Excellent OL article by Ryan Bass

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Writing for Gojackets.com, Scout.com. A pretty in depth look at what GT has going into Spring Training & has coming in in June. Very well written.
I noticed that Brad Sellers & Austin Barrick have moved from TE to OL. They may be a little 'light in the pants', as O'L would say, but they've got blocking skills from the TE position. The new Offensive philosophy appears to use the 'lighter' OL to the max. At least they add nice depth for Spring.

http://georgiatech.scout.com/2/736327.html
 
I like Master B and know him personally and consider him a friend, but when I read this article I have to say I disagreed with a lot of it and laughed at some of the inconsistencies.

First, I don't think replacing Matt Rhodes, Tuminello and McManus will be all that hard to replace, because I think that Tums and Rhodes may be the most overrated 3 year starters I've ever seen play at GT. McManus was slightly better. Rhodes in my opinion should never have even started for GT. He consistently got pushed around like a rag doll and made stupid penalty after stupid penalty and during the ND game of 2006, two of his penalties led to ND scoring the winning points.

AJ Smith at starting Right Tackle won't happen. Yeah mark it down and quote me once the season starts. It won't happen. He won't get the job done and he's no where near being capable of starting in PJ's offense. I realized he had some injury problems last year, but even when he was healthy he struggled. Besides, he's listed at tackle and then is talked about as being a right guard in the article.

Also, I disagree completely with MasterB to talk about all the competition at the tackle positions that Nick Claytor will compete at guard. What team are you watching? What kind of strong competition do we have at the tackle positions that we can move one of our best young lineman out of position? Sorry, hate to buck an insider but its the truth.

Cord Howard is versatile to play guard or tackle as MasterB says, but I would be surprised to see Claytor play guard. Outside of our Left tackle, we have a supposed great player to be in Yandell, outside of that we have NO ONE who has shown any type of consistency to be in the starting rotation. So where's all this "competition"? I would imagine Claytor will be at Tackle gaining some minutes for next season when he becomes our left tackle.
 
Also, I disagree completely with MasterB to talk about all the competition at the tackle positions that Nick Claytor will compete at guard. What team are you watching? What kind of strong competition do we have at the tackle positions that we can move one of our best young lineman out of position? Sorry, hate to buck an insider but its the truth.

Cord Howard is versatile to play guard or tackle as MasterB says, but I would be surprised to see Claytor play guard. Outside of our Left tackle, we have a supposed great player to be in Yandell, outside of that we have NO ONE who has shown any type of consistency to be in the starting rotation. So where's all this "competition"? I would imagine Claytor will be at Tackle gaining some minutes for next season when he becomes our left tackle.
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I disagree with you regarding Claytor. Yes he was highly regarded coming out of high school, but he hasn't been that impressive yet. I can definitely see him moving to OG because he's slow as molasses and not as athletic as Yandel/Gardner/Smith.
 
Ish said:
I disagree with you regarding Claytor. Yes he was highly regarded coming out of high school, but he hasn't been that impressive yet. I can definitely see him moving to OG because he's slow as molasses and not as athletic as Yandel/Gardner/Smith.
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Smith is "athletic"? We're in trouble then.
 
BOR, I agree 100% about Rhodes. I couldn't
believe he was our best option @ guard. When
there was a crucial OL penalty against us, I didn't
need to hear the ref call out the number of the
player, I knew who it was. Not ACC talent .
He may have great heart & worked his butt off
for Tech, we are all grateful for that, but he was
just not big & strong enough to be effective.When
he was being overwhelmed, he would get mad &
use poor judgement.

I disagree with you on Tums & Mack however.
Though they might not have been the most
talented players we've had at their positions, they
were very serviceable. Not allstars maybe, but
they did the job.

Your main point, however, I agree with. Trying
not to disparage any present OLs we have
currently on the team, we need to upgrade the
talent on our OL across the board. CPJ's
offense requires a different type of lineman &
based on his track record, I am confident he
will find & develope them.
 
