Grad Transfer OL - Kenneth Kirby

The Champ said:
Probably overstating how great our transfers are. If you were re ranking these kids with stars,Cochran is probably the only 4/5 star type. Not sure how many others are high-high impact. Hopeful on this kid and ODU kid, buts it’s a step up in competition for them so we’ll see; they also missed a year playing altogether. The kicker is the only other instant improvement pickup, just based on need alone
Click to expand...
 
00Burdell said:
Perhaps understating the effect of these kids being coached by the guy the best program in the history of college football entrusted their OL to.
Click to expand...
I wish 17 year old 4/5 star OL would believe in that power as much as you do
 
I’m 51 years old. So been watching football for roughly 43 years. Seriously watching since I enrolled at GT at 18 years old. There are two constants that will never change in college football unless rules are changed - 1) the offensive line is the most important group on any team, and 2) you won’t win without a legit college QB.

RB’s, WR’s, DB’s and LB’s are a dime a dozen and interchangeable/replaceable. Sure, you have freaks at other positions that can carry a team to a lot of wins (Herschel, Bo, Deion, Barry, Calvin, Randy, Sapp) but if you don’t have an offensive line and a QB you aren’t winning anything of consequence. Coach Collins is taking full advantage of this unique time in college football to basically recruit another class. The portal has been the biggest windfall for mid level teams in the past 40 years. The factories can’t take advantage because they have little fat to replace which is why you’ll see the portal stomped dead at some point.

What Collins has done along the OLine and DLine since the Pittsburgh debacle gives me a little hope. Now it’s time for this staff to stand up and coach their butts off. I love this GT centric staff but it’s time to sit the waffle house cup down and get to coaching. There are no more excuses to be made. No one is expecting a Coastal title, but we can not have repeats of UCF, Clemson, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Citadel anymore.
 
OptionJacket said:
I’m 51 years old. So been watching football for roughly 43 years. Seriously watching since I enrolled at GT at 18 years old. There are two constants that will never change in college football unless rules are changed - 1) the offensive line is the most important group on any team, and 2) you won’t win without a legit college QB.

RB’s, WR’s, DB’s and LB’s are a dime a dozen and interchangeable/replaceable. Sure, you have freaks at other positions that can carry a team to a lot of wins (Herschel, Bo, Deion, Barry, Calvin, Randy, Sapp) but if you don’t have an offensive line and a QB you aren’t winning anything of consequence. Coach Collins is taking full advantage of this unique time in college football to basically recruit another class. The portal has been the biggest windfall for mid level teams in the past 40 years. The factories can’t take advantage because they have little fat to replace which is why you’ll see the portal stomped dead at some point.

What Collins has done along the OLine and DLine since the Pittsburgh debacle gives me a little hope. Now it’s time for this staff to stand up and coach their butts off. I love this GT centric staff but it’s time to sit the waffle house cup down and get to coaching. There are no more excuses to be made. No one is expecting a Coastal title, but we can not have repeats of UCF, Clemson, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Citadel anymore.
Click to expand...
I agree with what you said, but I would say that the citadel and syracuse are really the only two losses that belong on that list.
 
A Kirby who is actually smart ironically enrolls at GT to play football
 
The Champ said:
Probably overstating how great our transfers are. If you were re ranking these kids with stars,Cochran is probably the only 4/5 star type. Not sure how many others are high-high impact. Hopeful on this kid and ODU kid, buts it’s a step up in competition for them so we’ll see; they also missed a year playing altogether. The kicker is the only other instant improvement pickup, just based on need alone
Click to expand...

I don’t think Smoky (and he’ll probably correct me) was implying that we pulled the most talent from the portal this off-season. However, relative to what talent/skill/experience we had at the positions we have brought in through the portal, I think we easily rank towards the top. We’ve addressed needs/weaknesses very well while also adding some pieces that have 4 yrs of eligibility. (K,OL,LB,WR, DE, DT, CB)
 
GCdaJuiceMan said:
I don’t think Smoky (and he’ll probably correct me) was implying that we pulled the most talent from the portal this off-season. However, relative to what talent/skill/experience we had at the positions we have brought in through the portal, I think we easily rank towards the top. We’ve addressed needs/weaknesses very well while also adding some pieces that have 4 yrs of eligibility. (K,OL,LB,WR, DE, DT, CB)
Click to expand...

Yeah, pretty much this. I don’t doubt there are individual transfers that could have a bigger impact than the guys we brought in, but collectively, I don't think anyone brought in as many probable starters/contributors in one group of transfers. Granted, most teams didn’t have as many holes and aren't in a big transition.
 
smokey_wasp said:
Yeah, pretty much this. I don’t doubt there are individual transfers that could have a bigger impact than the guys we brought in, but collectively, I don't think anyone brought in as many probable starters/contributors in one group of transfers. Granted, most teams didn’t have as many holes and aren't in a big transition.
Click to expand...

A few of UTs bigger names went to Oklahoma
 
OptionJacket said:
I’m 51 years old. So been watching football for roughly 43 years. Seriously watching since I enrolled at GT at 18 years old. There are two constants that will never change in college football unless rules are changed - 1) the offensive line is the most important group on any team, and 2) you won’t win without a legit college QB.

RB’s, WR’s, DB’s and LB’s are a dime a dozen and interchangeable/replaceable. Sure, you have freaks at other positions that can carry a team to a lot of wins (Herschel, Bo, Deion, Barry, Calvin, Randy, Sapp) but if you don’t have an offensive line and a QB you aren’t winning anything of consequence. Coach Collins is taking full advantage of this unique time in college football to basically recruit another class. The portal has been the biggest windfall for mid level teams in the past 40 years. The factories can’t take advantage because they have little fat to replace which is why you’ll see the portal stomped dead at some point.

