I'm not as worried about that. He can still be pretty good and not be at Cross' level. Not many OL are.
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Either he has made the biggest one year jump we've seen from an OL in a while, or we are going to really struggle at LT.
Said they are seeing definite improvement but are still in "wait and see" mode. Part of the deal is that we are also worried about our pass rush from our front without having to bring to extra pressure. We do a good job of bringing pressure with extra people- but our front getting pressure without is suspect.
Bottom line- Dolla Bill is our guy. He worked hard and made improvement to be the guy. We shall see if he can handle it. He wont be Cross. Thats an unrealistic expectation. But we need him to be a solid LT. We'll see how much he has improved. It's a big factor for us in 2022
I'm ready to see Jordan Davis healthy
Dolla has been the most impressive OL at camp. From consistency to completely changed his body. Looks like an NFL guy.
Kam is gonna play RT and big Albert sliding to RG. Kam is just a good Olinemen.
I am Actually hearing that our pass rush has been improved, one thing is certain not many teams are gonna be able to run the ball on our front.
Again look forward us to be more comfortable running the ball this year
Yea, but Blaine showed pretty steady improvement each year and was pretty good by the time he was a RS Jr. If he hadn't had to play to early, people would have never thought of him as anything but a solid OT. Granted Dolla Bill wasn't bad as a guard last year, just seems like a big jump to go to LT. Maybe not as big of a jump for Leach's system than for most others.
Wasn't Dolla Bill a high 4* recruit coming out of highschool? If so why would it be so hard for him to mature into what he was projected as
It's just late in the game for him to make a big jump. Usually, you see OL make a big jump after their first or second year on campus (and less often after three years) depending on what kind of shape they are in when they get here. Especially with some of the projects we take, it takes a couple or even three years on a college level S&C program along with better nutrition to either put on muscle if they are thin, or drop fat if they are overweight. (Dolla Bill came in needing to replace fat with muscle if I remember correctly.). But usually, if somebody has been on campus for four years, they don't make a big jump after that fourth year.
I'm also pessimistic because we had trouble at RT last year. If Dollar Bill was close to being able to be an SEC LT, you'd think that sometime after the 17th false start by Lashley in the first three games they would have tried something else at RT if we had anybody close to being serviceable. That's why I was hoping Reese would be a starting OT, because he was young enough that it was feasible he would be too bad to unseat Lashley last year but make a big enough jump in the off season to still be decent.
That said, if Dolla Bill's main problem was that he wasn't committed to conditioning the way he needed to be and that kept him from being quick enough to play OT, then it is possible that he matured late and made the commitment to get in better shape. But it's still not the norm to see that type of change coming after a RS JR year.