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Weight differences on the offensive line.

Silver King said:
With due respect OP, size is not an advantage without coresponding quickness and ability. With that said, with technique, quickness and aggression, you can block larger DL, or you scheme and Double them - witness it from Pop Warner through the NFL. Miami hasn't done it very well, and 3 years in, we are still trying to find the right guys to play the problem positions, which is a much more serious issue than size.

Comparing the Canes' OL to Bama's is apples and oranges. I mentioned this before each of our previous two SEC openers. Yes, Bama is the standard. That is because it is recruited to compete against SEC Front 7s and be the driving force behind NC runs.

Ours has largely been (because of recruiting) a haphazard group slapped together still being moved around and looking for an Identity. While we wait for something positive to happen, and hope for a shot at winning the weak ACC Coastal. I want to be optimistic with this group, but so far its been tough.
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Our main issue last season was getting physically dominated at the point of attack, especially on the interior, where guys where undersized and not athletic enough, especially vs tite fronts that happen to attack the interior of the offensive line.

And in college football, size at the offensive line position absolutely matters. Offensive lines are getting heavier and heavier every season, Alabama is just following a trend just like everyone else. If you dont have the quickness, you better be a brick wall.

Navaughn Donaldson isnt a fairly quick guard, but he was our best interior offensive lineman last season and he came back from a pretty bad knee injury whilst not even being in full shape. He was the only one not getting physically abused.

Wisconsin and Iowa offensive lineman arent exactly known for being athletic specimen due to the scheme they run, but all of them are brick walls and get hardly moved.
 
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Uptempo offense that runs mostly zone schemes will have lighter OL. Moderate or slow tempo offense that runs a lot of gap/power schemes will have bigger OL. Look at the Rams who hired the Stanford OL coach and let a couple incumbent starters who were smaller leave in free agency.

It's not like Miami has had their pick of the litter with OL prospects the way top SEC schools do. We have to take the best we can get whether that's lighter athletic developmental guys or big boys like 55 when they're available in Dade.
 
Hogan said:
Our main issue last season was getting physically dominated at the point of attack, especially on the interior, where guys where undersized and not athletic enough, especially vs tite fronts that happen to attack the interior of the offensive line.

And in college football, size at the offensive line position absolutely matters. Offensive lines are getting heavier and heavier every season, Alabama is just following a trend just like everyone else. If you dont have the quickness, you better be a brick wall.

Navaughn Donaldson isnt a fairly quick guard, but he was our best interior offensive lineman last season and he came back from a pretty bad knee injury whilst not even being in full shape. He was the only one not getting physically abused.

Wisconsin and Iowa offensive lineman arent exactly known for being athletic specimen due to the scheme they run, but all of them are brick walls and get hardly moved.
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Again, size is a plus if you have the other tools and the skill players to go along - I was the smallest OT in the NAIA at 6' 195 for 3 of my 4 years as a starter, before moving to Guard my Sr year. The other OT was 6'8" 285. I played against a guy 330. In four years we had 4 different 1,000 yard rushers.

Miami's O-line was just about the exact same size as Clemson's last season. Its the fight in the dog.
 
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SinisterCane said:
Mane' When Donaldson played a few snaps at Center he was head bussin' mofos
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What I don’t get, and I’m not sure if this was a guess or intel b/c Ourlads is pretty spot on in my experience, but why Donaldson & Rivers r projected to be back ups after Spring Practice. I’m leery of Williams & Scaife being back as “anchors” on the right side. Hoping that’s just a guess based upon who started last yr v. what’s been shown via practice.
 
Hogan said:
Our main issue last season was getting physically dominated at the point of attack, especially on the interior, where guys where undersized and not athletic enough, especially vs tite fronts that happen to attack the interior of the offensive line.

And in college football, size at the offensive line position absolutely matters. Offensive lines are getting heavier and heavier every season, Alabama is just following a trend just like everyone else. If you dont have the quickness, you better be a brick wall.

