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CONOR Football News 2020

We have something like 15 offensive linemen on the roster with maybe 10 of them here for at least two years. This is an area that we have recruited well even with the loss of Big Mike. I trust several of those men are ready to step up and take over and play well Any additions would be great if they can play right away and although we lost three starters there are a few guys who got some snaps last year either in tandem or as subs.
 
OL breakdown:

14 on the roster.

2 of them, I would say, are guaranteed starting spots: Zach Tom and Terrance Davis
2 who rotated at LG last year: Loic Ngassam Nya and Sean Maginn (since Davis is also a guard, they'll rotate again, one will switch positions or one plays over the other)
1 r-soph who appears ready for larger role: Michael Jurgens
2 fifth-year seniors who haven't played significant reps: Je'Vionte' Nash and Taleni Suhren
2 r-juniors who haven't played significant reps: Spencer Clapp and Allan Rappleyea
1 r-freshman who entered as a bit of a project, CJ Elmonus
1 r-freshman who greyshirted because of gruesome leg injury, DeVonte Gordon
1 early enrollee, George Sell
2 walk-ons, Trey Turner and Goran Jovanovic

It's absolutely a position that has recruited well when you talk about the successes of Phil Haynes, Ryan Anderson, Jake Benzinger, in terms of taking lowly regarded recruits and molding them into multi-year starters. But it's also a unit that showed cracks in the foundation at the end of last season, and now loses 3 starters. There should be a good bit of trepidation when it comes to the OL, I'd say.
 
CONeill said:
OL breakdown:

14 on the roster.

2 of them, I would say, are guaranteed starting spots: Zach Tom and Terrance Davis
2 who rotated at LG last year: Loic Ngassam Nya and Sean Maginn (since Davis is also a guard, they'll rotate again, one will switch positions or one plays over the other)
1 r-soph who appears ready for larger role: Michael Jurgens
2 fifth-year seniors who haven't played significant reps: Je'Vionte' Nash and Taleni Suhren
2 r-juniors who haven't played significant reps: Spencer Clapp and Allan Rappleyea
1 r-freshman who entered as a bit of a project, CJ Elmonus
1 r-freshman who greyshirted because of gruesome leg injury, DeVonte Gordon
1 early enrollee, George Sell
2 walk-ons, Trey Turner and Goran Jovanovic

It's absolutely a position that has recruited well when you talk about the successes of Phil Haynes, Ryan Anderson, Jake Benzinger, in terms of taking lowly regarded recruits and molding them into multi-year starters. But it's also a unit that showed cracks in the foundation at the end of last season, and now loses 3 starters. There should be a good bit of trepidation when it comes to the OL, I'd say.
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Great breakdown of the possibilities on the O-line
Thanks for doing that.

Looks like three spots are pretty solid and the other two are big questions. From a source I trust at MD, Terance Davis is supposed to be good. He simply wanted out of the mess that was, and maybe is, Maryland football. Top 100 guy out of HS and played like it.

Moving Zach Tom to tackle is at least a yellow flag in my book. If a guy who has worked at center for three years can step out and be the best left tackle, that doesn't speak well about the development of the guys who have been working as tackles for 3 or 4 years.

Jurgens moving in as starting C at the least changes the set of eyes looking at the D line and the voice making the line calls. May be differences without a significance. Last time the starting center was moved to another position (guard) because the backup center was the second best interior lineman and supposedly couldn't play guard, the starting center/guard transferred because he saw himself as an NFL center, not guard.

C.J. Elmonus was touted by some as "ready to play" as a high school signee. We may find out if that was hyperbole or true.

At the end of the season, the RPO was getting destroyed because the middle of the O-line was getting pushed into the mesh point. More true when Maginn and Ngassam Nya both played at the same time. Can either one hold up as a full time player, or is it better to go back to the rotation?

It's a somewhat scary thought, but incoming freshman to be Luke Pettibon could be the best tackle on the team in August.

It could be a long season if the Offensive line doesn't come together over the summer.
 
But when you consider JohnWolford’s first two years it is a credible statement.
 
MikeDeac said:
But when you consider JohnWolford’s first two years it is a credible statement.
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It’s very credible. When our offensive line was bad, our offense couldn’t operate in 2014.

