[UltimateCard]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc...100978524/

What he says about athletes and the rest of campus at Stanford:

The people here are just incredible. I’m so happy to have an opportunity to meet people outside of football. Some of my best friends here don’t play sports and it’s cool to be around those people because they think and operate and interact with everyone so differently than athletes do. Hanging around those types of people make you smarter, which is really cool.

[UltimateCard]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nc...100978524/

What he says about athletes and the rest of campus at Stanford:

The people here are just incredible. I’m so happy to have an opportunity to meet people outside of football. Some of my best friends here don’t play sports and it’s cool to be around those people because they think and operate and interact with everyone so differently than athletes do. Hanging around those types of people make you smarter, which is really cool.

[martyup]

That's special.  He would be more "interesting" if he would block for his QB.

[martyup]

That's special.  He would be more "interesting" if he would block for his QB.

[fullmetal]

I wonder if he could improve his footwork/agility with dance/plyometrics classes.  Seriously, go hang out with those people and pick up some stuff :)  (Ok surely Turley has already been working on this with him...)

[fullmetal]

I wonder if he could improve his footwork/agility with dance/plyometrics classes.  Seriously, go hang out with those people and pick up some stuff :)  (Ok surely Turley has already been working on this with him...)

[cctop]

One other quote from that article I found interesting regarding the game at Washington:

I’d never played in a game that loud and that noise rocked my world. Couldn’t think, didn’t know what to do, couldn’t hear the snap count. I was just shocked.


Not hearing the count can obviously affect your game but I think this is the first time I've seen a player admit he was rattled by it.

[cctop]

One other quote from that article I found interesting regarding the game at Washington:

I’d never played in a game that loud and that noise rocked my world. Couldn’t think, didn’t know what to do, couldn’t hear the snap count. I was just shocked.


Not hearing the count can obviously affect your game but I think this is the first time I've seen a player admit he was rattled by it.

[fullmetal]

Curious that he would admit such a thing.  Maybe Burns needs to strengthen his voice.

[fullmetal]

Curious that he would admit such a thing.  Maybe Burns needs to strengthen his voice.

[BobK]

We should hope Hall is healthy this year. 

[BobK]

We should hope Hall is healthy this year. 

[fullmetal]

Was there no option but to play Hall while he was hurt?  (Lack of depth?  We played 3-star Herbig over other 4-star frosh...)

[fullmetal]

Was there no option but to play Hall while he was hurt?  (Lack of depth?  We played 3-star Herbig over other 4-star frosh...)

[SamuelMcF]

(Lack of depth?  We played 3-star Herbig over other 4-star frosh...)

1. Herbig is a guard, not a tackle.
2. Herbig is OUR BEST GUARD. The guy can move anything in front of him practically by just looking at it.

[SamuelMcF]

(Lack of depth?  We played 3-star Herbig over other 4-star frosh...)

1. Herbig is a guard, not a tackle.
2. Herbig is OUR BEST GUARD. The guy can move anything in front of him practically by just looking at it.

[fullmetal]

[quote author=fullmetal link=topic=16843.msg192642#msg192642 date=1493737033]
(Lack of depth?  We played 3-star Herbig over other 4-star frosh...)

1. Herbig is a guard, not a tackle.
2. Herbig is OUR BEST GUARD. The guy can move anything in front of him practically by just looking at it.
[/quote]

1. Right, my point is were all our frosh guards or centers?  Then were none of the frosh tackles were good enough to take over for Hall while Hall was injured?  (Yikes)
2. No disagreement there. I would move out of his way if he looked at me.  Too bad we didn't have a similarly-talented frosh tackle to take over for Hall while Hall recuperated.  But next season...is there an emoji for embarrassment of riches?  Because I can't wait to see if the incoming kids win starting jobs during the year.  Even if they just run block, just think about Love and Speights running behind that kind of line.

[fullmetal]

[quote author=fullmetal link=topic=16843.msg192642#msg192642 date=1493737033]
(Lack of depth?  We played 3-star Herbig over other 4-star frosh...)

1. Herbig is a guard, not a tackle.
2. Herbig is OUR BEST GUARD. The guy can move anything in front of him practically by just looking at it.
[/quote]

1. Right, my point is were all our frosh guards or centers?  Then were none of the frosh tackles were good enough to take over for Hall while Hall was injured?  (Yikes)
2. No disagreement there. I would move out of his way if he looked at me.  Too bad we didn't have a similarly-talented frosh tackle to take over for Hall while Hall recuperated.  But next season...is there an emoji for embarrassment of riches?  Because I can't wait to see if the incoming kids win starting jobs during the year.  Even if they just run block, just think about Love and Speights running behind that kind of line.

[CTcard]

[quote author=fullmetal link=topic=16843.msg192642#msg192642 date=1493737033]
(Lack of depth?  We played 3-star Herbig over other 4-star frosh...)

1. Herbig is a guard, not a tackle.
2. Herbig is OUR BEST GUARD. The guy can move anything in front of him practically by just looking at it.
[/quote]

In addition, once guys are on campus and the coaches have a chance to work with them, it's fairly pointless to fall back upon service recruit rankings to evaluate different players' abilities.

It was pretty clear from early on that our coaches rated Herbig much higher than the rating services. And his solid performance as a true frosh makes it pretty clear why.

One thing I had missed, the roster now lists Clark Yarbrough as a guard. That makes him our tallest guard at 6'6".
According to 247sports, he was the second highest prep-rated OL on the team last year, behind only Casey Tucker.

