Offensive Line Recruiting - Let's look back

[missouridawg]

So, I know nobody here wants to hear the "it's all Crooms fault" blah blah blah stuff... but our offensive line is in pretty ****** shape because of our previous head coach. Let's look at what's done been recruiting wise since 2007.

2007 - Croom
Derek Sherrod (4 year starter, gone to NFL)
Quentin Saulsberry (serviceable 5 year player)
Addison Lawrence (average 5 year player)
Colton Jenkins (who?)
Dakota Merritt (who?)
DJ Looney (still with the team, but I'm sure he wasn't recruied as a grad assistant)

2008 - Croom
John Paul Alford (scholly wasted)
Tobias Smith (injury bug bitten, would be great to have him)
Phillip Freeman (didn't play many important snaps in his 2 years of PT)

2009 - Croom/Mullen
Gabe Jackson (quality player)
Sam Watts (hasn't played much yet, not sure he's going to if he can't find the field bynow)

2010 - Mullen
Eric Lawson (jury's still out)
Dillon Day (looks promising)
Damien Robinson (will be good, needs another year)
Blaine Causell (liability now, will be good later)
Archie Muniz (jury's still out)

2011 - Mullen
James Maiden(jury's still out)
Nick Redmond (jury's still out)
Justin Malone (jury's still out)
Joey Trapp (jury's still out)

So to sum it up, the guys that would 4th year seniors and/or 5th year seniors are:
Colton Jenkins
Dakota Merrit
DJ Looney
Quentin Saulsberry
Addison Lawrence
John Paul Alford
Tobias Smith

3 out of 7 are still on the team. That's not going to cut it. Our O-Line recruiting has been so bad in 2007, 2008, and 2009 that we had to convert two D-Lineman to O-Line (Carmon/Hardy). You need between9 and 11 men for your O-Line depth and we're currently using 3 redshirt freshman and oneD-Line convertto make up that 8 to 11 players. Croom left us with5 upper classmen (Jackson, Saulsberry, Lawrence, Smith, and Watts)for this year on the O-Line. This isn't good enough. Mullen needs to burn up the JUCO circuit this offseason and get atleast 1 guy who can play next year.

When the 2010 class all have 3 years under their belt, I expect our O-Line to be a strength again, just like it was last year because of the upper class depth we had.

 

[Coach34]

.

 

[DirtyLopez]

don't have to shuffle the entire line when one goes down (granted, we had two go down). We have to get enough studs to win long enough that good players want to come play for us (thus, building depth). That is the fly in the ointment for us, managing to win enough in this league so that we can build momentum and make recruiting a little easier.

 

[dogfan96]

to make me believe that Clausell will be good enough for this level at any point.. he looks awful out there.. there's a reason he was the #101 OT prospect

 

[maroonmania]

I didn't think he was even ranked at all.

 

[BogeyGolfer.sixpack]

that's why we shouldn't be calling a majority of our running plays between the tackles. We can make excuses all day, and I can come up with several reasons to blame the o-line, Crooms or even the color of our uniforms for our poor play, but the fact remains that we do not have the talent that other SEC teams have and it is very obvious this year. Last year we had NFL players on both sides of the ball and an average offense that played off of opportunities created by our defense. It's really that simple.

On a side note*** Athens/UGA is by far the best SEC road game to attend...</p>

 

[ScaldedDawg]

Also, these recruits have their listed schools, but does not mean they were offered a scholarship. Anyhow:

missouridawg wrote:
_________________________________________________
2007 -Croom
Derek Sherrod (4 year starter, gone to NFL) 4 , Florida/Louisville/Miami(Fl)/Michigan/Mississippi/Notre Dame
Quentin Saulsberry (serviceable 5 year player) 2, Alabama/Auburn/Memphis/Mississippi/South Carolina/Southern Miss.
Addison Lawrence (average 5 year player) 2, Air Force/Arkansas State/Memphis/Mississippi/Southern Mississippi/UT-Martin
Colton Jenkins (who?) 3, Alabama/Auburn/LSU/Michigan/Mississippi/Southern Mississippi
Dakota Merritt (who?) 2, Clemson/Florida International/Louisiana (Who?)/North Carolina State/UCF
DJ Looney (still with the team, but I'm sure he wasn't recruied as a grad assistant) 2, Alabama/Houston/Memphis/USM

2008 - Croom
John Paul Alford (scholly wasted) 3, Alabama/Auburn/Mississippi/Tennessee/Tulane
Tobias Smith (injury bug bitten, would be great to have him) 3, Alcorn State/Arkansas State/Baylor/Jackson St./La. Tech/USM
Phillip Freeman (didn't play many important snaps in his 2 years of PT) JC, Kansas State/Louisville/North Texas/OK St./USM/UAB

2009 - Croom/Mullen
Gabe Jackson (quality player) 3, Alabama/Auburn/Clemson/LSU/Mississippi/USM
Sam Watts (hasn't played much yet, not sure he's going to if he can't find the field bynow) 3, Alabama/Auburn/Clemson/Ga./Ga Tech/LSU

