2019 O Line Recruiting

[Brad_ATX 13,654]

1 hour ago, JDUBB4AU said:

Isn’t the overall consensus that grimes will soon be on the chopping block ? I think we have quiet a bit of stuff to point to to blame with the oline . It starts with strength and conditioning. Our guys zero push. They are not physically capable ,  they are mentally soft and have no aggression. 

I hope he's not from a coaching standpoint.  The line actually got a little better as the season went on this year.  Look at the Bama game again.  We got a pretty nice push in the run game (why we got away from it I'll never know).  With that said, I know his recruiting abilities can leave a lot to be desired.

[thaitopher 807]

2 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

I hope he's not from a coaching standpoint.  The line actually got a little better as the season went on this year.  Look at the Bama game again.  We got a pretty nice push in the run game (why we got away from it I'll never know).  With that said, I know his recruiting abilities can leave a lot to be desired.

Maybe Gus can just hire two offensive line coaches. Who needs a special teams coach anyways.  

[AuburnNTexas 7,134]

1 hour ago, thaitopher said:

Not giving JB or our head coach a pass at all - my point is simply that a big reason why we hired Hand was his recruiting ability and he pretty much failed at that. If you look at all of his recruiting misses before he went to Texas, its pretty astonishing just how badly he whiffed on a LOT of big name guys.

The whiffing on the top Guys is expected as so many are going after them. The problem from what others are saying is the lack of backup up plans and that lands on Gus. Hand wanted to have a wider net so if top guys fell through we could have players that we could develop. Schools like Kentucky get the 3* player with potential and develop them.  Hand would have had some of those type players here if Gus had allowed it.  The problem then is Hand probably couldn't develop them.  

It is also possible that some of the onus on Grimes not being a good recruiter is Gus also limited him in years past from trying to pull in those type of players.

[AuburnNTexas 7,134]

One other thing in O-line recruiting every team in the SEC did a better job of O-Line recruiting this year except Kentucky which only recruited 2 like us and Vanderbilt even though they got a 6'8" 256 pound 3* OT with a 3.5 GPA that they will probably be able to add 40 pounds and turn into an SEC OT.  Ole Miss signed 8 OL most 3* and two from Buford, Georgia.  The issue is we probably never offered any of these 3* O-Linemen so when we didn't get the stud we had no backup plan. We have signed three studs out of HS in recent years Robinson, Coleman, and Smith so our track record in getting the top guys is not great which is why the lack of planning when you don't get the stud is unforgivable.

[Cardin Drake 1,821]

This is a bit of an echo of what others are saying, I know. There aren't enough 4 and 5 star offensive lineman to go around, and I understand how you can lose a recruiting battle for a top guy. What I don't understand is how you screw up the numbers. Offensive lineman almost always take a year to 3 years to develop.  You have to have a pipeline, and you need to take 3 to 5 guys every year. Once the pipeline breaks down, you just can't fix it.  It's not like corner back or running back where you can frequently get immediate help.  I don't know if the pressure to win now keeps the coaches from thinking 2 or 3 years in the future,  but yeesh.  You can't tell me there aren't 3 star lineman going to Kentucky, Vanderbilt, and a host of other schools that we couldn't have gotten had we recruited them. 2 OL in this class is a disaster.  If you have a good QB, and a good offensive line, you can always find good skill players. Great skill players with a mediocre offensive line is still just a mediocre offense.  We need to find some help here. Badly.

[gravejd 3,270]

So why are we casting small net for OL and not the other positions? Or are we just hitting on the other positions and not OL?

I find it hard to lay this at Gus' feet when literally every other position is recruiting fine

[alexava 6,973]

19 minutes ago, gravejd said:

So why are we casting small net for OL and not the other positions? Or are we just hitting on the other positions and not OL?

I find it hard to lay this at Gus' feet when literally every other position is recruiting fine

I certainly lay it on Gus. He’s the boss. If it’s broke he has to fix it. I hope he’s working on it full throttle. 

[ellitor 33,078]

22 minutes ago, gravejd said:

So why are we casting small net for OL and not the other positions? Or are we just hitting on the other positions and not OL?

