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Elam

BlueTick2

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Apr 15, 2007
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White Squirrel woods
A lot of eyes on this young man this season.
Stoops and staff get a chance to develop his game. Other recruits are watching as well.

I hope by latter part of season he will be a opposing coache's nighmare.
Not predicting it, just hope it.

Anyone's thoughts?
 
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He will be backing up Lewis again this season. It is important for Elam to be in better shape this season to get more plays per game. This will give Lewis more rest during the game. A solid rotation of Lewis and Elam at the NT will give opposing centers nightmares.
 
Elam is a good football player if he gets in shape. Like many other players, fans' expectations for Elam were unrealistic. Last year, he couldn't play more than 2-3 plays without being gassed. From spring reports, he is making progress, but not all the way there yet. Lewis is a good football player who has already gone down a similar path and gotten himself into shape. Lewis is showing what happens after 2 years of hard conditioning work. That seems to be Elam's path too. Lewis will be the starter again, hopefully Elam will take a step forward. In Stoops' system, he needs quality depth at every position.
 
Totally unfair to judge him on next season --> true sophmore at a position that even the highest rated recruit's don't see the field until at least 2 years in a program, most likely 3. I sure hope he ha's been putting in the work, if he has it will be very obvious on the field. I'm going to be very disappointing if he's 375 and unable to play more than a down before having to rest again this year. Him and Ware are the 2 x factor's on defense this year, if hes' in shape they'll need to double him which is huge in the 3-4. If Ware is effective there's another guy to worry about which should really open things up for our blitz package's. We know what we've got in Lewis and Hatcher, but if we can get Elam and Ware playing at a high level I really think we're looking at 7 or 8 win's.
 
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A lot of eyes on this young man this season.
Stoops and staff get a chance to develop his game. Other recruits are watching as well.

I hope by latter part of season he will be a opposing coache's nighmare.
Not predicting it, just hope it.

Anyone one's thoughts?

Was thinking about him the other day. As other's have said hopefully he gets more PT this year by being in better shape, but the critical season for him is probably next year. Critical for UK to. He was such a hyped recruit we really need him to shine his last couple of seasons, and hopefully wind up going pretty high in the NFL draft.
 
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Elam can be a very good nose tackle at UK if he wants it enough but he must want it enough to get into football shape and improve on his technique by working hard at it. Right now he is just potential.

I thought he should have redshirted last season.
 
He probably should have redshirted. But he did gain experience that will help him in the future. If he gets in better shape, and learns from Lewis and gets more experience, he could be a beast his JR season.
 
Was thinking about him the other day. As other's have said hopefully he gets more PT this year by being in better shape, but the critical season for him is probably next year. Critical for UK to. He was such a hyped recruit we really need him to shine his last couple of seasons, and hopefully wind up going pretty high in the NFL draft.
As I said earlier, Elam is another player with unrealistic fan expectations. Too many people think a star rating is everything there is to know about a player. When Elam signed, the football players I know told me he was 50-60 pounds overweight and in terrible condition. They said he needed a redshirt and it would take 2-3 years to get him into good condition. Some fans still think Stoops didn't redshirt Elam because he will leave for the NFL soon. That's a fantasy. I heard last year that Stoops didn't redshirt Elam because the coaches didn't believe Elam would focus on conditioning and lose weight if he sat out a redshirt year. They played him last year to keep his mind on football. From that standpoint, it worked. Elam is in better shape now, but still a year away from where he needs to be. But fans are still worrying about how high Elam will be drafted by the NFL. That remains premature. For now, we should only worry about whether Elam can get in the shape he will need to play 40 snaps a game. Once he gets there, then we will see if he can keep his pads low enough to be an SEC starter and hold his ground against the best SEC guards. Then we can speculate about the NFL. To be fair, he is on the right path now.
 
Blue Decade: Did the player tell you how close Elam is to the weight goal they have for him and the shape the coaches want him in? If he goes to the NFL early, it will be solely based on an outstanding JR season as he is a year away from being the starter. I say he is a 4 year player though.
 
He can play at 350 or 360 but it has to be the proper type of weight not the flabby weight he has now. He must also work on his cardio so he can stay in games instead of going out after one or two plays.
 
Should have redshirted last year. He still has a ways to go. He'll be a good player for us before it's over.
 