2010 - Mullen
Eric Lawson (jury's still out) 2, Alabama/Auburn/Memphis/Mississippi/Tennessee/Texas Tech
Dillon Day (looks promising) 2, Arkansas/La. Tech/LSU/ULM
Damien Robinson (will be good, needs another year) 4, Arkansas/Memphis/Mississippi/Oklahoma/Tennessee
Blaine Causell (liability now, will be good later) 2, Louisiana (Who?)/La. Tech/South Alabama/USM/Troy/UAB
Archie Muniz (jury's still out) 2, Northwestern/OK State/Rice/Utah/UTEP

2011 - Mullen
James Maiden(jury's still out) 3, LSU/Mississippi/USM/Stanford/Southern California/Vanderbilt
Nick Redmond (jury's still out) 3, Alabama/Auburn/LSU/Mississippi/USM/Notre Dame
Justin Malone (jury's still out) 2, Alcorn State/Auburn/Mississippi
Joey Trapp (jury's still out) JC, Arkansas State/Eastern Kentucky/Memphis/Western Michigan

 

[kired]

The highest rated prospect, Robinson, apparently is about our #9 or 10 guy right now. He can't beat out Clausell, Carmon, or Day for a starting spot. I have never heard anything good about Lawson since he's been here. And Muniz --- who knows? Guess you could say he's in the same boat as Robinson - obviously not good enough to beat our Clausell or Carmon.<div>
</div><div>The fact is that o-line recruiting is such a crapshoot. You sign the best you can & hope to get maybe 2qualityplayers from each class. Truth is, probably half the o-linemen we sign will never turn into starters. What's really hurting us right now are those 2008 & 2009 classes. We only got two decent players out of those two classes & 5scholarships, but one is injury prone... so really we only got 1 dependable player in 2 years. That's why we've got to sign a couple of more guys this year or we'll be in the same shape 3 years from now. If we get 4 dependable starters between the 2010 & 2011 classes, we'll be extremely lucky.</div>

 

[thatsbaseball]

lineman. The kid may have gotten a letter from those schools his sophmore year but come on. Something is wrong with that picture.

 

[ScaldedDawg]

So they may have just liked to say they "played for an SEC school" when we offered.

 

[RonnyAtmosphere]

...I don't care what anybody says:


The current sad joke we find @ the kicker position far outweights what is going on with the OL.


Recruiting OLmen takes thought, evaluation & luck.


Recruiting a kicker that can kick the ball to the endzone takes a 5 minute care drive to Starkville Academy.

 

[thatsbaseball]

nm

 

[TheFireman6]

I've posted this several times already because it bugs me. LaTech had 2 MS Juco O-lineman that would have been better than anything we have on the line right now yet we passed on them to sign Trapp and Malone. We recruited Trapp from a Juco in California and he is awful. This is on Hevesy and Mullen.

 

[LR1400]

I've posted this several times already because it bugs me. LaTech had 2 MS Juco O-lineman that would have been better than anything we have on the line right now yet we passed on them to sign Trapp and Malone. We recruited Trapp from a Juco in California and he is awful. This is on Hevesy and Mullen.

That **** is unacceptable.

 

[Irondawg]

I've posted this several times already because it bugs me. LaTech had 2 MS Juco O-lineman that would have been better than anything we have on the line right now yet we passed on them to sign Trapp and Malone. We recruited Trapp from a Juco in California and he is awful. This is on Hevesy and Mullen.

Only one of them was listed as that starter against MSU and that was at RG. So if they are second string at La Tech I don't know how much better they are than anyone else on our roster.

 

[War Machine Dawg]

He's absolutely a wasted scholly. Go look out by his name on our roster at MStateAthletics.com and you'll see he's never lettered in 3 years so far. I don't even know why he's still getting a scholly. We need to mutually agree to part ways with him. Crxxm's last 2 classes on the OL are absolute killers. We have literally no depth due to them.

I'd also say Saulsberry is more than serviceable. He's going to be drafted in April. I shudder to think how bad our OL would be without him.

 

[maroonmania]

how bad our OL will be next year if Tobias Smith doesn't come back healthy and Saulsberry, Lawrence and Carmon are all gone. And its interesting on Sam Watts that in his particular recruiting class I'm pretty sure he was the very first commitment we took.

 

[FreeDawg]

but i personally saw him approached by a mom and dad of a hs softball player's family on a unofficial visit (prob due to his size and msu football shirt)and all he talked about how great msu was. And these people were bothering him when he was studying in mccool. Regardless of his playing ability he seemed like a good dude and ambassador for msu. I can think of better examples of a "wasted" scholly. Hopefully he contributes before its all said and done.

 

[Todd4State]

Personally, I wish he was doing better, but we need some ambassadors like Derek Sherrod.

 

[patdog]

of wasted scholarship. I'm sure he's a great guy and I'm glad that he loves MSU. But we could sign 25 guys a year like that and we'd be 2-10 every year.

 

[FreeDawg]

Im just sayin not all 85 players on scholly will be studs and I'd rather have a good attitde (Sam Watts) then a wasted talent (nick turner, dennis thames, etc..) I'm holding out hope that maybe we get some production out of him but I completely get what yall are saying