Why? Because he was able to see the weaknesses in our offensive line so he went toward their strengths only shows how smart he is and that trying to make the impossible work usually is impossible.
Last edited:
Schlarman OL Comment
- Thread starter Smashcat
- Start date
Why? Because he was able to see the weaknesses in our offensive line so he went toward their strengths only shows how smart he is and that trying to make the impossible work usually is impossible.
I know what you are saying but some oc's seem to have a knack for putting together an entire offense. Small improvement here and there and the ability to hide deficiencies.... I mean they all know the game. But what separates the failures from successful guys is being able to make lemonade out of lemons.Freshmen never become Sophomores
Sophomores never become Juniors
Juniors never become Seniors and most importantly
NO ONE ever improves.
Position coaches all suck - only the coordinator can make things happen.
It looks like we're going to have to lose Schlarman for some of you to realize how big of an asset he is for us.
No doubt, Leavitt is improved after a full year of conditioning in our program. But it's a question of competition and opportunity. Only 5 offensive linemen can play at a time. We have a lot of experienced players coming back. Bunchy, Haynes, GAA, Meadows, Young, Mosier have started SEC games. Stenberg has played a lot of snaps. Fortner, Jackson, Wolfe are pushing for playing opportunities. It's possible that some players like Leavitt could be significantly improved and still have to sit. Of course, you never know when injuries will happen.
Schlarman had a breakout year in 2016 as a position coach, and he received a raise. Prior to that, he was already an asset in recruiting. I believe the biggest factor helping our offensive line is the number of experienced bodies. We have never had as many big, skilled, experienced offensive linemen as we have now. In discussing this, I think some people kind of miss the forest for the trees. Notice how everything got better when Eddie Gran got here? The coordinator makes everyone else look better or worse, as the case may be. Gran is a huge improvement over his predecessors, and he knows how to manage an effective staff.
If sniveling about the past instead of embracing the present was an olympic sport Kentucky fans would be gold medal contenders. The amount of time some spend demonizing Mitch Barnhart is an addiction that reveals who are truly incorrigible members of the Fellowship of the Miserable. The fellowship has been around for decades and is recognized for it's members unending efforts to push their tragic addiction onto others. As with any other addiction the afflicted members have little purpose other than to claw at that which they profess to love. They in some way equate pleasure with destruction and support the negative traits found in those that seek to divide. As with any affliction we must not hate those that cannot conquer their demons. They will wail in their misery and we can only hope they find some the joy of life in the BBN before they pass. In the end it is up to them to lay down their pitchforks and torches and walk towards the light. As much as they try to destroy others it is they and they alone who control their miserable state of existence despite all their efforts to pull others down to their fellowship.
GBB
GBB
It has nothing to do with Gran.
It has everything to do with Schlarman finally getting his pieces and him developing those pieces like he has. He didn't have much when he got here in the first place.
Schlarman's first group of OL was:
2013: Darrian Miller*, Eatmon-Nared, Zach Myers, Mitchell, Swindle
Zach West Jon Toth Max Godby
*Can't remember who backed up Miller
2014: Darrian Miller, Zach West, Jon Toth, Ramsey Meyers, Swindle
Nick Haynes Cole Mosier Zach M., Max Godby, Kyle Meadows
* Side Note for 2014 class, It was Cole Mosier's, Nick Haynes', Kyle Meadows, Ramsey Meyers' freshmen season aka Schlarman's first group of freshmen
2015: Jordan Swindle, Nick Haynes, Jon Toth, Ramsey Meyers, Kyle Meadows
Cole Mosier Zach West Zach M. Cole Mosier George AA
* George AA's freshman season.
2016: Cole Mosier, Nick Haynes, Toth, Meyers, Meadows
L. Young. Stenberg Bunchy GAA GAA
2017: Cole Mosier, Nick Haynes, Stallings, Drake Jackson, Kyle Meadows,
L. Young L. Stenberg D. Jackson L. Stenberg George AA
Leavitt Leavitt
* This is literally only the second year Schlarman will have all his guys. I don't know what I put will be the actual starting line, etc but that's just a guess right now and with the freshmen OL coming in. Who knows but don't tell me it's because Gran took over the offense is causing the OL to play better. No it's Schlarman recruiting his guys.
