Recruiting 2024 Transfer Portal Thread: USC offensive lineman Jason Zandamela headed to UF

[GatorJ]

I just looked down our roster and I knew we were a young team but damn....we are a REAL young team. This staff has got to home in on the portal in a few areas but also need to pay close attention to some returning players who put in the work during the offseason. The biggest step in the development of oline, dline and LB comes between the 1st and second years. These position groups also need to have "team leaders" developed from returning upperclassmen.

If, and it's a big if with this staff, we can't pick up 8-9 wins next year then they're flat out not doing their jobs.

Yeah – a lot of the other sites have been hammering the staff for letting too many veterans go in the portal. It put us in a bind with having only young players (particularly on defense).

We’re probably the youngest team in CFB.

It’s one reason why we are in desperate need of portal players. We need some upperclassman.

 

[GatorJ]

Need linebackers and D line. All the others are just dressing. Great if we can pull something shiny on the offense not needed, but damn we need real men linebackers.

Talent at linebacker is not very good. Thank goodness we have some dogs coming in. We need a couple pass rushers. Our pass rushing is very limited right now.

LJ McCray is going to start day one.

 

[Concrete Helmet]

Yeah – a lot of the other sites have been hammering the staff for letting too many veterans go in the portal. It put us in a bind with having only young players (particularly on defense).

We’re probably the youngest team in CFB.

It’s one reason why we are in desperate need of portal players. We need some upperclassman.

Coaching staff aside looking at that roster actually makes me feel much better than I did before going forward. Yes, I understand that only a small percentage ever take "that step" to becoming legit D1 talent but if even 3 or 4 guys across a starting 22 do that we will make leaps and bounds of improvement.

Add in a more mobile QB with a bigger arm and all of a sudden that Oline looks a lot more like chicken salad than the chicken sh!t we see for quarters at a time this year. Skill positionwise we are damned near on par with the likes of anyone. Jackson and Tre will be one of the best WR duos in the country. Same with RB especially if the guy from Tulane can still play next year?

 

[Durty South Swamp]

We need o-linemen desperately. No convo should occur without that being the first comment made. It's egregious how bad we are on the offensive line.

 

[jdh5484]

We need o-linemen desperately. No convo should occur without that being the first comment made. It's egregious how bad we are on the offensive line.

I don't see it (OL) getting better next year either (unless we hit on a couple in the portal). We just aren't very talented. The ones we have coming in, so far, are meh.

I think the D-line will be improved next year. We have talent this year but young. We also have (or had) a solid group coming in.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

I don't see it getting better next year either (unless we hit on a couple in the portal). We just aren't very talented.

I think the D-line will be improved next year. We have talent this year but young.

This staff has failed horrifically in getting offensive line talent. It's actually worse than either of the last 2 turds we had. Almost as bad as chump, and he didn't even try to recruit any.

 

[MertzJay26]

Yes please.

Been begging for this one for over a year now

 

[MertzJay26]

DL is our biggest need followed by LBs and DBs. Then OL.

 

[Gator By Marriage]

Yeah – a lot of the other sites have been hammering the staff for letting too many veterans go in the portal. It put us in a bind with having only young players (particularly on defense

Do you know much of how any of that played out? In the case of Hopper - who we could have really used this year - I know he went to Mizzou because he wanted to play with his brother last season. As for the other guys, were there any they pushed out - as opposed to guys who had no desire to stay - that we regret now?

 

[Concrete Helmet]

DL is our biggest need followed by LBs and DBs. Then OL.

I see it as DB, Oline, LB then Dline. We have a lot of guys on the dline that saw quality reps. Hell our best pass rusher never played a down this year.

 

[MertzJay26]

I see it as DB, Oline, LB then Dline. We have a lot of guys on the dline that saw quality reps. Hell our best pass rusher never played a down this year.

Defense needs to be fixed first. Our DL was terrible against the run and couldn’t generate ANY pressures. We may get Boone back but are also losing Princely.