BarrelORum said:
Smith is "athletic"? We're in trouble then.
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Well, first of all, exactly when was Smith healthy last year? He was hurt in preseason and spent the entire year battling injuries. Second, how would you know if a particular OL is athletic or not? How do you define it and how much have you seen of each player to judge?
 
ncjacket said:
Well, first of all, exactly when was Smith healthy last year? He was hurt in preseason and spent the entire year battling injuries. Second, how would you know if a particular OL is athletic or not? How do you define it and how much have you seen of each player to judge?
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I guess I've seen about as much as anyone else. I am aware of Smith's injury issues, but I wasn't aware that he had those issues the entire season. I do know I watched him get outmanned on more than one occassion last year. The basis I have for lineman that are "athletic" means they show good foot and hand movement and use their position to block as opposed to their strength. Andrew Gardner is a good example of this. So was Chris Brown back in the late 90's.

NC, don't get your panties in a wad. This isn't the Hive. I like to discuss the actual strengths and weaknesses of our team without feeling I am hurting a players feelings that I have grown close to by being a fan of the team. This is the problem with most Hivers. Our OLine isn't and hasn't been a great strength of our team since Chan's early years when he was using O'Leary's line recruits. We don't have enough players at the tackle spots to be dismissing Claytor because there's apparently good competition there. The way we had a merry go round at right tackle last year proves that isn't the case.
 
Changes coming!

One thing I like about Coach Johnson's philosophy is to add focus on position coaching. On the offensive line we will actually have 2 coaches. Coach Sewak will handle the Centers and Guards and Coach Spencer will focus on the tackles. I know that Sewak puts a lot of focus on winning at the point of attack or knocking the opponent on his butt. The triple option depends on being strong up the middle therefore the center and guards would seem to carry the highest importance of the offensive line positions. I would not be suprised to see a different rank order in the depth chart at the center and guard positions coming out of spring practice. Dunmon would have been the heir apparent at center but if he does not click early he may be moved out to guard. I know Voss played some center last year as well but you may see Howard, Gilbert and Brown enter the mix at this position. Dan Voss will have to shape up a bit to be viable in this offense in my opinion. I think their will be a premium on strength vs. mass. Once you get past Dunmon, Voss and Howard the centers and guards consist of guys without a lot of experience. Guys like David Brown, Joseph Gilbert and some walk ons like Brannon, Folkner and Kirsch.

Regarding the tackles they seem to carry a bit less importance in the triple option but I may be mistaken on that since one coach is dedicated to making sure they understand their assignments. I think Gardner is proven and can adapt to whatever is thrown his way. Smith is still a question mark in my mind as well. Yandell did look decent in preseason drills last year and could be a good one. Claytor I think needs to prove he can play at this level and Jason Hill seems to be destined to be a career backup. I don't think Lonowski will be in the picture due to his inability to overcome a nagging shoulder injury.

So we are not very deep on the offensive line and I think the 3 incoming freshmen will get a serious opportunity to play early if they come in with the right frame of mind and in shape. McRae, Uzzi and Smith all appear to have the size to play at this level.

I expect spring to shake out a preliminary 2 deep but I think it will be fall before we really know where we stand with out 2008 offensive line.

Go Jackets!
 
BOR, I don't have anything in a wad, but was just responding to your comments. To my knowledge Smith was hurt all year and I would expect that hampered him particularly in what he could do with his hands. My question about athleticism was just that, a question. My thought is that unless people are focusing on the OL specifically and have a lot of comparisons, it's hard to decide is a 300 pound guy is more or less athletic than another one.
 
BarrelORum said:
I have a hard time believing that.
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Have you seen Claytor in practice? At this point in his career he's soft and slow. He can always get stronger, but I don't know how he can get more athletic.
 
Well, he ran a 5.3 in high school so I don't know why anyone would be surprised if you're talking about running speed. But that has nothing to do with athletic.
 
Re: Changes coming!

Jerry the Jacket said:
One thing I like about Coach Johnson's philosophy is to add focus on position coaching. On the offensive line we will actually have 2 coaches. Coach Sewak will handle the Centers and Guards and Coach Spencer will focus on the tackles. I know that Sewak puts a lot of focus on winning at the point of attack or knocking the opponent on his butt. The triple option depends on being strong up the middle therefore the center and guards would seem to carry the highest importance of the offensive line positions. I would not be suprised to see a different rank order in the depth chart at the center and guard positions coming out of spring practice. Dunmon would have been the heir apparent at center but if he does not click early he may be moved out to guard. I know Voss played some center last year as well but you may see Howard, Gilbert and Brown enter the mix at this position. Dan Voss will have to shape up a bit to be viable in this offense in my opinion. I think their will be a premium on strength vs. mass. Once you get past Dunmon, Voss and Howard the centers and guards consist of guys without a lot of experience. Guys like David Brown, Joseph Gilbert and some walk ons like Brannon, Folkner and Kirsch.

