Brandon Zimmerman
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Pre-Fall Outlook: Ohio State “Slobs”
Brandon Zimmerman via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
As I wrote about in February, one of the major question marks for the 2016 Ohio State offense will be the offensive line. They lose three starters and must turn to young, albeit highly touted, student athletes to step in and protect quarterback J.T. Barrett. After spending their entire Buckeye career learning from Ed Warriner, the 2016 version of “The Slobs” will be coached by Greg Studrawa who coached at Ohio State as a GA in 1997 and was with Coach Meyer in Bowling Green. Studrawa coached the offensive line at Louisiana State University from 2007-2013 and then at Maryland from 2014 to 2015.
Since February, we have found out one of those three open starting spots were filled when Coach Meyer named Jamarco Jones as the starting left tackle. He joins returning starters Pat Elflein and Billy Price as the only known starters on the offensive line.
Jones, a junior, has spent his first three seasons backing up Taylor Decker and will finally get his shot to shine. The lone senior, Pat Elflein will move from the guard position over to
Elflein and Co. will look to open holes for Barrett and the running backs.
center. As a guard, Elflein was a two-time first team All-Big Ten winner. At right guard, the Buckeyes will be in good hands with junior Billy Price returning to team up with Elflein and open some running lanes. Last year, Price earned third team All-Big Ten honors.
With those three set to anchor the line, that leaves the left guard and right tackle position open for competition by at least six players. At right tackle, the clubhouse leader is Isaiah Prince who was on the verge of being named the starter at right tackle by Coach Meyer. I think the only reason why he hasn’t been named the starter is because the team wanted to see what JUCO transfer Malcolm Pridgeon brought to the table when he enrolled this summer.
Pridgeon is the biggest wild-card here as he could shake things up quite a bit. A five-star recruit and a massive human being at 6’8” and 285 pounds, Pridgeon may take control of the right tackle position in fall camp and cause some dominoes to move around such as Jones or Prince moving to
Ho will Pridgeon play into the offensive line rotation?
guard.
At left guard, it is an absolute crap shoot on who is going to start. There are five guys who could realistically start here. The first two are Jones and Prince who could be displaced by Pridgeon at one of the tackle positions. If one of them is moved, I would place bets on it being Jones simply because of his size playing better in the middle.
The other three competing for the starting job are true freshman Michael Jordan, redshirt sophomore Demetrius Knox, and redshirt freshman Matt Burrell. Jordan took almost all of the starting team reps during spring practice but I am a little hesitant and think it may have been nothing more than some psychological warfare being played by the staff to get Knox and Burrell into gear.
Knox was a highly touted guard coming out of Texas where he was ranked as the number two guard in high school. Not to be out done, Burrell was also a highly rated prospect coming out of Virginia. He was a consensus four-star recruit and Top-100 player by all recruiting services. Jordan was also a four-star recruit out of Michigan. All three of these guys will be in a heated battle to start on the new look offensive line and I think the coaching staff would feel comfortable with any of the trio.
Other players to keep an eye on in the fall to make moves are junior Evan Lisle (guard) and sophomores Brady Taylor (center) and Kyle Trout (tackle). Anyone of those three could make major strides which could shake up the offensive line and move people around. To read about more of the younger guys, go back and check out my article from February.
Pre-Spring Predicted Depth Chart Pre-Fall Predicted Depth Chart
LT Malcolm Pridgeon
Isaiah Prince
Jamarco Jones
Malcolm Pridgeon
LG Billy Price
Matt Burrell
Demetrius Knox
Evan Lisle
C Pat Elflein
Billy Price
Pat Elflein
Brady Taylor
RG Demetrius Knox
Evan Lisle
Billy Price
Matt Burrell
RT Jamarco Jones
Isaiah Prince
Isaiah Prince
Malcolm Pridgeon
The biggest change was sliding Prince into the starting offensive line. I think Pridgeon can be very good but Prince did a heck of a job in spring camp and I think Barrett feels comfortable with Jones and Prince as the bookends to the line. It is just hard to anoint Pridgeon as a starter based off of some JUCO tapes. If he blows away the staff, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jones bumped inside and taking the LG job from Knox/Jordan/Burrell.
