It seems we hit the zenith of our excellence with the OL under Coach Schlarman, then hit a lull. Anyone think that maybe were back or at least close?
Big Blue Wall
- Thread starter jlkirk
- Start date
We are building it, again.
At least we’ll have 4 or 5 on campus (soon) who fit the mold of OT’s.
We were hurt by apparent recruiting misses, with one 5 Star and (at least) two Four Stars never seeing a snap the last four years.
Another shot to the “Star” ranking system, as far lower rated players like Stenberg and Bunchy Stallings once thrived here, and were major bricks in the BBW.
At least we’ll have 4 or 5 on campus (soon) who fit the mold of OT’s.
We were hurt by apparent recruiting misses, with one 5 Star and (at least) two Four Stars never seeing a snap the last four years.
Another shot to the “Star” ranking system, as far lower rated players like Stenberg and Bunchy Stallings once thrived here, and were major bricks in the BBW.
I hate that Hall had injury issues that kept him from ever having the opportunity to develop b/c I think many thought he was on track to be a good RT.
I saw a recent ranking where we were projected to have the 7th best OL in the SEC. That's the top half of the now expanded SEC which means we would be ranked top 20ish in the county. That's not Big Blue Wall level (when we were ranked 1st or 2nd in the 14 team SEC) but it certainly makes our OL highly competitively in the SEC and the nation. We have had some recruiting misses and early injuries but with the transfer portal, those aren't near as hurtful to maintaining and building a highly competitive OL position group. If we can continue to get one or two OL of the caliber of Marques Cox, the 2 year starter at LT, every year out of the portal, and coupled that with decent recruiting, I think OL will be fine.
We seemed to regain our O-line footing a good bit last season, but frankly, I was surprised by being top half of this category in the expanded SEC.
Hope more growth occurs this year.
That happens all the time, a coach can look and evaluate a player at all the camps he can, but that doesn't show the desire and/or heart a kid has to be great. If you have ever really watched these OL and DL camps, if I were an OL I would just say screw this and take my chances. It's set up for DL to be successful and for OL to fail. They go on a "hike", no threat of a run game, no treat of a pulling OL cleaning their clock and can go inside or outside. While the OL can only take his drop step, protect both inside and outside, without any kind of help.
The zone blocking under Coen and Scang was an issue, go back and watch some games. Tons of confusion, no way we whiff on stunts or let DEs into the backfield untouched unless there’s confusion and there was.
Let’s not forget the very reliable center we had in Drake Jackson.
Oh, sure.
And Landon Young!
Those guys were very highly ranked, blue chip players in comparison to Bunchy Stallings and Logan Stenberg.
The last three/four years our Blue Chippers have just fizzled on the O-line.
We had a string of consecutive good centers for awhile there
Man you have to love the way Drake plays the game. He was a great leader and extremely smart player. Big Blue Wall can be back this year. We just need more attitude. We have guys that can do it. Just need to be a little more of the bad boy attitude.
Man, what a total bust Goodwin was.
I know he never reached expectations, but that wasn't entirely his fault, there was no good reason to have him rated so high, he wasn't quick, he wasn't flexible, he wasn't agile nor strong. And on the surface he appeared to be a big lazy. But he was and still is huge. But he never gave himself 5*, he was maybe a bigger version of a kid who was a 5* that just couldn't find the field. That ranking was unfair to both. Look at Logan Young's film and then Goodwin's, how are both rated the same?
Here is a link to a good overview of the preseason view of the OL.
Big Blue Wall could be primed for bounce-back season in 2024
A big season from Kentucky's offensive line could lead to a big season for the program.
