All Things Final Spots in the 2018 Class

[WFE12 9,191]

1 minute ago, NorthGATiger said:

For the record, McClain is in the same class as NCM, Eli Stove, and the since gone Kyle Davis.  Without inside info and being at the practices who knows why he did not see more playing time.  But I will tell you this without reservation, when he did see the field he more than looks the part and if you look around the world of college football and especially the Championship game there were true freshman playing everywhere.  Gus just does not trust young players.  Devin Barrett, McClain, and every kid that has sat the bench until there redshirt sophomore season say hello.

Yes and taking chances and trusting your players is part of being a coach...why can't he understand that? I know this stuff is often none of our business but I'm tired of being left clueless about stuff like this. If he doesn't have much more pt next season something's really wrong with this picture. I only remember Kodi saying that he needed to "grow up" well I hope he will if he hasn't already.

[WFE12 9,191]

Did not know we were doing an in-house visit with Quay this week.

[CameronCrazy 1,058]

After the hire today, I’m not very hopeful that we’ll land another 4*. Going into the year I believed that we would hire Shelton Felton, lock down Quay Walker, land Barnes & Gouriage, and sign the best available player for our last spot. But after today, I think it may be the following.

Alaimo

McCready

Willie Allen (I think we’d be lucky to land him at this point)

Another 3* OL

[Mikey 16,550]

6 hours ago, NorthGATiger said:

For the record, McClain is in the same class as NCM, Eli Stove, and the since gone Kyle Davis.

Those guys played as true freshmen. They say hello right back to you.

McClain was redshirted. That should tell you right there that he's a little behind them. Whether it's with him, his high school background or whatever, he's not up to their level yet. Maybe he'll "grow up" enough over the summer to suit Kodi. If he does he'll play and if he doesn't he'll sit some more.

Coaches want to win. Players that give their team the best chance of winning are the ones that play. To date, McClain hasn't filled the bill but it appears that he's now making progress.

One further note: If you've ever been on a team or coached a team, then you know this: Coaches don't put players in the game, players put themselves either in the game or on the bench depending on what they show in practice. McClain has the tools to put himself into games. To date, he hasn't shown enough so lets hope he gets it done in the near future.

[bigbird 60,368]

29 minutes ago, Mikey said:

One further note: If you've ever been on a team or coached a team, then you know this: Coaches don't put players in the game, players put themselves either in the game or on the bench depending on what they show in practice. McClain has the tools to put himself into games. To date, he hasn't shown enough so lets hope he gets it done in the near future.

Disagree with this. I've seen too many practice heroes as well as those that shine when the lights turn on. You never know how the will play until they play. MM has played well when allowed to...Just like KMart.

[ellitor 33,062]

3 hours ago, WFE12 said:

Did not know we were doing an in-house visit with Quay this week.

It's the contact period right now. We are doing in home visits with all our prospects every week.

[NorthGATiger 1,801]

8 hours ago, bigbird said:

Disagree with this. I've seen too many practice heroes as well as those that shine when the lights turn on. You never know how the will play until they play. MM has played well when allowed to...Just like KMart.

yes.  Gus has proven over time that he will play a kid to death before giving another one an opportunity.  Without injuries and players being kicked off the team, Bubba Pettway never sniffs a snap near a QB in his career.  Is it because he did not prove it in practice?  It's because Gus had him pre determined as to what position he was going to play and that was it.  

Make plays for your talent to use their skills to help the team succeed.  You can't always force talent into square pegs.  Kam Martin should be catching punts and screens out of the backfield.  That is how he can best utilize his talent to help the team.  You can't just line him up and think at 180 lbs. he should be able to run just like KJ.  

My problem with McClain and others is that Gus will not supplant a starter once he makes that decision and if he pegs you as a slot WR then he can't think outside the box as to where you might be able to help the team in others areas where a weakness can be turned into a strength.  Like moving a kid from H-Back to RB and he leads the SEC in rushing playing two less games than everyone else.  Gus never knew what he had.

[Mikey 16,550]

9 hours ago, bigbird said:

Disagree with this. I've seen too many practice heroes as well as those that shine when the lights turn on. You never know how the will play until they play. MM has played well when allowed to...Just like KMart.

