The hole at center and possible solutions?

Submitted by Frank Drebin on

After a week of whiffing on recruits and looking over our current OL depth and incoming recruits, the void at C is looking more and more like a huge issue. We should be fine this year with Khoury and Miller, but after that, we will be seriously hurting for depth at this very crucial position. Losing guys like Pace to injury and Stacey to a decommitment could really hurt down the road. My question here is, do any of our current OL commits have a chance of being a possibility for the C position down the road? It is pretty clear that Kalis is set to be a LG for 3-4 years and Braden is looking like a T, as would Diamond if he were to commit. I know Magnuson played all 5 positions at the Army game, but I didn't really see a breakdown of how well he played them, especially center. Also, is Blake Bars definitely a RT or G down the line, or at 6'5" could he possibly be a fill in for center as well? Since his commitment, I haven't heard much about him. Any thoughts or insight on Bars or Magnuson playing C?

MGoBoard
Football
OL
center
Erik Magnuson
Blake Bars

A Real Toe Tapper

January 31st, 2012 at 1:37 PM ^

In today's detnews.com live chat with Sam Webb, somebody asked Sam about this and his answer mentioned various players, including Khoury.  But his mention of Khoury was followed by the parenthetical "(if he comes back)."   I'm not sure whether the possibility of Khoury not returning has been on the radar for others, but this is first I have heard of it.  

Joined: 09/07/2008

MGoPoints: 505

WolvinLA2

January 31st, 2012 at 1:53 PM ^

It has definitely been mentioned before that Khoury might not come back.  Someone posted on the board that they were family friends with Rocko and his family implied it was unlikely he'd return for a 5th year, but take that with a grain of salt. 

I don't know if anything has been determined, but that is not a new possibility.

Joined: 11/13/2009

MGoPoints: 58191

KevbosLastingLessons

January 31st, 2012 at 1:57 PM ^

Most coaches like to have all of their interior linemen know how to snap and play center. It allows for flexibility in the case your starting center goes down. Any and all interior linemen are candidates to play center. It's all about who can grow into the position, and who has the intelligence to make line reads. That's something for the coaches to decide. 

Joined: 08/23/2010

MGoPoints: 2610

coldnjl

January 31st, 2012 at 2:01 PM ^

I bet all those people who felt a little giddy at the prospects of replacing Stacey with dreams of Garnette, Kozan, and Diamond feel a little stupid. I think we get Diamond, but he isn't a center

Joined: 12/31/2009

MGoPoints: 13934

Gino5778

January 31st, 2012 at 2:03 PM ^

This year you will have Barnum start with Miller backing him up.  Then when next year hits you will recruit and get a C.  I could see if your options were all seniors this year it being a problem.  Plus I think you would want a kid to come in with Shane Morris so they build a rapport together.

Joined: 12/06/2010

MGoPoints: 73

bouje13

January 31st, 2012 at 2:18 PM ^

Is that none of the guys we were recruiting projected at center.. So us whiffing out on those guys really doesn't make sense about this up roar

Joined: 11/27/2010

MGoPoints: 658

T4L

January 31st, 2012 at 2:56 PM ^

It's not a hole at Center, but rather a thin layer on the ground that if stepped on forcefully enough would collapse and reveal a hole.

Please rework your thread title accordingly.

Joined: 06/06/2010

MGoPoints: 814

CRex

January 31st, 2012 at 3:26 PM ^

Depth Chart for 2012 Season:

Barnum, Miller, 5th Year Khoury (?).  If Khoury stays this is fine.  If he doesn't, it is no worse than last year.  If Molk and Khoury both went down, I'd assume we'd have moved Barnum as opposed to starting Miller.  Even if we had a true freshman G this year, I assume we move a Guard before starting said true freshman.  The idea of a true freshman handling every snap is not a pleasant on.  So really this past year we were two deep, because by the time Miller took the field doom would have already come to the offensive line depth chart.

For 2013:

Miller, Converted Guard, True freshman (see above comment about starting a true freshman at C vs sliding an upperclassman guard in).  

For 2014:

Coverted Guard, Sophmore, True freshman

I think the big thing right now is getting Diamond.  If we take Diamond we're looking at 2 OG (Kalis/Bars) and 3 OT (Diamond, Magnuson, Braden).  This allows an OG to move to Center (like Barnum did) and one of the OTs to move to Guard.  While this is not ideal, both Kalis and Bars are 6' 5" (one inch taller than the average NFL center).  They're not so big it would be a nightmare to have them play the spot.  

Failing to get Diamond I think the proper thing to do is get a project center (go find some 3* a MAC team with a talent for developing lineman has offered and poach him).  Then in the above replace "Converted Guard" with "Project Center".  It makes 2014 a little uncomfortable, but not the worst thing ever.  

Basically if we sign 5 lineman, I'm not panicking even if we don't have a prototypical center.  

Joined: 09/28/2009

MGoPoints: 9010

CookieMonster

January 31st, 2012 at 4:25 PM ^

I like Barnum moving to C with C. Bryant filling in at guard for next season. For the future i'd be willing to bet that Blake Bars is our next center with kalis and braden being maulers at guard and magnuson and hopefully diamond at the tackle spots. Hard to predict though maybe we bring in a few stud OL in the 2013 class.

Joined: 01/21/2011

MGoPoints: 562