OL?

[St8 Law]

I see a lot of posts here about players we are recruiting at WR, QB, RB, LB. What I am concerned about is OL. Not much chatter about OL here, but I am wondering how we are looking at OL. IMHO, that is the most important area. Getting a top WR/RB is great but without the OL to protect/block for them, that 4* player will suffer. Are we looking good with OL recruits?

[ctspartan]

Originally Posted by St8 Law

I see a lot of posts here about players we are recruiting at WR, QB, RB, LB. What I am concerned about is OL. Not much chatter about OL here, but I am wondering how we are looking at OL. IMHO, that is the most important area. Getting a top WR/RB is great but without the OL to protect/block for them, that 4* player will suffer. Are we looking good with OL recruits?

Looking at the Hueter background, you've got to believe the guy may turn out to be one of those 2* with 4* quality. A couple more like that, we'll be rolling.

[SpartanGA]

patience young Jedi.

[Spartan4ever]

Much of the OL recruiting is geared to evaluations at summer camps. Coaches have an idea who they are interested in and look to the camps to compare strenghts and weaknesses of each possible recruit.

It doesn't do much good if you watch a potential D1 linemen going against a bunch of high school kids he out weighs by sixty pounds and has six inches on and can just out physical them and think he has what it takes. At these camps potential recruits will be matched up against kids of equal measurables and coaches have a better opportunity to evaluate if a kid truly has the ability or is just beating up on weaker competition.

I expect to see linemen from both sides of the ball begin to verbal once the summer camps conclude.

[St8 Law]

Originally Posted by Spartan4ever

Much of the OL recruiting is geared to evaluations at summer camps. Coaches have an idea who they are interested in and look to the camps to compare strenghts and weaknesses of each possible recruit.

It doesn't do much good if you watch a potential D1 linemen going against a bunch of high school kids he out weighs by sixty pounds and has six inches on and can just out physical them and think he has what it takes. At these camps potential recruits will be matched up against kids of equal measurables and coaches have a better opportunity to evaluate if a kid truly has the ability or is just beating up on weaker competition.

I expect to see linemen from both sides of the ball begin to verbal once the summer camps conclude.

Thanks

[wingfanjim]

Originally Posted by Spartan4ever

Much of the OL recruiting is geared to evaluations at summer camps. Coaches have an idea who they are interested in and look to the camps to compare strenghts and weaknesses of each possible recruit.

It doesn't do much good if you watch a potential D1 linemen going against a bunch of high school kids he out weighs by sixty pounds and has six inches on and can just out physical them and think he has what it takes. At these camps potential recruits will be matched up against kids of equal measurables and coaches have a better opportunity to evaluate if a kid truly has the ability or is just beating up on weaker competition.

I expect to see linemen from both sides of the ball begin to verbal once the summer camps conclude.

Great post! That is one of the hard things about recruiting linemen is that their bodies change so much from year to year in terms of size and strength that it is hard to project anyone but the ELITE linemen prior to summer camps. Even then, some might not emerge until their senior seasons. That's what makes linemen recruiting a much slower process overall.

So those that are concerned about linemen shouldn't fret. The issue will be addressed, however, just know that recruiting O-linemen is a very different animal than recruiting skill positions.

[SpartanRocky]

Originally Posted by wingfanjim

Great post! That is one of the hard things about recruiting linemen is that their bodies change so much from year to year in terms of size and strength that it is hard to project anyone but the ELITE linemen prior to summer camps. Even then, some might not emerge until their senior seasons. That's what makes linemen recruiting a much slower process overall.

So those that are concerned about linemen shouldn't fret. The issue will be addressed, however, just know that recruiting O-linemen is a very different animal than recruiting skill positions.

Exactly waht I was thinking. These guys can grow another few inches/ put on 40/50 lbs (or lose that if they're huge) over the summer and be dramatically different players in the fall.

It's easier to measure the skill positions early.

[TeamCaptainJohn]

OL's still have a spring, summer work outs, season, and offseason to get bigger, faster, stronger. unless you can recognize a kid as a STUD now, its hard to judge talent, especially when they wont be stepping on campus for another 18 months

[SpartanRocky]

Originally Posted by fw190bvi

OL's still have a spring, summer work outs, season, and offseason to get bigger, faster, stronger. unless you can recognize a kid as a STUD now, its hard to judge talent, especially when they wont be stepping on campus for another 18 months

QFT

IMHO the DTs and OLs are the hardest to judge out of HS. A lot of DEs are HS LBs who have a great frame and can "bulk up" to 260 from 230. WRs/RBs are also easier to judge because of their speed/hands, etc.


As I've said many times and will probably say many times again, great OL are made, not born. Look at Iowa, their best years involved a bunch of LBs and TEs putting on weight and becoming All American OLs.

[AASpartan]

Just for reference anyway, here are the O-Line targets that we've posted updates about so far...

'09 MI OT Charles Chapman

'09 MI OT Ricky Clemons

'09 MI OG Orlando McCord

'09 MI OG Cordell Bell

'09 OH OT Max Plunkett

'09 IL OT Jake Baratz

'09 MI OT Zach Matthias

Just no status updates on then yet. It's definitely too soon at this point for OL

[Nals]

There is a lot to evaluate with OL that can't be done on a tape. That is why the camp period is so incredibly important. Plus, it's harder to get psyched about an Oline recruit right now.

[WavSpartan]

Does it worry you guys at all that we don't have the OL talent to block for these guys?