But I think it’s an over exaggeration to compare that line to the future 2020 offensive line. We have some experienced players. Loic Nya and Sean Maginn will only improve. That was their first full year of getting real playing time. I thought they both showed they have the ability to play at a high level at left guard. They just had a few too many mistakes here and there down the stretch. If they minimize those, we won’t have any problems on the interior. Terrence will come in and give us some much needed experience and size. He’s a big dude and we’re going to work off of his size in the middle of our line. I think Zach Tom and Jurgens are both very good centers. So if Zach can go out and play the tackle well, that’s a good thing. CJ Elmonus should definitely be a guy to watch. He’s got Jake Benzinger size, so hopefully he can end up playing at that caliber (although I thought Jake struggled at times last year to be quite honest). Luke Petitbon is a center coming out of high school, will he be transitioning to tackle? Jevionte Nash needs to step up. He’s been here long enough to where he should be figuring things out. George Sell is going to be a future star. I can’t wait to see him play in the next couple of years. I’d like to see Spencer Clapp step up too. He’s got a lot of size like Jake Benzinger as well. Jevionte or him one are going to end up playing on the outside. One of the two NEEDS to be ready to play. That’s my 2nd biggest concern, RT. First is the corner position opposite of Jasir Taylor. I can see that being a problem. I really hope Clawson goes out and finds a grad transfer still available that can play immediately. Isaiah Essissima did not look anywhere near ready in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Big Mike may be a project for whenever he winds up next. Its been a long time since he’s been able to play football. It sucks that he had that injury, but I wish him the best in his future endeavors.
 
I am not holding my breath on a grad transfer db. Plus, the last one we had was horrific
 
jaybone said:
I am not holding my breath on a grad transfer db. Plus, the last one we had was horrific
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That was like 4-5 years ago. It was a lot harder to bring in somebody with talent back then. Our program is in a much better place, as shown by the commitment from Terrence Davis.
 
SDDeac said:
It’s very credible. When our offensive line was bad, our offense couldn’t operate in 2014.

But I think it’s an over exaggeration to compare that line to the future 2020 offensive line. We have some experienced players. Loic Nya and Sean Maginn will only improve. That was their first full year of getting real playing time. I thought they both showed they have the ability to play at a high level at left guard. They just had a few too many mistakes here and there down the stretch. If they minimize those, we won’t have any problems on the interior. Terrence will come in and give us some much needed experience and size. He’s a big dude and we’re going to work off of his size in the middle of our line. I think Zach Tom and Jurgens are both very good centers. So if Zach can go out and play the tackle well, that’s a good thing. CJ Elmonus should definitely be a guy to watch. He’s got Jake Benzinger size, so hopefully he can end up playing at that caliber (although I thought Jake struggled at times last year to be quite honest). Luke Petitbon is a center coming out of high school, will he be transitioning to tackle? Jevionte Nash needs to step up. He’s been here long enough to where he should be figuring things out. George Sell is going to be a future star. I can’t wait to see him play in the next couple of years. I’d like to see Spencer Clapp step up too. He’s got a lot of size like Jake Benzinger as well. Jevionte or him one are going to end up playing on the outside. One of the two NEEDS to be ready to play. That’s my 2nd biggest concern, RT. First is the corner position opposite of Jasir Taylor. I can see that being a problem. I really hope Clawson goes out and finds a grad transfer still available that can play immediately. Isaiah Essissima did not look anywhere near ready in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Big Mike may be a project for whenever he winds up next. Its been a long time since he’s been able to play football. It sucks that he had that injury, but I wish him the best in his future endeavors.
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My comment about Luke Pettibon was a dig at the move of Zach Tom from starting center to tackle. Pettibon showed he was a good blocking center in the pre all-star game practices. He held his own working one on one against some of the highly touted defensive linemen.
 
CONeill said:
OL breakdown: . . . .It's absolutely a position that has recruited well when you talk about the successes of Phil Haynes, Ryan Anderson, Jake Benzinger, in terms of taking lowly regarded recruits and molding them into multi-year starters. But it's also a unit that showed cracks in the foundation at the end of last season, and now loses 3 starters. There should be a good bit of trepidation when it comes to the OL, I'd say.
Click to expand...

I would phrase it as concern rather than "a good bit of trepidation" but the observation is apt enough. The maturity of the program should help lineman come along better than in 2014.
 
