Going to be a pretty good signing class for the star gazers...

[CadaverDawg]

Bottom line, I'm just sick of every year the question mark being the OL, and then every recruiting class the weakest position we recruited being the OL. 1+1 clearly = 2, and I'm sick of the shit. We should and COULD recruit so much better on the OL, but we pay $500k+ to cripple ourselves. So dumb. But I'll stop arguing it (if ms7 will quit provoking me ha)

[Duckdog]

What????? No 5 stars????? WE ARE GONNA SUCK

[msstate7]

Bottom line, I'm just sick of every year the question mark being the OL, and then every recruiting class the weakest position we recruited being the OL. 1+1 clearly = 2, and I'm sick of the shit. We should and COULD recruit so much better on the OL, but we pay $500k+ to cripple ourselves. So dumb. But I'll stop arguing it (if ms7 will quit provoking me ha)

We can end this... just admit I'm right haha

Again, I certainly don't think the oline is above criticism. I just think they're attacked 24/7 so I take up for them some

[1bigdawg]

We have four HS OL commits. Other than a special teams player, they are the four lowest rated players on our commit list. Even two of those are potential sign and place candidates.

Today, we are criticizing OL recruiting. Can anyone other than Mstate7 defend OL recruiting.

[Really Clark?]

We have four HS OL commits. Other than a special teams player, they are the four lowest rated players on our commit list. Even two of those are potential sign and place candidates.

Today, we are criticizing OL recruiting. Can anyone other than Mstate7 defend OL recruiting.

Not going to defend Hev recruiting, already said where I stand on that. But that is off somewhat. Reed is listed as a OT but he is being recruited as a DT. I can see that confusion. You also need to understand OL rankings are hard and usually they fall lower in ratings eventhough their offers may be good. Suggs offer list is over a dozen Power 5 teams eventhough he is a mid 3 star. No elite offers but that is a lot of Power 5 offers. If you take a WR with that many offers he is a high 3 or low 4 star guy. It's just so hard to rate OL. So you really have to look at their offers as well.

Cooper if he had better grades would get a better rating because more Power 5 schools would have looked at him. TCU came after him hard late to visit once they saw his grades trending upward. So you have to look a little beyond OL ratings to get an idea of how good they are and you need to track how those offers continue. Bateman has gone the opposite direction, eventhough he is rated higher because of several good early offers, he can't commit to a lot of those schools now. OL is tricky. That being said, Hev is an albatross to our recruiting, he can coach, but there are recruiting issues.

[Dawg-gone-dawgs]

Do yourself a favor. Stop reading the CL. I canceled subscription and haven't looked at the online version in over a year. It's great not reading their propaganda.

THIS ALL DAY LONG!! Why are we even referencing that Sh*t-Bird paper on this board?

[Jarius]

Yes. Again, we're not going to have an OL that is going to knock Bama's DL off the line pretty much ever. We have to do a better job of playcalling to mask that. We've tried just running right at them and standing in the pocket, and, surprise surprise, it doesn't work.

Dak ran the ball 26 times against them in 2015. That is insanity.

He was sacked 9 damn times. That wasn't working either. Our oline isn't as bad as some people like to say it is but if you think play calling is our problem against Alabama you are insane. They have way more talent than we do and it does not matter what plays we call.

[Todd4State]

Is there no benefit given that many of these JUCO linemen were signed and placed by us?

Champion is the only one that was signed and placed by us. I'm not counting Cooper and Reed yet because Cooper may qualify and apparently there is a chance Reed plays d-line.

[msstate7]

Also of note on oline recruiting... we got 5 guys that we targeted. None of them were scrambles after misses, so we'll find out something about our oline recruiting evaluation

[Todd4State]

Also of note on oline recruiting... we got 5 guys that we targeted. None of them were scrambles after misses, so we'll find out something about our oline recruiting evaluation

D'Marcus Hayes says hello. And Saahdiq Charles.

Interesting that every year we "target" guys that either have no offers or are barely able to qualify to the point where no one else wants to fool with the risk.

Edit to say re-read and misinterpreted post as ms7 saying we got all of our targets. Carry on.

[dawgday166]

Rushing ranks in sec...
'16 = 5th (4th yds/att)
'15 = 12th (8th yds/att)
'14 = 3rd (3rd yds/att)
'13 = 8th (9th)
'12 = 10th (6th)
'11 = 5th (4th)
'10 = 2nd (6th)

Only terrible years were when we went pass happy with dak and Tyler at qb in '12

Come on now 7. We went "pass happy" when we couldn't run the ball against a crappy AU team in 15.

[Todd4State]

Come on now 7. We went "pass happy" when we couldn't run the ball against a crappy AU team in 15.

Well we went pass happy because we were always behind the sticks. I don't think it was intentional. Dan needs to stay away from scatbacks. And I don't consider Josh a "small" back at 215 or whatever he was. Holloway at 150- too small.

But when we get a bigger running back it's interesting how we always go back to being run first.

[dawgday166]

Well we went pass happy because we were always behind the sticks. I don't think it was intentional. Dan needs to stay away from scatbacks. And I don't consider Josh a "small" back at 215 or whatever he was. Holloway at 150- too small.

