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Class Impact: Zion Nelson to Miami

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It's telling how many of the OL drafted in the early rounds this week were between 240 and 280 as HS prospects.

5 of the 6 OL drafted in the first round were listed less than 280 pounds as HS prospects. 4 of the 6 being listed 240 or under.
 
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gcane44 said:
It's telling how many of the OL drafted in the early rounds this week were between 240 and 280 as HS prospects.

5 of the 6 OL drafted in the first round were listed less than 280 pounds as HS prospects. 4 of the 6 being listed 240 or under.
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It is not as easy as some think to project and identify OL talent coming out of HS.
Or at a minimum many people would look at the wrong attributes.
For example, when we played Carol City HS in the late 1970s, we made one of their big
linemen look bad on both sides of the ball.
Abused him.
He would sign a state LOI with UM but eventually ended up at Ohio State.
A couple of my teammates at the time who eventually ended up at UM said this guy was no
big loss, that he was really overrated.
That overrated lineman was William Roberts, who starred at Ohio State and later played many years with the
Giants for Bill Parcells.
Several years later my younger brother lined up against a very raw, but big, TE out of Central HS.
This TE showed nothing, but he later ended up at Louisville and became a long-time NFL player.
Referring to Bruce Armstrong.

Several years later, went to visit girlfriend's family in Long Island.....one of their family members invited me
to high school game where one of their kids was playing. I was particularly interested because it was against
Vinny Testaverde's old Elmont HS football team. Several folks told me about Elmont's star lineman Marco Rivera, who
was being recruited by many schools. Big kid, but to me was not impressive.
Rivera ended up at Penn State and later played in the NFL.

My point being that most young football players are not natural OLmen.
They have to be molded into the position and they need to have the genetics and drive to get there as well.
 
HighSeas said:
His frame and movement skills are like Terron Armstead and Tyron Smith. I think Smith was like 260 lbs as a starting tackle at USC. Lol at the usual azzclowns freaking out over a quality take. This kid has more efficient footwork than most high-rated HS OL and he has the will to drive block.

I understand being frustrated over the state of recruiting but that's a separate matter from Nelson who looks to be a worthy project. The best part is by the time he should be ready to play Richt will likely be gone so we can bring in a more creative offensive mind who can put Nelson's movement skills to good use. The Eagles just won a Super Bowl on the strength of their athletic OL executing a variety of movement-based schemes.

But feel free to keep whining about stars and offer sheets to fit your own personal narrative.
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Congrats on an excellent early evaluation of what’s looking more and more like a real steal for us.
 
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Swagasaurus6 said:
Can the mods pin this thread, want to look back as the season goes on and have a laugh at how loud and wrong so many experts on this board were
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Just because he's the best of the worst, doesn't necessarily mean he's great. It's a sad state of affairs that we're asking a 2 star freshman to start at one of the most important positions on the team.
 
Go Canes!! said:
Congrats on an excellent early evaluation of what’s looking more and more like a real steal for us.
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Mel Bernstein said:
Just because he's the best of the worst, doesn't necessarily mean he's great. It's a sad state of affairs that we're asking a 2 star freshman to start at one of the most important positions on the team.
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Mel Bernstein said:
Just because he's the best of the worst, doesn't necessarily mean he's great. It's a sad state of affairs that we're asking a 2 star freshman to start at one of the most important positions on the team.
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That's not the point. Everyone on here was acting like he didn't deserve a scholarship and now it looks like he's going to be the starting LT as a freshman. Imagine how much sadder it would be if we didn't have him.
 
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Go Canes!! said:
Congrats on an excellent early evaluation of what’s looking more and more like a real steal for us.
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Thanks man. I wish more posters would take notice here so I wouldn't have to deal with as many troll reactions every time my evaluations differ from the "expert" consensus. I won't be right all the time but I don't make up crap out of thin air just to rile people up.

Even I didn't expect Nelson to contribute this fast but that's a credit to his work ethic and the impact of the new weight program. El Gammal looks equally impressive from a physical standpoint and I supported him as well. Though in his case there isn't clear-cut film evidence of his positional skill so it's more of a projection.

As for the 2020 class Rivers and I. Walker (hopefully) are safe bets to be quality starters but I have concerns about Washington because of power, balance and agility limitations. He needs to become a technician on the level of Taylor Decker to really pan out.
 
hughhoney said:
Everyone on here was acting like he didn't deserve a scholarship and now it looks like he's going to be the starting LT as a freshman.
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That's fair to refer to him as an example when referring to the staff's evaluations.. but let's not act like this should be the rule of thumb going forward. As a whole, the diamond in the rough approach has never panned out for anyone.
 
ilovelamp51 said:
That's fair to refer to him as an example when referring to the staff's evaluations.. but let's not act like this should be the rule of thumb going forward. As a whole, the diamond in the rough approach has never panned out for anyone.
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I know i was high on him..for the simple fact he stood out at THE SHRINE GAME of Carolinas.

I didnt expect it to be this quick...but i definitely liked his shot in becoming a 2 year starter here.
 
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I don't think anyone thought he would be able to step in and start right away, mostly because he'd have to gain so much weight so fast. There's a couple members here that have an eye for linemen and I tend to err on their side more often than not.
 
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