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Interior oline improvements

The early part of our success this year falls on Scaife & Donaldson. It’s not their fault, but they both look to their left & right and see inexperience. Those two will be the key in communicating with the rest of the line, understanding when to help, pass off, etc.

Scaife is our most talented offensive lineman, and Donaldson our most experienced. They’ll be the keys to holding the line together early in the year.
 
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Jester said:
The early part of our success this year falls on Scaife & Donaldson. It’s not their fault, but they both look to their left & right and see inexperience. Those two will be the key in communicating with the rest of the line, understanding when to help, pass off, etc.

Scaife is our most talented offensive lineman, and Donaldson our most experienced. They’ll be the keys to holding the line together early in the year.
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Donaldson is an NFL Guard. People hating on him cause of last year when he was put in a terrible spot at Tackle. He can be an elite guard. Look at his freshman tape.
 
ehicks said:
Completely agree, pressure up the middle is much harder to deal with for a QB. Jarrens got good feet if we can keep a solid pocket he’ll be ok, pressure up the middle is tough to handle and affects our quick passing game
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but the pressure isn't going to come only from the DE, but from blitzing CBs and Safeties and LBs on the edge.
 
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By this time lasy year we were on our fourth or fifth different O-Line combination, still hoping some "magic" was going to happen after the spring showing. This staff let them battle through to get some continuity as a unit. That will pay off. Scaife's body type is better suited for a guard.

I have said I believe this interior three are poised to allow us to be a much better and more consitent rushing team than last year. And I like Cam Harris to benifit from it most.

Are the interior three better? Good God just watch the LSU film how many time blitzes came up the middle, a couple untouched. I mentioned then, high school O-Linemen and coaches made better adjustments during a game than we did - those three interior guys were lost against LSU in pass protection. They just keep letting it happen.

Florida saw that, and so did Enos, so I expect that to be cleaned up. Even with the hurries, sacks and INTs, we outgained LSU in offensive yardage. Pick up some blitzes, and take away a couple of those ****** punts and we're in that game.
 
brock said:
And the thing with that is we have more capable guards than at tackle imo, they could have easily moved scaife at tackle if they felt the need to and placed Cleveland reed as a starting guard(who imo will be a good player if he indeed did start). So they must have some type of confidence in the tackles
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I had this thought as well. If the coaches were that concerned about not having capable tackles Scaife would be there. I assumed he would stay there after last year so when I saw Zion taking first team reps I knew he had to have been performing pretty well
 
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BeastMode said:
Curious to see how Gaynor holds up. The other two inside should be really good. We can chip with TE and RB to help the tackles early in the season.
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Gauthier was solid.

Much like the rest of our offense, when the ******* defense knows exactly what you’re about to do, the OL is screwed.

The regression of guys like Gauthier and Donaldson last year were pretty telling.

The OL will arguably benefit more from Enos that anyone else.
 
OL seeming like it’s built to run right now. Didn’t Scaife grade higher as run blocker than pass blocker by PFF?

Either way we have maulers.
 
I liked Gauthier, played up the road in high school, but he had a bad time with coverage picking up those LSU gap blitzes
 
Jester said:
His freshman tape wasn’t good. He absolutely can play in the NFL - OL is a position you can fly up boards quickly. But right now he’s not even a thought. But yes, guard is his position and hopefully this year he makes a leap.
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Huh? He was a freshman all-American.
 
brock said:
2018 against LSU
Lg jahair jones
C Tyler gaulthier
Rg Hayden Mahoney

Vs

2019 against uf
Lg navaughn Donaldson
C Corey gaynor
Rg Delone scaife

That’s a big difference folks..

We aren’t talking enough about how improved the interior play will be this year. Miami should be very solid up the middle and starting a first time qb especially one that is mobile I would rather deal with pressure that possible could come from the outside than inside which can be mitigated by quick passes, chipping , moving the pocket amongst other things etc. In addition to that jarren could step up and move around in the pocket if outside pressure happens. the 2019 interior line will be much more gifted than last years oline


On another note, On the outside at tackle while Campbell is a redshirt freshman and that enrolled early, he’s been at Miami **** near 2 years almost and had a strong camp. Yes we are starting Zion Nelson but we have to think about it, he’s been a solid fixture in the starting lineup **** near day 1 and seems to be impressing with no one said to be taking any of his reps
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Excellent point. That is a gigantic improvement on the interior. Night and day difference. And the improvement at OC is even greater.

We’re way better at TE and WR too with the increased physical maturity.
 
To me, one of the 2 or 3 biggest keys of the entire game will be how the tackles handle the blitzes that the gator will assuredly throw at them. (Yes, I know this is an interior OL thread, so sue me).

To me, I’m not overly concerned with Nelson and Campbell’s ability to block uf’s edge defenders. Yes, uf will win a few reps. It’s inevitable. But I have no doubt that the 2 kids we have will hold their own. Where I’m concerned is when they try to figure out WHO to block. Grantham has been doing this a long time. He’s not dumb. And he’s very aggressive. He’s going to throw every kind of edge blitz he possibly can at those 2 kids in hopes of getting a free rusher. And a lot of times it’s not even by bringing more than we can block, although he’ll do that to. An ideal situation for a DC is to confuse an OL so badly that you can get a free rusher without having to bring a numbers advantage. So you still have protection on the back end in case the QB throws hot or avoids the rush. That’s what concerns me the most. Are they going to be able to confuse these kids and get free rushers at Williams?

Barry and Enos have their work cut out of them. IMO, mentally is where this game will be won or lost with the freshmen. Not physically.
 
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At this time last year, we were playing Donaldson at tackle (for some reason, searles insisted on playing the best guys at tackle, even if they were much better off at guard), with Mahoney and Jahair Jones (two guys who shouldn't have ever seen the field) at guard. No wonder LSU pushed our **** in.
 
OrangeBowlMagic said:
To me, one of the 2 or 3 biggest keys of the entire game will be how the tackles handle the blitzes that the gator will assuredly throw at them. (Yes, I know this is an interior OL thread, so sue me).

To me, I’m not overly concerned with Nelson and Campbell’s ability to block uf’s edge defenders. Yes, uf will win a few reps. It’s inevitable. But I have no doubt that the 2 kids we have will hold their own. Where I’m concerned is when they try to figure out WHO to block. Grantham has been doing this a long time. He’s not dumb. And he’s very aggressive. He’s going to throw every kind of edge blitz he possibly can at those 2 kids in hopes of getting a free rusher. And a lot of times it’s not even by bringing more than we can block, although he’ll do that to. An ideal situation for a DC is to confuse an OL so badly that you can get a free rusher without having to bring a numbers advantage. So you still have protection on the back end in case the QB throws hot or avoids the rush. That’s what concerns me the most. Are they going to be able to confuse these kids and get free rushers at Williams?

Barry and Enos have their work cut out of them. IMO, mentally is where this game will be won or lost with the freshmen. Not physically.
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this is what happened at LSU last year. We have a much better QB and OC to deal with this.
 
Props to Barry for having a plan and sticking to it. They probably tried a few combinations but the very first OL unit in camp featured Nelson, Donaldson, Gaynor, Scaife left to right, and that's what proved to be the best we got.
 
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