It hasn't been that good on O recruiting overall. We cast a small net on TE too & hadn't hit on it til this class. For a pass catching TE, if Fromm stays he will be the 1st one we've had since CJU. On RB we have struggled recently to get elite ones recently & got lucky with a gem like DJ Williams shining the past 6 weeks. At QB we have been bad getting high school QBs that develop. We have Bo this year because he's a legacy. We badly need him to develop.

WR has been the only O position we have truly been hitting on but they are under utilized on the whole.

Edited December 21, 2018 by ellitor

[bigbird 60,456]

I'd love to see AU out together a OLineman camp. Try and bring in a bunch of the under recruited and underexposed OL to see who can play and who has real potential. Offer and sign the ones that can in February.

[ellitor 33,078]

55 minutes ago, bigbird said:

I'd live to see AU out together a OLineman camp. Try and bring in a bunch of the under recruited and underexposed OL to see who can play and who has real potential. Offer and sign the ones that can in February.

They have an OL camp every Summer. Not sure how effective it is though.

[bigbird 60,456]

1 hour ago, ellitor said:

They have an OL camp every Summer. Not sure how effective it is though.

Right, but they need one now to reevaluate after senior seasons and others have signed

[bigbird 60,456]

1 hour ago, ellitor said:

They have an OL camp every Summer. Not sure how effective it is though.

Right, but they need one now to reevaluate after senior seasons and others have signed

[CR 2,438]

2 hours ago, ellitor said:

It hasn't been that good on O recruiting overall. We cast a small net on TE too & hadn't hit on it til this class. For a pass catching TE, if Fromm stays he will be the 1st one we've had since CJU. On RB we have struggled recently to get elite ones recently & got lucky with a gem like DJ Williams shining the past 6 weeks. At QB we have been bad getting high school QBs that develop. We have Bo this year because he's a legacy. We badly need him to develop.

WR has been the only O position we have truly been hitting on but they are under utilized on the whole.

This is a great breakdown. 

[ellitor 33,078]

15 minutes ago, bigbird said:

Right, but they need one now to reevaluate after senior seasons and others have signed

I think that’s against NCAA rules.

[milehighfan 1,240]

3 hours ago, bigbird said:

I'd love to see AU out together a OLineman camp. Try and bring in a bunch of the under recruited and underexposed OL to see who can play and who has real potential. Offer and sign the ones that can in February.

I like your idea, Bird  If we can't take muhammad to the mountain then we must take the mountain to Muhammad

 

 

[AUTiger2012 84]

As best as I am able to tell we seem to miss more often than not on solid OT prospects.  Now my question is this, are we 'missing' because solid OT prospects are few and far between and interior ol prospects are more common?

Another question for those in the know.

Does this offensive staff see an ot prospect as more or less the same thing as the recruiting sites or does Gus and co have a different thought in mind for those prospects as far as size etc?

One last question, based on what this staff seems to believe determines the difference between an OT vs an interior ol prospect what do our numbers stand to be both the 19-20 season and the 20-21 season?

[Mikey 16,566]

45 minutes ago, AUTiger2012 said:

Does this offensive staff see an ot prospect as more or less the same thing as the recruiting sites or does Gus and co have a different thought in mind for those prospects as far as size etc?

Each recent year we've had any number of top-rated OT prospects accept both official and unofficial visits to the campus.  I think the staff, in general, sees the same things the sites see. Why we haven't been able to sign a few of those top guys is anybody's guess. It's seemed with each one there was some "reason" why they went somewhere else. Stay in home state, Mom liked school B better, whatever, it been one thing after another. We've finished second with more of those guys than I care to think about. Here's hoping our luck with OT prospects changes soon.

[ellitor 33,078]

@AUTiger2012 I have merged your thread into the 2019 OL Recruiting since some of your questions have been discussed ad nauseam especially in the past few pages of the thread, and various OL prospect threads TBH.

1 hour ago, AUTiger2012 said:

As best as I am able to tell we seem to miss more often than not on solid OT prospects.  Now my question is this, are we 'missing' because solid OT prospects are few and far between and interior ol prospects are more common?

Difference between OT & OG are irrelevent when comes to our OL recruiting woes. We are missing because...