Regarding the tackles they seem to carry a bit less importance in the triple option but I may be mistaken on that since one coach is dedicated to making sure they understand their assignments. I think Gardner is proven and can adapt to whatever is thrown his way. Smith is still a question mark in my mind as well. Yandell did look decent in preseason drills last year and could be a good one. Claytor I think needs to prove he can play at this level and Jason Hill seems to be destined to be a career backup. I don't think Lonowski will be in the picture due to his inability to overcome a nagging shoulder injury.

So we are not very deep on the offensive line and I think the 3 incoming freshmen will get a serious opportunity to play early if they come in with the right frame of mind and in shape. McRae, Uzzi and Smith all appear to have the size to play at this level.

I expect spring to shake out a preliminary 2 deep but I think it will be fall before we really know where we stand with out 2008 offensive line.

Go Jackets!
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Jerry called it.Make NO mustake if we can't run the "upback" up the middle this offense will go almost nowhere.If that threat is not real all those options pitches will go for zip.So the emphasis on coaching for high level of competence.
Also you don't normally replace a 3 yr center easily.That could be another problem.
 
Re: Changes coming!

Jerry the Jacket said:
Regarding the tackles they seem to carry a bit less importance in the triple option but I may be mistaken on that since one coach is dedicated to making sure they understand their assignments. Go Jackets!
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I agree with most of your post but this is simply not true. The tackle has to be more mobile than in a "traditional " offense and has to locate his man and take him out. The point is to leave one man unblocked for the option to create what amounts to a 2 on 1 fast break on the corner. If the tackle does not locate his man and have the speed to get to him and take him out, it's a 2 on 2 situation. You know from basketball that a 2 on 2 break is much less likely to work than a 2 on 1.

The tackle position may be THE most important position in the TO. That is why there is one coach just for the tackles. The difficulty in installing this offense will be the OL generally and somewhat more particularly the tackle position.
 
I heard at least 2 and possibly 3 coaches state that Center was a vital position on the OL during signing day. From what I remember, Center requires the most athleticism and they will start players out at Center and determine their final positions from there.

BTW all positions are important. 1 missed block and the play blows up regardless if the miss comes from a WR, A-Back, or OL.
 
Barrel maybe you should not be laughing so hard and reread Ryans's report.
Ryan stated that "(That Cord) will be at guard but he could be slowed by a new injury for spring. .

The plan is now that Claytor will be practicing at the guard position this Spring! This was decided before Cord was hurt. I am sure the Coaches will move players as needed for the best fit for the team but for now he is slated as a guard.

Smith is fast and athletic for a big man, He was recruited as a DE. Last Spring everyone was impressed with how well he played. Then AJ got hurt in August and played hurt because Cord was not available. AJ then was reinjured in the ND game. He tried playing hurt the rest of the season as well as Cord Ryan was commenting more on how well Yandell looking. and that's why he wrote “Yandell could provide some good competition for Smith this season at right guard.” ( I am sure that he meant tackle.)

The center position is so important because he is key in making the line calls. The center also has be quick enough to block the MLB and stong enough to block the Nose Guard or DT.

Tackles do not have to pass block DE as they do in the traditional pocket pass protection. They do have to be quick enough to block the LB &/or Safety.
 
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We will live and die this year on 2 things - QBs who can make the right reads to protect the ball, and interior OL development.
 
beej67 said:
We will live and die this year on 2 things - QBs who can make the right reads to protect the ball, and interior OL development.
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67.
I agree the OFFENSE will live/die on those but the DEF which is forgotten may struggle even more at times.
 
beej67 said:
We will live and die this year on 2 things - QBs who can make the right reads to protect the ball, and interior OL development.
Click to expand...

67.
I agree the OFFENSE will live/die on those but the DEF which is forgotten may struggle even more at times.
 
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