I wonder about Schloemer simply because an offensive lineman less than a year out on elbow surgery could be a shakey proposition, and unless Murray is here for at least spring ball, I think asking a true freshman to play center is pretty risky.

Man, I had rotten vegetables thrown at me around here after spring ball when I sounded the alarm that this unit was a hot mess and that the recruiting the previous couple of years wasn't helping.

(02-11-2011 07:29 AM)JackieTreehorn Wrote:  I wonder about Schloemer simply because an offensive lineman less than a year out on elbow surgery could be a shakey proposition, and unless Murray is here for at least spring ball, I think asking a true freshman to play center is pretty risky.

Schloemer will get a long look recovering from an injury or not. As bad as the O-Line depth is and has been Schloemer, even without any game experience, is probably the 3rd most talented guy on the roster.

As for Murray If you're good enough you're old enough. From what I have seen he has the physical tools to play at this level, Davis on the other hand isn't physically capable of playing, or at the very least he wasn't last year, and he was moved to guard because he couldn't handle the mental aspects of the center position. The simple question is who do you want to be out there making freshman mistakes, a senior or an actual Freshman? Murray has a bright future either as a Center or as a Guard, and if he shows himself to be as good as Davis in camp start him. For me if a competition comes down to an young guy and a veteran that are equal in their ability to play a position I want to start the younger guy. It is the better move long term. That being said I don't have much faith in this staff on those terms though, making space for C.J. Cobb to start when Hoffman returned from Injury instead of benching Cobb and keeping Hooey on the field will do that.

I'm not sure relatively speaking how complicated our line calls and offensive scheme really is, so it's hard to judge how well and fast Murray could absorb it in just one summer of camp. I guess it depends on his HS experience and aptitude. Also don't know if he's a fat or a lean and conditioned 295 lbs. It's pretty unusual for true freshmen OLs to contribute immediately in BCS conferences unless they're 5 star studs.

What about T.J. Franklin, Dan Sprague, and Mitch Kessel? Can these guys contribute?

I never understood why Daniel Murray never got more offers. His only ones I can see are from UC and Kentucky, and didn't he attend a camp at Cincinnati? However, most recruiting websites rank him very highly.

(02-11-2011 12:17 PM)mbj655 Wrote:  What about T.J. Franklin, Dan Sprague, and Mitch Kessel? Can these guys contribute?

I think on paper Sprague is a back-up at C currently but I'm not sure about the others.

(02-11-2011 10:59 AM)JackieTreehorn Wrote:  I'm not sure relatively speaking how complicated our line calls and offensive scheme really is, so it's hard to judge how well and fast Murray could absorb it in just one summer of camp. I guess it depends on his HS experience and aptitude. Also don't know if he's a fat or a lean and conditioned 295 lbs. It's pretty unusual for true freshmen OLs to contribute immediately in BCS conferences unless they're 5 star studs.

The blocking schemes are very simple. There are maybe four of them on running plays, there are about three more pass block schemes. The calls can get complicated but learning the base schemes isn't very hard, particularly for Murray because the base blocking scheme for UC in the run game is just the inside/outside zone which Murray's high school employed frequently. Also keep in mind that making the pre snap adjustments can be passed to other players. It is the custom for the Center to do it, but the same thing can be done by the QB or another lineman. He has a college ready body already and it isn't all that uncommon for a freshman to contribute at this level, it isn't something that happens are every program but it does happen a lot.

Looks like Murray played Left Tackle (probably because he was the best OL on his team) his junior year according to these highlights. He might not even have any experience playing Center unless he played there his senior year.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Lf5R8WA8I

(02-11-2011 07:35 AM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  Man, I had rotten vegetables thrown at me around here after spring ball when I sounded the alarm that this unit was a hot mess and that the recruiting the previous couple of years wasn't helping.

Who brought the tar and feathers?

(02-11-2011 01:18 PM)Racinejake Wrote:  Looks like Murray played Left Tackle (probably because he was the best OL on his team) his junior year according to these highlights. He might not even have any experience playing Center unless he played there his senior year.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Lf5R8WA8I

Looks like in some of those clips (2:54 for example) he lined up at Guard. So he at least has experience there, if not at C.

(02-11-2011 01:58 PM)cinbinsportsfan Wrote:  

(02-11-2011 01:18 PM)Racinejake Wrote:  Looks like Murray played Left Tackle (probably because he was the best OL on his team) his junior year according to these highlights. He might not even have any experience playing Center unless he played there his senior year.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Lf5R8WA8I

Looks like in some of those clips (2:54 for example) he lined up at Guard. So he at least has experience there, if not at C.

Hey, guys, try to remember there are two Murrays who are OL in this class. We need to use first and last names (or at least initials).

The Nike SPARQ combine was held in Cleveland over the weekend. There's some discussion about it on a buckeye board (buckeyeplanet) and one of the posters attended and had some information on some of the prospects. It would seem that the Taft duo of Stanford and Washington didn't have terrific showings. Stanford posted a 4.81 40 yard dash time but this poster said he had it 'scratched' from his official numbers. Apparently Washington ran a 5.06 40 time and had a vertical leap of 23.9 inches. Not stellar numbers and keep in mind the 40s are laser timed so you'd expect slower times than the over-inflated profiles on Scout & Rivals that these kids self report.

Apparently a couple of Centerville prospects had impressive showings. DE/OLB Ifeadi Odenigbo posted a 4.62 40 time and supposedly looked very athletic in his drills (don't have data for other drills). The biggest surprise was Centerville OG Benny McGowan who became the first OL to ever put up a SPARQ rating of over 100 at 100.53 (Adolphus Washington's overall rating was 76.83 by comparison). Apparently this kid has freakish strength and even ran a respectable 5.3 in the 40 (not bad for 6-4, 300 lbs.). Only has offers from BG & Toledo so far but this should change.

edit: Found this link to all the stats on ESPN. Lots of recruits on there. Interesting to see that Stanford has no result for the 40 so maybe this poster is correct.

http://rise.espn.go.com/football/article...t=Football

Any guesses as to who the first commit in this class could be? It would be awesome if we could get an early start.

(02-18-2011 09:40 AM)bearcatfan1211 Wrote:  Any guesses as to who the first commit in this class could be? It would be awesome if we could get an early start.

I've been wondering about that as well. I believe our junior day is coming up the first weekend in March so with any luck we'll get a verbal out of that. I haven't heard of any guys yet where we are overwhelmingly leading so maybe it'll be a little while before we pick up our first verbal.

For a while there it seemed like William Mahone was going to be one of the first guys in this class, but I haven't heard much from him in the meantime.

(02-19-2011 02:37 PM)Mopper Wrote:  For a while there it seemed like William Mahone was going to be one of the first guys in this class, but I haven't heard much from him in the meantime.

MSU leads for him.

(02-19-2011 02:58 PM)Coopdaddy67 Wrote:  

(02-19-2011 02:37 PM)Mopper Wrote:  For a while there it seemed like William Mahone was going to be one of the first guys in this class, but I haven't heard much from him in the meantime.

MSU leads for him.

That's what it sounds like. It also sounds like they currently lead for Monty Madaris as well. I just have a real hard time losing prospects to MSU.

Maybe the year we had last year was worse than we thought. I hate to see offensive guys looking at MSU, that is just hard to swallow.

Dantonio and BK did a good job establishing recruiting relationships in SW Ohio. Too bad their next jobs were not
out in California somewhere.