Buttermaker
Well-known member
When will we have a serviceable offensive line?
Thanks Magic!
Based on the beebs about 40 or so people joined the call.
Bieber was there? We are on the upward swing!
Thanks Magic!
E: Beaten by a parody
Mentioned specifically a battle won last year for a RB from Arkansas that had offers from Arkansas and Ok State but who had a 3.9 and wanted an academic school.
Anyone else more than a little bit alarmed that we're not on scholarship reduction and we were playing with fewer than 50 scholarship players at the end of the year? I had no idea that Grobe left teh cupboard THIS empty. Our O Lineman can't even lift 300 pounds? No wonder we can't move anyone off the ball.
I look forward to watching Clawson move this program forward. He's got a plan and as a fan, I'm buying in (for whatever that is worth).
Magic -
The only kid on the roster from Arkansas is frosh LB Zack Wary. He must be who Coach was referring to.
MUCH thanks for that recap !
My perspective on the "less than 50" comment is this: 85 total scholarships. 25 freshman, almost all redshirting. Thus 60 or so scholarship players really available. We know at least a few players left before seasons end. 11 injured and the number of available scholarship guys is below 50. Injury doesn't have to be season ending, just game and/or practice missing in severity.
James Franklin has maintained that it takes 3 years to develop an offensive lineman. At least two starters on Wake's O line were below this level of time at Wake.
The weakness comment sounds like it's about the current freshmen more than the guys playing.
Completely agree. Unless you are recruiting on Alabama's level, you are not bringing in true frosh OL that have the strength to compete on the D-1 level. There is a massive strength and technique difference between an 18 and 21 year old. Over his last 5 years, Grobe failed in recruiting D-1 level OL. There are some excuses (injuries to Ford, Summers and Heartsill; near misses on Cooper, Havenstein, Wilkes and Yankey among others), but the fact remains that the program tailed off because he and his staff failed to recruit and develop a competent OL (you could make a valid argument that WF had the least talented OL in all of D1 over the last couple of years). The failure in that one area kept the team from being competitive, and made it impossible for the offense to be productive despite some decent D-1 talent elsewhere.
This is a strange post coming from Pilchard given how much he defended Grobe and our OL coaches from criticism.
Not true over the last few years. Grobe's misses on OL recruits that ended up being All-Americans and NFL high round draft picks has been well documented as was the injuries on the o-line (I have periodically detailed those issues). No one could reasonably debate the OL's failings. I have always questioned the Monday morning quarterbacking here claiming that play-calls were the root of WF's problems. As this year proved with a different staff, Bill Walsh could be calling the plays and WF was not going to score much on offense with this o-line. I have never claimed that Grobe did anything other than a poor job recruiting on the OL after he peaked in 2006-2008. That poor job has led the program to the hole that Clawson is now trying to get out of.
Grobe always recruited better on the defensive side than the offensive side, and that caught up with him.