OL has been bad, but we’ve still been able to put up points. I’m focusing first on defense and then OL personally

 

[Durty South Swamp]

We don't need DBs. We have plenty, we need coaching.

 

[MertzJay26]

We don't need DBs. We have plenty, we need coaching.

I mean I guess we can say that about any position

 

[Thick&ThinG8r]

I just looked down our roster and I knew we were a young team but damn....we are a REAL young team. This staff has got to home in on the portal in a few areas but also need to pay close attention to some returning players who put in the work during the offseason. The biggest step in the development of oline, dline and LB comes between the 1st and second years. These position groups also need to have "team leaders" developed from returning upperclassmen.

If, and it's a big if with this staff, we can't pick up 8-9 wins next year then they're flat out not doing their jobs.

Well, is someone going to tell him?

 

[Concrete Helmet]

Defense needs to be fixed first. Our DL was terrible against the run and couldn’t generate ANY pressures. We may get Boone back but are also losing Princely.

OL has been bad, but we’ve still been able to put up points. I’m focusing first on defense and then OL personally

Princely is a jr. If the back end of the defense actually tackled people after a 6-8 yard gain instead of letting it turn into a 25-30 yard gain like UGA and Bama do we would have 7-8 wins and be going to a bowl game. Pass rushing is great unless you let the QB take off for 25 yards on 3rd down...I would rather have dlinemen who can keep OG's off our LBer's so they can make plays and develop a spy for mobile/running QB's(think Arky and LSU games).

Agree on offense and a more mobile QB helps make a oline look better anyway but how many times do we get stuffed on 3rd or 4th and short.....you keep those drives going and you keep your defense off the field.

 

[GatorJ]

Do you know much of how any of that played out? In the case of Hopper - who we could have really used this year - I know he went to Mizzou because he wanted to play with his brother last season. As for the other guys, were there any they pushed out - as opposed to guys who had no desire to stay - that we regret now?

Antwaun Powell - 9 sacks this year for VT (I think). I think I read somewhere that he also set the school record for most sacks in a game.​

I have to take a look at the others as well.

A total of 27 kids transferred out last year.

 

[Gator By Marriage]

Antwaun Powell - 9 sacks this year for VT (I think). I think I read somewhere that he also set the school record for most sacks in a game.​

I have to take a look at the others as well.

A total of 27 kids transferred out last year.

So we know he was pushed as opposed to jumped?

 

[GatorJ]

So we know he was pushed as opposed to jumped?

No, we don’t know. But we don’t know how much was attempted to hold onto them either.

 

[TN G8tr]

Princely is a jr. If the back end of the defense actually tackled people after a 6-8 yard gain instead of letting it turn into a 25-30 yard gain like UGA and Bama do we would have 7-8 wins and be going to a bowl game. Pass rushing is great unless you let the QB take off for 25 yards on 3rd down...I would rather have dlinemen who can keep OG's off our LBer's so they can make plays and develop a spy for mobile/running QB's(think Arky and LSU games).

Agree on offense and a more mobile QB helps make a oline look better anyway but how many times do we get stuffed on 3rd or 4th and short.....you keep those drives going and you keep your defense off the field.

This. Shannon Snell was hitting this point very hard last week about needing studL s at LB. If the LBs can do their job, takes pressure off the DL to rush, the DLine can rush, should help the DBs. And yes, we need the LBs and our secondary needs some serious work. In all we need to be getting the best we can on the DL too.

But to your point I also agree that if we had better LB play we would have seen better play with the Dline.

 

[Concrete Helmet]

This. Shannon Snell was hitting this point very hard last week about needing studL s at LB. If the LBs can do their job, takes pressure off the DL to rush, the DLine can rush, should help the DBs. And yes, we need the LBs and our secondary needs some serious work. In all we need to be getting the best we can on the DL too.

But to your point I also agree that if we had better LB play we would have seen better play with the Dline.

Hopefully it all comes together next year. Small improvements on each level of the defense makes a better overall defense than being loaded at one level and terrible at the next.