OL heads... ride with zion?

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Statistically and eye test confirmed to be worst OL in the country. I’m assuming that answers your Q. Worst to first is a Disney thing not a real life thing
 
The fact that both Donaldson and Mallory use so little leverage while blocking makes me think their blocking issues could be S&C related. Don’t know how Feeley is training OL but the fact that Miami is only using 5 means that nearly twice that many are unplayable. Even Mahoney, who’s now a backup on a BC team that’s not doing too well, was playable.

It’s an obvious and unenlightened question, but are they squatting enough? Deeply enough? It’s nearly impossible to lose at the point of attack this consistently … yet they do.
Mallory clearly appears to be not skrong.
 
I keep going back and forth on whether to ride out the year with him at LT, let him get all the experience, take his licks and hope he turns heads as a Soph. Or do we try to stop some of the bleeding by moving Scaife to LT and zion to RT. No Scaife isn't the perfect answer at LT either, but is his skill and experience better for us at LT this season? the good thing is they are all young and hopefully improving.

No, moving Zion to RT accomplishes nothing. Flipping sides with OL is not a thing like it is with other positions. The footwork and technique involved in pass protection is not natural for humans and Zion is really struggling with it. Flipping sides requires relearning all the movements on the opposite side of your body and is a huge mental and physical challenge. It's not something that can be done on the fly without major growing pains and potential injury.

I believe in Zion's potential but right now his technique is atrocious and it doesn't seem like any coaching is happening. His pass sets aren't getting fixed by Barry and Enos seems like he's actively trying to expose Zion as much as possible. I don't like the idea of Zion losing confidence as he continually gets beat. It seems like he's regressing as he hits the freshman wall and is making more mental errors now. It's obvious he has no faith in his technique and - when he actually gets out of his stance and identifies his matchup, which is far from a given - his pass sets often reek of panic like a caged animal exhibiting fight or flight.

I don't know if there is a better option on the bench but the best thing for Zion is to work on his game in practice and not take the mental pounding of getting dominated every week. If he keeps playing then there has to be a more concerted effort to protect him - not just for the team's sake but for his sake as well. There isn't another T prospect on the roster with his potential so we can't afford to ruin it.
 
Enos wont be here in 2 years one way or another. Bedenbaugh would be the OC in waiting. He will NEVER call plays at Oklahoma and he has said he wants to call plays. Says he is waiting for someone to give him an opportunity.

If you look at how both Eddy O and Dabo turned their programs around, it was by ditching pro style for a spread offense. Dabo waited til he was on the chopping block at the end of his 3rd year, Eddy O pulled the trigger after 1. Diaz can either learn from them or end up on the unemployment line. Fire Enos, hire a spread O OC. Bedenbaugh just happens to be the best in the biz OL coach/recruiter as well.
I get what you are saying but bendy isn't going come here sit behind enos till he leaves.by the way Riley is a smart coach makes you wonder why he doesn't allow bench to call the plays..remember coley at fsu jumbo wouldn't let call them we sure found out why.Clemson and Bama run a pro//spread offense. Mix of both styles .
 
The OL sucks for now....Is it serviceable? YES

Especially with a good OC who would plan and design plays that accept the fact that the OL is a weakness...or certain players on it have weaknesses.

A good OC would accept reality and not assume that magically our OL players will suddenly play like Bama's

We only have what we have here now

This is NOT a problem that can be solved in ONE year. Recruiting and developing OL players has to significantly improve


I'm always amused by people who feel that things would improve IF only we played the player that is behind someone else
 
If he has the potential they say, we should see improvement over the season. Have we? If not, why? Is it him or his coach?

Get those answers and you'll solve most of our O line woes.

We also need to make sure we recruit well every single year because if we're starting true freshmen on the O line, we have problems. That's one spot that benefits significantly from a year of development.

Well, we actually recruited some T's in this class so that's a start. Searles had a roster full of G's and that was/is a major problem.
 


Miami only allowed 26 sacks last year.


WOW!! I had no clue we only allowed 26 sacks last year!

Anybody think Searles would come back if we begged him? lol. Good god we ran that guy out of town and Barry is worse!
 
I get what you are saying but bendy isn't going come here sit behind enos till he leaves.by the way Riley is a smart coach makes you wonder why he doesn't allow bench to call the plays..remember coley at fsu jumbo wouldn't let call them we sure found out why.Clemson and Bama run a pro//spread offense. Mix of both styles .

