[msqueri]

Speaking of notable low grades, I see Miezan way down at 29. That’s quite a prediction for a team captain. Do you think JMF will take over that starting role?

I don't know who will "start" at ILB but generally view Damuni as more durable and reliable than JMF and Miezan. Last year Damuni played the most followed by Miezan followed by JMF, but all played a lot.

Miezan being so low is a reflection of the stock I'm putting into PFF grades. Based purely on big plays, Miezan has a soft spot in my heart as somebody who has shown some aptitude for making plays behind the line of scrimmage. But PFF rendered an unequivocal verdict that it wasn't worth it and he really, really sucks. They graded him as a 40.9, the 425th of 448 starting linebackers nationally (33rd of 38 in the Pac-12). Compounding that harsh verdict, a former Stanford/NFL ILB opined on TOS that Miezan doesn't have a lot of feel for the game.

Miezan, like Hinton and Franklin, is a potential "starter" I'm predicting a rough season from. I'd love to be wrong on all three, of course.

I'm having a hard time understanding why Hinton is struggling so much. He has good size, good bloodlines, and he was highly rated and recruited coming out of HS. Anyone have any thoughts as to what his problem is?

I really hope I'm wrong but I fear he's just bad. It happens, whether because evaluators missed something that was obscured by high school mauling of 230 pounders or because of a debilitating mentality/intangible issue.

When Hinton committed to us he was the definition of a mega whale, one of the biggest recruits in our history: composite #12, with all three services having him among the top 17 recruits in the nation. By the end of the cycle he was composite #74 and all three services had moved him down. 247, which is arguably the best evaluator, nuked his ranking down to #218. In my three dimensional analyses I list comparable players based on Rivals ratings but that's arbitrary and if I did it for Hinton based on 247 rankings, which is just as reasonable, Hinton was comparable to Brendon Austin, Kevin Reihner, Graham Shuler, Brandon Fanaika, Casey Tucker, Brian Chaffin, Clark Yarbrough, Devery Hamilton, Barrett Miller, Levi Rogers, James Pogorelc, Austin Uke, and Fisher Anderson.

Here’s the reality on Hinton: arguably the best service thought he was a low 4-star and most definitely not a whale. Empirically under Shaw those recruits have tended to be between useless and solid starters. Many of our fans and apparently coaches totally deluded themselves into lumping Hinton with guys like Andrus Peat, Kyle Murphy, Joshua Garnett, Walker Little, and Foster Sarell when the reality is that Casey Tucker is the truest comparison and a service with a very good track record made the even less comparable comparisons above. His high school junior season was wiped out due to injury and then he had a shoulder surgery that prevented him from lifting weights or running the entire off-season heading into his senior year. When he did play it was at a level that led to the precipitous drop in his recruiting rankings. He may have dropped further were he not the son and brother of the Chris Hintons. Even during his recruitment there were whispers - some even mentioned in actual press reports - that he’s such a Renaissance Man/polymath that he might not be committed to football or have the right mentality. He’s been quoted as saying he hated football until he realized he wasn’t bad at it, which is quite foreboding about what happened to his confidence now that he had one of the worst seasons in Pac-12 history.

Based on the combination of what we knew about him as a recruit plus what we’ve seen from him in the first two years of his college career, I think it’s more likely he sucks than it is that he’s ever good. If he does develop we shouldn’t hope for more than a Casey Tucker or Devery Hamilton. And with Miller and McLaughlin on the bench my stomach drops every game we assess Hinton is a better option. Hope there's a quick hook if Hinton hasn't massively improved.

[msqueri]

Speaking of notable low grades, I see Miezan way down at 29. That’s quite a prediction for a team captain. Do you think JMF will take over that starting role?

I don't know who will "start" at ILB but generally view Damuni as more durable and reliable than JMF and Miezan. Last year Damuni played the most followed by Miezan followed by JMF, but all played a lot.

Miezan being so low is a reflection of the stock I'm putting into PFF grades. Based purely on big plays, Miezan has a soft spot in my heart as somebody who has shown some aptitude for making plays behind the line of scrimmage. But PFF rendered an unequivocal verdict that it wasn't worth it and he really, really sucks. They graded him as a 40.9, the 425th of 448 starting linebackers nationally (33rd of 38 in the Pac-12). Compounding that harsh verdict, a former Stanford/NFL ILB opined on TOS that Miezan doesn't have a lot of feel for the game.

Miezan, like Hinton and Franklin, is a potential "starter" I'm predicting a rough season from. I'd love to be wrong on all three, of course.

I'm having a hard time understanding why Hinton is struggling so much. He has good size, good bloodlines, and he was highly rated and recruited coming out of HS. Anyone have any thoughts as to what his problem is?

I really hope I'm wrong but I fear he's just bad. It happens, whether because evaluators missed something that was obscured by high school mauling of 230 pounders or because of a debilitating mentality/intangible issue.

When Hinton committed to us he was the definition of a mega whale, one of the biggest recruits in our history: composite #12, with all three services having him among the top 17 recruits in the nation. By the end of the cycle he was composite #74 and all three services had moved him down. 247, which is arguably the best evaluator, nuked his ranking down to #218. In my three dimensional analyses I list comparable players based on Rivals ratings but that's arbitrary and if I did it for Hinton based on 247 rankings, which is just as reasonable, Hinton was comparable to Brendon Austin, Kevin Reihner, Graham Shuler, Brandon Fanaika, Casey Tucker, Brian Chaffin, Clark Yarbrough, Devery Hamilton, Barrett Miller, Levi Rogers, James Pogorelc, Austin Uke, and Fisher Anderson.

Here’s the reality on Hinton: arguably the best service thought he was a low 4-star and most definitely not a whale. Empirically under Shaw those recruits have tended to be between useless and solid starters. Many of our fans and apparently coaches totally deluded themselves into lumping Hinton with guys like Andrus Peat, Kyle Murphy, Joshua Garnett, Walker Little, and Foster Sarell when the reality is that Casey Tucker is the truest comparison and a service with a very good track record made the even less comparable comparisons above. His high school junior season was wiped out due to injury and then he had a shoulder surgery that prevented him from lifting weights or running the entire off-season heading into his senior year. When he did play it was at a level that led to the precipitous drop in his recruiting rankings. He may have dropped further were he not the son and brother of the Chris Hintons. Even during his recruitment there were whispers - some even mentioned in actual press reports - that he’s such a Renaissance Man/polymath that he might not be committed to football or have the right mentality. He’s been quoted as saying he hated football until he realized he wasn’t bad at it, which is quite foreboding about what happened to his confidence now that he had one of the worst seasons in Pac-12 history.

Based on the combination of what we knew about him as a recruit plus what we’ve seen from him in the first two years of his college career, I think it’s more likely he sucks than it is that he’s ever good. If he does develop we shouldn’t hope for more than a Casey Tucker or Devery Hamilton. And with Miller and McLaughlin on the bench my stomach drops every game we assess Hinton is a better option. Hope there's a quick hook if Hinton hasn't massively improved.