10-09-2018, 10:37 AM
These holes were noted as early as 18 months ago, when we were recruiting this year's offensive linemen. If you look at the offensive line, there are two scholarship linemen listed as "first years" or redshirts, one guard and one center (we should normally have 5 - 7 per two-year cycle). After this year, when Hall graduates, you will have Little and Sarell, and if either of them gets injured (as Sarrell has been this year), you are looking at Hattis, a walk-on redshirt freshman, or a true freshman.
At the ILB position, there is one scholarship linebacker in our first and second year cohorts, and nobody has seen appreciable time. Usually, even when there is a well-established guy at a position (like Okereke at ILB), you would ideally like to hear about first and second year players getting some playing time, but none are. With the new redshirt rule, you might expect some of our redshirt players seeing at least some mop-up action in fewer than five games, if for no other reason than to decrease the risk of injury in the more senior guys in a game like Davis. That they have not even played suggests that they are nowhere near ready, so who comes in to take Okereke's spot when he graduates?
Yes, of course, we will somehow find a way to field an offensive line and we will have inside linebacker core. But we were not well-served by big gaps in the defensive line from 2015 - 2017, and we are still dealing with the after-effects of it. The margin for error going forward will be narrower at these positions especially (and a couple others, as I have highlighted), and if we have players get injured, or not pan out for whatever reason, then the drop-off in quality will be reflected by the on-field product.
BC
At the ILB position, there is one scholarship linebacker in our first and second year cohorts, and nobody has seen appreciable time. Usually, even when there is a well-established guy at a position (like Okereke at ILB), you would ideally like to hear about first and second year players getting some playing time, but none are. With the new redshirt rule, you might expect some of our redshirt players seeing at least some mop-up action in fewer than five games, if for no other reason than to decrease the risk of injury in the more senior guys in a game like Davis. That they have not even played suggests that they are nowhere near ready, so who comes in to take Okereke's spot when he graduates?
Yes, of course, we will somehow find a way to field an offensive line and we will have inside linebacker core. But we were not well-served by big gaps in the defensive line from 2015 - 2017, and we are still dealing with the after-effects of it. The margin for error going forward will be narrower at these positions especially (and a couple others, as I have highlighted), and if we have players get injured, or not pan out for whatever reason, then the drop-off in quality will be reflected by the on-field product.
BC