I hope Mansfield Wrotto

[Arkansas Jacket Fan]

is ready to play as a freshman. Either that or here's hoping our defensive line bulks up over the offseason. Our failure to recruit big defensive tackles over the past few years really caught up with us this year. It is painful to watch teams run the ball right up the middle for 10 and 15 yards at a time. When teams tried to run outside the tackles, our linebacker's speed usually prevailed. But all Fresno had to do was run right up the middle and frankly I'm suprised they didn't do more of this. We desparetley need run stuffers, preferably some 300 pounders.

 

[GTnut]

I agree with you almost 100% Only difference is teams have been running right up the gut on us for years, not just this year.

 

[83jacket]

We have not had a lot of sucess recruiting DT and have had bad luck with the ones we were able to get. Gunther Kryson had a career ending neck injury and Berwin Echols was an academic casulty. The best hope IMO is to get another 30lbs on Travis Parker. At 290lbs, he could be a good one. If you watch our defense closely our linebackers are generally having to shed a lot of blocks by guards. As you said, we need some beef on the inside so that the linebackers can run free and make the tackles

 

[gnats67]

Originally posted by 83jacket:
The best hope IMO is to get another 30lbs on Travis Parker. At 290lbs, he could be a good one.

<font size="2" face="Arial, Verdana, Sans-Serif">Right on! Get him, Wrotto and Newberry in the weight room and start feedin' 'em red meat! Brezina and Pullen, too. These are growing boys!

Wrotto and Newberry could turn into monsters!

 

[Y Jacket]

While it was painful to watch this year, I think we are better off than you think. With Henderson (fr), Parker (fr), Malone (so), Hargrove (so), MMatthews (rFr) we are incredibly young and all of these (plus Wrotto and Newberry) should disapear into the dungeon and hopefully reappear retooled for next year. I especially liked what I saw with Parker but that is just me. If the chow line/strength and conditioning/coaching does its part this could be a strength for us next year or probably year after.

 

[Thunder]

gnats 67, now that we're talking about food, I think I just realized why we've got such a problem with the size of the linemen here.

Has anyone actually eaten at the Tech dining halls recently?