Recruiting. This may be worthless

[HancockCountyDog]

And I don't give a shit where we go get them, there are Not Enough OL in Miss that can play sec ball.. Shit we have proved that over the past few years...

I have a close friend that is at MS/AL all star practices and he has told me exactly that. His exact words "We are so much better than Bama on the DL, but our OL looks like shit. It's like none of these kids are ever taught how to properly pass block"

Apparently our DL is just destroying our OL in practice to the point that they can't even practice running plays.

[JoseBrown]

We seem to recruit GA pretty well, but why in the hell cant we load up on talent from FL? I thought with Mullen being here and some of his friends that they'd be able to pull some talent from FL. And why can't we get any talented O-linemen with all the good skill people we have, with or without Hevesy?

[mic]

I have a close friend that is at MS/AL all star practices and he has told me exactly that. His exact words "We are so much better than Bama on the DL, but our OL looks like shit. It's like none of these kids are ever taught how to properly pass block"

Apparently our DL is just destroying our OL in practice to the point that they can't even practice running plays.

Yep..

And little off the subject here.. But Kobe Jones had to play both ways.. BOTH WAYS for a 6a state champs..
This may be the steal of the 2016 class.. How better could he be if he spent all his time on Defense..

[maroonmania]

I intended to caveat that with are NFL talent but forgot. Chris Jones and Derunya both would have played at any point in Dan's career and regardless of whether we had a glaring need. But looking at your list, it seems pretty clear that your filter of "played in 5 or more games as either a FR or RFR or a 1st year JUCO" is way too broad. Dontavian Lee, for example, barely had any meaningful time this year. Aeris did, but at the same time we were terrible at RB and he and DLee were the only guys that looked to be physically capable of being primary backs in the SEC. If both of them weren't kept off the field by disciplinary problems (and real ones, not just understandable 19 year old immaturity that can be disciplined with extra sprints and stuff), that was a huge fail to not try to get either of them read in the first half of the season so that we could have a legit SEC back in the second half. Malik Dear was not used nearly enough this year, but presumably that was because of injuries. If not, that was a huge fail to not utilize one of our few guys that could be a playmaker with the ball in his hands.

Some of it is not a question of playing guys, but seems to be a problem with getting them ready in a reasonable amount of time. For example, we were really bad at safety. Kivon Coman is not good. Brandon Bryant has all the measurables to be better. Is he just like Cox and not football players despite his athletic ability? Or is our defensive scheme really so complicated that a RS freshman can't be trusted at the beginning of the year? Or were Mullen and Diaz simply too reluctant to let Bryant play because of his inexperience (understanable considering how costly mistakes by Safeties are, but at the same time, there's no way to get experienced other than by getting experience).

I'm still hoping someone wakes up on the staff and moves Malik Dear to RB this Spring. We have a number of new guys coming on (like Mixon and Thomas) that should do well as backups in the slot to Ross, Gray and/or Myles but Dear could get his hands on the ball a LOT more at RB. It seems moving Dear to RB and moving Shumpert to a different position that he could excel at would be wise on both counts.

[mic]

I'm still hoping someone wakes up on the staff and moves Malik Dear to RB this Spring. We have a number of new guys coming on (like Mixon and Thomas) that should do well as backups in the slot to Ross, Gray and/or Myles but Dear could get his hands on the ball a LOT more at RB. It seems moving Dear to RB and moving Shumpert to a different position that he could excel at would be wise on both counts.

Looks like we might make a move during bowl that I hoped we would make...
Gerri green to DE ..need this guy on the field and With his size and speed this could be a great move ..

[Coach34]

Glad they listened to me again

[pilldawg]

Does everyone here realize that we played the 2nd most freshmen in the SEC this year? The only team that played more freshmen was Georgia.

[maroonmania]

Does everyone here realize that we played the 2nd most freshmen in the SEC this year? The only team that played more freshmen was Georgia.

Sort of a meaningless stat IMO. If a guy got in for 4 or 5 plays for the entire year then per that stat he "played". For an example, yes, Lee and Williams both played but they were not nearly the contributors they should have been given the ineffectiveness of the RBs in front of them. Corey Thomas also played but how many meaningful snaps did he get? Seems the only freshman we had that made a true impact was Malik Dear.

[TrapGame]

Has there been a change in recruiting philosophy for offensive linemen? Are we re-evaluating linemen and looking for something different? I ask this because of Hev's recent interest in the JUCO lineman Fat Bert's going after.