Looks to me as if we will go into the season with great people at the skill positions. Questions on the OL, but many potential fixes...mainly if Scoggins returns, Campos is healthy and JGJ makes a nice jump in his second starting year. This has been discussed elsewhere.
I want to focus in on the big boys on the DL. Lots of concerns there.
According to how I read the roster we have good reason to be concerned, very concerned. There's the untested RFR (Bailey), a huge sophomore who got a little experience this year (Johnson,) and somebody named Collin Olson at 270 lbs.
As well as Robby Garcia who played a lot on the OL during the TT game...but started at DT a few years ago. Probably no chance he would be moved back to defense as the staff obviously feels that he can contribute on offense.
The situation looks a little scary to me.
But, there's good news and bad news from here. The good news is that we have two big Juco DT's coming in next year.
The bad news is that going JUCO at DT has yielded mixed results numbers-wise over the years, but some great hits.
The good news. We have JUCO commitments from Ray Lima, 6'3", 308 lbs. with offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Cal and Oregon, as well as Kamilo Tongamoa, (6'5," 290") with offers from OK State, ASU and Louisville.
The bad news is that according to Rivals in the last 15 years we've signed 8 JUCO DT's. Four have been misses according to my memory and judgement. (Hope that I'm being fair!) They are Bobby Leath, Henry Simon, Chris Weir and Michael Tate.
The ones that were not busts (to say the least) were Ahtya Rubin and Demond Tucker. (Rubin was not listed on the Rivals commitment lists, so there may be others who were missed and are not included here during the 15-years.)
I remember that a seventh, Fabian Dodd played some at DT. Don't remember how well or how often. So he's a question mark. An eighth, Federico Samuel, a 4 **** played pretty solidly I think. Again, I'm not certain though so I'll also count him as a question mark. That's 2 hits, 4 misses and two question marks. I'd say that numbers wise it's been so-so. We've had two really good ones though so all in all not bad.
The fact that our current commitments had many P5 offers gives me great hope. If they were early graduates I'd really be pumped. If not, I hope that they have the drive to work like hell between now and when they report next fall.
I might also add that we also got two other hits at DT from the JUCO ranks. The Rivals commitment lists do not go back far enough to list them though so they are not included in the analysis above. Robert Brannon and Nigel Tharpe were studs who bounced around NFL camps over the years. Add those guys and I think we've done pretty well at DT.
Four really good ones and the two question marks.
I want to focus in on the big boys on the DL. Lots of concerns there.
According to how I read the roster we have good reason to be concerned, very concerned. There's the untested RFR (Bailey), a huge sophomore who got a little experience this year (Johnson,) and somebody named Collin Olson at 270 lbs.
As well as Robby Garcia who played a lot on the OL during the TT game...but started at DT a few years ago. Probably no chance he would be moved back to defense as the staff obviously feels that he can contribute on offense.
The situation looks a little scary to me.
But, there's good news and bad news from here. The good news is that we have two big Juco DT's coming in next year.
The bad news is that going JUCO at DT has yielded mixed results numbers-wise over the years, but some great hits.
The good news. We have JUCO commitments from Ray Lima, 6'3", 308 lbs. with offers from Arizona, Arizona State, Cal and Oregon, as well as Kamilo Tongamoa, (6'5," 290") with offers from OK State, ASU and Louisville.
The bad news is that according to Rivals in the last 15 years we've signed 8 JUCO DT's. Four have been misses according to my memory and judgement. (Hope that I'm being fair!) They are Bobby Leath, Henry Simon, Chris Weir and Michael Tate.
The ones that were not busts (to say the least) were Ahtya Rubin and Demond Tucker. (Rubin was not listed on the Rivals commitment lists, so there may be others who were missed and are not included here during the 15-years.)
I remember that a seventh, Fabian Dodd played some at DT. Don't remember how well or how often. So he's a question mark. An eighth, Federico Samuel, a 4 **** played pretty solidly I think. Again, I'm not certain though so I'll also count him as a question mark. That's 2 hits, 4 misses and two question marks. I'd say that numbers wise it's been so-so. We've had two really good ones though so all in all not bad.
The fact that our current commitments had many P5 offers gives me great hope. If they were early graduates I'd really be pumped. If not, I hope that they have the drive to work like hell between now and when they report next fall.
I might also add that we also got two other hits at DT from the JUCO ranks. The Rivals commitment lists do not go back far enough to list them though so they are not included in the analysis above. Robert Brannon and Nigel Tharpe were studs who bounced around NFL camps over the years. Add those guys and I think we've done pretty well at DT.
Four really good ones and the two question marks.
