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On Josh Horton...

The Sphinx said:
At an absolute minimum, we need a depth DT to replace Horton. Love what I am hearing about Simpson, but we need to be realistic about true Freshmen DTs.

HOWEVER - If we can come across another Barrow quality DT in the portal, we’ve got to go for him with no hesitation.
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You willing to Go Top DT and as a result not get a WR?
 
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We need to recruit better at that position-

That’s one area where Mario hasn’t gotten it done-

I don’t care what we have to do we need big talent at that position if we want to compete for ships-

When we were great we had big time talent there-

Pay them-whatever it takes

I’m tired of average guys hoping they can get it done.
 
Hurracanes said:
Horton needed to go. It was best for both sides.

But you hear that? That’s ND licking their chops. This staff better wake the **** up and fix that LB and DT rooms.
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We should have been back-channeling a portal DT for this year starting in September, when we had to move Mesidor inside. The lack of talent in the room after first-year Scott and Moten was painfully obvious.
 
We’ve absolutely blown huge money in the portal. We’re probably a top 5 portal spender. What is everyone talking about. Last year we spent ridiculous money. Ward and barrow alone had to be crazy money. Beck got a ton this year. We got a top safety and a top dt
 
The issue with just getting another DT through the portal is that the really good ones aren’t transferring. They’re highly compensated from the moment they sign as recruits. You HAVE to recruit them out of high school if you want elite interior linemen. Then you have to be willing to wait at least a year to play them because even the best DT recruits aren’t quite ready as freshmen. Justin Scott will likely be a starter for us or at least in a heavy rotation with two other guys Mario recruited, Moten and Jones. We signed the Simpson kid in the 2025 class and we need to make sure we grab at least another big interior guy in the 2026 class. You have to be willing to invest heavily in money and time with elite tackle prospects because there’s only so many guys who can play the position at an elite level. They’re rarely just floating around in the portal and if they’re already productive at their current school, they’re getting paid top dollar so they’re not likely leaving.

We got our money’s worth from Barrow last year and contrary to popular opinion, defensive tackle wasn’t the weak spot of a terrible defense. We could have had Warren Sapp and he wouldn’t be stopping every quarterback from shredding our secondary
 
The Sphinx said:
Our two most pressing needs from the portal, IMO. Top DT vs. mid WR - absolutely. Mid DT over a Top WR - nope.

But if they are both equal in terms of quality… I’d find a way to get both. You have to.
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You have to make money appear out of nowhere? That seems difficult.
I could see leaning to getting top WR and top DT if it meant we don't get LB or S.. but there is ZERO CHANCE there isn't tradeoffs happening. WR and DT are two of the most expensive position in football, period. LB and S are likely two of the relatively cheaper positions. The "mid WR" is likely still costing more than a high starting level S/LB. That's just the reality of the positional costs. The benefit there is at least there are usually quite a few WRs that are mid level, whereas DTs there is usually a very limited supply. But that just raises the DT costs already much higher....

We NEED a starting Level WR, period.

Imo, especially with Patterson leaving, and I guess the fact they are not going to be moving Lucas to Safety, we absolutely NEED a starting Safety. Personally I'd 100% just move Lucas to Safety so that we can have Lucas and Poyser at S, and OJ, OConner, and Brantley all at CB and all 5 on field together. Plus doing that doesn't pigeon hole us into getting a top S. We can then just get the best DB we can afford whether that be another CB or S... But you aren't needing to spend a lot on the position cause you already have Damari and Karnley, so you can just get more of a rotational/depth S. That would open a lot of money to potentially get a Top Portal DT and portal WR....

And we've been over time after time our LB position. I don't feel very good if Wes, Chase Smith, and Alderman are expected to receive heavy PT. Wiley hasn't been hyped up this spring like other freshman have, which imo is likely a sign he's probably not in the starting rotation after spring. Bobby Washington tore a patella or some ****, so is out. That leaves Popo, Pruitt, and Hayes. Which hey if this staff feels confident the young LBs are stepping up, I'd be very happy. But if this staff is viewing Wes, Smith, and Alderman as 3 of the top 4 in the rotation, that is straight disgusting and we NEED a top portal LB.