I'm worried about getting OL, DL, LBs, and Secondary guys. I don't doubt that Dantonio sees these needs too, but I just hope that we can get that guys to block for our backfield since we're bringing in big timers.

[Blake Ezor]

Yeah, has his head in the sand on this one ....my God people, 2009 class signing day is over 11 months away...chill already....damn, coach can't win for trying....fans always have something to b**ch about

[Natron the Spartan]

Originally Posted by WavSpartan

Does it worry you guys at all that we don't have the OL talent to block for these guys?

I'm worried about getting OL, DL, LBs, and Secondary guys. I don't doubt that Dantonio sees these needs too, but I just hope that we can get that guys to block for our backfield since we're bringing in big timers.

Jesus dude, it's February... of their junior year!!!!

[AASpartan]

Originally Posted by Natron the Spartan

Jesus dude, it's February... of their junior year!!!!

I'm afraid of the precedent being set by this class. Not for our program, but for our fans. Now if we don't have 3-4 kids verballed before the summer after their junior year, people are going to be asking "Why do we not have any commits yet?? What is up with our class??". And you know I'm right.

[Natron the Spartan]

Originally Posted by AASpartan

I'm afraid of the precedent being set by this class. Not for our program, but for our fans. Now if we don't have 3-4 kids verballed before the summer after their junior year, people are going to be asking "Why do we not have any commits yet?? What is up with our class??". And you know I'm right.

Agreed. Hopefully this year is not an abberation - the big boys do what we're doing right now, not usually mid-tier Big Ten teams. That being said, I'd love for it to continue.

However, this could get ugly now that expectations are beginning to rise significantly.

[AASpartan]

Originally Posted by Natron the Spartan

Agreed. Hopefully this year is not an abberation - the big boys do what we're doing right now, not usually mid-tier Big Ten teams. That being said, I'd love for it to continue.

However, this could get ugly now that expectations are beginning to rise significantly.

I've gotta say that I'm likely going to nuke a lot of the chicken little threads or merge them into the big cluster **** thread. Information about recruiting is what it is. We've got about 10 or so threads for OL recruits right now and there will likely be more. Same thing with DLine. This is beyond early for MSU.

[Left_Of_The_Dial]

Way too early to worry about OL prospects. Trust me, with the skill positions players we are picking up already getting a couple stud OL guys will be fairly easy to do later on in the recruiting process. So stop being a bunch of pansies!

OL prospects are a dime a dozen and I'm sure Dantonio wants more time to evaluate them before he goes after them. Plus, getting the early verbals we already have will free up more time for him to focus on these positions later on in the recruiting process.

For God's sake, have some faith in . I'm sure he's already a step or two ahead of you guys.

[WavSpartan]

I already said that "I don't doubt that Dantonio sees the need"......I'm just saying it'd be nice to see some OL recruits with these guys.

[Spartan4ever]

Originally Posted by WavSpartan

Does it worry you guys at all that we don't have the OL talent to block for these guys?

I'm worried about getting OL, DL, LBs, and Secondary guys. I don't doubt that Dantonio sees these needs too, but I just hope that we can get that guys to block for our backfield since we're bringing in big timers.

No, but what does worry me is the idiotic posts by individuals who have the audacity to believe that they somehow have a better understanding of what areas need to be addressed than a coach the caliber of Dantonio.

AASpartan has provided numerous updates regarding OL prospects that are being evaluated by this staff. It has also been addressed that summer camps are typically the period in which linemen are evaluated, offers submitted and accepted.

Dantonio has approximately 15 scholarships remaining and will be judicious as to who they are extended.

[WavSpartan]

Originally Posted by Spartan4ever

No, but what does worry me is the idiotic posts by individuals who have the audacity to believe that they somehow have a better understanding of what areas need to be addressed than a coach the caliber of Dantonio.

AASpartan has provided numerous updates regarding OL prospects that are being evaluated by this staff. It has also been addressed that summer camps are typically the period in which linemen are evaluated, offers submitted and accepted.

Dantonio has approximately 15 scholarships remaining and will be judicious as to who they are extended.

No wonder nobody comes to this board. The level of elitism when trying to simply have a conversation about the subject of the board, is enough to make me think I stumbled upon some sort of Maize and Blue recruiting forum.

I already mentioned that I'm sure Dantonio was addressing it.....No matter. The Duff Snobs have spoken.

[AASpartan]

Originally Posted by WavSpartan

No wonder nobody comes to this board. The level of elitism when trying to simply have a conversation about the subject of the board, is enough to make me think I stumbled upon some sort of Maize and Blue recruiting forum.

I already mentioned that I'm sure Dantonio was addressing it.....No matter. The Duff Snobs have spoken.

Well we definitely don't want an elitist mindset on the board. I'm wondering if like consolidating the threads regarding recruits, maybe another division regarding areas of recruiting would be helpful. The thing right now is that the recruits at the top of the board are the ones with the most activity. The updates regarding others (such as OL) have been few and far between. Not because of the staff not recruiting them, but because you'll typically get the most OL updates coming out of summer camps. Without the flurry of activity regarding some prospects recently I'm not sure that other areas would stick out so much.

[WavSpartan]

Originally Posted by AASpartan

Well we definitely don't want an elitist mindset on the board. I'm wondering if like consolidating the threads regarding recruits, maybe another division regarding areas of recruiting would be helpful. The thing right now is that the recruits at the top of the board are the ones with the most activity. The updates regarding others (such as OL) have been few and far between. Not because of the staff not recruiting them, but because you'll typically get the most OL updates coming