The better he got, the more he played. Maybe he'll get a shot at TE. It's possible that Porter won't be as tough a coach as Kodi.

[bigbird 60,368]

1 minute ago, Mikey said:

The better he got, the more he played. Maybe he'll get a shot at TE. It's possible that Porter won't be as tough a coach as Kodi.

I hate the pigeonholing.  Once we all saw what Sal couldn't do, there is no reason MM couldn't/shouldn't have moved to take over that role. He would've excelled.

[Mikey 16,550]

2 minutes ago, bigbird said:

I hate the pigeonholing.  Once we all saw what Sal couldn't do, there is no reason MM couldn't/shouldn't have moved to take over that role. He would've excelled.

We can't know how ready he was to be moved. Hopefully, they will try this in the Spring. What we don't know is how McClain will take to the physical requirements of blocking as an H-back/ TE type. If we could stand on the sidelines at a few practices we'd know something, but alas, them days is gone. I used to could just wander over to the practice field during fall practice and watch Coach Jordan fuss at Alvin Bressler for dropping a pass from Pat Sullivan.  "You just dropped a touchdown pass!". Can't do that any more so we have to hope that the coaches that work with them every day know more than we do.

[SumterAubie 3,031]

10 hours ago, bigbird said:

Disagree with this. I've seen too many practice heroes as well as those that shine when the lights turn on. You never know how the will play until they play. MM has played well when allowed to...Just like KMart.

Right. From what I understand, if practice was the sole determinant of playing time, 34 would've never played a down.

[Auhud08 596]

@bigbird is there still a chance for MM at TE?

[bigbird 60,368]

2 minutes ago, Auhud08 said:

@bigbird is there still a chance for MM at TE?

I doubt it. He should've taken over the KD role once he was removed.

[ArgoEagle 1,767]

44 minutes ago, bigbird said:

I hate the pigeonholing.  Once we all saw what Sal couldn't do, there is no reason MM couldn't/shouldn't have moved to take over that role. He would've excelled.

Yessss!!!  I think the one glaring weakness holding Gus back is the lack of a backup plan.

[Mikey 16,550]

6 hours ago, bigbird said:

I doubt it. He should've taken over the KD role once he was removed.

Which of the following "should have" been benched in order to provide a place for M. McClain? Ryan Davis, Nate Craig-Myers, Darius Slayton or Eli Stove? Because there are only 11 allowed on the offensive side at a time and had McClain become a regular, one of those would have had to go to the side.

McClain made an easy catch from Willis and made a tough catch nearer to season's end. I see nothing in his resume to support all the statements that he should have been starting or is capable of doing great things. He has been here two full seasons and hasn't done great things yet. Lets hope those will come but he's been pretty much left behind by the WR guys in his signing class. I hope he is tough enough to play TE/H-back because there's a lot of experienced talent in front of him at WR and still more coming behind him. If he doesn't pick it up and step lively he'll be lucky to make the kick coverage teams. The guy has all the physical tools and the coaches know this. It's up to him to put those tools to use.

[AuburnNTexas 7,127]

7 hours ago, Mikey said:

We can't know how ready he was to be moved. Hopefully, they will try this in the Spring. What we don't know is how McClain will take to the physical requirements of blocking as an H-back/ TE type. If we could stand on the sidelines at a few practices we'd know something, but alas, them days is gone. I used to could just wander over to the practice field during fall practice and watch Coach Jordan fuss at Alvin Bressler for dropping a pass from Pat Sullivan.  "You just dropped a touchdown pass!". Can't do that any more so we have to hope that the coaches that work with them every day know more than we do.

You must have been at Auburn when I was.  69-75 took time out to work some to pay for school.

[Mikey 16,550]

3 minutes ago, AuburnNTexas said:

You must have been at Auburn when I was.  69-75 took time out to work some to pay for school.

I graduated (BS) in '69, then stayed on staff doing agricultural research until the summer of '76. So yes, we were there at the same time. It now seems weird that anybody that wanted to could walk into the practice field,  pre- season, stand 10 feet away from Coach Jordan on the sidelines and watch practice but that's how it was. There were never more than two or three of us doing that. The small numbers seems more weird still, looking back on it. Today hundreds if not thousands would clog up the practice field  sidelines.

