Regarding the decision to redshirt Martinas Rankin

[DeviousDawg]

Looking at the roster, Martinas Rankin will be the ONLY Junior offensive lineman this year.

If we hadn't redshirted Rankin, Rufus Warren's scholarship would've basically been wasted last year. Mullen knew we had Warren, Senior and Jenkins at tackle, and if one of them went down, we had a 6 year senior swing tackle in Damien Robinson available. Even if Rankin was even with Warren, Senior and Jenkins going into the beginning of the last year, Mullen knew that Rankin had only been in the program for 6 months and had the highest ceiling of the group. Looking back at it, it was a great decision to redshirt him.

I think Rankin is going to be a NFL draft pick in two years.

It just makes me wonder though, why did we not go grab a JUCO lineman or two last year? Rankin will be the only Senior OL on the roster next year.

[lamont]

DD34- our OL decisions and signees have been troublesome to say the least. I get why they did it- but to not have an OL capable of winning big games when you had Prescott, Bear, and Ross is just a crime.

Now- when you look at it as "Rankin wouldnt have made thatmuch of a difference anyway last season", you are probably right. RS'ing was probably the best route. But it doesnt excuse poor OL recruiting the last 5 years.

[HSVDawg]

So you are saying he could be an NFL pick in 2 years, but has zero chance to be sn NFL pick after this season? Because if he does have a chance to get drafted at all after this season, then we made an enormous mistake redshirting him because we may only now get one year out of him. It's a fine line to walk if he really is as good as you and some others think he might be.

[lamont]

So you are saying he could be an NFL pick in 2 years, but has zero chance to be sn NFL pick after this season? Because if he does have a chance to get drafted at all after this season, then we made an enormous mistake redshirting him because we may only now get one year out of him. It's a fine line to walk if he really is as good as you and some others think he might be.

agree 100% and have said it all along.

[DeviousDawg]

So you are saying he could be an NFL pick in 2 years, but has zero chance to be sn NFL pick after this season? Because if he does have a chance to get drafted at all after this season, then we made an enormous mistake redshirting him because we may only now get one year out of him. It's a fine line to walk if he really is as good as you and some others think he might be.

If Rankin has enough sense to realize last year that redshirting helps the team and himself in the long run, I assume that he will also realize that he could make a lot more money after playing against SEC defensive lines for two years rather than one. I believe he could be a late round draft pick after this year, but I think he could be a top 3-4 round guy after 2 years of experience in the SEC.

I'm not saying he is going to be a top 10 overall pick. I am saying that after 2 years of experience in the SEC that he could be a mid round type guy.

[Todd4State]

I think you have to play the best guys especially if your o-line looks like ours did last year. We had a chance to go to the Sugar Bowl last year. Our o-line pissed it away. I’ll recant if we go to two Sugar Bowls or equal the next two years.

Dan’s roster management has been pretty questionable and is one of the things he does not do well. Of course a lot of that stems from missing guys on the o-line in recruiting as Random said.

I don’t understand how our roster management is so bad when every team prints out a depth chart to the public every week. Do they not have anyone that can visually illustrate that “Hey! We don’t have any junior o-linemen.” But it’s not just that position group- it’s like no one on our staff realized that our tallest WR returning was 6’2” until the spring and then we had to scramble to get two more for last year’s class well after the cycle was over. How does that happen?

And I’ll go ahead and say what’s scary for next year- Harrison Moon who is a freshman this year is our only returning center. I hope one of the JUCO’s can play there- but they look like tackle and guard prospects to me.

[DeviousDawg]

agree 100% and have said it all along.

If Rankin agreed to redshirt I don't think he expects to leave after this year. If he is that good though and does leave after this year, then you could argue that he would have left after last year had he played. If he leaves this year it would be hard to complain IMO because it means that he had a hell of a season and our OL was much improved. You never know what could happen and if he wouldn't have made much of a difference last year, but played and had a season ending injury, everyone would be bitching that he played. Odds are, we are going to have the #1 JUCO OT from the 2015 class spend 3 1/2 years in the program.

The real issue to me is that Rankin is the only Junior on the roster this year and we did not sign atleast 1 JUCO OL in last years class. Even sadder that the only Junior OL we have on the roster was a JUCO guy in Rankin. How does that even happen?

[Todd4State]

If Rankin has enough sense to realize last year that redshirting helps the team and himself in the long run, I assume that he will also realize that he could make a lot more money after playing against SEC defensive lines for two years rather than one. I believe he could be a late round draft pick after this year, but I think he could be a top 3-4 round guy after 2 years of experience in the SEC.

I'm not saying he is going to be a top 10 overall pick. I am saying that after 2 years of experience in the SEC that he could be a mid round type guy.

If we get Hayes and Champion who can both play tackle although Champion can play guard as well and then we have Jenkins who is going to be a starting tackle next year- did we really help ourselves that much?

We really need a JUCO center.

LT- Jenkins
LG- Champion
OC- JUCO get your ass on it Hevesy.
RG- Rankin
RT- Hayes

I would actually be fine with that o-line for 2017. And I don’t know where Calhoun would play although I’m sure he starts at guard for us next year.