Elam is a good football player if he gets in shape. Like many other players, fans' expectations for Elam were unrealistic. Last year, he couldn't play more than 2-3 plays without being gassed. From spring reports, he is making progress, but not all the way there yet. Lewis is a good football player who has already gone down a similar path and gotten himself into shape. Lewis is showing what happens after 2 years of hard conditioning work. That seems to be Elam's path too. Lewis will be the starter again, hopefully Elam will take a step forward. In Stoops' system, he needs quality depth at every position.
I went to the single open scrimmage session in the spring. FWIW, I thought Lewis actually looked bigger than Elam :eek:. Lewis played last year at 320# and started all 12 games per UK game notes for UofL game. The spring scrimmage roster listed Lewis at 342#. I have no idea whether that is good or bad.

Per this article, Elam came to UK at 393#. At the time of this article (NOV, 2014) his weight was stated as 360# and he was listed at 360# on the spring scrimmage handout. Lewis is 2 years older than Elam and often times a more "mature" body can carry more weight better even if it is so called "bad" weight. So Elam might be able to effectively carry his current weight when he gets older. And then there are some body types that just can't seem to lose weight at all (e.g., Lorenzen).

The article also shows us a bit about Elam's psyche and does seem to suggest the claim in your other post that the staff played him as a t-FR just to "keep his mind on football" may well be true. And I agree, given the "starting point" he is really is a 2 year project. JMO.

Peace
 
As I said earlier, Elam is another player with unrealistic fan expectations. Too many people think a star rating is everything there is to know about a player. When Elam signed, the football players I know told me he was 50-60 pounds overweight and in terrible condition. They said he needed a redshirt and it would take 2-3 years to get him into good condition. Some fans still think Stoops didn't redshirt Elam because he will leave for the NFL soon. That's a fantasy. I heard last year that Stoops didn't redshirt Elam because the coaches didn't believe Elam would focus on conditioning and lose weight if he sat out a redshirt year. They played him last year to keep his mind on football. From that standpoint, it worked. Elam is in better shape now, but still a year away from where he needs to be. But fans are still worrying about how high Elam will be drafted by the NFL. That remains premature. For now, we should only worry about whether Elam can get in the shape he will need to play 40 snaps a game. Once he gets there, then we will see if he can keep his pads low enough to be an SEC starter and hold his ground against the best SEC guards. Then we can speculate about the NFL. To be fair, he is on the right path now.

This^
Look Elam is not going pro early. I read all these post about all these players we have that may leave after 3 years. That hardly ever happens in football.
 
Should have redshirted last year. He still has a ways to go. He'll be a good player for us before it's over.
Had he picked AL instead, I'm sure he would have RSed. As UK's situation was, he needed to play. Being able to RS comes with more depth. Closer now.
 
Elam will go pro in 4 years whether he rs'd or not. Even if he's not dominating. He's too explosive for his size for someone not to take a chance on if he's productive. So if he's playing a lot for us then he's watching his cardio pretty good. If not then 1 more year wouldn't matter in his case.

I think if he can stay in 340 range we will be cooking. If he can't stay under 370 then he probably doesn't have a future in football anyway. Hope Lewis can play 60% of our snaps and Elam 30%. Then if Hyde or someone else can do some mop up duty in games.. we'll be fine on staying fresh for the season.
 
Elam will go pro in 4 years whether he rs'd or not. Even if he's not dominating. He's too explosive for his size for someone not to take a chance on if he's productive. So if he's playing a lot for us then he's watching his cardio pretty good. If not then 1 more year wouldn't matter in his case.

I think if he can stay in 340 range we will be cooking. If he can't stay under 370 then he probably doesn't have a future in football anyway. Hope Lewis can play 60% of our snaps and Elam 30%. Then if Hyde or someone else can do some mop up duty in games.. we'll be fine on staying fresh for the season.

I like your percentages on reps. Keeps them both effective and not gassed. Big guys hate to run. I know I do
 
I thought Elam played well for a Freshman. I saw him get a good push against O-Linemen in a few games. No, he was not GASSED after 1 play like some posters on this thread have mentioned. I saw him play a whole series of snaps a few times last season.

Some of you embellish and don't recount history accurately. He was better last season than most posters are saying. I think he will be a beast this season and will be a major reason our defense improves.
 
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A lot of eyes on this young man this season.
Stoops and staff get a chance to develop his game. Other recruits are watching as well.

I hope by latter part of season he will be a opposing coache's nighmare.
Not predicting it, just hope it.

Anyone's thoughts?