It has everything to do with Schlarman finally getting his pieces and him developing those pieces like he has. He didn't have much when he got here in the first place.
Schlarman's first group of OL was:
2013: Darrian Miller*, Eatmon-Nared, Zach Myers, Mitchell, Swindle
Zach West Jon Toth Max Godby
*Can't remember who backed up Miller
2014: Darrian Miller, Zach West, Jon Toth, Ramsey Meyers, Swindle
Nick Haynes Cole Mosier Zach M., Max Godby, Kyle Meadows
* Side Note for 2014 class, It was Cole Mosier's, Nick Haynes', Kyle Meadows, Ramsey Meyers' freshmen season aka Schlarman's first group of freshmen
2015: Jordan Swindle, Nick Haynes, Jon Toth, Ramsey Meyers, Kyle Meadows
Cole Mosier Zach West Zach M. Cole Mosier George AA
* George AA's freshman season.
2016: Cole Mosier, Nick Haynes, Toth, Meyers, Meadows
L. Young. Stenberg Bunchy GAA GAA
2017: Cole Mosier, Nick Haynes, Stallings, Drake Jackson, Kyle Meadows,
L. Young L. Stenberg D. Jackson L. Stenberg George AA
Leavitt Leavitt
* This is literally only the second year Schlarman will have all his guys. I don't know what I put will be the actual starting line, etc but that's just a guess right now and with the freshmen OL coming in. Who knows but don't tell me it's because Gran took over the offense is causing the OL to play better. No it's Schlarman recruiting his guys.
Last edited:
Above, I cited experienced depth as a big reason our offensive line is improving. Schlarman recruited most of these players. He didn't recruit Toth, Mosier, but he deserves credit for their development. Prior to 2016, Kentucky's offensive line was giving up more sacks and hurries than any other SEC offensive line. Schlarman molded each of these players and produced a marked improvement in their play in 2016. Here's the part you may be missing. Prior to 2016, Neal Brown and especially Shannon Dawson placed an unbalanced emphasis on Kentucky's passing game. The pass-run breakdown doesn't lie. But Eddie Gran came in and placed an emphasis on our running game. Anyone who has played organized football can tell you that the easiest way to build chemistry and morale on an offensive line is to run the football effectively. Schlarman definitely deserves credit for his work, and was given a pay raise. But Coach Gran gets credit for evaluating the returning personnel and understanding what they could do best. This is a skill that many coaches do not possess, but Gran has it. If you really think the success of our offensive line has "nothing to do with Gran", we disagree. Totally.
Better & more talent to work with
+ maturity
+ experience
+ patience & coaching
+ better scheme
= success
+ maturity
+ experience
+ patience & coaching
+ better scheme
= success
Of course if the offense regresses next year, some of the same posters giving Gran the praise now will blame Schlarman later...
I want in this gold medal competition!
See a vastly improved o-line, and actually credit the Coach who recruited most of them and works with them daily?
Hell, no! I blame Daniel Boone . . . . if he hadn't opened this state, we'd not have had Mitch Barnhart to bitch about, much less football.
(Damn, that would cost us 8 NT's in roundball, though, wouldn't it?)
Lots of good thoughts on this thread along with a few who sound crazy. Coach Schlarman didn't have much to work with when he arrived. Toth was there as a RS frosh and undeveloped. Mosier arrived as a walk on. Schlarman has recruited exceptionally well (judging by on field results) and developed a very strong OL. In my opinion, the line was good before the offense improved because of the lack of a credible passing game due to poor QB play and one year with a OC who did a poor job (we actually had a good running game the year before Gran took over).
Gran arrived to find a well developed OL program with talent and knew how to utilize it. He tailored his offense to fit his strengths and built comradery on that side of the ball. Also in my opinion, Gran did not make the OL, he just knew how to run an offense and use the line he found. So in the end I think both men deserve credit for doing what jobs exceedingly well. It goes to show that to have an effective offense you need to have all parts working together. Gran found us a QB, passing game and running game to go along with the developing line. Just my take.