[CTcard]

[quote author=fullmetal link=topic=16843.msg192642#msg192642 date=1493737033]
(Lack of depth?  We played 3-star Herbig over other 4-star frosh...)

1. Herbig is a guard, not a tackle.
2. Herbig is OUR BEST GUARD. The guy can move anything in front of him practically by just looking at it.
[/quote]

In addition, once guys are on campus and the coaches have a chance to work with them, it's fairly pointless to fall back upon service recruit rankings to evaluate different players' abilities.

It was pretty clear from early on that our coaches rated Herbig much higher than the rating services. And his solid performance as a true frosh makes it pretty clear why.

One thing I had missed, the roster now lists Clark Yarbrough as a guard. That makes him our tallest guard at 6'6".
According to 247sports, he was the second highest prep-rated OL on the team last year, behind only Casey Tucker.

[Goose]

In addition, once guys are on campus and the coaches have a chance to work with them, it's fairly pointless to fall back upon service recruit rankings to evaluate different players' abilities.

I think this is a great point. It is not wise to rely on freshman playing a big role in their first year. It does happen, witness Herbig, but expecting/requiring it to happen is asking too much. It would be wonderful if the freshman tackles were both ready to play this fall, but I recommend that you don't bet on it.

[Goose]

In addition, once guys are on campus and the coaches have a chance to work with them, it's fairly pointless to fall back upon service recruit rankings to evaluate different players' abilities.

I think this is a great point. It is not wise to rely on freshman playing a big role in their first year. It does happen, witness Herbig, but expecting/requiring it to happen is asking too much. It would be wonderful if the freshman tackles were both ready to play this fall, but I recommend that you don't bet on it.

[winflop]

We should hope Hall is healthy this year.

And that his feet - and his head - are much improved. Or that there's someone else able to step and take the spot. What we can't have is a repeat of last season's performance by him or anyone who replaces him at that spot.

[winflop]

We should hope Hall is healthy this year.

And that his feet - and his head - are much improved. Or that there's someone else able to step and take the spot. What we can't have is a repeat of last season's performance by him or anyone who replaces him at that spot.

[Goose]

And that his feet - and his head - are much improved. Or that there's someone else able to step and take the spot. What we can't have is a repeat of last season's performance by him or anyone who replaces him at that spot.

The flip-flop of Hall and Tucker makes one wonder if we had two OK right tackles and no left tackles. OTOH, injuries did undoubtedly play a role last year. Let us all hope that those problems are over and the tackle position becomes a non-problem, if not an absolute strength. It appears that Tucker is out of the mix at tackle but in the mix at Guard(?).

[Goose]

And that his feet - and his head - are much improved. Or that there's someone else able to step and take the spot. What we can't have is a repeat of last season's performance by him or anyone who replaces him at that spot.

The flip-flop of Hall and Tucker makes one wonder if we had two OK right tackles and no left tackles. OTOH, injuries did undoubtedly play a role last year. Let us all hope that those problems are over and the tackle position becomes a non-problem, if not an absolute strength. It appears that Tucker is out of the mix at tackle but in the mix at Guard(?).

[winflop]

I still fail to understand the logic behind flipping Hall & Tucker at that point. If that were going to be done it should have happened in preseason camp. Maybe we'll never know, but we know it didn't work out very well.

[winflop]

I still fail to understand the logic behind flipping Hall & Tucker at that point. If that were going to be done it should have happened in preseason camp. Maybe we'll never know, but we know it didn't work out very well.

[Goose]

I still fail to understand the logic behind flipping Hall & Tucker at that point. If that were going to be done it should have happened in preseason camp.

In an ideal world, certainly. However, that logic bars any "major" changes after training camp, which I don't think you really intend.

Maybe we'll never know, but we know it didn't work out very well.

Probably we are all a bit unhappy with last years OL play, coaches included, if that is what you meant by didn't work out well. However, I am sure we don't know that it would have been better without making the switch. Like most real-world decisions, there is no control group to calibrate against. The fact that Tucker has been moved to guard (?) kind of indicates that perhaps the staff feels that he was not a good fit at tackle. So it may have been worse to do nothing.

[Goose]

I still fail to understand the logic behind flipping Hall & Tucker at that point. If that were going to be done it should have happened in preseason camp.

In an ideal world, certainly. However, that logic bars any "major" changes after training camp, which I don't think you really intend.

Maybe we'll never know, but we know it didn't work out very well.

Probably we are all a bit unhappy with last years OL play, coaches included, if that is what you meant by didn't work out well. However, I am sure we don't know that it would have been better without making the switch. Like most real-world decisions, there is no control group to calibrate against. The fact that Tucker has been moved to guard (?) kind of indicates that perhaps the staff feels that he was not a good fit at tackle. So it may have been worse to do nothing.

[CTcard]

The fact that Tucker has been moved to guard (?) kind of indicates that perhaps the staff feels that he was not a good fit at tackle.

Does anyone know for sure that the Tucker move has been set?

I note that the roster still lists him as an OT. Of course that could simply mean that it hasn't been updated on the matter, but the roster does now list Yarbrough as a guard which shows at least one such change has been updated from last season.

[CTcard]

The fact that Tucker has been moved to guard (?) kind of indicates that perhaps the staff feels that he was not a good fit at tackle.

Does anyone know for sure that the Tucker move has been set?

I note that the roster still lists him as an OT. Of course that could simply mean that it hasn't been updated on the matter, but the roster does now list Yarbrough as a guard which shows at least one such change has been updated from last season.