Navaughn Donaldson isnt a fairly quick guard, but he was our best interior offensive lineman last season and he came back from a pretty bad knee injury whilst not even being in full shape. He was the only one not getting physically abused.

Wisconsin and Iowa offensive lineman arent exactly known for being athletic specimen due to the scheme they run, but all of them are brick walls and get hardly moved.
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Hence why a lot of Bama’s OLmen dominate in CFB, but struggle in the NFL b/c most NFL teams r not running tite fronts, but in CFB, u need a wall to negate this ever trending defensive alignment. If U’re not big & strong, then u better be athletic & strong.
 
Rellyrell said:
Here’s the projected trenches:

Bama OL:
LT - Evan Neal (5* Jr - 6’7 360)
LG - Tommy Brown (4* R-Jr -6’7 320)
C - Chris Owens (4* R-Sr - 6’3 315)
RG - Emil Ekiyor (4* R-Jr - 6’3 324)
RT - Javion Cohen (4* So - 6’4 325)

Vs.

Miami DL:

DE - Jahfari Harvey (4* R-So - 6’4 252)
DT - Jon Ford (3* R-Sr - 6’5 315)
DT - Nesta Silvera (4* R-Jr 6’2 306)
DE - Cam Williams (3* R-So - 6’4 240)


Miami OL:

LT - Zion Nelson (3* Jr - 6’5 316)
LG - Jakai Clark (3* R-So 6’3 305)
C - Corey Gaynor (3* Sr 6’4 308)
RG - Navaughn Donaldson (4* Sr 6’6 350)
RT - Jalen Rivers (4* Rs-Fr 6’5 325)

Vs.

Bama DL:
DE: Justin Egoigbe (4* Jr 6’5 285)
DT: DJ Dale (4* Jr 6’3 307)
DE: LaBryan Ray (5* Sr 6’5 295)


These r all projections from various sites; however, I think Bama’s projections are a bit more stable, while ours can be considered a bit more fluid.
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Bama DL likely main rotation:

Justin Eboigbe (285)
Phidarian Mathis (312)
Byron Young (292)
D.J. Dale (307)
LaBryan Ray (295)
Tim Smith (320)
 
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GOCANES05 said:
Brother’s if was on OL and felt or knew I was getting beaten , LMAO there would be a meddimorphisis ( spell check ? ) in training room , eating and weight room work 24-7 all this is offered FREE at the U .
I’d track down Kevin ***an for assistance , I would eat sleep training , I assure you the next game I’d be road grading and pancaking till the NFL takes notice

To become such a beast children would flee at the sight of me .

Why many kids don’t take advantage of all the U offers for kids to become the BEST at what they do is shocking.
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metamorphosis

Keep it real for Samsa und Kafka...we don't want to go all buggy.
 
Hogan said:
Our main issue last season was getting physically dominated at the point of attack, especially on the interior, where guys where undersized and not athletic enough, especially vs tite fronts that happen to attack the interior of the offensive line.

And in college football, size at the offensive line position absolutely matters. Offensive lines are getting heavier and heavier every season, Alabama is just following a trend just like everyone else. If you dont have the quickness, you better be a brick wall.

Navaughn Donaldson isnt a fairly quick guard, but he was our best interior offensive lineman last season and he came back from a pretty bad knee injury whilst not even being in full shape. He was the only one not getting physically abused.

Wisconsin and Iowa offensive lineman arent exactly known for being athletic specimen due to the scheme they run, but all of them are brick walls and get hardly moved.Don played in 2 games last year. It’s hard to call him the best interior OL last season when he played in 2 games. Scaife graded out the highest of the interior players.
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Don played in 2 games last season. The highest graded interior OL was Scaife. Albeit not that impressive.
 
