Freshmen on the OL

[FatCatG8r]

I’ve been thinking about this for a month or so and wondering if I should post it considering our current depth situation on the offensive line. At the risk of sounding like a “Sunshine Pumper”, here it is.

From Gatorzone.com (no info on who was a redshirt) our offensive line roster for a particularly unusual season:

Cheston Blackshear, OG, 6’3”, 272 lbs, FR
Pat Browning. OG, 6’4”, 294 lbs, FR
Scott Bryan, OT, 6’4”, 273 lbs, FR
Cooper Carlisle, OT, 6’5”, 285 lbs, FR
Mo Collins, OT, 6’5”, 312 lbs, SO
Todd Holland, OT, 6’6”, 274 lbs, JR transfer
Ryan Kalich, OG, 6’3”, 282 lbs, FR
Jeff Mitchell, C, 6’5”, 291 lbs, SR
Zach Piller, OT, 6’5”, 306 lbs, SO
Deac Story, OG, 6’4”, 281 lbs. SO
Corey Yarbrough, C, 6’2”, 285 lbs, FR
Donnie Young, OG, 6’4”, 315 lbs, SR
Zac Zedalis, OG, 6’3”, 279 lbs, FR

7 true or redshirt freshmen
3 sophomores
1 junior transfer
2 seniors

Notice the dearth of experienced upper classmen.

Anyone care to guess what season this was from? That’s right, 52 to 20 in the Sugar Bowl. Injuries and necessity inserted several of the freshmen into starting roles through the year including that National Championship game. Mitchell was injured at some point late in the year and never played another down for the Gators. Not sure who played center in the NC game, but I think it was Zedalis.

Anything is possible this year guys. We have 6 freshman OLs coming in the Fall, including the consensus top rated OT in the 2015 class who absolutely everyone has raved about and considered ready to play.
…
As Ox would say: Discuss

 

[ufgator812]

We have to hope that favorable comparisons can be made between the two classes.

 

[Captain Sasquatch]

If nothing else, it sets us up nicely for the future. Now we just need to keep signing 4-6 of them every recruiting class to avoid this mess again.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

2011 Tinerc is the most direct comparison. Mostly freshmen and even a walk on starting by the end of the year.

 

[ufgator812]

2011 Tinerc is the most direct comparison. Mostly freshmen and even a walk on starting by the end of the year.

Yuck. I hope your wrong.

 

[I Have No Friends :(]

If nothing else, it sets us up nicely for the future. Now we just need to keep signing 4-6 of them every recruiting class to avoid this mess again.

I think it's safer to just keep expectations lower for this coming season and then do exactly what you said; recruit, recruit, recruit.

 

[CaribGator]

That would fantastic if they could put it together with the young guys we have this year, coach Mac can use this as inspiration to the big uglies. Our defense will definitely be championship caliber, just need the offense to be average to make it to Atlanta the way the East is setting up.

 

[rogdochar]

Here's to hoping the weak OL doesn't ruin the game by excessive holding penalties.

 

[WobbleGator]

I think it's safer to just keep expectations lower for this coming season and then do exactly what you said; recruit, recruit, recruit.

Yep. That is exactly what I am doing.

 

[GatorJ]

Interesting. The good news is the guys that we're bringing in this freshman class are really big. Size will not be an issue. So aside from technique they should be ready to contribute.

In addition, Martez isn't a 17-year-old freshman. He's a 20-year-old man. Physically he's a sophomore/Junior.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

Now we just need to keep signing 4-6 of them every recruiting class to avoid this mess again.

Muschamp strongly disagrees with you :headshake:

 

[WobbleGator]

Muschamp strongly disagrees with you :headshake:

Well luckily WM no longer has anymore say on what UF does.

 

[GatorJB]

If nothing else, it sets us up nicely for the future. Now we just need to keep signing 4-6 of them every recruiting class to avoid this mess again.

Both the 2013 and 2014 class had 5 O-line recruits. The reason we have problems this year are:

1) The lack of linemen in 2011 and 2012
2) There were early departures
3) I believe 4 linemen in the last 3 years have had career ending injuries
4) The quality of O-linemen may be lacking as bad as the quantity; however, we won't know if that's true or not until the fall. I really hope that's not true.

Point is that I think he needs at least 7 quality guys next year and 6 every year after that to avoid this disaster again.

 

[chferg]

I am just glad we are having this problem on year one. If this was 2-4 years down the road it could derail Mac's progress.

As other posters have mentioned, we will probably take our lumps early but definietely could bode well for us in the future.

Get some playmakers at receiver and we should be loaded and ready for a champ run in 3 years from today.

 

[maheo30]

4 of the 6 true freshman will be backups and will likely play quality minutes with 1 or 2 starting at some point during the year due to injury. Hopefully they can hold their own. My expectations for this year are low.

 

[Alagator]

Interesting. The good news is the guys that we're bringing in this freshman class are really big. Size will not be an issue. So aside from technique they should be ready to contribute.

In addition, Martez isn't a 17-year-old freshman. He's a 20-year-old man. Physically he's a sophomore/Junior.

They may have the size but do they have the strength? Those are two different things.

One assumes Ivey will be further ahead, strength wise, due to his age but still hasn't seen any time in a college weight room.

 

[AlexDaGator]

In '96, our offense was unstoppable until Mitchell went down.

