One things that strikes me is the shear number of scholarships at this position. I'll try breaking this down by recruiting class as much as I can.

We have five seniors on the OL this year, Jake Hurcombe 6'2 285, Matt Thorton 6'4, 302, Darien Terrell 6'4, 317, Andrew Wylie 6'6, 311 and Cole Gardner who at 6'5, 295 has added 20 pounds since last year. This is a veteran unit will many starts under their collective belts.

We have one junior Dan Samuelson a transfer from U of M and former 3 star recruit who is 6'5, 300.

The 2014 class who are now sophomores include Ka'John Armstrong at 6'4, 294 who added about 15 pounds since last year, Jeremy Hickey at 6'4, 312, Chris Bukoski who actually lost weight is at 6'5, 263 and Dakota Tallman at 6'5, 309.

To the sophomore class we can add JUCO transfer Jimmy Leatiota who comes in at 6'3, 298 and practiced over the spring.

There is the 2015 class with Rob Pavletich R-Fr a highly rated recruit who added 13 pounds since last season and is now at 6'5, 290, Brandon Leahey R-Fr at 6'3, 284, "Big Pete" Bergman R-Fr who add about 20 pounds and is now 6'9, 314.

Personally I'm excited about the true freshmen class at this position coming in: Mike Van Hoeven at 6'5, 283, Jake Donnellon at 6'5, 283 and Steve Nielsen at 6'8, 320 who practiced over the spring.

I expect to see some shaking out at this position and the competition this fall should be interesting.

This includes my review for the upcoming season. Hoped everyone enjoyed it.

What is interesting is that the proposed (expected) starters are all English recruits.

CC needs to show that his recruits can make the 2-deeps and maybe one or two become starters.

Again, many, many (most?) key performers on the OL, QB, DL, etc. are English recruits.

(08-06-2016 11:46 AM)emu steve Wrote:  What is interesting is that the proposed (expected) starters are all English recruits.

CC needs to show that his recruits can make the 2-deeps and maybe one or two become starters.

Again, many, many (most?) key performers on the OL, QB, DL, etc. are English recruits.

CC starters I believe will be at RB, WR, TE and portions of DL, LB and DB.

(08-06-2016 11:46 AM)emu steve Wrote:  What is interesting is that the proposed (expected) starters are all English recruits.

CC needs to show that his recruits can make the 2-deeps and maybe one or two become starters.

Again, many, many (most?) key performers on the OL, QB, DL, etc. are English recruits.

I don't put too much stock in that. CCs first recruits are only in their third year. It's good to have an OL comprised of fourth and fifth year guys.

regardless of who recruited them they are one team with one coach but I do ask you to look at Darius Jackson and his improvement as an example of how coaching and strength training done properly can greatly improve a player

Also have Thomas Major at 6'2, 261 who I assume is a non-scholarship player?

Midkiff, the true freshman, with good size, who is a walk-on I believe?

Sorry, but Bukoski, going into his 3rd year, losing weight down to 263, is just not a serious D1 scholarship player. Bio says 5th best OT in MI, 61st best player overall in MI, 2013 dream team selection. This is the perfect example of poor recruiting evaluation that lead to problems.

Thoughts of next year's OL are scary, unless Pavletich & Armstrong take a major leap forward, and these freshmen way outperform their immediate predecessors. Even with all that magic thinking, still need a couple legit Juco guys to come in and compete immediately.

Staff better kick it into high gear.

(08-06-2016 01:14 PM)emu79 Wrote:  regardless of who recruited them they are one team with one coach but I do ask you to look at Darius Jackson and his improvement as an example of how coaching and strength training done properly can greatly improve a player

True, although remember most players should improve their senior years if they have real talent (as Jackson does).

But remember college FB is essentially a war of attrition. It takes up to 50 players (2-deeps at 11 positions + specialists) to make a good team.

So one good player here or there isn't very meaningful if the depth isn't there. As we saw last year, when injuries hit the OL, it regressed badly.

This is the exact opposite of basketball where come February many teams have a 8-player rotation and where one player can make a big difference.

(08-06-2016 01:14 PM)emu79 Wrote:  regardless of who recruited them they are one team with one coach but I do ask you to look at Darius Jackson and his improvement as an example of how coaching and strength training done properly can greatly improve a player

This is the geek in me, but I really don't like examples of ONE (or N=1 in statistics). This player did this. One player did that...

Why? One can prove virtually anything by using a single case.

One of the 'goals' of statistics, if you will is 'data reduction', that is, say CC recruits 25 recruits each year. How to best describe (summarize) a class of 25 players. (or in politics, race for the President, how to best summarize literally dozens of polls since say July 4).

One can cherry pick an outlier, but does one or two or three good recruits make a recruiting class good???? How many good recruits do WMU or UT have per class?

If we have 3 and WMU has 6 what is a valid statement? We had some real good recruits? We had some real good recruits but WMU had many more?

Sports, politics, war, etc are 'zero sum' games.

A candidate can get 49.9% of the vote but if the other candidate get 49.9%+1, he loses.