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How Do We Fix The O-Line?

Kyle Liburd said:
Hillery is not the answer for anything at OT. He is not a University of Miami caliber player.

Would love to try Donaldson at center if our coaches stick to Zion/Campbell at OT. Reed at G. Gaynor was just as bad as Zion and Campbell.
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At least in the first half, Donaldson was solid. Gaynor was Not Zion / Campbell bad but pretty bad also.
 
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Captain Uberpants said:
Was never a fan of Scaife moving inside to guard. He played pretty well at RT last year. Searles really ****ed us.
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IMO he needs to move back out to tackle and a guy like Reed needs to step up at guard. Campbell, unfortunately, is probably our best option at LT if he can get his head out of his ***.
 
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9oh4Cane said:
IMO he needs to move back out to tackle and a guy like Reed needs to step up at guard. Campbell, unfortunately, is probably our best option at LT if he can get his head out of his ***.
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I was hoping all spring/camp that Reed would be serviceable enough to keep Scaife out there but not sure what this issue is.

The OL should get better every game if Barry is as good as been said.
 
Captain Uberpants said:
I was hoping all spring/camp that Reed would be serviceable enough to keep Scaife out there but not sure what this issue is.

The OL should get better every game if Barry is as good as been said.
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Yep. And Enos has got to get rid of some of his playbook and adjust until we do improve. I'm tired of the stubborn OC's here that do them no favors.

I just don't understand how you go into that game thinking we're gonna line up in I formation and run it down their throats and open up a pro style PA attack. Foolish gameplan
 
YLCANE said:
As Jarren gets experience HALf those sacks do t happen because he gets rid of it or decisively runs it.
The oline will play better w experience
Everyone needs to ***** chill
That’s the best D Miami will see all year and it’s obviously the inexperience showed up on all fronts
Oline QB and coaches
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Every year it's the same excuses. Last year it was LSU "best defense we will face all year". And "just chill". Our offense blows. People thinking Jarren is gonna pull a magic trick out of his *** or that the terrible fat lazy offensive linemen we have will somehow learn to suck less are setting themselves up for disappointment. Either you're good enough or you're not. What I saw last night was a QB willing to take sacks instead of chances and an oline that doesn't give a ****.
 
DMoney said:
Actually, when l talk about talent I point to the NFL. You know, successful evaluations. You didn’t like those facts, so you went with stars until they started conflicting with your narrative.

Youth is not a “convenient excuse.” It’s a reality that we’ve been talking about all offseason. Offensive line is the ultimate development position. We will see what Barry is all about as these players get more experience.
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Clemson doesn't seem to need an NFL line. They've only had TWO linemen drafted since 2014, and none since the 2015 supplemental draft.
 
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DMoney said:
Actually, when l talk about talent I point to the NFL. You know, successful evaluations. You didn’t like those facts, so you went with stars until they started conflicting with your narrative.

Youth is not a “convenient excuse.” It’s a reality that we’ve been talking about all offseason. Offensive line is the ultimate development position. We will see what Barry is all about as these players get more experience.
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You're trying to make the point that the talent is there, it's just young and needs time to mature. I don't see that at all. To my eyes, we have two guys who are decent and might become better: Scaife-but at tackle where he can use his long arms (in spite of his relatively short stature), good feet and ability to maintain a stable, balanced base against DE's, not at guard where his lack of power is a detriment against DT's, and Donaldson-at guard where his power is valued and not at tackle where his feet and inability to maintain a solid, balanced base are a liability. And Nelson maybe a player down the road when he gains strength, but who knows as he showed nothing good last night.

Third Year Guys
Beyond that we have a bunch of third year guys in Herbert, Hillery and Dykstra who apparently are worthless given they were beaten out by Nelson and Campbell . No, Herbert, Hillery and Dykstra aren't juniors or seniors, but they're third year guys who we should be able to expect are ready to start playing and deliver something better than last night's, without exaggeration, all-time worst UM OL performance since I started watching the team in 1983.

If they aren't able to even contribute in their third year I have no reason whatsoever to assume that Herbert, Hillery and Dykstra will be part of the solution next year when they're RS Juniors or the year after when they're RS Seniors.

