OL and DL recruiting vs BIG competition - do we have better talent?

[blion72]

what is your perception or knowledge of our OL and DL recruiting vs our BIG competition? my perception is that the overall groups we have on the roster right now were rated higher on average than most of our BIG competitors. While the * ratings on players can be off for an individual, for a large group they do seem to mean something. NC/CFP teams have higher star ratings/better recruiting than the ones who do not achieve that level. The * ratings also seem to impact draft levels/combine results. Oweh was highly rated, blew up the combine and was drafted high.

if you look at our OL two or even three deep, our players on avg seem to have higher star ratings than the same groups at say Wisconsin, Iowa or Minnesota. I picked those teams as they seem to wind up with more OL on the All BIG team than we do. Michael Menet is an example of a top 100 player, yet never got the accolades compared to less recruited players. Is it possible that somehow all our highly rated recruits wind up as busts? seems unlikely.

We also claim to have one of the top S&C programs under Gault. Our OL has also had multiple OL coaches and multiple OCs, and have have the same issues for years.

What would you do differently to improve the OL performance? Maybe your view is the OL is actually okay, and our run game problem is because we lack a top level (healthy) running back.

 

[Bvillebaron]

what is your perception or knowledge of our OL and DL recruiting vs our BIG competition? my perception is that the overall groups we have on the roster right now were rated higher on average than most of our BIG competitors. While the * ratings on players can be off for an individual, for a large group they do seem to mean something. NC/CFP teams have higher star ratings/better recruiting than the ones who do not achieve that level. The * ratings also seem to impact draft levels/combine results. Oweh was highly rated, blew up the combine and was drafted high.

if you look at our OL two or even three deep, our players on avg seem to have higher star ratings than the same groups at say Wisconsin, Iowa or Minnesota. I picked those teams as they seem to wind up with more OL on the All BIG team than we do. Michael Menet is an example of a top 100 player, yet never got the accolades compared to less recruited players. Is it possible that somehow all our highly rated recruits wind up as busts? seems unlikely.

We also claim to have one of the top S&C programs under Gault. Our OL has also had multiple OL coaches and multiple OCs, and have have the same issues for years.

What would you do differently to improve the OL performance? Maybe your view is the OL is actually okay, and our run game problem is because we lack a top level (healthy) running back.

Tough question. I think our DL are comparable to any in the Big the past few year but, with the exception of pass blocking which generally been decent, the OL’s run blocking has been mediocre at best for several year now. I concede that whether it is due to injury or not all of our backs look slow. This compounds the problem, but the OL has not been good. Maybe someone who knows more about OL play can chime in because I don’t know if it scheme (it doesn’t appear to me that the use a zone blocking scheme which I think is generally better for running), lack of talent or what. As I said, would like to get the thoughts of someone more knowledgeable about OL play than me.