1 hour ago, AUTiger2012 said:

Does this offensive staff see an ot prospect as more or less the same thing as the recruiting sites

They better not. They better be making their own decisions.

1 hour ago, AUTiger2012 said:

does Gus and co have a different thought in mind for those prospects as far as size etc?

Only Gus knows the answer to this.

1 hour ago, AUTiger2012 said:

based on what this staff seems to believe determines the difference between an OT vs an interior ol prospect what do our numbers stand to be both the 19-20 season and the 20-21 season? 

We don't know what Gus & Horton believe to be the differences between an OT & OG/C but for 2019 barring attrition besides Tega likely leaving the numbers right now look to be in the ballpark of 7 OTs & 10 OG/Cs or 8 OTs & 9 OG/Cs depending where Bro-Hamm ultimately fills in. 2020 is too soon to make an educated guess about because we don't fully know how many we will bring in for each position this class & have no idea how many we will bring in for each position in the next class nor the attrition that will happen between now & then.

[kd4au 1,145]

8 hours ago, Mikey said:

Here's hoping our luck with OT prospects changes soon

I think you make your own luck, through hard work. Somebody is either not working hard enough or not working smart enough. Changes need to be made, I don't know what those changes should be, but what is being done is not working.

[kd4au 1,145]

8 hours ago, ellitor said:

the numbers right now look to be in the ballpark of 7 OTs & 10 OG/Cs or 8 OTs & 9 OG/Cs

How many do you think or the staff think we should have? Those numbers look low to me.

[lala 327]

1 hour ago, kd4au said:

How many do you think or the staff think we should have? Those numbers look low to me.

18-20 seems about right but our  problem is we have less that 10 that are SEC caliber and none or maybe only 1 of those 10 are All-SEC players.  Need guys to push each other.    

 Think about Bama class they just pulled   All have starting potential and all will push the 2nd team next year.   Their 2nd team has the starting potential so they are pushing the starters for PT right now    Competition breeds excellence   

 

[bigbird 60,456]

11 minutes ago, lala said:

18-20 seems about right but our  problem is we have less that 10 that are SEC caliber and none or maybe only 1 of those 10 are All-SEC players.  Need guys to push each other.    

 Think about Bama class they just pulled   All have starting potential and all will push the 2nd team next year.   Their 2nd team has the starting potential so they are pushing the starters for PT right now    Competition breeds excellence   

 

That is one of the biggest things we need on OL. There is no incentive to to push or threat to be passed if they don't.  Numbers are so low that they are almost guaranteed a position no matter if earned or able.

[Mikey 16,566]

1 hour ago, kd4au said:

I think you make your own luck, through hard work. Somebody is either not working hard enough or not working smart enough. Changes need to be made, I don't know what those changes should be, but what is being done is not working.

An example that's fresh on everyone's minds: Putnam was here on campus three times that were reported. I suppose more is possible. He had the maximum in-home visits from our coaches. He chose Clemson, who couldn't legally do any more than Auburn did. What hard work should have been done that wasn't done to land Putnam?

Most times when we have a guy as a backup plan our slow-playing fails and he signs elsewhere. Example is Goss last year. Maybe some of those guy's commitments should be accepted and a slot or two saved for the super prospects? In other words, sign good, solid prospects that we can get and use the super guys as backup lans? That's just spitballing on my part but holding out for the super prospects hasn't been working for us.

 

[Mikey 16,566]

2 minutes ago, bigbird said:

That is one of the biggest things we need on OL. There is no incentive to to push or threat to be passed if they don't.  Numbers are so low that they are almost guaranteed a position no matter if earned or able.

I counted 17 scholarship OL players listed on a recent depth chart published by ITAT. That's three deep plus two for five positions. How many is enough to create an incentive to push?

[ellitor 33,078]

1 hour ago, kd4au said:

How many do you think or the staff think we should have? Those numbers look low to me.

They aren't low overall but are low in quality. The development if just questionable. Typically you want about 3-4 deep for OT & OG  & 3 Cs.. That would be 6-8 OTs, 6-8 OGs & 3 Cs.

Edited December 22, 2018 by ellitor