The starters were:

Zack Piller at LT (a transfer from GaTech, he was 20 years old in 1996 and good enough to play in the NFL for almost a decade),
Ryan Kalich at LG (a redshirt freshman)
Jeff Mitchell at C (a redshirt senior stud who also went on to have a solid NFL career)
Donnie Young at RG (another redshirt senior stud and a mauler with a legit mean streak)
Mo Collins at RT (redshirted in '94 and started in '95 and '96, uber talented, bit of a head case, maybe even nastier than Donnie Young, 6 year NFL career)

No true freshmen starters. These guys all had a ton of experience playing and playing with each other.

Trust me when I say that OL doesn't look ANYTHING like what we're going to be starting with this season--and we won't have the luxury of the best QB and the best WRs and the best offensive system in the country to make up for any potential OL shortfalls.

In the heart of the season, they demolished good opponents (including the number 2, 12, and 16 ranked teams) thusly :

	at #2 Tennessee				W 35–29
	Kentucky				W 65–0
	at Arkansas				W 42–7
	#12 Louisiana State				W 56–13
	#16 Auburn				W 51–10
	vs. Georgia				W 47–7

And don't be fooled by the score in the Tennessee game, it was over at halftime (score was 35-6).

Then Jeff Mitchell went down in that game against the Dawgs. Wyley Ritch (bless his heart) took his place. Dunno why Wyley doesn't show up on your list. He was a junior that year. Our next game was against lowly Vanderbilt. They blitzed right up the middle and harassed Danny all day. We eked out a 28-21 victory. Ouch.

Next game was against FSU on the road. If I recall correctly, Mo Collins was out for that game too. An ankle I think. Well, FSU watched the tape of what Vandy did and licked their chops. They were going after Danny. I love Spurrier, but this is a game where his stubbornness and arrogance got him beat. FSU beat up Danny and beat us 21-24. Bastards.

Then we met Bama in the SEC Championship game. Bama did the same things FSU did, sending a rusher right into the A gap between the Center and the Guard and sacking Danny. Spurrier started to adapt and we won 45-30 setting up the re-match.

We got big Mo Collins back for the Sugar Bowl. I distinctly remember him writing "We're Back" on the tape on his hands for that game (and dishing out plenty of punishment to those FSU DEs that kept hitting Danny late in Tallahassee). Spurrier made big changes; he changed his blocking schemes and went heavy with the shotgun. It made all the difference.

If you want a better comparison, look at the 1992 season. Spurrier had to replace 4 out of 5 starters on his OL. He brought in two of the best recruits in the nation that year, Reggie Green (who was 6'7", 300+, and number one on everybody's list) and Jason Odom. Reggie started at LT from game one as a true freshman, after a couple of losses, Odom took over the starting RT spot and we finished the season with two true freshmen Tackles starting.

BUT--that offensive team also had redshirt senior All-SEC QB Shane Matthews and redshirt senior All-SEC RB Errict Rhett and All-SEC WRs like Jack Jackson, Harrison Houston, and Willie Jackson AND they had Spurrier in his prime running a system they all knew that was light years ahead of everybody else.

Despite being highly ranked in the pre-season, '92 turned out to be one of Spurrier's worst seasons. We lost early and badly to Tennessee and Mississippi State. Spurrier righted the ship and worked his magic to manufacture a nice win streak, then we lost at FSU and again in the inaugural SEC Championship game to eventual MNC Alabama.

So, the take home message here? When faced with the kind of OL problems we are going to have this year, Spurrier in his prime with every other imaginable advantage on offense, lost 4 games.

Alex.

 

[Concrete Helmet]

The quality of O-linemen may be lacking as bad as the quantity;

This.....If a guy has talent he needs to be on the field or at least in the rotation. We are making too much of this issue IMO opinion. If the guys we got this fall have any talent they will be ready by mid season. This isn't to say they won't run into bad match ups from time to time or get beat...Fact is most of the guys who have been playing on our offensive line over the last 5 years just weren't any good to begin with. As proof I offer the fact that the ones who played their whole career getting beat play after play and game after game never got any better. It's more of a matter of talent than experience.

 

[CaribGator]

This.....If a guy has talent he needs to be on the field or at least in the rotation. We are making too much of this issue IMO opinion. If the guys we got this fall have any talent they will be ready by mid season. This isn't to say they won't run into bad match ups from time to time or get beat...Fact is most of the guys who have been playing on our offensive line over the last 5 years just weren't any good to begin with. As proof I offer the fact that the ones who played their whole career getting beat play after play and game after game never got any better. It's more of a matter of talent than experience.

I'm sort of resigned to this, we will be playing these young kids, they will get beat and pushed around. But i would like to think that by mid-season we are seeing improvement in them, if we see the improvement, then we know that in a couple of years with more weight, strength and experience, that we will maybe have one of the best Olines in the game on the way to the playoffs.

 

[AlexDaGator]

Agreed. That's what happened with that '92 OL.

They took their lumps early, but by midseason they gelled into a decent group.

We lost two at the end of the season, but it was to two of the best teams in the country. We gave eventual MNC Alabama a much tougher test in the SEC Championship game than Miami gave them in the MNC game (the Sugar Bowl that year). Heck, we almost pulled that game out. To this day, I think that was one of Spurrier's greatest games ever coached (of course, he would vehemently disagree). Damn Monte Duncan not coming back to the ball! After that, all I ever remember poor old Monte doing is working the door at the Porpoise.

Alex.