AZGrizFan said:
A) I’m not doing anything “for the sake of disparaging”. I don’t sit around and look for reasons to put down the team I’ve followed for 50 years. Merely stating an observation and an opinion, if you don’t like it, feel free to move along.
B) The occasional drop down is good (and maybe even needed) to fill in holes in the development of others at various positions. But I’ll ask you two questions: 1) How many starters in the last 4 years were signed out of HS? And 2) who was the last HS’er developed by Germer into a 1st or even 2nd team all-BSC? And if you say Beaver, I’ll automatically know where you stand, because that guy was on roller skates about half the time in pass protection.
C) I do enjoy the process. What I don’t enjoy is us having to have the same conversations year after year after year, and it appears that nothing is being done by the coaching staff to correct the situation—or what they continue to “do” isn’t working. Bobby came in here and in 2 years completely fixed the safety position and CB position. And the kids he’s signed out of HS at those positions are up and comers. The O-line, OTOH, seems to be a revolving door of people coming and going, with constant drop down or JC help to fill MULTIPLE gaps each year, with very little development of HS kids. It’s no wonder these HS’ers come in and end up leaving in 2-3 years…so few of them actually get to see the field. Hell, last year’s starters (when healthy) were 2 drop downs (Forbes and Mayginnes), 2 JC transfers (Cook and Mallory) and one kid who signed out of HS.
D) Six of those 14 are Freshmen or RS Freshman. So we really have 8 O-linemen to chose from, which isn’t even enough for a 2-deep. Gone are previous HS signees Bo Kinney, Liam Brown, Trevor Welnel, and Noah Ambuel from last year’s roster. While I appreciate the efforts to fill the gaps, the constant NEED to fill multiple holes speaks to recruiting issues—either identifying the proper level of talent, or developing that talent to be productive in the scheme. Or both.
But sure, I’ll wait and see. I hope to eat a giant plate of crow at the end of the year when we’re hoisting the trophy. But I doubt it.
Edit: one final comment, directed at the shot about me “not understanding the role of the QB, RB, TE, etc” in the blocking scheme…..yeah, I understand it. I also understand that without Knight “hiding a weakness”, we looked like shit on the O-line. Without Humphrey’s skillset back there “hiding a weakness”, Brown’s deer-in-the-headlights approach made us look like shit on the O-line.
Maybe our O-line just isn’t/wasn’t that good? But the people AROUND the O-line were really good at hiding our weakness? Just a thought….
I won't get into the high school versus transfer debate, because I don't personally care about the ratio, nor do I have a strong opinion about where our players come from. Practically our entire secondary two-deep will be transfers, and likely one of the best in FCS. I care about TEAM wins and losses, kids being good ambassadors for the university and community, etc. My original post in this back and forth was expressing my thoughts on the state of the program as a whole, and my excitement for the season ahead. I don't care about your feelings towards Chad or any other coach. If you feel so strongly about it, email Bobby. He recruits all positions to some degree. Again, I apologize for my optimism. Not a great trait in this day and age, I understand.
I am mostly pleased with the outcome of last year, I have high hopes for this season, and I'll be there to watch. And for the record, I haven't stated whether I think our o-line has been great, horrible, or anything in between (I'll leave that to you), only that I'm looking forward to watching their progress. There is also a lot of room for improvement at RB and TE regarding blocking. Football is a team game and an offense is dynamic. Fans like to hone in on one idea and blame it for every shortcoming. For example, in an offense that utilizes blocking tight ends, I consider Tight Ends to be lineman to some degree, so it's difficult for me to talk only about the efficacy of an o-line without any discussion of the TE and RB effectiveness within that scheme.
As far as running backs go, it's not so black and white as Knight versus no Knight. Hopefully he stays healthy and has a big year, but the issue was missing physical maturity, size, and depth. Two 175 lb partially dinged up true freshmen just aren't going to be a huge asset in pass blocking generally. It takes time. I liked Humphery as a QB, and he got better and better towards the end of the season, but he took a lot of sacks and put us in long yardage situations instead of throwing the ball away. If you watch Jordan Johnson, he didn't have years to sit in the pocket either, but he had an excellent internal clock where he flushed, ran, or threw the ball away. We had all underclassmen for TE last year so I would expect to see improvement in blocking from that point, especially with senior Rensvold back.
Again, you can disagree with the coaches recruiting and development all you want. Makes no difference to me. To be clear, my issue with your o-line assessment is that you seem unfamiliar with who is even on the team currently and competing, as well as their progress, and just guess at things to make a point. The players you mentioned that are gone were either walk-ons or partials that were given a chance (this is common with every team) or players that aren't gone at all. I think Liam Brown will be a good one (assuming your info is wrong), he's big and strong. I also have high hopes for Casey and Dreis as far as high school signees that will play and/or start this year. I'm just getting ahead of myself because a lot will happen with personnel between now and kickoff. I've already beat this to death. I'll admit that most years I attend practices regularly and talk to coaches, and this year I have been traveling, but will be back to Missoula in three weeks through the fall.