Before he enrolled people were talking about how dominant he would be and the impact he was going to make. But looking at his film it was obvious he was not in condition to play in the SEC. Being such a big kid he dominated in high school by size and strength, technique and fundamentals weren't necessary and his were bad. Like all big high school DL, he has to learn to keep his pad level down. The ball is in his court, he can get in shape, work on his fundamentals and techniques and be very good, or he can slack on getting in shape and not bother to learn fundamentals and techniques and have a career like last year. He really needed a RS to do those things but it didn't work out that way for him.
 
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Two most perplexing claims, Elam will be a "beast" and we'll win 7 or 8 games.

Know this sounds negative but just trying to look at this without the blue fog distorting my vision. Personally I'll be happy if he can play reasonably well next year and if we win 6 games this year.
 
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Unless hes in significantly better shape, he wont be a major factor. Although he'lll definitely have the ability to be a factor in spots.

As other posters stated, Elam needed a RS last year; and he needed it badly. But thats part of the deal with coming to UK; early PT. He could play a few snaps at a time with a decent pad level, and be very effective. Then hed get fatigued, play high, and get pancaked with regularity.

I thought his best game by far was the SC game. He really made a difference by hurting their run game, and forced Spurrier to foolishly abandon the run. One of the players most responsible for that win imo.
 
Saw the Spring game/scrimmage, Matt has lost weight and trimmed down. Had his good moments last season specially the USC game. Think Lewis is the man and Matt will contribute valuable minutes this season. Most college defensive tackles if they are capable don't dominate till their junior year specially in The SEC!
 
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Unless hes in significantly better shape, he wont be a major factor. Although he'lll definitely have the ability to be a factor in spots.

As other posters stated, Elam needed a RS last year; and he needed it badly. But thats part of the deal with coming to UK; early PT. He could play a few snaps at a time with a decent pad level, and be very effective. Then hed get fatigued, play high, and get pancaked with regularity.

I thought his best game by far was the SC game. He really made a difference by hurting their run game, and forced Spurrier to foolishly abandon the run. One of the players most responsible for that win imo.

So he made a crucial difference in helping us beat a SEC team, but he should have redshirted because he's not in shape to play yet??

Please, some of you make up your mind.

Once again, Elam played well for a Freshman it's just some of you can't admit it.
 
So he made a crucial difference in helping us beat a SEC team, but he should have redshirted because he's not in shape to play yet??

Please, some of you make up your mind.

Once again, Elam played well for a Freshman it's just some of you can't admit it.

Crucial may be a stretch, UK never really stopped the run, it was more SOS getting away from the run. The Wildcat was much more responsible for beating USC than anything the defense did, USC scored 38, that isn't good defensive play.
 
A lot of eyes on this young man this season.
Stoops and staff get a chance to develop his game. Other recruits are watching as well.

I hope by latter part of season he will be a opposing coache's nighmare.
Not predicting it, just hope it.

Anyone's thoughts?
He is the "key" for us going forward! If $$$$$ does not motivate him then nothing will. The NFL places a huge amount of importance on players of his size who can disrupt the center and QB with off the ball explosiveness! It is up to our program to get him to his full potential and this MUST be a jump in that improvement this year! If we can develop him into an ALL SEC player then that will help recruiting down the road! I am EXPECTING big things from him as well as we all should!
 
Unless hes in significantly better shape, he wont be a major factor. Although he'lll definitely have the ability to be a factor in spots.

As other posters stated, Elam needed a RS last year; and he needed it badly. But thats part of the deal with coming to UK; early PT. He could play a few snaps at a time with a decent pad level, and be very effective. Then hed get fatigued, play high, and get pancaked with regularity.

I thought his best game by far was the SC game. He really made a difference by hurting their run game, and forced Spurrier to foolishly abandon the run. One of the players most responsible for that win imo.
I agree with these observations other than the note about his play "hurting" the SC run game. On the year, SC averaged 152 YPG rushing. Against UK they got 282 yards on the ground. His "contributions" as a FR were not nearly enough to warrant burning his red shirt. Reporting at 393# he was clearly a red shirt candidate. After reading the article I linked in my other post I am very much inclined to agree with Blue Decade's post that the staff played him some last year mainly to "incentivize" him to maintain his personal conditioning program. JMO.

Peace
 
What contributed to SC's 2d half failure in the game was the out of shape Mike Davis got seriously gassed about the middle of the 3d Q. Prior to that he was gashing UK, almost running at will. The 3d Q found him gasping for air on the sidelines. He was exhausted. This also contributed to SC's poor season.
 
