it's going to take more than one blue chipper to compete on a consistent basis. Hopefully that improve going forward.

Exactly correct BOR and losing the Vegas guy to Oregon really stung because it is depth with quality that matters most. The O line once again was poor against Fla and in fact had Billy N gone for two at end of regulation, my feeling was "Fla wins". I thank the Lord we got the W but this team would appear to have very little sustainability going forward. Poor fundamentals and not being in "quick no-huddle condition" to wear down defenses is just killing us. Very hard to hide poor tackles in this scheme especially if you cannot go fast fast. How someone was not specifically assigned in offseason to monitor conditioning and diet on all our O tackles (almost each one is overweight with bad weight - not efficient weight) is a mystery to me.

 

[valoisvol]

Let me make an observation which could be wrong. I think lack of recruiting for those classes is related to the NCAA sanctions which are still in effect BTW.

IMO, Heupel had to prioritize positional recruiting based on positional needs when he came in based on what was left over from the Pruitt rosters and the reductions he was hit with by NCAA. Appears OL was where they had to reduce. Perhaps they were thinking they could back fill in the future from the portal. But portal is more immediate help and at some point will catch up with you from a developmental standpoint. That is if you lean on portal in one position group. They have brought in 7 portal OL in that period but only 3 have seen any sort of time playing. So they haven't found the fits if that was the plan.

Short answer, I believe OL recruiting was impacted by NCAA sanctions. Doesn't mean I'm right but that would be my observation.

I think that’s a stretch. We have ~ 20 guys on Oline. I think at UT, you should be able to get 5 guys that can play at a high level

 

[titansvolsfaninga]

A lot of our offensive woes go back to recruiting. The current O-line has 2 from class of '20 and 3 portal guys. There are no o-linemen on roster from class of '21. There are only 2 left from class of '22. Those 2 came in undersized at around 270ish and are buried on the depth chart. The '23 class looks better with Sham, Lang, and Johnson. '24 class looks promising and '25 looks good with Sanders and others. It will take some more time for these players to get ready for SEC play. If there isn't improvement in their development by end of next year, CJH will need to make a tough decision on Ellerbee. So far the portal players brought in have been disappointing. You miss out on 2 years of recruiting o-linemen like the Vols have it really sets back the program.

Oline development takes time. It is painfully obvious that a lot of fans don't understand football development. Not many OL recruits come in and start right away, and are effective. The ones that do, are few and far in between. Darnell Wright is the only one that we've had recently. Most times, they're not ready to start until Sophmores or Juniors.

 

[titansvolsfaninga]

Exactly correct BOR and losing the Vegas guy to Oregon really stung because it is depth with quality that matters most. The O line once again was poor against Fla and in fact had Billy N gone for two at end of regulation, my feeling was "Fla wins". I thank the Lord we got the W but this team would appear to have very little sustainability going forward. Poor fundamentals and not being in "quick no-huddle condition" to wear down defenses is just killing us. Very hard to hide poor tackles in this scheme especially if you cannot go fast fast. How someone was not specifically assigned in offseason to monitor conditioning and diet on all our O tackles (almost each one is overweight with bad weight - not efficient weight) is a mystery to me.

"IF"

 

[LWSVOL]

I think that’s a stretch. We have ~ 20 guys on Oline. I think at UT, you should be able to get 5 guys that can play at a high level

the numbers for those 20 are 6 seniors, 4 sophomores and 10 freshman. Not many freshman and sophomores play SEC football at a high level in the SEC. There are some, but the numbers are small.

Heard is a perfect example of a sophomore and a 5 star on top of that. He has had limited experience starting in the SEC, Florida being his 3rd start in 2 years. Of course, he has missed a lot of practice time and that will negatively impact his performance as we have seen.

Appreciate your comment.