JUCO DT pursuit

JUCO DT pursuit

Peter Ariz
Peter Ariz

Comments (65)

We're in trouble at DT next year and probably the year after. You can't neglect the position for 2 years like we have. Stupid. "But Kuligowski...." No. We ****ed up.

Were in trouble because 2 guys are leaving that shouldn’t be. Norton, Willis, McIntosh, Bethel, Ford, Nesta, Goldwire, Dj Johnson would be excellent.

Yes - that's part of being a top 10 team in college football. Everyone has known Willis was a ticking timebomb and everyone has known Norton/McIntosh were potential early entry guys for well over a year now.

And, by the time Nesta and Ford get coached up it looks like we're well on our way to having the same problems with linebacker, so there's that.

Norton is an early entry guy like Feagles is an early entry guy. boardline insanity.
 
WE definitely need more dogs in the trenches. Clemson showed us that in a major way yesterday when they owned us in the trenches.

Problem is it’s such an incredibly tough position to evaluate, and I don’t trust the Star game at all at DT or OL. I’ve seen way too many 4 and 5 Star pvssies bust at those spots over the years. That’s why you absolutely need great evaluators and coaches at those two positions more than anywhere else.

Not sure it's that so hard to evaluate DL and DT in particular (at least relative to other positions). It's just hard to recruit them. Clemson, Alabama and OSU are full of 4-5* DL.

QB and OL seem like the hardest positions to project/evaluate.
 
DT is tough to evaluate, and very few can contribute right away. Players you evaluate and say they have ‘it’. You can recruit bodies, but end up with JAGs. A player like Vince Wildork out of high school was an outlier’s outlier. Even HOF guys like Jerome, Tez, and Sapp needed a few seasons to develop. Some of that was deep rosters, some of that learning and growing into the position.
 
WE definitely need more dogs in the trenches. Clemson showed us that in a major way yesterday when they owned us in the trenches.

Problem is it’s such an incredibly tough position to evaluate, and I don’t trust the Star game at all at DT or OL. I’ve seen way too many 4 and 5 Star pvssies bust at those spots over the years. That’s why you absolutely need great evaluators and coaches at those two positions more than anywhere else.

Not sure it's that so hard to evaluate DL and DT in particular (at least relative to other positions). It's just hard to recruit them. Clemson, Alabama and OSU are full of 4-5* DL.

QB and OL seem like the hardest positions to project/evaluate.

You and Franchise are both right. DTs are hard to evaluate AND hard to recruit. 4-5 star skill position guys are a dime a dozen. They are littered all over our S. Florida backyard. And DEs are fairly prevalent in our area, too.

But top DT recruits are hard to come by. And because of this, coaches are after them like wolves. You have to recruit nationally in order to get the top DTs, and we have not been a national recruiting player in over a decade. Which is also why we've been pushed around by big strong OL teams for over a decade.

It is completely impossible to compete for national championships without dominant DTs. Ohio State and Alabama are in the playoff discussions every single year because they maintain a crop of beastly D linemen and LBs. Imagine a guy the size of Kendrick Norton but with the speed to get upfield like McIntosh. That's what we are missing.
 
Advertisement
Irregardless of who's leaving the DT position, we NEED DT's!! Three seems more ideal if not realistic or possible per the numbers.
 
Back
Top