But when we get a bigger running back it's interesting how we always go back to being run first.

Josh is similar, although not as fast as, Zeke. Low center of gravity about 215 - 225. Not the same thing as a scatback who isn't even that fast to begin with.

[smootness]

He was sacked 9 damn times. That wasn't working either. Our oline isn't as bad as some people like to say it is but if you think play calling is our problem against Alabama you are insane. They have way more talent than we do and it does not matter what plays we call.

I mostly agree with that. I'm saying our playcalling is dumb precisely because they have way more talent than we do. You've got to take shots against them. We just line up and try to play a conventional offense, and it's never going to work.

Anyway, my point is that of course our OL talent isn't good enough against them. But whose is?

[maroonmania]

Josh is similar, although not as fast as, Zeke. Low center of gravity about 215 - 225. Not the same thing as a scatback who isn't even that fast to begin with.

Still believe Josh has the ability to have been a very good NFL RB but unfortunately his biggest problem is attitude and immaturity. If his head was screwed on straight he would have at least stayed with a team.

[DeviousDawg]

It's really no big deal if Cooper doesn't qualify. It sounds like he is at the point where if he doesn't make it he can go to a prep school and then sign again next year with 5 to play 4. If we can sign 5+ solid guys in the 2018 class, I think we will be in pretty decent shape going forward, numbers wise.

On the JUCO OL recruiting... If you don't like it, you probably just need to get over it. Mullen has signed 8 JUCO OL since 2010(if you include Carmon). That's one a year on average. Most of them were just depth guys, and I'm ok with that to balance the classes. Let's try to stay away from the Joq Johnson, Dylan Holley and Joey Trapps of the world though.

Anyone with eyes can tell that we need to recruit more talented guys on the offensive line. The offensive line has the most guys on the field out of any position group, yet it's the only position, other than safety, that hasn't had a guy signed by Mullen get drafted(Gabe Jackson was a Croom recruit). Hevesy is clearly the problem here, and if I am a offensive line recruit, I would probably stay away too. My point was only that we will be ok numbers wise, talent wise, however, is a different story. Going into next year, Suggs, Champion, Moon, Rankin, Cooper, Reese and D. Williams will be the only guys on our roster that could have legitimately signed at another P5 school. Need to double that number.

[KB21]

Still believe Josh has the ability to have been a very good NFL RB but unfortunately his biggest problem is attitude and immaturity. If his head was screwed on straight he would have at least stayed with a team.

Which is precisely the reason he didn't not get playing time early on in his career.

[Joe Schmedlap]

Boom. Nailed it.

We're not signing enough high end HS offensive linemen. Period. Signing 2-3 HS linemen per year that qualify is a death wish in this league....especially when 1 or 2 of the 3 aren't prospects that anybody in our league wanted anyway. We can make excuses or cite the Juco guys all we want....but we simply aren't signing enough of the Lashleys, Pattersons, or God forbid an actual stud OLman out of HS. We have a run first system that had Dak Prescott and now Fitz & Keytaon, as well as Aeris & Hill....there's no excuse for us to be losing on linemen to South Carolina and that shitty offense. We should be elite OL recruiters with our offensive style...but instead we sign three low end 3 stars every year and then hope that after a redshirt year, and then 2 development years, we MIGHT get a "serviceable" OLineman for his last 2 years. That is pathetic, embarrassing, and inexcusable. Even unacceptable imo.

ETA: And stop with the "who has an OL that pushes Bama around?" stuff....how bout a line that can dominate South Alabama? Is that too much to ask? Stop with the excuses...we aren't getting the job done by a long shot on OL recruiting. The first step is everyone admitting it.

[Commercecomet24]

It's really no big deal if Cooper doesn't qualify. It sounds like he is at the point where if he doesn't make it he can go to a prep school and then sign again next year with 5 to play 4. If we can sign 5+ solid guys in the 2018 class, I think we will be in pretty decent shape going forward, numbers wise.

On the JUCO OL recruiting... If you don't like it, you probably just need to get over it. Mullen has signed 8 JUCO OL since 2010(if you include Carmon). That's one a year on average. Most of them were just depth guys, and I'm ok with that to balance the classes. Let's try to stay away from the Joq Johnson, Dylan Holley and Joey Trapps of the world though.

Anyone with eyes can tell that we need to recruit more talented guys on the offensive line. The offensive line has the most guys on the field out of any position group, yet it's the only position, other than safety, that hasn't had a guy signed by Mullen get drafted(Gabe Jackson was a Croom recruit). Hevesy is clearly the problem here, and if I am a offensive line recruit, I would probably stay away too. My point was only that we will be ok numbers wise, talent wise, however, is a different story. Going into next year, Suggs, Champion, Moon, Rankin, Cooper, Reese and D. Williams will be the only guys on our roster that could have legitimately signed at another P5 school. Need to double that number.

Very accurate assessment!

[dawgday166]

Still believe Josh has the ability to have been a very good NFL RB but unfortunately his biggest problem is attitude and immaturity. If his head was screwed on straight he would have at least stayed with a team.

I kinda think there is a team or 2 out there that could possibly use him too ... but you're right about the internal demons he's chasing.