OL recruiting...

[Col. Forbin]

When are we going to stop recruiting JUCO offensive linemen? Apparently we just offered the #7 JUCO guard in MS who is committed to Minnesota over the likes of North Texas and Akron. We have not had a JUCO lineman pan out since before Mullen got here. Waste of a scholarship.

 

[Lawdawg.sixpack]

Sounds like an upgrade to me...

the #7 JUCO guard in MS who is committed to Minnesota over the likes of North Texas and Akron

...

 

[TheStateUofMS]

We'll red shirt him and he'll be ready to go in 2017**

 

[Bulldogg31]

I'm a Mullen supporter but our inability to recruit OL guys really makes no sense. what's the problem?

 

[dawgman42]

It's like Rick Ray is recruiting them.

 

[was21]

Don't know what the problem is but it goes back a long time before Mullen's tenure. We've had some outstanding OL players individually but not across the line

 

[Dogariffic]

Looks like the new strategy is to recruit them out of jc. Sit them for a year to learn the system etc then they play for two. Has not worked yet but not a bad plan to supplement hs I suppose. Red shirting jc players is a kinda new thing...

 

[Bulldogg31]

Any chance Christobal wants to move west? **

 

[was21]

Probably moving south to Miami

 

[coachnorm]

OL recruits are watching us on TV. When they see that we do not have an acceptable back playing or starting, a red flag is there. A vast majority of recruits are well informed and also are supported by their high school coaches. When Mullen put Shumpert in the Alabama game, he lost recruits because they are well informed. If Shumpert was put into the game instead of the freshman, it indicates who got the First Teams reps. If a coach can not recruit or develop a running back, he can be seen as not capable of developing an O Lineman?

 

[MaroonNation]

We could bring Sherrill back to just recruit offensive lineman. The "Wall of Humanity" as Jack used to say.

 

[dogfan96]

Please.. if there's one position where we're consistently good, it's RB. No OL has made their decision based on seeing Shumpert in the game. If so, what was it last year? And the year before?

 

[coachnorm]

Yes we see Mississippi State backs in the NFL but that does not carry over to this year or the future. The program has improved greatly since Croom, but failure to get the running back situation fixed can have a negative effect on that improvement via recruitment. Recruits care about the present and the future, not the past. Having Shumpert in the Alabama game will pain MSU especially when our recruiting rivals drive this home? Our recruiting opponents will ask a recruit if Mullen can be trusted not to do this again? In the D1 recruiting game you can expect our opponents to use this to their advantage to cut our throats. This is a respectful reply.

 

[AustinDawg]

GTFO with this crap

Our recruiting opponents will ask a recruit if Mullen can be trusted not to do this again? In the D1 recruiting game you can expect our opponents to use this to their advantage to cut our throats. This is a respectful reply.

This is the first year under Mullen that we have not had a breakout RB.
Part of that is O-line, and part of that is that our WR group is the deepest it has been. I don't argue that our Oline should be better, but to criticize RB development after we've had several years of RBs going pro is asinine.

From the SEC west this year, who is putting rb's into the NFL?
Bama
Arkansas

and that's it.

How many teams have put 3 rbs into the league over the last 5 years? (Dixon/Ballard/Robinson) ?

 

[ChinaDogSunflower]

OR

He plays a RB that is obviously inferior (talent/vision/ability wise) instead of playing the best possible player at a position.

This is standard under Mullen though, he likes to play his committed guys that have 'paid their dues' and 'put in the work on and off the field'.


Let this sink in:

Dan would rather have a 4th yr. Jr. with little to ZERO potential (as a running back) get reps over a 2nd yr. Fr. with a whole lot of potential in any serious game that matters.

I get that he is still learning as a head coach. I get not trusting players because they don't execute every play perfectly in practice, or because they haven't learned how to pass block consistently. But the fact that players haven't spent the time and 'payed their dues' and that is a cause for unevenly distributed playing time is absolutely laughable, it's ludicrous, but then it hurts, when the absolute realization happens and the truth hits homebase. It really does hurt.

Unless we get some O lineman that can open up a whole the size of Texas or find another RB like JRob we are in some serious trouble.

I digress-ish, we still don't have an O line that could block a middle school-aged Red Rover player though. We have to do a *****WAY BETTER JOB AT EVALUATING OFFENSIVE LINEMEN*****


OUR OLINE SUCKS!!211!!!11!!!!1!! HELP!!11!!1 PLOX!!1

 

[57stratdawg]

The reality is we just don't consistently target highly ranked kids, especially out of state. Quite frankly a lot of that comes back to our camp.

We don't get nearly as many top rated kids in our camp as some other SEC programs. I think we had 30+ WRs at Big Dawgs this summer, only one or two are going to sign with SEC schools (AJ Brown and Crowell).

 

[Bane.sixpack]

We should be utilizing the JUCO system more! It's one of the few advantages Mississippi schools have!

 

[NIC.sixpack]

No disrespect, but I don't think offensive linemen commit anywhere based on a RB. Linemen know that its their job to make a RB look good. Except for a few obvious kids in a recruiting class, it's really hard to project how a 17 or 18 year old OL recruit is going to develop - much more so than a kid at a skill position. Some guys get overlooked because they haven't even gone through their last growth spurt. And a lot of them have to be taught to play mean, especially if they've always been bigger than other kids. It's so hard to recruit the position, because a lineman has to have such rare characteristics to be effective, and every staff is salivating to get the guys who are obviously going to be able to contribute one day. For what its worth, this may be a relatively down year for y'all on the o line, but I think Coach Mullen and his staff are above average when it comes to putting a group together.