What contributed to SC's 2d half failure in the game was the out of shape Mike Davis got seriously gassed about the middle of the 3d Q. Prior to that he was gashing UK, almost running at will. The 3d Q found him gasping for air on the sidelines. He was exhausted. This also contributed to SC's poor season.
Davis had 6 carries for 38 in SC's 2 full possessions in the 3rd quarter. In the 4th quarter he had 2 carries for 39 yards and a TD. That's 8 for 77 yards and only 2 carries for less than 5 yards. When Davis was out his subs "racked up" only 18 yards on 5 carries. SC's "second half failure" was their inability to adjust to and stop Kemp on the Wildcat runs despite having two TOs and a change of possession to do so. That was not exactly a HOF coaching moment. [winking]

Peace
 
I agree with these observations other than the note about his play "hurting" the SC run game. On the year, SC averaged 152 YPG rushing. Against UK they got 282 yards on the ground. His "contributions" as a FR were not nearly enough to warrant burning his red shirt. Reporting at 393# he was clearly a red shirt candidate. After reading the article I linked in my other post I am very much inclined to agree with Blue Decade's post that the staff played him some last year mainly to "incentivize" him to maintain his personal conditioning program. JMO.

Peace

Whether we like it or not it was important that Elam did not redshirt because it showed that Stoop kept his promise. You can't convince kids that there is playing time and then sign him and take it away. We are getting close to where we will be redshirting most everyone but it wasn't 2 years ago.
 
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Davis had 6 carries for 38 in SC's 2 full possessions in the 3rd quarter. In the 4th quarter he had 2 carries for 39 yards and a TD. That's 8 for 77 yards and only 2 carries for less than 5 yards. When Davis was out his subs "racked up" only 18 yards on 5 carries. SC's "second half failure" was their inability to adjust to and stop Kemp on the Wildcat runs despite having two TOs and a change of possession to do so. That was not exactly a HOF coaching moment. [winking]

Peace

The 2d half Davis numbers prove my point. He was spent by the 4th Q.
 
UK football fans are an interesting bunch. We have a starting DT in Lewis who will play on Sundays but all the interest seems to be in a five star recruit who hasn't proven anything yet. Lewis is the real deal...Elam hopes to be the real deal. It is as simple as that.
 
Blue Decade: Did the player tell you how close Elam is to the weight goal they have for him and the shape the coaches want him in? If he goes to the NFL early, it will be solely based on an outstanding JR season as he is a year away from being the starter. I say he is a 4 year player though.
340. He is a 4 year player, and he will be good once he is conditioned the right way. He is on the right path.
 
Davis had 6 carries for 38 in SC's 2 full possessions in the 3rd quarter. In the 4th quarter he had 2 carries for 39 yards and a TD. That's 8 for 77 yards and only 2 carries for less than 5 yards. When Davis was out his subs "racked up" only 18 yards on 5 carries. SC's "second half failure" was their inability to adjust to and stop Kemp on the Wildcat runs despite having two TOs and a change of possession to do so. That was not exactly a HOF coaching moment. [winking]

Peace

Agreed on this point. The SC win was a big one but we do have to remember that it was coaching blunders on SC's part that gave us the opening. If SC continued to run the ball they win by 3 TDs. Also SC's bone headed decision to stay in the cover 2 against the wildcat was just as big a blunder. I know why they did it. Early the stepped up an challenged the wildcat and then Towles hit Timmons on a reverse pass out of it. From that point on they were playing deep with their safeties and allowed Jo Jo to run wild. I would however like to point out that Towles was playing well that game. If USC did come up with their safeties they probably would have shut down Jo Jo but likely would have given up more passing yards as a result. Still there is no logical explanation for ignoring Davis when they had the ball. UK was not stopping that all night and we did shut down their passing game pretty well.
 
UK football fans are an interesting bunch. We have a starting DT in Lewis who will play on Sundays but all the interest seems to be in a five star recruit who hasn't proven anything yet. Lewis is the real deal...Elam hopes to be the real deal. It is as simple as that.
The thread is titled "Elam". He is being watched because he was such an important recruit for Stoops, not because anyone is disrespecting Lewis.
 
Whether we like it or not it was important that Elam did not redshirt because it showed that Stoop kept his promise. You can't convince kids that there is playing time and then sign him and take it away. We are getting close to where we will be redshirting most everyone but it wasn't 2 years ago.

I think it was a big selling point for UK and Stoops, that there wouldn't be a redshirt. He didn't play enough snaps to justify not redshirting him.
 
I think it was a big selling point for UK and Stoops, that there wouldn't be a redshirt. He didn't play enough snaps to justify not redshirting him.
But when you are building up from where Stoops was, its was the right thing to do, keep your word and play him.
 
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