Kentucky HS OL
- Thread starter Dallas-Wild
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I like seeing this. Kentucky needs to produce some quality lineman. Wisconsin has had some great success by keeping home state kids at Wisconsin, several of them on the offensive line. They consistently have one of the best offensive lines in college football. If Kentucky could just get close to producing that amount of offensive talent in state it would work wonders for this program.
Agree with both of you, we know everything starts up front.....strong line strong all around production
Offensive line has not been a strength in Stoops' brief tenure, but it is misleading to say offensive line has been a long term weakness. Some of Brooks' later teams had pretty good offensive lines. The idea that we must have linemen from certain states is goofy. We need the best players we can get, regardless of where they grew up. The prevalence of offensive linemen on our roster from Kentucky and Ohio reflects the proximity of those players' high schools and Stoops' connections there. It doesn't mean all our offensive linemen should come from Kentucky and Ohio. Our 2 best offensive linemen in recent history happen to be from Kentucky. Warford and Williams. But if we recruit a great left tackle out of Georgia or Florida, I'm fine with that. It won't surprise me if Stallings from Alabama is 1 of our best offensive linemen within 2 years.
An amazing concentration of OL talent in a small area, it must be something in the water-----or could it be the limestone that leads to so many thouroughbreds?
We already have two of them, if one is better than Drake and the other that close behind then we should try to get them all. Along with the other Kentucky prospects already committed it would be a huge haul from Kentucky, which had ZERO four star prospects as recently as 2010..
We already have two of them, if one is better than Drake and the other that close behind then we should try to get them all. Along with the other Kentucky prospects already committed it would be a huge haul from Kentucky, which had ZERO four star prospects as recently as 2010..
As far as I can see, stars have little or nothing to do with producing good offensive linemen. Perhaps predicting the careers of backs and receivers is easier. Larry Warford was a 3 star. Garry Williams was a 2 star. Those were our 2 best offensive linemen of the last 20 years. Most of the 4 and 5 star offensive linemen recruited to UK haven't turned out to be very good. I have more hope for Drake Jackson and GAA because there isn't any reason not to be hopeful. But I believe that developing good offensive linemen is mainly a matter of recruiting size, getting them into the gym, and patiently developing their skills.
I didn't say that it did, in fact I agree that the OL is the hardest position to predict, and the star ratings are a hit and miss proposition, even more so on the OL. My point was that there is a lot of talent in Kentucky this year, and while most won't make it sounds to me like we should have several four stars in Kentucky this year, maybe these four on the OL alone, compared to zero anywhere a few years ago. I think our early commits are underrated, particularly the ones from Kentucky.
Gary Williams was not only a two star, he was a 5.1 two star, that Rivals gives you zero points for in their rankings. That 04 class he was in was an interesting class, Brooks signed a lot of three stars for UK back then, ten, (16 two stars) but several were JC transfers and only Little was a 5.6. Micah Jones was the prototypical OL and UK's one four star for the year, and at 6'5" 335# with a 5.2 forty sounds like he had the tools, maybe injuries held him back. But the player that was the star on the OL that year was another two star true freshman,, Aaron Miller IIRC, but he only played one year. Leger that switched to the OL was also a 5.2, in fact IIRC UK's great offense in 07 had an OL that averaged just over a 5.2.
Of course Woodyard as a 5.5 was outstanding, but the D had their low ranked stars also, Lindley a 5.1 also and Pryor and J Williams (LB) were both 5.2s.
And then Dickie Lyons Jr was off the charts at a 4.9. When you look back at it Brooks did an awesome job of finding and developing overlooked talent.
Gary Williams was not only a two star, he was a 5.1 two star, that Rivals gives you zero points for in their rankings. That 04 class he was in was an interesting class, Brooks signed a lot of three stars for UK back then, ten, (16 two stars) but several were JC transfers and only Little was a 5.6. Micah Jones was the prototypical OL and UK's one four star for the year, and at 6'5" 335# with a 5.2 forty sounds like he had the tools, maybe injuries held him back. But the player that was the star on the OL that year was another two star true freshman,, Aaron Miller IIRC, but he only played one year. Leger that switched to the OL was also a 5.2, in fact IIRC UK's great offense in 07 had an OL that averaged just over a 5.2.
Of course Woodyard as a 5.5 was outstanding, but the D had their low ranked stars also, Lindley a 5.1 also and Pryor and J Williams (LB) were both 5.2s.
And then Dickie Lyons Jr was off the charts at a 4.9. When you look back at it Brooks did an awesome job of finding and developing overlooked talent.
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Aaron Miller was a friend of my son's, from here in Grayson. Heck of a player and would have been a true great had he not given up football.
I agree, i always wondered how much better he could have been with some more time in the program, starting and starring as a true freshman. He had the size coming in.
The funny thing is the same thing was repeated the next year as James Alexander starred as a true freshman, and he only weighed 250# as a commit, both started for a year as true freshmen and were gone.
Actually it wasn't funny at all, it really hurt.
We haven't yet seen the improvement in our offensive line under Stoops that we are starting to see at other positions. This reflects a point made earlier. It takes longer to develop offensive linemen than other positions. Kentucky had star players before Stoops came, and Kentucky has star players now too. What has changed is quality depth. Big change there. Football is a team sport. Every Stoops class seems to be deeper from 1-25 than classes recruited by our previous coaches. We have backup players who would have started on earlier Kentucky teams. In the past, we had 6-7 serious players competing for 5 starting jobs on our offensive line. Now we have 10 serious offensive line candidates. This year we have 10-11 legitimate wide receivers who will see playing time in competitive situations. At most positions, depth and quality are better than they have been in decades. Because Stoops just got here in 2013, most of our best players are still freshmen and sophomores. That's why Stoops is still looking for his 1st bowl. It will come this year. The best is yet to come.
