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Adam ElGammal

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They took two project tackles. One panned out, the other one panned. It happens. Outside of maybe three or four guys every year, offensive linemen are a big gamble and you have to do a lot of projection. Most high school o line recruits fall into one of two categories. 1) The huge guy who is already much bigger and stronger than 90% of his opponents at the high school level and 2) the athletic guy who hasn’t filled out but has good feet and quick reflexes. You’re taking chances with either one. There’s a chance the big guy has already peaked and won’t be nearly as dominant when he’s going up against guys as big and strong as he is. There’s also the chance that the athletic guy loses a lot of his athleticism if he has to put on a bunch of weight. It’s why I don’t like to see linemen getting a ton of playing time until they’ve been in the system for at least two years, preferably three. Unless he’s an Evan Neal type unicorn who’s already skilled enough and strong enough as a freshman. But those players are the rarest of the rare
 
DTP said:
They took two project tackles. One panned out, the other one panned. It happens. Outside of maybe three or four guys every year, offensive linemen are a big gamble and you have to do a lot of projection. Most high school o line recruits fall into one of two categories. 1) The huge guy who is already much bigger and stronger than 90% of his opponents at the high school level and 2) the athletic guy who hasn’t filled out but has good feet and quick reflexes. You’re taking chances with either one. There’s a chance the big guy has already peaked and won’t be nearly as dominant when he’s going up against guys as big and strong as he is. There’s also the chance that the athletic guy loses a lot of his athleticism if he has to put on a bunch of weight. It’s why I don’t like to see linemen getting a ton of playing time until they’ve been in the system for at least two years, preferably three. Unless he’s an Evan Neal type unicorn who’s already skilled enough and strong enough as a freshman. But those players are the rarest of the rare
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It’s why Wisconsin redshirts all of their OL and rarely ever play them before their RS sophomore year. Even 5* Logan Thomas. They don’t even play them the 4 games to maintain their RS status. Everyone talks about what a great job they do developing their OL but few teams and fans have the patience to do it their way.
 
3FW said:
When you take three NYC kids and one is JHH it's a good haul. The other kid Blissett played meaningful minutes as RS Freshman. Unlucky with JB, but that happens.
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Agree with these. JHH was offered after an Ohio State official visit. He had been to Penn State's campus more than five times before stepping foot in Miami. It can't be overstated how having his teammate's commitment (ElGammal - Blissett was a friend but not a teammate) helped get him to Miami.
DTP said:
They took two project tackles. One panned out, the other one panned. It happens. Outside of maybe three or four guys every year, offensive linemen are a big gamble and you have to do a lot of projection. Most high school o line recruits fall into one of two categories. 1) The huge guy who is already much bigger and stronger than 90% of his opponents at the high school level and 2) the athletic guy who hasn’t filled out but has good feet and quick reflexes. You’re taking chances with either one.
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DTP said:
They took two project tackles. One panned out, the other one panned. It happens. Outside of maybe three or four guys every year, offensive linemen are a big gamble and you have to do a lot of projection. Most high school o line recruits fall into one of two categories. 1) The huge guy who is already much bigger and stronger than 90% of his opponents at the high school level and 2) the athletic guy who hasn’t filled out but has good feet and quick reflexes. You’re taking chances with either one. There’s a chance the big guy has already peaked and won’t be nearly as dominant when he’s going up against guys as big and strong as he is. There’s also the chance that the athletic guy loses a lot of his athleticism if he has to put on a bunch of weight. It’s why I don’t like to see linemen getting a ton of playing time until they’ve been in the system for at least two years, preferably three. Unless he’s an Evan Neal type unicorn who’s already skilled enough and strong enough as a freshman. But those players are the rarest of the rare
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Respectfully, if you're taking 2 projects at one position group, the class needs additional commits that bring more certainty -- guys like Flowers, Henderson, B Washington. This class has that in Big Baby and Rodriguez. That EG/ZN/JC class did not, and that's inexcusable given how bad our OL already was.

We've had a decent 2020 and 2021 class, but not enough talent there. Coaches need to keep overstocking in 2022.
 
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CaneThang2020 said:
Zion work ethic is on a Greg Rousseau level.....outside of the 5 star kids, the main difference in success between 4* kids and high 2*-low 3* kids is work ethic.
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I would add he’s very high character and has an incredibly strong mental makeup. Would have been real easy for his performance and the noise of the 2019 season crush him but the kid used it as fuel. He’s quiet but possess alot of the personality traits of the old school canes.
 
TRick72 said:
It’s why Wisconsin redshirts all of their OL and rarely ever play them before their RS sophomore year. Even 5* Logan Thomas. They don’t even play them the 4 games to maintain their RS status. Everyone talks about what a great job they do developing their OL but few teams and fans have the patience to do it their way.
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Players need to buy in also. Need to see a track record that is tried and true.
 
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cookies said:
Something interesting about Zion is that even though he sucked Year 1, the coaches were very excited about him from week 1. That speaks to his coachability, learning abilities, and ambitions
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I think for maybe the first time in CIS history, the entire board can agree on one thing, and that is rooting for Zion.

People questioned the take, and rightfully so, and he definitely read those comments.

What's he do? He comes in as a 240lb freshman, puts on 40 lbs and starts game 1 against UF in a hostile environment, and frankly got worked by a future NFL draft pick. Again criticism was there and rightfully so.

Whats he do? Continue to prep, practice, and play hard and took more lumps than I think a kid should. He was still getting ridiculed and I do not believe all of that was rightfully so because at some point, the coaches need to pull a TF to save some of that embarrassment, some kids do not have the mental makeup to bounce back week after week of getting abused.

