'24 TN LB Edwin Spillman (Tennessee)

#626
#626
bigl3327 said:
Someone already said it, but I think Smith and Telander both are more than just solid SEC LBs. To hell with rankings, just go to the tape. Not highlights, but whole games. Let's see what Burns looks like this season. He has SEC size and speed.
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Absolutely hope that's true. Honestly I'm going solely on recruiting pedigree (i.e., who did we beat for them) at this point because they haven't done anything yet. We beat Louisville for Telander and Texas/UVA/Pitt for Smith. Just not the same profile as Carter, Spillman and Cole. But again, I hope they vastly outperform their respective recruiting profiles and prove to be All-SEC performers!
 
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#627
#627
bigl3327 said:
Someone already said it, but I think Smith and Telander both are more than just solid SEC LBs. To hell with rankings, just go to the tape. Not highlights, but whole games. Let's see what Burns looks like this season. He has SEC size and speed.
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Good shot I think for both. Not dismissing service rankings, but I am more interested in where our signees were ranked early on our war room wall.

I have long held that service rankings can be used as probability of upper level success but NOT as ceilings on ANY players career. Draft day shows us a lot of high star guys that get passed by 3 star guys. It has and will happen. Physical growth is hard to nail for guys that earn their stars largely by their Junior year.

The percentage of each teams high star guys that DON’T progress and the number of low star guys that DO will dictate progression or lack of. So sure, odds are with the classes with the for real 5 and upper echelon 4 stars, if they stick around, but how many of the misses they have and the stack up by position can bring them back closer to the rest of the programs.

Here is hoping our staff evaluations are better on ALL star groups.
 
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#629
#629
UTK said:
Crouch should have always played RB here. Period.
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Too slow to play linebacker doesn’t portend All-SEC ball carrier. I think fans overplayed his high school success at the position (where he was a physical level above most competition) and his short yardage effectiveness at UT.
 
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#630
#630
butchna said:
Too slow to play linebacker doesn’t portend All-SEC ball carrier. I think fans overplayed his high school success at the position (where he was a physical level above most competition) and his short yardage effectiveness at UT.
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I don’t know about all SEC Ball carrier but he should have just literally been a short yardage back. But hard to get a “5 star” kid to agree to that probably
 
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#635
#635
He
butchna said:
Too slow to play linebacker doesn’t portend All-SEC ball carrier. I think fans overplayed his high school success at the position (where he was a physical level above most competition) and his short yardage effectiveness at UT.
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He wasn't too slow. He lacked the lateral quickness to play LB in the SEC. You can be a great LB and not have great straight line speed, but lack of early play recognition combined with sub-par lateral quickness is a recipe for disaster.
 
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#637
#637
bigl3327 said:
He

He wasn't too slow. He lacked the lateral quickness to play LB in the SEC. You can be a great LB and not have great straight line speed, but lack of early play recognition combined with sub-par lateral quickness is a recipe for disaster.
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We’re not going to agree that he was fast enough to be a feature back. 4.8 40 at best. Not being to wiggle with no lateral quickness doesn’t help. Too SLOW.
 
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#638
#638
butchna said:
We’re not going to agree that he was fast enough to be a feature back. 4.8 40 at best. Not being to wiggle with no lateral quickness doesn’t help. Too SLOW.
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I was referring to playing LB. He was never the same after his injury his senior year of high school. That did it for him being a high caliber RB.
 
#639
#639
bigl3327 said:
I was referring to playing LB. He was never the same after his injury his senior year of high school. That did it for him being a high caliber RB.
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Don’t remember it being that debilitating.
 
#640
#640
butchna said:
Don’t remember it being that debilitating.
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It caused him to miss almost his entire senior year, and he never showed the same explosiveness that made him the #1 recruit after his junior season once he got to UT.
 
#641
#641
bigl3327 said:
It caused him to miss almost his entire senior year, and he never showed the same explosiveness that made him the #1 recruit after his junior season once he got to UT.
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But what was the exact injury? With modern medicine, knees and shoulders are repairable. Leads me to believe that he was never faster and more explosive than his college version. Just not as much a physical mismatch.
 
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#642
#642
butchna said:
But what was the exact injury? With modern medicine, knees and shoulders are repairable. Leads me to believe that he was never faster and more explosive than his college version. Just not as much a physical mismatch.
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Kids that have injuries in high school don't always end up with the top surgeons for athletes. They are many times directed to whomever their primary care physician sends them to. He was very good in run support at Michigan St. but he just never was a sideline to sideline, pass coverage guy. This is an argument that no one wins because he didn't really play LB in high school, and he never played RB full-time in college. There isn't any valid video comparison to be had.
 
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#643
#643
bigl3327 said:
Kids that have injuries in high school don't always end up with the top surgeons for athletes. They are many times directed to whomever their primary care physician sends them to. He was very good in run support at Michigan St. but he just never was a sideline to sideline, pass coverage guy. This is an argument that no one wins because he didn't really play LB in high school, and he never played RB full-time in college. There isn't any valid video comparison to be had.
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True. That’s why I go with he was a better athlete in high school who got exposed in college. The primary reason Pruitt landed him is because he recruited him as a linebacker and that’s where he saw his future.
 
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#646
#646
Ready to get his recruiting over and officially a VFL. It would be a surprise if he doesn’t join Tennessee but anything can happen.
 
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