Gran arrived to find a well developed OL program with talent and knew how to utilize it. He tailored his offense to fit his strengths and built comradery on that side of the ball. Also in my opinion, Gran did not make the OL, he just knew how to run an offense and use the line he found. So in the end I think both men deserve credit for doing what jobs exceedingly well. It goes to show that to have an effective offense you need to have all parts working together. Gran found us a QB, passing game and running game to go along with the developing line. Just my take.
No one said he isn't an asset, or a big asset. But to suggest somehow a light went on or he got all his pieces in one year is absurd.
We all saw the ol struggle stoops entire tenure. Then flourish soon as gran showed up.
Gran was the only thing that changed in that entire equation.
Yes, because players never mature or improve year after year. Only coaches do...
Year after year? Sure. But this wasn't a group that showed steady improvement. It was borderline incompetent. Jumping offsides. Missing blocks. On and on.
Then gran comes on the scene and it's one of the best OL in the nation.
Something drastically changed. The only change to the equation was gran. The end
Gran found us a QB and knew how to run an offense. The running game game was fine before he came but we had no QB or passing game. The last guy set up the OL to fail.
If our offense regresses with 8 starters including the quarterback coming back, then obviously Gran would deserve criticism. But let's wait and see the actual result before we hypothetically debate how to assign praise and blame for 2017.
Compelled to respond here!
According to your logic ("Yea we had 2 good years"), Coach Stoops has yet to have a good year. His best year only matches 2 of the years in Coach Brooks' 4-year run that I referenced. Hopefully, in 2017 Stoops will have a "good year" and match or exceed Coach Brooks' "good years". He certainly has the administrative support, competitive salaries for his assistants and facilities, that Coach Brooks never had, to do so.
Regarding "the coach was old as dirt", Coach Brooks may be getting older, but according to reports posted here he seems to have plenty of energy in retirement.
In reference to "he (Brooks) was not gonna get what Stoops has brought", who's to say definitively what Coach Brooks might have been able to do with the advantages that Coach Stoops has enjoyed--stadium renovation, state of the art recruiting room and training facilities, assistant coaches' salaries, etc.
No I said considering the dumpster fire Stoops inherited back to back 5 win seasons is a good season. I know how bad the roster was. You can argue all you want we will not agree. I take into account Joker had the worst roster in p5 football waiting for Stoops.Compelled to respond here!
According to your logic ("Yea we had 2 good years"), Coach Stoops has yet to have a good year. His best year only matches 2 of the years in Coach Brooks' 4-year run that I referenced. Hopefully, in 2017 Stoops will have a "good year" and match or exceed Coach Brooks' "good years". He certainly has the administrative support, competitive salaries for his assistants and facilities, that Coach Brooks never had, to do so.
Regarding "the coach was old as dirt", Coach Brooks may be getting older, but according to reports posted here he seems to have plenty of energy in retirement.
In reference to "he (Brooks) was not gonna get what Stoops has brought", who's to say definitively what Coach Brooks might have been able to do with the advantages that Coach Stoops has enjoyed--stadium renovation, state of the art recruiting room and training facilities, assistant coaches' salaries, etc.
Recruiting, coaching and team attitude are greatly enhanced because of Schlarman. I am thankful Neal Brown brought him back and that NB did not steal him to Troy.
Exactly.
Yes.
But let's get one thing straight: Johnson is a great story with great intangibles but severely physically limited. Our entire offense had to be reinstalled after barker went down with injury.
So whatever part Johnson played in the offense, and it ended up being alot, Gran and Hinshaw made that difference too.
Another thing: our run game was not ok before last year. We were one of the worst offenses in the nation every year under stoops, till gran came on the scene.
Nearly all of our rushing yards were from wildcat (basically just the sc game. People shut it down after that), broken scrambles from Towles, or long runs from boom. No sustained drives at all. Not even against EKU.
One season later, we have a juggernaut run game, with crazy ball control and physical presence. Picking up first downs, sustaining drives, closing out games; even when the other team knows we're going to run.
Nearly all of our rushing yards were from wildcat (basically just the sc game. People shut it down after that), broken scrambles from Towles, or long runs from boom. No sustained drives at all. Not even against EKU.
One season later, we have a juggernaut run game, with crazy ball control and physical presence. Picking up first downs, sustaining drives, closing out games; even when the other team knows we're going to run.
