Line Play: We know nothing till ND

Submitted by Chi-Blue on

As I saw in the open game thread there is much chatter about our team as a whole, but especially our defensive line. Here's the thing though we really won't learn anything more about our team until we play ND in my opinion. The verdict is nowhere near being in yet. 

Alabama - Light years ahead of us, or really about 3 if we keep recruiting the way we have. Both lines were way better and they showed why they will again challenge for a national crown.

Air Force - They run such a different scheme that I really think its hard to evaluate our team after watching that. I know we looked as if we had no discipline, but thats really difficult to gauge a team when going against an offense that our defense has probably never seen in their career all the way back to PW.

UMASS - Lost to Indiana today by like 40 points . . . really they did. We wont know anymore after the slaughter next week either.

Notre Dame. This is where we will fianally get an idea of how good we are. They have a pretty good defensive line and LB's. Offensive line is nothing special, but seems like a more typical type of line that we will see in BIG play.

Wait till ND until we pronounce any verdict on the line.

Where was Demens??

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dj89

September 8th, 2012 at 8:10 PM ^

So, we should not assess the DL because Alabama is too god and AF is too unconventional? Like these games don't count? I disagree. Our DL has been pushed straight back up the middle for two weeks and has shown limited ability to hold strong at the point of attack. Sure, AF is a hard team to push because of their blocking scheme, but there were plays where they pushed our DTs back and ran up the middle. That is bad, right? Hopefully we will improve, but I think it is fair to give an assessment of th DL at this point, and it is not positive. Last year we had other defensive problems and we corrected them. I have faith that some players will improve, the coaches will find combinations that work, and by year end we wil be pleased. But right now we do know something about the DL -these games counted and our line play has been poor.

Joined: 11/04/2011

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MichiganTeacher

September 8th, 2012 at 8:44 PM ^

Simply not true that we know nothing until ND. We already know that Pipkins is going to challenge for time, if not take Washington's job. We already know that they're a long, long way from last year's lines. We already know that unless there's significant improvement, we're going to have trouble against the good team* in the B1G.

*intentionally singular, although Ohio may be good at some point, as might we.

Joined: 10/06/2011

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coastal blue

September 8th, 2012 at 9:37 PM ^

It is strange.

I looked through the Rivals rankings of the recruits and its kind of crazy

2008 4 stars:

Ricky Barnum: Average(?) starter?

Brandon Smith: Who?

Michael Shaw: Didn't pan out

Taylor Hill: Who?

Roy Roundtree: Had a big 2010, probably a little screwed because of the coaching transition, overall hasn't really lived up to his ranking

Terrence Robinson: Nope.

2009 4/5 stars:

Will Campbell: THERES STILL TIME

Taylor Lewan: First real home run.

Tate Forcier: Wouldn't even know how to rank him

Jeremy Gallon: Average starter?

Quinton Washington: below-average starter?

Cam Gordon: Back-up

Anthony Lalota: Who?

Vlad Emilien: Gone

Denard Robinson: Grand Slam

Craig Roh: A bit above average starter?

Michael Schofield: Same as above?

Je'Ron Stokes: Nope.

Fitzgerald Touissant: Probably a home run once he rolls back into form

Justin Turner: Gone.

2010 4 Stars

Richard Ash: Nothing more than a back up

Cullen Christian: A bit of an incomplete here, is he playing at Pitt?

Demar Dorsey: Sigh.

Devin Gardner: Great athlete, perhaps unfortunate that Denard took off the way he did, could end up being a hit

Marvin Robinson: Back-up

Ken Wilkins: See above

 

Out of all those guys, you can really only point to Denard and Lewan as unquestionably living up to their rankings

Fitz is kind of an incomplete and I think Roundtree would have been fine in RR's system. Gardner's at an incomplete as well in my book. 

You could make cases for Barnum, Gallon and Schofield. 

Roh has contributed, but considering how high of a 4-star he was, you'd have to say he hasn't achieved at the level you'd have thought. 

 

 

Joined: 11/13/2010

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Leonhall

September 8th, 2012 at 9:49 PM ^

Of my observations if this coaching staff gets us more than 7 wins in regular season I will be very impressed. We have little depth, are getting younger every week, offensively we better improve quickly, online has been a disappointment along with or wr's. As of now, I think 7-5 is where we are heading but with A bright future.

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