Freddy who’s opinion I value a lot was not too concerned about Wolford leaving. He thinks he didn’t develop the depth on the line like he should have.The article on ksr.
Freddy Maggard
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And I would agree. Every year we have lost key members of the OL and had experienced players to replace them with. Until this year that is. We lose just 3 players and they will be devastating losses. We got a guard from the portal but we have no real replacements for both tackles. Flax is the likely RT but he even has very little experience. We didn't rotate the way we did under Schlarman.
I was surprised by Freddy's article. Was not all that flattering of former coach. Off topic, I watched LA wide zone rush scheme and I can see why UK backs did not like it. Takes plays longer to develop and its hard to get to blocks much less sustain them. UK back's are/were not recruited to run that. By the end of the season UK was running very little of the wide zone. Back on topic, Coach Stoops has a real good history of hiring good position coaches. I trust him and am sure it will be a really good hire that fits the offense well.
Maybe so, I'm not enough of a technician to know. All I know is he did a helluva job recruiting, moved into mid-TN which is a huge locale for UK's future.
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I think Goodwin will do just fine at one OT imo. May suffer through a few games of learning, but Ok/good by mid-season.
I remember the fans over at Gamecock central weren't too upset when he was gone for wha t it is worth. UK can do better.
Wolford
Wolford
As to the actual playing of depth, Freddie is right.
From 2016 until 21, we frequently saw us go 7, 8 or 9 deep. Check out the Citrus Bowl video of Snell’s record breaking run in 2019: a true frosh lineman is celebrating in the end zone with him (Kinnard)
Maybe there wasn’t enough talent to develop?
From 2016 until 21, we frequently saw us go 7, 8 or 9 deep. Check out the Citrus Bowl video of Snell’s record breaking run in 2019: a true frosh lineman is celebrating in the end zone with him (Kinnard)
Maybe there wasn’t enough talent to develop?
I love when Freddie has spicy takes. I agree with him too. Our OL wasn't as good as it was under Schlarman this past year.
Maybe....but it was puzzling to me why in Citrus Bowl it was our best move to push Horsey to Tackle and Q Wilson to guard and none of the kiddos get a sniff of PT.
So to argue kids like Jager, Flax, Buford, Young, etc...aren't as talented at their age vs. guys like Horsey, Kinnard, Fortner, etc... when they were young. It's hard to tell. I just think Schlarman was unique in his approach to rotate the guards/tackles and most coaches were like Wolford who likes to use one main unit and not rotate.
Flax got a few snaps in the bowl, and got beat bad, once.
The more I think of that bowl, the more the win was miraculous. 12 players out . . . .
When he was hired, he certainly said he intended to develop an 8-9 OL rotation. Absent injury or blowout, it seemed he had a 6 player rotation.
Flax got reps in the Citrus bowl. But, I appreciate your point.
You're exactly right it was crazy we won the game....we basically only had 1/2 the Oline that could block...Kinnard's side. Horsey/Wilson's side got Levis hammered a few times.
It was not a great omen for next year that Flax looked that bad/unable to spot in UL game and Citrus bowl. Maybe Wolford was living off of Schlarman's OLine leftovers....I don't know. But it was eye opening to me how overmatched Horsey was at tackle (which I get...he is not a tacke) adn Wilson at guard. It was like a turn style on the left side of OLine.
And great to have Levis and CRod back...but if we can't replace Kinnard/Rosenthal on the edges....it's going to hamper those 2 really good skill players greatly.
If Wolford was a hot commodity they would have been beating his door down before this year. This is knee jerk reaction IMO by Saban and Co. Kentucky built a reputation for Oline that is nationally know so they reach ou to the current coach who did okay but had little to do with the repuation that was built. The'll look to Kinnard as a success story but he was a first round pick coming out last year if he wanted all earned under Schlarman. As others have pointed out aside from the guys that were already really good like Kinnard and Fortner, a few others on the second tier struggled to show any improvement.
The real good coaches earn their reputations over time, others flash on the scene with one good year or a couple of recruits. IMO Wolford is no different than Ansley or Clinkscale. They get built us as cant do without WAY too easily when time will show that's WAY too much credit.
I don't think he is irreplaceable, but I think he is probably a good line coach.
Freddie is the ULTIMATE homer . Everything he says should be taken with a grain of salt .
I don’t agree I believe he knows his stuff.
I agree with you most the time Soupbean but you missed on this. If Saban wants him, he is a hot commodity, Clink is too. Saban doesn’t bring mediocrity into his realm… he sees something he needs and wants. His prior position coaches proved that. Either way, Good Luck to Coach Wolford but I hope we beat your but here in a year or two!!!
Beyond Xs & Os, as a former player he probably thinks it is very insulting and disrespectful for Wolford to take over this position right after John Schlarman passes away, and uses it to chase a more high profile school not even 1 yr in. Esp since Mark Stoops rescued him from the wreckage of Muschamps South Carolina.
Yeah, "Its just a job", but not this spot, not right after a former player passed away doing it. The man ought to have enough honor to say "why didn't you hire me a yr ago instead of Marrone?"
Yeah, "Its just a job", but not this spot, not right after a former player passed away doing it. The man ought to have enough honor to say "why didn't you hire me a yr ago instead of Marrone?"