Silver King said:
Again, size is a plus if you have the other tools and the skill players to go along - I was the smallest OT in the NAIA at 6' 195 for 3 of my 4 years as a starter, before moving to Guard my Sr year. The other OT was 6'8" 285. I played against a guy 330. In four years we had 4 different 1,000 yard rushers.

Miami's O-line was just about the exact same size as Clemson's last season. Its the fight in the dog.
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Guess why we needed more size? Because we didnt have the tools. Thats the point that I am trying to make. Gaynor wont have the tools ever, so he might as well try to be a brick wall so that he doesnt get pushed backwards all the time.

North Carolinas Offensive Line didnt have many tools either, yet they have the size to compensate. They are an average 6´5 325 lbs.
 
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You need the other tools as a foundation before size- when you have D-lineman at 300+ lbs. athletic enough to dunk a basketball, you better have more than size. And NC schemed us by a coach familiar with how to do it - we set no edge that game. My points are 1) recruiting and 2) even if you could add 10 or 20 pounds per player across this line, it isn't going to be the miracle you're hoping for.
 
I'm not worried about our weight on the OL. I'm worried about our athleticism and intelligence.

Everybody always talks about the same cliches when talking O-line. Nobody ever talks about an OL's ability to pick-up schemes, stunts, etc...when to chip and go to the second level, etc. These are things that are OL is TERRIBLE at! We might have the dumbest OL I've seen at Miami in a long time.

Clemson game. 4th & 1 and instead of our Left Guard going to the LB, he's helping the Left Tackle with a guy that was completely handled. Leaves the LB completely unblocked to drill our RB for a failed conversion.

Even during the spring game - on that outside run where Rooster got tackled by Keontra, our RT had NOBODY TO BLOCK and instead of going to the next level to block Keontra, he blocks down and helps the Right Guard with a DT that was handled and had NO CHANCE at making a play on the RB whatsoever.

We need to get SMARTER on the O-line and more athletic....not bigger.
 
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TrueFloridian said:
Gaynor and mullet before him were both trash. It’s insane they’ve been the stating centers at UM for 6-7 years now. I’m tired of seeing us get **** pushed on offense. I’d much prefer Clark to be moved to center now. Let Rivers solidify a spot. He’s the most talented OL UM has had in a long time.
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:20161020-221306th:
 
Rellyrell said:
Here’s the projected trenches:

Bama OL:
LT - Evan Neal (5* Jr - 6’7 360)
LG - Tommy Brown (4* R-Jr -6’7 320)
C - Chris Owens (4* R-Sr - 6’3 315)
RG - Emil Ekiyor (4* R-Jr - 6’3 324)
RT - Javion Cohen (4* So - 6’4 325)
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Sweep left. Counter left. Dive left. Repeat.
 
This one of those games where we need Ford to really show why he came back for a 6th year. This is the game where we need him the most. This is a grown men only type game. I like going into this game with DeJohn-Ford-Silvera...3 guys who have 4+ years of exp and are grown men. This is a huge game for Silvera too. He was a top 5 DT in the country when he came out. So he was no slouch either.

I like having Simpson coaching our DL in a game like this. Last time we faced a OL that had alot of hype and supreme talent was ND in 2017 and Simpson had our guys looking like the UM DL from 1989 that night!
 
Jassid82 said:
This one of those games where we need Ford to really show why he came back for a 6th year. This is the game where we need him the most. This is a grown men only type game. I like going into this game with DeJohn-Ford-Silvera...3 guys who have 4+ years of exp and are grown men. This is a huge game for Silvera too. He was a top 5 DT in the country when he came out. So he was no slouch either.

I like having Simpson coaching our DL in a game like this. Last time we faced a OL that had alot of hype and supreme talent was ND in 2017 and Simpson had our guys looking like the UM DL from 1989 that night!
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Agreed. The grown men we have inside on d line are the key to this teams success imo.

Nesta is a solid player but that high school eval was always a bit out there for me given his size and tools.
 
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