SDDeac said:
It’s very credible. When our offensive line was bad, our offense couldn’t operate in 2014.

But I think it’s an over exaggeration to compare that line to the future 2020 offensive line. We have some experienced players. Loic Nya and Sean Maginn will only improve. That was their first full year of getting real playing time. I thought they both showed they have the ability to play at a high level at left guard. They just had a few too many mistakes here and there down the stretch. If they minimize those, we won’t have any problems on the interior. Terrence will come in and give us some much needed experience and size. He’s a big dude and we’re going to work off of his size in the middle of our line. I think Zach Tom and Jurgens are both very good centers. So if Zach can go out and play the tackle well, that’s a good thing. CJ Elmonus should definitely be a guy to watch. He’s got Jake Benzinger size, so hopefully he can end up playing at that caliber (although I thought Jake struggled at times last year to be quite honest). Luke Petitbon is a center coming out of high school, will he be transitioning to tackle? Jevionte Nash needs to step up. He’s been here long enough to where he should be figuring things out. George Sell is going to be a future star. I can’t wait to see him play in the next couple of years. I’d like to see Spencer Clapp step up too. He’s got a lot of size like Jake Benzinger as well. Jevionte or him one are going to end up playing on the outside. One of the two NEEDS to be ready to play. That’s my 2nd biggest concern, RT. First is the corner position opposite of Jasir Taylor. I can see that being a problem. I really hope Clawson goes out and finds a grad transfer still available that can play immediately. Isaiah Essissima did not look anywhere near ready in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Big Mike may be a project for whenever he winds up next. Its been a long time since he’s been able to play football. It sucks that he had that injury, but I wish him the best in his future endeavors.
Click to expand...

Sorry for a dumb question, but who is Big Mike and where did he go? You arent talking about Mike Allen, are you?
 
pdogdke said:
Sorry for a dumb question, but who is Big Mike and where did he go? You arent talking about Mike Allen, are you?
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Mike Edwards. He is an offensive tackle, and the top recruit of the 2018 class. He is transferring in hopes that a school will let him play, as Wake has medically DQ’d him.

I guess it’s worth a shot. Nothing Clawson and staff could have done to keep him around if he wants to play football.
 
DeacAssured said:
I would phrase it as concern rather than "a good bit of trepidation" but the observation is apt enough. The maturity of the program should help lineman come along better than in 2014.
Click to expand...

I forgot this until speaking with Zach Tom today, but he was a tackle through high school. Came here and moved to center, picked it up quickly because A) he's a sharp kid and B) learning from Ryan Anderson was beneficial. Clawson thinks really highly of Tom, said he's a good enough athlete to play any OL position, 3-technique DL and even probably TE.

Basically, in Clawson's purview, they have 3 "knowns" on the OL: Tom, Maginn and Ngassam Nya. That becomes 4 in May when Terrance Davis gets healthy. What they have to figure out in the next month is who the Nos. 5, 6, 7 OLs, etc. are, and Tom's flexibility is such that he'll play wherever they need him.

I'm writing about defense today, probably about OL after Thursday or Saturday practice.
 
CONeill said:
I forgot this until speaking with Zach Tom today, but he was a tackle through high school. Came here and moved to center, picked it up quickly because A) he's a sharp kid and B) learning from Ryan Anderson was beneficial. Clawson thinks really highly of Tom, said he's a good enough athlete to play any OL position, 3-technique DL and even probably TE.

Basically, in Clawson's purview, they have 3 "knowns" on the OL: Tom, Maginn and Ngassam Nya. That becomes 4 in May when Terrance Davis gets healthy. What they have to figure out in the next month is who the Nos. 5, 6, 7 OLs, etc. are, and Tom's flexibility is such that he'll play wherever they need him.

I'm writing about defense today, probably about OL after Thursday or Saturday practice.
Click to expand...

Would be interesting to hear Coach Tabacca's take on how he develops guys. Haynes now an NFL player, Herron likely too. Ryan Anderson and Patrick Osterhage developed into solid players, after coming in as 2-star recruits. Time for Beef Boys volume 2.
 
Deaconblue said:
I hope Mike Allen's decision to transfer and find a school that will medically clear him to play doesn't have bad consequences for his future health.
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You mean Edwards. Mike Allen is out for early (all?) Spring practice - not sure why, but expected to be on the 2-deep next year at DE.
 
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