He knows his stuff but he’s such a homer he sometimes won’t tell the whole story. Of course some people just want to hear about rainbows and unicorns, and thats OK.
Imo it's both.
Let's not act like bama hired away a coach that nobody wanted. He was really delivering in recruiting and was plenty good as a position coach. I just hated he didn't build the rotation. That said, the oc or HC could've said something about it at any point but presumably did not
I do not know if he was good or bad. What I did see was an O Line that was good but not as good as it once was. Now part of that was a new scheme, new other things but it was clear to me the left tackle position was not thought out well for the Citrus Bowl. If the left tackle could not protect or run block you usually help/chip with a back (Which they did later in the game) and use H back or tight end to help in run. It is really hard to believe that the younger but talented O Line players were suddenly unable to help in that game. Going back to Coach S style several of the other/younger players could have helped. I agree with other posters it was unfortunate that Coach W deviated from what had been working and was proven. I look forward to the new Coach hopefully returning to Coach S philosophy.
All this is true . And I loved coach Schlarman , but it’s impossible to say how his offensive lines would have blocked with the offense and passing scheme we had this year . He sure could produce road graders though . That much is fact .
It would be hard for any OL coach to follow Schlarman. But I do think we had busted assignments more this year. Also Rosenthal came in and he obviously had not the coaching at LSU that our lads had under John, as he too missed assignments that resulted in Levis hurries or sacks. He got some better, but still I noticed the line play seemed to take a step back in awareness and discipline.
John was a master at teaching technique, plus his love for this team and that unit was infectious....lead to a true esprit de corps. I pray we can find the right man to just come close to that, as I don’t think they’ll be another Schlarman for UK for a while......maybe one of his players will leave the NFL some day and take up that mantle
John was a master at teaching technique, plus his love for this team and that unit was infectious....lead to a true esprit de corps. I pray we can find the right man to just come close to that, as I don’t think they’ll be another Schlarman for UK for a while......maybe one of his players will leave the NFL some day and take up that mantle
Maybe so but a reminder a new blocking scheme was added, adjustments had to be made. Drake Jackson famously said the new blocking scheme was like learning to "wipe your ass with your other hand." I'm not going to say who was the better coach, Schlarman or Wolford, I don't know enough about it. I do know UK won 10 games including a NYD bowl with the new scheme. I do hope the next OL coach is as good or better than the last 2 UK was fortunate to have.
Nobody is critical of Wolf if he turns down Saban. He is recruiting on par with our best. The starting OL this year was one of the best in the country. Cox jumped from very little time to mid-season AA. Freddie writes an article that could have been two paragraphs. He simply did not like the rotation. We won’t know the reason for that or how Schlarman would have handled the same group in the same offense. I suspect Wolf and Coen were on the same page. Freddie implies it could have been different, but does not tell us why he thinks that. We do know that Wolf had very little trust in Flax or any OT beyond Dare and Darrian. In fact, he considered his starting OG the backup for both.
It sucks that Bama can raid our staff this way. I suspect Illinois basketball felt the same this past off season. Wolf sees this as a professional opportunity he cannot pass on. Best to him. Sucks for us.
It sucks that Bama can raid our staff this way. I suspect Illinois basketball felt the same this past off season. Wolf sees this as a professional opportunity he cannot pass on. Best to him. Sucks for us.
I agree. It's hard to put anything other than the lack of rotation at Wolf's feet. UK ran a new scheme this year and the younger guys on the team had spent their time mainly as run blockers prior to last year. Wolf was getting it done on the recruiting trail, to the point that Stoops trusted him enough to give him three key areas. IMO, coupled with the other two assistants that we just lost, this is a significant hit in recruiting, thus Marrow feeling the need to tweet about it and try to calm the fanbase.
It’s looking like a protective move by Saban: can’t hurt Kirby by hiring his assistants? OK, then who is next in line to potentially win the East, or win a recruiting battle against Bama?
Freddy is just being pro UK as he always is. Wolford is a good coach. I mean we were a final 4 OL for the Moore award and top 5 in ypc. Did we have issues at times? Yeah. You’re going to in the sec and Schlarman’s lines did too. And there were bound to be some issues with the offense change that really wants a more mobile line than what we have. As has been discussed ad nauseum in past seasons our OL personnel is built for run blocking not passing. Wolford is a loss, particularly in recruiting in Nashville. I’m not prepared to say irreplaceable but it’s a loss and there’s no way around that.
Bama has recruited Nashville but not heavily. I think this is part of a move to get in there better.
Hard to say really.... Pretty low risk move by Saban. If Wolf doesn't work out there, there will be plenty of coaches itching to fill the spot. Saban doesn't mind moving on if someone doesn't work out. I didn't really watch Bama's schemes on offense but know they need to protect better at LT. Wolf's OLines seemed to be pretty decent at giving the QB time when he was here and at USCe.
Maggard had all season to write that but waited till the guy left shows you KSR won’t bite the hand.
UK was paying him just over half of what he was making at USCjr and now he will be back to making what he feels his value is. If we were paying him $650k+, then he'd likely still be here. Anyone who begrudges a man for doubling his salary is disingenuous, at best.
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