Personally I think some posts Should be deleted, saying that our team benefits from a senior tearing his ACL just seems in poor taste.
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This. For the 18 millionth time, the best programs don't have OL as major contributors before their RS SO year. It's only the true freaks of nature that play earlier. It takes those guys that long to develop the necessary strength and technique to be able to go toe-to-toe with the grown men on the DL now. We've played younger guys more because we've had to. But labeling Thomas a bust before he's even taken a snap is ridiculous. Especially when you consider he's supposedly made tremendous strides since bowl practice.
Unless Im mistaken, other than Clausell, Robinson is the only guy on our roster that has played snaps at OT in a SEC game. Did Senior even play last year at OT? I thought he might have, but I'm not sure. If not, then we don't have anyone besides Clausell that has played OT in a game.
Robinson wasn't great, but he was a solid swing tackle at worst. Now, we have Clausell and Senior at OT. Who else? Malone is a OG. We are an injury away from Cole Carter being a starter for us. Lets just hope this is just a rumor, I haven't seen any confirmation.
Senior played last year & actually started a game that Clausell missed due to injury. Senior prolly played more snaps last year than Robinson. Senior was going to be the starter regardless. The question is who do you feel more comfortable with as a backup Robinson or Carter/Warren.
First of all, I hate to hear that a player is hurt. It certainly hurts our depth because Robinson has experience and he would have played some- likely in a reseve role.
That said, there is a silver lining.
I think it forces us to play what I feel is our best o-line group:
LT- Clausell
LG- Clayborn
C- Day
RG- Beckwith
RT- Malone
Now I say that, not having seen how Justin Senior is playing. From many accounts, he is performing well. That would give us another group that I would be fine with assuming the reports on Senior are true.
LT- Clausell
LG- Beckwith maybe Clayborn
C- Day
RG- Malone
RT- Senior
The other silver lining here is assuming Robinson takes a medical redshirt (too soon to know, and this is rumor so we don't 100% know that Robinson is hurt, although coming from Coach, I'm going to say it's 99% true) that would give us another veteran for next year. It also means more playing time for Senior and Rufus Warren who is going to need it. So for those worried about next year, we may see:
LT- Senior (who will have a year of starting experience)
LG- Clayborn if he's not at C
C- ???? Maybe Clayborn
RG- Malone
RT- Robinson
And sure there will be some battles, but that group is already looking less concerning to me than it did about a month ago. It also tells me that we may benefit more from getting a JUCO C than a JUCO G or T.
I guess we all, "suck," at some point in our life, That sucks.
Senior played more than Robinson last year and had already taken the job for this year. Nobody is glad Damien got hurt- but I stand by my statement that it could make us better because it could force Hev's hand with Malone
Robinson played in every game last year. Senior didn't play against Upig or Bama. No one is saying he is good, but what Im saying is that he is better than several other OT's on our roster and was pre-August the 1st team starter. At worst he was the third best OT on the team. You think Cole Carter is better? Jake Thomas? Malone may be better, but he has only played at OG in his career. So before we keep celebrating losing crucial OL depth, we may want to take a damn breath.
For those of you who aren't on 24/7, the admins over there said that Robinson has been running with the 3s the past week or so, that Senior is with the 1s and Warren with the 2s. I hate that he got injured as much as anyone but this injury should have minimal impact on our RT position during the season.
Ouch. Truth hurts, doesn't it? Hate that Robinson is hurt, but he's never been what I'd call a contributor. Now please God let Hev move Malone to OT where he belongs. Senior would be a badass as the swing OT this season. And it would let us ease him in as opposed to throwing him into the deep end and hoping he can swim.
I feel awful for Damien, and appreciate him being a Bulldog, but, ultimately, I see this as possibly preventing Mullen from being able to pull a Ladarius Perkins/Josh Robinson thing like he did last year where he played the "hard working SR" over the more effective player.