We actually had a good running game before Gran came if you consider averaging around 5 ypr good. Gran knew how to coordinate an offense, run a passing game and call plays.
I disagree with you on that take. The running game between the tackles was pretty good. The passing game was awful and the OL got a lot of blame for a bad, make that very bad OC, and no QB. No question Gran improved the running game but the OL was improving despite the moron in charge of the entire offense the year before.
I don't get the Schlarman hate. The guy was an All SEC lineman here, has built the best unit on the team in terms of performance and balanced talent, and is an outstanding recruiter. The players and recruits love the guy. Gran respects him but for some reason some fans can't stand him. Building a football team from scratch especially the OL takes years and a lot of good coaching. That is what happened, not some wizard pushing a few buttons.
There's is no schlarman hate. I like him. He's an integral part of executing what gran wants to do.
I just think it's ridiculous to give him all that credit and imagine he was the catalyst for turning it around in year 5 of 6.
The run game wasn't good. We gained some yards. But we could neither sustain a drive nor convert in the red zone. Both signs of a good run game.
That "old as dirt" coach did a lot of good work at UK with little support from Barnhart and UK. Facilities, coach's salaries, and recruiting support was awful. It was the "young" coach who followed him that ran UK into the gutter.
Our passing game was at the bottom of all NCAA. We couldn't sustain a drive or convert because we had no threat to complete a pass. Teams packed the box and came after the passer. Plus Dawson called deep passing plays constantly so everyone knew they had forever to get to the QB.
I never said Schlarman gets all the credit or that he was the catalyst. All I said is that he did his job exceptionally well in recruiting good guys, developing them and getting them to play as a unit. OL don't throw passes or rush the ball. Gran is not a OL coach and never has been. He is an outstanding OC and saw what he had, changed to a different offense when he lost his QB, and knew that the OL was a strength he could use to improve the rushing game. Gran and Schlarman work together but the OL is Schlarman's unit and he deserves credit for building it. If Gran and Stoops didn't think so they would have flushed him with the other coaches they let go.
People stacked the box against us last season too, daring us to throw. We still moved the ball. Johnson struggled nearly all season with any throw that wasn't deep.
That's fair. I think he's integral too.
Sure, Johnson brought something else to the table with his running. He passed well enough to make them respect him and he was a dangerous runner. Gran did a great job of cobbling together a very good offense and developing both the passing and run games. You must have a legitimate threat to throw the ball deep in order to make the safeties play honest. You can make a point that manipulating the safeties is the most important aspect in many offensive plays. Dawson and his QB's couldn't do that because they couldn't pass well enough and the QB's didn't run in that system. The truth is that if a good team stacks the box you will not beat them on the ground very often. It is just a numbers game.
That's a lot different than Gran was the only change from 2015. Thank you.
Yes, DB is a pocket passer who can run some/decent. Yes, great changes by Gran & Hinshaw to accommodate SJ's skill set - better runner - and less experience with our O. Of course they brought Snell to the fore too.
It's been tough on these coaches especially when talent was so suspect all over for a long time and what was there was young. Not much of a recipe for success in the SEC.
That's a pretty harsh criticism for a guy that lead us to 7 wins after a dismal start. I think it's fair to say he probably doesn't possess NFL caliber arm talent, but he certainly has some physical gifts. He proved in the later part of the season that he can make all the throws in Gran's offense and adds an extra dimension with his running ability that forces defenses to play us honest.
Johnson was put in a very tough situation having to come off the bench and having no D1 experience and not having the benefit of first string snaps in practice. Gran retooled the offense to focus on the running game, rather than forcing Johnson into trying to win games with his arm, when he was clearly not ready to do that. But he progressed significantly as the season went on and IMO we'll see more of a 50/50 offense this season.
Is what it is. He was in a tough situation. He performed world's beyond anyone's expectations. Doesn't mean he doesn't have pretty severe physical limitations.
He's not tall. Moderate zip on the ball. Struggles seeing the middle of the field, probably due to height. Struggles completing balls to the middle of the field, probably same reason. Moderate speed. Severely undersized. Shockingly weak with the football - was almost a guaranteed strip if he didn't just slide.
His best physical gifts are his decent speed and really good/great deep ball accuracy. The rest are intangibles, which help him make up for the physical limitations.