What Collins has done along the OLine and DLine since the Pittsburgh debacle gives me a little hope. Now it’s time for this staff to stand up and coach their butts off. I love this GT centric staff but it’s time to sit the waffle house cup down and get to coaching. There are no more excuses to be made. No one is expecting a Coastal title, but we can not have repeats of UCF, Clemson, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Citadel anymore.
Click to expand...

Theres actually some articles starting to come out that WRs are becoming the new currency in college football with the evolution of the spread. Bama and OSU had something ridiculous like 7 of the top 10 WRs in the 2021 class signed. Could be that’s only after ensuring your OL and QB are ridiculously good tho.
 
GCdaJuiceMan said:
I don’t think Smoky (and he’ll probably correct me) was implying that we pulled the most talent from the portal this off-season. However, relative to what talent/skill/experience we had at the positions we have brought in through the portal, I think we easily rank towards the top. We’ve addressed needs/weaknesses very well while also adding some pieces that have 4 yrs of eligibility. (K,OL,LB,WR, DE, DT, CB)
Click to expand...

We definitely got numbers, which we needed given we had like 20 kids transfer out. The OL pickups look great, as does White. The kicker was big given our gap there.

Everyone else probably slots in as a role player or is a developmental project. That isn’t a bad thing, role players are important esp because our attrition numbers were astronomical. Just saying we didn’t bring in a Justin Fields and Trey Sermon type transfer class
 
The Champ said:
We definitely got numbers, which we needed given we had like 20 kids transfer out. The OL pickups look great, as does White. The kicker was big given our gap there.

Everyone else probably slots in as a role player or is a developmental project. That isn’t a bad thing, role players are important esp because our attrition numbers were astronomical. Just saying we didn’t bring in a Justin Fields and Trey Sermon type transfer class
Click to expand...

I think Eley and Harris will be in the rotation and I expect Watson to probably start. McGowan will play a lot, I bet. But yes, depth is important. We haven't had it in a while.
 
smokey_wasp said:
I think Eley and Harris will be in the rotation and I expect Watson to probably start. McGowan will play a lot, I bet. But yes, depth is important. We haven't had it in a while.
Click to expand...
Having Cooper playing hardly being able to walk during the Duke game makes that obvious. He had to be helped off the field 3x during the game, once being down for several minutes, and still came back in to play.
 
Back to the prospect....

Effort to finish blocks, find more work. As well as, awareness.

Pretty good self-scouting. Also pretty good feet, but he will lunge and lose balance. Brent Key, who he mentions first, will clean a lot up, but too often an experienced line transfer will spend a year acclimating... learning the system, learning new teammates, learning better techniques, and more. (This is why the idea of a plug and play offensive lineman transfer is not the given a few idiots on here assume and demand.) Whether it is golf or ping-pong or chess or football or most anything, you plateau for a while when you leave your comfort zone and make minor but fundamental changes to improve. You have to build muscle memory and build mental recognition speed all over again. So that plateau often means you play worse than you did before.

I think Kirby recognized he was as good as he was going to get where he was, with the coaches, competition, and teammates he had. This next year for him will really be a lot like the rookie NFL season for a lot of small school kids, except the coaches have more time available to develop players. He will break down and build back up. He may take to it like a fish in a new pool of water. He may struggle.

Think Parker Braun, but into GT instead of away from GT.

Kirby looks to me like a natural guard with the feet to help you in a pinch at either tackle. He might be able to stay at right tackle and play on our team; that would be up to him and his ability to compete. Heck, he might stay at LT for us if competes better than the other guys. But I see a 320 pound guy in the pros whose best position is guard. (This is not a knock, as I do not see guard as the place you play if you cannot hack it at tackle. It is where you play if you have certain skills, which I think Kirby has.) I do see pro guard potential with movement, meanness and tight quarter battling ability. I see a guy with the attitude to be a pro center, if he can snap, and most guys can learn to snap. He does have good awareness, on the little clips I saw, and that can save your quarterback's life at guard.
 
Last edited:
Back to our 2021 OL....

Too many transfers to be a sure thing. Too much meshing and too much of what I talked about in the above post.

But it is hopeful. We will line up grown ass men. Key likes mean. He's added mean. But mean players need to be comfortable to show their mean streak, and we were not experienced enough in years 0 and 1 to show that mean streak to our advantage. Very hopeful that this year we can.

Don't forget we also have 5 or 6 Year 0 offensive line players who have spent the last calendar year working, plus our new signees. Any of them could show up and show out this fall. I'm just glad we do not have to rely on them as a first resort.
 
00Burdell said:
Perhaps understating the effect of these kids being coached by the guy the best program in the history of college football entrusted their OL to.
Click to expand...

True, he was there for 1/6th of their National Championships. This year we'll see what he's got.
 
gtrower said:
Theres actually some articles starting to come out that WRs are becoming the new currency in college football with the evolution of the spread. Bama and OSU had something ridiculous like 7 of the top 10 WRs in the 2021 class signed. Could be that’s only after ensuring your OL and QB are ridiculously good tho.
Click to expand...
Yeah, high end WR’s like Bama and OSU get are going there because of the OL and QB. If I were a high end WR of course I’d go to Bama. They always have high end college QB’s who have all day to throw. Same at OSU.
 
00Burdell said:
Question for the guys who understand team chemistry and what not. Is bringing guys in who kind of slide in at that top an issue with the younger guys who have been working their way up the ladder? Not suggesting we have an issue but I do think some personnel management skills might be needed to keep everyone on the same page.
Click to expand...

Competition is KING. If you don't think so as a player, then there's the door. Key will put best 5 OL on field and some will be trained up at two positions.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top