As for the other 3rd year guy in Gaynor, he played much worse than a 3rd year guy should play. As others have noted, he got manhandled all night. Maybe next year and the year after he gets manhandled less, but I'm not expecting anything other than a serviceable guy at best, and at worst he could very well be te second coming of Alex Gall, another too-weak guy even in his senior year who had no business playing for a UM program that aspires to re-emerge on the national stage.

Second Year Guys
Sciafe as i mentioned should be a player. Will Campbell become one? He's got time, but he's got serious genetic flaws. When we took his commitment I was concerned about his really terrible, slow feet and inability to maintain a strong, balanced base when he was forced to move (which is always). And unlike Donaldson, he's not strong up top. We signed him, so I hoped for the best...that he was simply a young colt who'd grow into his body, thereby improving his feet and strength. Last night exposed his genetic weaknesses. He still has bad feet, no base and is weak up top. I have no idea whether this will improve over the coming years. It might...he has some time. But right now he's terribly un-athletic and weak, and it might stay that way. I wish for, and hope that he physically matures and outgrows his poor athleticism. But I see no reason to feel confident about it.

As for Reed, who knows. He's got time, but we've seen nothing from him yet.

First Year Guys
Simply too early to say one way or the other about any of them.

Graduate Transfer
Tommy Kennedy-winner of the What-The-Ever-Loving-F**K award. I know it's hard to evaluate OL, but this is a mature 5th year guy, not a raw HS Freshman. What an abysmal evaluation at a position of dire need. Big time fail.

So D$, pls tell me what you see that causes you to have any confidence that the guys noted above will grow to become the caliber of OL required if UM is to field an offense that allows us to start competing for a top-10 ranking at the end of the season. I don't see it. Instead I see a whole bunch of guys whose ceilings are "mediocre" and might not even reach that, with the exception of Donaldson and Sciafe. I'm with the guys in this thread who claim we've recruited the position terribly. And I don't see anything so far in the 2020 class that changes that. One guy who should hopefully be good (Rivers) and a couple wtf guys we beat out FCS schools for.


And since this thread also asked about scheme, I was not high on the Enos hire/scheme. Following the end of the 2018 season the mantra on this board was how we needed an OC who would run a scheme that wouldn't expose the weakest unit on the team...the OL. I didn't think Enos was that guy. After last night I'm even more concerned. Enos can run his offense with Alabama's, Georgia's, OSU's, etc OL personnel. He can't run it with UM's OL personnel. I was much higher on FSU's hire of Briles. i'll be interested to see how both offenses perform this year, as I think both have similar offensive personnel and talent level. I sincerely hope I was wrong about Enos, but it was based on his entire body of work and not just the offensive disaster of last night. Our OL handcuffed Enos for sure, but he didn't do a thing schematically to help the OL either.
 
brock said:
Got to try something
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That's the indictment of our recruiting. There's no credible, good idea or solution, just a "we've got to try something". Sure. I guess. Why not.

And this year's OL recruiting could be more of the same. One guy (Rivers) who other quality coaches at other quality (top-10/20) programs want, and then a couple guys unwanted by any other top, proven OL evaluators at other top programs. Maybe our OL coaches are better able to identify the diamonds in the rough (Smith and Washington) than OL coaches at other top-10/20 programs. But we've been telling ourselves that year-after-year now and it hasn't borne out. The two decent OL we have right now have been our two highest rated OL over the last three years (Donaldson and Sciafe). The diamonds in the rough, have so far looked all rough - no diamond.
 
I was not happy with the T play, but was more disappointed with the interior guys than the tackles. We played two freshmen in their first college start against a good DL and gave them little help. Our more experienced interior guys provided zero push.
 
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If you don't think we have the personnel, then it's either live with the growing pains or speed up the plays (in terms of quicker routes). Shotgun probably helps. More quick slants and outs. I'm sort of confused on how screens would help. We ran a ton last night (from my memory, still need to rewatch) and we could barely block long enough for them to develop. The other thing is Jarren just being more decisive about taking off. That's a fine line though. Don't want him pulling too soon, but then if he does start taking off more frequently then it makes DEs have to worry about contain.

Short answer: I think we're going to end up not changing and letting the freshmen learn and develop under fire.
 
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