Meanwhile, his oline coach gets fired and new guy comes in and immediately he is at second string, lost his starting position. Whats he do? Takes that **** back about halfway through the season and while not perfect, and still a work in progress, he was still a true sophomore and much much improved to the point he was no longer the weak link on the Oline. yes scheme and King helped his play some, but no one can question his work ethic and desire to play ball.
 
Cookie917 said:
I think for maybe the first time in CIS history, the entire board can agree on one thing, and that is rooting for Zion.

People questioned the take, and rightfully so, and he definitely read those comments.
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Giving the board too much credit.
 
Goulds Cane said:
If Ohio State, Michigan & Penn State are on a NYC/NJ kid, you should be after him.

This kid was committed to Cincinnati (no knock on them) and he had noncommittable UVA & Pitt offers. His film showed a slue footed kid with effort issues against trash comp.
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Usually If those schools are after a northeast kid, Miami will have a tough time landing them. In the case of JHH, those schools were after him, and we partially only landed him because he had his teammate, ElGammal, and another friend coming to Miami as well. Adam should have never been viewed as major Northeast OT. He was always a late add project, along with Zion. Those two takes were similar in the vein of that OT we turned to a DT or a DT we turned to a OT in the Golden era. Kid from California. Some of the worst tape from a Miami recruit I've ever seen.

Here is some 2018/2019 context. Evan Neal and Darnell Wright were the big fish we chased. Wright - beyond a long shot. Neal had familial and locational ties to Miami but had 5 big time schools coming hard after him. Every other team besides FSU outperformed Miami that year. Not sure how Richt felt about that recruitment late in the game. The word was Neal committed to Bama on his OV.

Kingsley Eguakun and Michael Tarquin both flip to UF in a two day span in early December. Darius Washington is between Miami and FSU at this point but not signing till Feb. Two days later, 15 days before the second ever early signing period, we decide to offer the raw 6'5/6'6 basketball playing offensive tackle whose the teammate of a top 3 target left on our board. Ten days after that, Zion flips from App St.

I type all this to say, Searles' ineptiude as a recruiter helped us land JHH and Zion Nelson at the price of Eguakun, Tarquin, Washington, and ElGammal. And that Adam ElGammal was not really a bad evaluation, he was a rushed evaluation that turned into a desperate offer with potential upside due to size and JHH. We'll see how Nelson v. Tarquin v. Washington turns out by 2023, even if Nelson was lower on the board than the rest.
 
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CaneThang2020 said:
Zion work ethic is on a Greg Rousseau level.....outside of the 5 star kids, the main difference in success between 4* kids and high 2*-low 3* kids is work ethic.
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And mental toughness. Imagine being Zion, an 18 y/o who was thrown into the fire at 285 pounds before he was ready, gets embarrassed almost every week in 2019 then in the off-season has our fans trash him nonstop. He puts on another good 25-30 pounds before 2020 and becomes the most improved player on the team. Kid showed tremendous heart & perseverance.
 
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grover said:
Respectfully, if you're taking 2 projects at one position group, the class needs additional commits that bring more certainty -- guys like Flowers, Henderson, B Washington. This class has that in Big Baby and Rodriguez. That EG/ZN/JC class did not, and that's inexcusable given how bad our OL already was.

We've had a decent 2020 and 2021 class, but not enough talent there. Coaches need to keep overstocking in 2022.
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Stacey Searles' recruiting left a lot to be desired. Ideally you don't take on two projects in one class but I don't think there was another option. It's not like they were turning away 4 star players because they thought El Gammal was something incredible. There were way too many misses during the 2017-18 recruiting cycles and it's why we've been forced to play guys out of position or too early or rely on transfers. You could say Navaughn Donaldson has been solid if underwhelming. But he's miles ahead of the rest of the guys they signed during that period. Herbert, Hillery and Dykstra were 100% busts and Corey Gaynor starts simply because we have nobody else to play center. He's below average and ideally would be a second team guy. In 2018, you've got Scaife who I put in the same category as Gaynor. Cleveland Reed who hasn't seen the field and almost transferred, and John Campbell who's been terrible at guard but showed some mild improvement at tackle. Still not good enough to start on a below average offensive line. That's (4) 4 star recruits and (4) 3 star guys and the best of the group is an inconsistent guard who's battled weight issues and injuries most of his career.
 
@DTP , I think we can all agree that Searels recruiting was abysmal. Barry was left with an empty cupboard so I have no way of evaluating his capabilities. His OL played like dogshyt in games, too, and it wasn't all talent. But that could have been Enos' and Jarren Williams' fault to a large degree.

Anyway, Justice has his work cut out for him reshaping the upperclassmen where possible and getting the young talent trained up. Meanwhile, we should never, never, never see another OL class like the 2016 Tre Johnson one or the 2019 El Gammal one. Those two set us back years.

Games are won/lost in the trenches.
 
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I wish we dipped into SC more. I'm biased being from there but I've seen the talent that goes untouched in SC. A lot of kids don't go to the camps and the coaches and schools don't have the resources necessary to put into the football programs. Sumter (where Zion is from) is actually more of a powerhouse. I understand most top rated kids from SC will go to Clemson but the state has a lot of talent. SC receivers have been balling in the nfl (u can add shi smith my boy has been like that since hs) and we are known for lineman. We've got some dbs: gilmore, swearinger and derion kendrick will go early if he gets his **** straight.
 
puertorricane said:
Giving the board too much credit.
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You underestimate kids these days man. Have you NEVER googled your own name to see what pops up? Maybe because I am on CIS but when I google Zion a link to a CIS page for him pops up bottom of the first page.
 
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