Meanwhile we are pretty confident in the 3 DTs we have in Blay, Scott, and Moten. We absolutely need another DT. But you have to really weight how much you are going to spend. I would NOT go all out for a top DT, then be left with our **** in our hand needing to fill WR, S, LB...

And to top it off since yall all want Emory gone and that seems likely, do any of you think getting even a backup QB is going to be extremely cheap? **** no. Especially if it is someone with more talent than Emory, like Rashada lol....
 
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DMoney said:
Just to put a bow on my thoughts: I absolutely believe in investing in DT. Big defensive linemen have been the most important commodity in college football for decades. They should be the top priority in the budget. And @htownkidd is right that we are looking thin in the future.

What I’m saying is that we already used a big bullet on David Blay, similar to Simeon Barrow last year. There is less desperation now. We still need depth, but in terms of big bullets, I want us to add more Justin Scotts out of high school that have a chance to go Day 1.

As we will see in the NFL Draft, most of the best big guys are expensive high school blue-chippers.
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dorsey1 said:
We need to recruit better at that position-

That’s one area where Mario hasn’t gotten it done-

I don’t care what we have to do we need big talent at that position if we want to compete for ships-

When we were great we had big time talent there-

Pay them-whatever it takes

I’m tired of average guys hoping they can get it done.
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Ask the big OL targets how much we are offering them? You mean to tell me we can’t prioritized the DL like that? The trenches are about the OL AND DL, Mario.
 
Hurracanes said:
Ask the big OL targets how much we are offering them? You mean to tell me we can’t prioritized the DL like that? The trenches are about the OL AND DL, Mario.
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Yes. Though Isn't this OLine class CLEARLY better than this years DLine class out of HS... That plays a part in it as well. OLine and DLine should obviously be the highest investment after QB. But It's not like we haven't been making that investment in DLine. EDGE is probably the highest paid specific position group on the team, likely only after QB. I'd bet its higher paid than we are paying our OT group. DT I'd bet we are spending more on than iOL as well....
I do think we are about to drop a load on HS OLine, as we should. Unfortunately I think this HS DT class isn't close to the OLine. I fully expect to need to hit the portal at DT again next year - and for a top guy like Barrow and Blay the previous 2 years. I want Tomuhini Topui, but he seems locked in with USC. I think maybe we are strong contenders for James Johnson out of Northwestern. If we got Lamar Brown out of Louisiana, now that would be a big time add, given we are recruiting him as a DT (ranked as #11 overall prospect, but as an iOL)....
 
DTP said:
The issue with just getting another DT through the portal is that the really good ones aren’t transferring. They’re highly compensated from the moment they sign as recruits. You HAVE to recruit them out of high school if you want elite interior linemen. Then you have to be willing to wait at least a year to play them because even the best DT recruits aren’t quite ready as freshmen. Justin Scott will likely be a starter for us or at least in a heavy rotation with two other guys Mario recruited, Moten and Jones. We signed the Simpson kid in the 2025 class and we need to make sure we grab at least another big interior guy in the 2026 class. You have to be willing to invest heavily in money and time with elite tackle prospects because there’s only so many guys who can play the position at an elite level. They’re rarely just floating around in the portal and if they’re already productive at their current school, they’re getting paid top dollar so they’re not likely leaving.

We got our money’s worth from Barrow last year and contrary to popular opinion, defensive tackle wasn’t the weak spot of a terrible defense. We could have had Warren Sapp and he wouldn’t be stopping every quarterback from shredding our secondary
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This is the money line that so many people forget/miss:

"there’s only so many guys who can play the position at an elite level."