[AUBwins 10,064]

10 hours ago, ArgoEagle said:

Yessss!!!  I think the one glaring weakness holding Gus back is the lack of a backup plan.

Gus has a backup plan ..

[bigbird 60,368]

3 hours ago, Mikey said:

Which of the following "should have" been benched in order to provide a place for M. McClain? Ryan Davis, Nate Craig-Myers, Darius Slayton or Eli Stove? Because there are only 11 allowed on the offensive side at a time and had McClain become a regular, one of those would have had to go to the side.

 

Being that none of those play the position we were talking about, I would suggest we don't bench any of the ones you mentioned. 

KD played the Big slot role. After he was dismissed, we moved Sal there where he failed to contribute. After that, they stopped running sets that had utilized the big slot. They should've used MM in that position.

[WFE12 9,191]

5 hours ago, Mikey said:

Which of the following "should have" been benched in order to provide a place for M. McClain? Ryan Davis, Nate Craig-Myers, Darius Slayton or Eli Stove? Because there are only 11 allowed on the offensive side at a time and had McClain become a regular, one of those would have had to go to the side.

McClain made an easy catch from Willis and made a tough catch nearer to season's end. I see nothing in his resume to support all the statements that he should have been starting or is capable of doing great things. He has been here two full seasons and hasn't done great things yet. Lets hope those will come but he's been pretty much left behind by the WR guys in his signing class. I hope he is tough enough to play TE/H-back because there's a lot of experienced talent in front of him at WR and still more coming behind him. If he doesn't pick it up and step lively he'll be lucky to make the kick coverage teams. The guy has all the physical tools and the coaches know this. It's up to him to put those tools to use.

I do not want us to try fit somebody into that te role. We need either Schenker or Alaimo to fill that role.

[WarEagleJersey 3]

11 hours ago, bigbird said:

Being that none of those play the position we were talking about, I would suggest we don't bench any of the ones you mentioned. 

KD played the Big slot role. After he was dismissed, we moved Sal there where he failed to contribute. After that, they stopped running sets that had utilized the big slot. They should've used MM in that position.

Kyle Davis did not just play the "Big Slot" role. That just happened to be the position most fans saw him succeed at.

What Mikey is trying to say is, when you add another player to the offense, you need to consider taking reps away. I dont think anyone is saying McClain shouldn't have played more, and this idea is of importance on our minds because of his catch against UCF.

Lets also not act like Cannella played all that much too. Once Lindsay saw his drops, he was riding the pine.

[Mikey 16,550]

10 hours ago, WFE12 said:

I do not want us to try fit somebody into that te role. We need either Schenker or Alaimo to fill that role.

I don't see why not try McClain there. He has the size and good speed for the position. There are quality payers in front of him at WR and more are coming in the current recruiting class so it's not essential for the team that he improve at WR. Now, if he doesn't like sticking is nose in there and blocking people as his "regular" job, that's a different story and his future, however bright or dim, will be at WR.

[McLoofus 35,182]

1 hour ago, WarEagleJersey said:

Kyle Davis did not just play the "Big Slot" role. That just happened to be the position most fans saw him succeed at.

What Mikey is trying to say is, when you add another player to the offense, you need to consider taking reps away. I dont think anyone is saying McClain shouldn't have played more, and this idea is of importance on our minds because of his catch against UCF.

Lets also not act like Cannella played all that much too. Once Lindsay saw his drops, he was riding the pine.

I don't think you really read what Bird wrote.

[WarEagleJersey 3]

Me:

8 hours ago, WarEagleJersey said:

Kyle Davis did not just play the "Big Slot" role. That just happened to be the position most fans saw him succeed at.

You:

6 hours ago, McLoofus said:

I don't think you really read what Bird wrote.

Bird:

19 hours ago, bigbird said:

KD played the Big slot role.

 

[McLoofus 35,182]

2 hours ago, WarEagleJersey said:

Me:

You:

Bird:

There were two other paragraphs. But it looks like neither of us feel like going on about all that so I think we're good here.