[Todd4State]

If Rankin agreed to redshirt I don't think he expects to leave after this year. If he is that good though and does leave after this year, then you could argue that he would have left after last year had he played. If he leaves this year it would be hard to complain IMO because it means that he had a hell of a season and our OL was much improved. You never know what could happen and if he wouldn't have made much of a difference last year, but played and had a season ending injury, everyone would be bitching that he played. Odds are, we are going to have the #1 JUCO OT from the 2015 class spend 3 1/2 years in the program.

The real issue to me is that Rankin is the only Junior on the roster this year and we did not sign atleast 1 JUCO OL in last years class. Even sadder that the only Junior OL we have on the roster was a JUCO guy in Rankin. How does that even happen?

I promise you I would bitch much, much, much more about playing someone like Warren over Rankin than playing Rankin and Rankin getting hurt. Especially given the fact that Rankin could possibly redshirt for a year depending on how severe the injury is.

[Todd4State]

And to answer your question about how this happens:

1. We didn’t redshirt Clayborn. THAT was a bad redshirt burn while we’re on the subject.
2. Jake Thomas didn’t pan out.
3. Kent Flowers flunked out basically.
4. Hevesy had a falling out with Army All American and former commit Deon Mix who while yes, he hasn’t done jack squat for Auburn would be no worse than anyone else on the line from last year.

[DeviousDawg]

If we get Hayes and Champion who can both play tackle although Champion can play guard as well and then we have Jenkins who is going to be a starting tackle next year- did we really help ourselves that much?

We really need a JUCO center.

LT- Jenkins
LG- Champion
OC- JUCO get your ass on it Hevesy.
RG- Rankin
RT- Hayes

I would actually be fine with that o-line for 2017. And I don’t know where Calhoun would play although I’m sure he starts at guard for us next year.

I wouldn't expect much out of the JUCO OL guys coming in next year, not knocking their talent but just by looking at references from the past.

Mullen has signed 5 JUCO offensive lineman:

Joey Trapp
Dylan Holley
Charles Siddoway
Joquell Johnson
Martinas Rankin

Only one of those guys, Siddoway, played his first year on campus. I almost expect JUCO OL to redshirt at this point.

[Todd4State]

I wouldn't expect much out of the JUCO OL guys coming in next year, not knocking their talent but just by looking at references from the past.

Mullen has signed 5 JUCO offensive lineman:

Joey Trapp
Dylan Holley
Charles Siddoway
Joquell Johnson
Martinas Rankin

Only one of those guys, Siddoway, played his first year on campus. I almost expect JUCO OL to redshirt at this point.

I don’t disagree. But I do think we need to start finding ways to get better production out of those JUCO guys sooner. Especially if they are here during the spring.

Or even better- just recruit and develop o-linemen from the start and not miss in recruiting.

[Bodaski]

I also think several high school guys we signed not working out put us behind too. And like you say, we probally should have replaced those guys that didn't pan out with juco guys just to keep the numbers as close to prevent the mass exodus for a class.

[lamont]

Here's a thought:

How about signing a couple of higher ranked OL guys out of HS that could be back-ups as Freshmen and then more ready to play as Sophs?????? How come other people can do it but we cant?

[Homedawg]

And to answer your question about how this happens:

1. We didn’t redshirt Clayborn. THAT was a bad redshirt burn while we’re on the subject.
2. Jake Thomas didn’t pan out.
3. Kent Flowers flunked out basically.
4. Hevesy had a falling out with Army All American and former commit Deon Mix who while yes, he hasn’t done jack squat for Auburn would be no worse than anyone else on the line from last year.

Agree w first 3. And number 4 didn't matter except for pr. Which was blundered no doubt.

[Homedawg]

Here's a thought:

How about signing a couple of higher ranked OL guys out of HS that could be back-ups as Freshmen and then more ready to play as Sophs?????? How come other people can do it but we cant?

Agree but our problem has been all of our higher ranked guys have been total flops. Not just a little bit, but busts. Cole carter, DamIen, Jake Thomas and flowers were all 4* guys and we got zero total. Now, we need to sign more, yes but the ones we've had have been awful

[lamont]

Agree but our problem has been all of our higher ranked guys have been total flops. Not just a little bit, but busts. Cole carter, DamIen, Jake Thomas and flowers were all 4* guys and we got zero total. Now, we need to sign more, yes but the ones we've had have been awful

That falls on our staff and their poor decisions. There were knocks on all those guys coming out and we took them.

[bulldawg28]

That falls on our staff and their poor decisions. There were knocks on all those guys coming out and we took them.

There are knocks on every recruit and they're signed everywhere.

[PMDawg]

DD34- our OL decisions and signees have been troublesome to say the least. I get why they did it- but to not have an OL capable of winning big games when you had Prescott, Bear, and Ross is just a crime.

Now- when you look at it as "Rankin wouldnt have made thatmuch of a difference anyway last season", you are probably right. RS'ing was probably the best route. But it doesnt excuse poor OL recruiting the last 5 years.

LOL. Wow.