Because they have egos

don't think Jimbo thinks he is a genius or Riley thinks hes a genius?
 
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Like one poster said, this goes beyond talent or bodies. Barry just isn't good at this. Hes horrible. This OL isn't that bad. I don't care what anyone says.

I know McKinnie said in so many words that he wasn't really wow'd at our talent but he also said a lot of their problems had to do with coaching. Like they didn't know the basic techniques. Like he had expected them to be more advanced then they were when we worked with them.
 
I keep going back and forth on whether to ride out the year with him at LT, let him get all the experience, take his licks and hope he turns heads as a Soph. Or do we try to stop some of the bleeding by moving Scaife to LT and zion to RT. No Scaife isn't the perfect answer at LT either, but is his skill and experience better for us at LT this season? the good thing is they are all young and hopefully improving.
Zion needs to ride the pine. It's time for someone else to get a shot. The coaching staff is clearly playing him for the long game. They are making a calculation that playing him won't affect wins and losses. He's not ready though. Herbert needs a shot at left or right tackle.
 
In normal circumstances at 3-3 I'd say ride it out and let him learn. But the other 4 in the group have gotten better since week 1 and he's clearly holding the O back.

Time to give someone else a go against our worst ACC opponent of the year.
Agree! This is he game wether you either flip flop him with DJ & play Zion arc RT or you bring in a new player and move on for the rest of the season.
 
I'm no OL guru but to me he'd be better suited on the interior due to slow reaction time. However, you move him inside and right now he lacks ideal size and strength.
 
I've nothing but empathy for Zion. He should be redshirting. Instead, he's starting at a difficult position, is given poor coaching by his position coach, and the offensive coordinator does little to help succeed.
 
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Enos wont be here in 2 years one way or another. Bedenbaugh would be the OC in waiting. He will NEVER call plays at Oklahoma and he has said he wants to call plays. Says he is waiting for someone to give him an opportunity.

If you look at how both Eddy O and Dabo turned their programs around, it was by ditching pro style for a spread offense. Dabo waited til he was on the chopping block at the end of his 3rd year, Eddy O pulled the trigger after 1. Diaz can either learn from them or end up on the unemployment line. Fire Enos, hire a spread O OC. Bedenbaugh just happens to be the best in the biz OL coach/recruiter as well.

Bedenbaugh is a no brainer offer as offensive coordinator.

Offer $1.5M plus his choices for offensive assistants staff and a budget to compete for their services.
 
I get what you are saying but bendy isn't going come here sit behind enos till he leaves.by the way Riley is a smart coach makes you wonder why he doesn't allow bench to call the plays..remember coley at fsu jumbo wouldn't let call them we sure found out why.Clemson and Bama run a pro//spread offense. Mix of both styles .

Dabo was about to get fired after year 3 and hired Chad Morris from Tulsa to implement an uptempo spread offense. It changed everything for Clemson. They may run things that look like pro sets but the DNA is spread offense.

Ed Orgeron in his 1st year hired Matt Canada. It was a complex pro style (lots of playaction, shifts, motions- feel like we've seen that somewhere else.. ) and Eddy O had to step in to simplify it. He fired Canada after just 1 year and hired Steve Ensminger, who ran a spread offense. Joe Burrow goes from bum transfer to potential top draft pick.

Diaz needs to learn from them (especially Eddy O). Fire Enos at the end of the season, hire Bedenbaugh. Let him pick his staff. Watch the OL recruiting and play improve in just 1 offseason the same amount that the defense improved when it went from a 3-4 to a 4-3.
 
In all seriousness why not put Brian Polendy in there at LT.. He's a good blocking TE at 6'6" and 250 lbs and has elite athleticism for a lineman. They could bulk him up another 10-15 lbs with a rice and bean diet and off we go.. He literally could not be worse than Zion and he would improve throughout the year.
 
I don’t understand the thinking that we should move Zion to RT, the side of the line is not what is killing him. It’s more dangerous to the Qb having a liability at his blindside? Yes, but this is where the side question ends.

Zion would be a problem at RT, especially because he’s been practicing for months at LT, so I don’t think he would fare any better at RT. It doesn’t get easier just because switch sides, players would still blow past him, he can’t play at P5 level rn.

Zion is f’d where ever he moves , a lot of his issues are mental. But he also has huge lapses in technique.
 
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