OL depth

#1
bpalmer28

bpalmer28

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#1
This is my only concern for the upcoming season. Anyone know how our backups are doing?
 
#2
#2
bpalmer28 said:
This is my only concern for the upcoming season. Anyone know how our backups are doing?
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The SC coach has them taking Jujitsu to enhance their grappling, blocking, and pancaking skills. Scottish highland dancing to improve foot work, and Turkish whirling mandala dance to improve their countering more skilled block shedding defense linemen. Word is our guys are getting a bit too much enjoyment from these exercises. Lance Heard, however, required Appalachian clog dancing added because he needed more refined footwork to do, and to stabilize his weight.
 
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#5
#5
I am concerned about depth as well but there are some highly rated OL guys who are in this system for 2nd-3rd year (Shams, Brian Grant, Masai Reddick, Larry Johnson etc). If some of them can not step up to provide depth then I think we have bigger concerns about OL coach and coaching staff overall. (I believe they will step up when needed).
 
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#6
#6
I've had the same concern. Some of the backups have played a lot of football but they seemed to really struggle last year at times against good competition. Hopefully they have improved and maybe Nico's running ability will negate some of that.
 
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#8
#8
As far as offense goes, I am not that concerned about OL. The unit that needs to be watched early on is RB. I am not sure how good pass blocking will be. Hopefully Nico won't get blown up too badly. Receiver should actually be better as well as QB.
 
#9
#9
Davis and Lampley have a lot of experience. the '22 class Umarov,Lang and Johnson seemed like they played a little more than the '21 class, Reddick, and Grant. All 5 of them need to step up and I believe they will. This staff has developed some really good O-linemen the last couple of years. I'm not to worried about the depth.
 
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#11
#11
The coaches as well as the guys at VQ have raved about:

Karic (probably starting)
Lampley (2nd into the game behind D. Davis)
Sham has pushed the other guards for PT
Johnson III solid RT option
J Perry repping behind Heard and impressing with his development
B Grant steady improving
Lang/Satterwhite (Hubbs said recently that he thought Satterwhite may have overtaken Lang there, but Dayne Davis will be the backup C, assuming he's not already somewhere else)

So we have a 2 deep of talented guys that have earned the praise of coaches and some media.

The rest are young and need more development, but have shown some talent and been mentioned a few times

Bussel
Ginther
J Heard
Duncan
Anderson
 
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#16
#16
Not too concerned with Guard depth. A LG needs to step forward to take & run with the starting job. But, we have multiple experienced guys who can step in and do a reasonable job at both LG & RG.

Center remains the biggest depth concern. Just a Spring game, but I didn’t see anyone distinguish themselves when Cooper is out. Hopefully Lang, Satterwhite, or even Dayne Davis have made recent strides as a quality sub at C.

I really don’t know about Tackle depth. For that matter, Lance Heard still needs to realize the lofty expectations of media/fans before we really anoint him a stud at LT. D Davis will do fine as a backup against most of our schedule. But I don’t know when the less experienced guys like LJ III, B Warren, or J Perry are ready to sub in without much drop off.

Bigger picture, we currently have 15 healthy scholarship OL who are NOT starting (20 scholarship OL total). We have 8 healthy scholarship DBs who are not starting- or 9 since Will Brooks will likely start to begin the season. These OL are getting very tough reps this month trying to handle our DL. And someone or multiple guys, I don’t have a clue who, have been getting better since we last saw them, or locked out reporters last hyped them up.
 
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#18
#18
We know from the head coach that three potential starting left guards played very well in fall camp: Dre Karic (a senior), Jackson Lampley (reshirt senior), and Sham Umarov (redshirt freshman). Which will start? Some think Karic; others Lampley. Either way, our starting 5 are Heard at LT, one of them at LG, Mays at Center, Spraggins at RG, and Campbell at RT. That's a solid starting five, plus two quallity backups.

What other quality backups might we have? I don't know much about Dayne Davis, but the fella has seen action in every single game of the last three years, and was nominated for an outstanding walk-on award (the Burlsworth Trophy) a couple of years ago. So as a minimum, he and the other OL know each other really well (a definite plus in this position group) and he is experienced in Heupel's offense. And he has played I think 4 of the 5 positions, so can fill in just about anywhere.

So there we go, at least three good if not great backups to the starting five: Davis, Umarov, and the non-starter of Lampley and Karic.

Plus, didn't Josh or one of the other coaches praise redshirt freshman Vysen Lang after one of our recent practices? Seems like I remember that, but not sure.

I think we're okay on OL. I think we have a very good starting 5, and enough depth behind them to fill in for a few injuries. Not the kind of depth we eventually want, but enough to possibly make a run, with a bit of luck on the health front.

Go Vols!


p.s. Saw @VolsSince78 post after writing mine. Really good assessment. And he brings out one key point I'd missed entirely:
VolsSince78 said:
Center remains the biggest depth concern. Just a Spring game, but I didn’t see anyone distinguish themselves when Cooper is out. Hopefully Lang, Satterwhite, or even Dayne Davis have made recent strides as a quality sub at C.
Click to expand...

p.p.s. Didn't even include the true freshmen for consideration. Might one or more of them be ready? Possible. But not likely.
 
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#20
#20
PEPPERJAX said:
Glen Elarbee has 19 scholarship OL athletes to work with this year. Does anyone remember the depth he inherited during Heupel's first year? The OL still did fine even with the lack of bodies back then.
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I don't remember but know it wasnt 19-20 or whatever it is today. I also know there was almost no quality depth at Tackle
 
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#21
#21
Brave Volunteer said:
I'm more concerned over whos going to backup Lampley when he gets hurt on extra points!
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Really starting to think the injuries on the PAT is strategically done to give the defense a few extra minutes of rest. Any time u see us score in 2-3 plays someone goes down on the PAT.
 
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#24
#24
K-town Vol Fan said:
We just replaced nearly our entire secondary and your only concern is maybe our strongest unit? Okayyyy....
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McCoy, Gibson III, Thomas/Brooks, and Carter are all upgrades. John Slaughter and Jordan Matthews very talented. Not worried about our DBs. More depth would be nice but DBs don’t seem as prone to injury as OL.
 
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