That's exactly right. There are only a handful of true bonafide elite big dudes (pause) coming out of high school each year. I'm not even talking about guys like Moten's and Artavious's caliber. I'm talking Justin Scott, Walter Nolan level. True five star, immediate impact (and by immediate I mean get some play as a true freshman, then heavily involved in the roatation by year 2). I'm talking about the guys who are 6'4"+, 300+ and can move nimbly in addition to being hard workers and cerebral. They just don't exist in big numbers. So we can all sit here and scream "GET US A BadAzzMF'er; I don't care how much!" all we want, but it doesn't change the supply side of the equation. That's not to say we shouldn't try. It's just the reality of the situation.
 
DMoney said:
Just to put a bow on my thoughts: I absolutely believe in investing in DT. Big defensive linemen have been the most important commodity in college football for decades. They should be the top priority in the budget. And @htownkidd is right that we are looking thin in the future.

What I’m saying is that we already used a big bullet on David Blay, similar to Simeon Barrow last year. There is less desperation now. We still need depth, but in terms of big bullets, I want us to add more Justin Scotts out of high school that have a chance to go Day 1.

As we will see in the NFL Draft, most of the best big guys are expensive high school blue-chippers.
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Are you saying the need is not there, or that we don't have the dough? IMO, a four man rotation of legit dudes (~300lb) at DT is table stakes for a playoff run. I may be wrong, but we don't currently have that. If the issue is budget, I question the wisdom of cutting corners at a critical position after heavy investment elsewhere (QB, staff, etc). I would hate to look back on next season like we did this one, knowing we were just a couple dudes away from competing on the biggest of stages.
 
BilltheCane said:
Are you saying the need is not there, or that we don't have the dough? IMO, a four man rotation of legit dudes (~300lb) at DT is table stakes for a playoff run. I may be wrong, but we don't currently have that. If the issue is budget, I question the wisdom of cutting corners at a critical position after heavy investment elsewhere (QB, staff, etc). I would hate to look back on next season like we did this one, knowing we were just a couple dudes away from competing on the biggest of stages.
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Set amount of money to spend on a certain number of Needs, that require you to prioritize and have trade-offs.
A 4-man rotation doesn't neccessitate adding a TOP DT though lol. That's the point. There is a VERY BIG cost difference between adding the 4th man in that 4-man rotation and adding the 1st or 2nd...
 
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Calinative said:
Set amount of money to spend on a certain number of Needs, that require you to prioritize and have trade-offs.
A 4-man rotation doesn't neccessitate adding a TOP DT though lol. That's the point. There is a VERY BIG cost difference between adding the 4th man in that 4-man rotation and adding the 1st or 2nd...
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So your view is the need is not there, fair enough. If wrong, a lot of money spent elsewhere will have been wasted. Top DTs are expensive because they're a key ingredient to winning championships.
 
BilltheCane said:
So your view is the need is not there, fair enough. If wrong, a lot of money spent elsewhere will have been wasted. Top DTs are expensive because they're a key ingredient to winning championships.
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No my view is we have a DT need, just that we have possibly other pressing needs that may be more critical especially given DT WILL be very expensive. IF we are going to go for a top WR AND starting LB and Starting S, I don't think a legit starting quality DT is likely in the budget. Now obviously we can say what if we get good WR/S/LB deals, well yeah I'd like to spend as much money as we can on best DT.

OR which I think we actually SHOULD do Is move Lucas to Safety and remove the need for a starting S in portal, and divert that money to DT or something, then we can get a top WR, good quality DT, Starting LB, and just a rotational quality S...

I just do not at all expect to walk out of spring portal with BOTH a Top WR and Top DT. I think its one or the other. That doesn't mean if we get one the other can't be a solid contributor.
 
htownkidd said:
Just thinking ahead…
After 2025, we lose Blay, Moten, and likely the veteran DT we will attempt to bring in.

We will be back in the portal next year looking for 2 more DT’s as our main guys will be Scott, Simpson, and Jones. At some point, you have to pay for the impact guys and likely overpay. That’s just the name of the game if you want to compete on a significant level.
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Moten has 2 years of eligibility left
 
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