The post Pre-Fall Outlook: Ohio State “Slobs” appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
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Brandon Zimmerman via our good friends at Buckeye Battle Cry
Visit their fantastic blog and read the full article (and so much more) here
As I wrote about in February, one of the major question marks for the 2016 Ohio State offense will be the offensive line. They lose three starters and must turn to young, albeit highly touted, student athletes to step in and protect quarterback J.T. Barrett. After spending their entire Buckeye career learning from Ed Warriner, the 2016 version of “The Slobs” will be coached by Greg Studrawa who coached at Ohio State as a GA in 1997 and was with Coach Meyer in Bowling Green. Studrawa coached the offensive line at Louisiana State University from 2007-2013 and then at Maryland from 2014 to 2015.
Since February, we have found out one of those three open starting spots were filled when Coach Meyer named Jamarco Jones as the starting left tackle. He joins returning starters Pat Elflein and Billy Price as the only known starters on the offensive line.
Jones, a junior, has spent his first three seasons backing up Taylor Decker and will finally get his shot to shine. The lone senior, Pat Elflein will move from the guard position over to
Elflein and Co. will look to open holes for Barrett and the running backs.
center. As a guard, Elflein was a two-time first team All-Big Ten winner. At right guard, the Buckeyes will be in good hands with junior Billy Price returning to team up with Elflein and open some running lanes. Last year, Price earned third team All-Big Ten honors.
With those three set to anchor the line, that leaves the left guard and right tackle position open for competition by at least six players. At right tackle, the clubhouse leader is Isaiah Prince who was on the verge of being named the starter at right tackle by Coach Meyer. I think the only reason why he hasn’t been named the starter is because the team wanted to see what JUCO transfer Malcolm Pridgeon brought to the table when he enrolled this summer.
Pridgeon is the biggest wild-card here as he could shake things up quite a bit. A five-star recruit and a massive human being at 6’8” and 285 pounds, Pridgeon may take control of the right tackle position in fall camp and cause some dominoes to move around such as Jones or Prince moving to
Ho will Pridgeon play into the offensive line rotation?
guard.
At left guard, it is an absolute crap shoot on who is going to start. There are five guys who could realistically start here. The first two are Jones and Prince who could be displaced by Pridgeon at one of the tackle positions. If one of them is moved, I would place bets on it being Jones simply because of his size playing better in the middle.
The other three competing for the starting job are true freshman Michael Jordan, redshirt sophomore Demetrius Knox, and redshirt freshman Matt Burrell. Jordan took almost all of the starting team reps during spring practice but I am a little hesitant and think it may have been nothing more than some psychological warfare being played by the staff to get Knox and Burrell into gear.
Knox was a highly touted guard coming out of Texas where he was ranked as the number two guard in high school. Not to be out done, Burrell was also a highly rated prospect coming out of Virginia. He was a consensus four-star recruit and Top-100 player by all recruiting services. Jordan was also a four-star recruit out of Michigan. All three of these guys will be in a heated battle to start on the new look offensive line and I think the coaching staff would feel comfortable with any of the trio.
Other players to keep an eye on in the fall to make moves are junior Evan Lisle (guard) and sophomores Brady Taylor (center) and Kyle Trout (tackle). Anyone of those three could make major strides which could shake up the offensive line and move people around. To read about more of the younger guys, go back and check out my article from February.
Pre-Spring Predicted Depth Chart Pre-Fall Predicted Depth Chart
LT Malcolm Pridgeon
Isaiah Prince
Jamarco Jones
Malcolm Pridgeon
LG Billy Price
Matt Burrell
Demetrius Knox
Evan Lisle
C Pat Elflein
Billy Price
Pat Elflein
Brady Taylor
RG Demetrius Knox
Evan Lisle
Billy Price
Matt Burrell
RT Jamarco Jones
Isaiah Prince
Isaiah Prince
Malcolm Pridgeon
The biggest change was sliding Prince into the starting offensive line. I think Pridgeon can be very good but Prince did a heck of a job in spring camp and I think Barrett feels comfortable with Jones and Prince as the bookends to the line. It is just hard to anoint Pridgeon as a starter based off of some JUCO tapes. If he blows away the staff, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jones bumped inside and taking the LG job from Knox/Jordan/Burrell.
The post Pre-Fall Outlook: Ohio State “Slobs” appeared first on The Buckeye Battle Cry: Ohio State News and Commentary.
Continue reading...