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2018 tOSU Recruiting Discussion

Agreed but it still feels like we don't have a 2 deep. More like a 1.4 deep. Like we have Burrell and Pridgeon to back up 5 guys. Seriously. That's how it appears. And when you consider next year, well..............
You're going to be greatly disappointed if you hold out for a year with a true 2-deep. It's always going to be a 1.0-1.4 deep, maybe a 1.6 deep in a great year.
 
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You're going to be greatly disappointed if you hold out for a year with a true 2-deep. It's always going to be a 1.0-1.4 deep, maybe a 1.6 deep in a great year.
True. True. But Urban himself admitted there is a problem when a true freshman like Jordan is a starter. So I'd think we would see more emphasis in the first full cycle afterward.
 
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Agreed but it still feels like we don't have a 2 deep. More like a 1.4 deep. Like we have Burrell and Pridgeon to back up 5 guys. Seriously. That's how it appears. And when you consider next year, well..............
Depth is an issue but we have some serious talent that could be ready late this season - not next year. That has not been true for a while.
 
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Just off the top of my head... Sims, Datish, Cordle, Browning, & Mewhort all played both inside and out. Some of those guys played all 3 positions. JT recruited plenty of versatile OL.
JT coached at OSU for almost 10yrs and all you could reach for was 5 names. And out of them only Mewhort produced. Browning and Cordle played terribly out of position(ESPECIALLY Browning) and are bad examples of versatility. As they're bad examples of playing A guy who should be an OG as an OT, which is something that Meyer doesn't do.
 
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True. True. But Urban himself admitted there is a problem when a true freshman like Jordan is a starter. So I'd think we would see more emphasis in the first full cycle afterward.

What @jwinslow said is what I believe to be reality given the odds of needing 5 full backups and the 85 man roster constraint.

Tressel touched on this in his own way with the whole "speed", "power" classification thing. You can't have too many OL/DL body types on your 85 man roster because they can't really play ST or help out in any way if they aren't in the 2 deep/rotation. You also rarely (knock on a serious sized piece of wood here) have that many injuries on an OL where you end up needing more than 2-3 backups to play (assuming the T/G designation is fungible).

Currently there are 17 OL on the scholarship grid at 11W site. That is an even 20% of the 85 man roster. I don't think it makes sense to go much north of that number and any given year, out of any given 17 guys you are going to have say as many as half of them (7-8) developed enough to be starters or primary backups and the other half either developing underclass types or, unfortunately, "busts".

Another way to look at it is that spread out over 4 years you are looking at an average OL class of 4 guys per year. If you want to have a full 2 deep, almost 3 out of every 4 are going to have to develop to starter quality. I'm not sure that is realistic for any coaching staff given the difficulty of projecting OLinemen out of HS.
 
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What @jwinslow said is what I believe to be reality given the odds of needing 5 full backups and the 85 man roster constraint.

Tressel touched on this in his own way with the whole "speed", "power" classification thing. You can't have too many OL/DL body types on your 85 man roster because they can't really play ST or help out in any way if they aren't in the 2 deep/rotation. You also rarely (knock on a serious sized piece of wood here) have that many injuries on an OL where you end up needing more than 2-3 backups to play (assuming the T/G designation is fungible).

Currently there are 17 OL on the scholarship grid at 11W site. That is an even 20% of the 85 man roster. I don't think it makes sense to go much north of that number and any given year, out of any given 17 guys you are going to have say as many as half of them (7-8) developed enough to be starters or primary backups and the other half either developing underclass types or, unfortunately, "busts".

Another way to look at it is that spread out over 4 years you are looking at an average OL class of 4 guys per year. If you want to have a full 2 deep, almost 3 out of every 4 are going to have to develop to starter quality. I'm not sure that is realistic for any coaching staff given the difficulty of projecting OLinemen out of HS.
Actually, they're carrying 16 which is their target number (all the various scholarship grids lump in the LS and he's not counted as an OL guy internally).

I think expecting a full 2 deep of playable guys is a little optimistic (although the pipeline is starting to look better). Really, the coaches would be happy if they had 8 -- a pair and a spare at tackle and guard and a backup center. But OSU has been operating with less than that. In fact, they struggled to find 5 guys last year and were forced to play Jordan and Prince before they were ready. This year I think they'll put out a strong starting 5 and I think Burrell gives them a decent 6th. Hopefully a couple of other guys emerge.
 
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JT coached at OSU for almost 10yrs and all you could reach for was 5 names. And out of them only Mewhort produced. Browning and Cordle played terribly out of position(ESPECIALLY Browning) and are bad examples of versatility. As they're bad examples of playing A guy who should be an OG as an OT, which is something that Meyer doesn't do.
I'll admit Browning was a stretch, but everybody else on that list was solid - Datish was 1st team all-B1G & Sims started over 100 games in the NFL. Both of those guys did well at multiple positions for OSU.

As for only naming 5 guys in 10yrs... this is Meyer's 6th year at OSU. Name 1 versatile Meyer recruit who has started at OG & OT.
 
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What @jwinslow said is what I believe to be reality given the odds of needing 5 full backups and the 85 man roster constraint.

Tressel touched on this in his own way with the whole "speed", "power" classification thing. You can't have too many OL/DL body types on your 85 man roster because they can't really play ST or help out in any way if they aren't in the 2 deep/rotation. You also rarely (knock on a serious sized piece of wood here) have that many injuries on an OL where you end up needing more than 2-3 backups to play (assuming the T/G designation is fungible).

Currently there are 17 OL on the scholarship grid at 11W site. That is an even 20% of the 85 man roster. I don't think it makes sense to go much north of that number and any given year, out of any given 17 guys you are going to have say as many as half of them (7-8) developed enough to be starters or primary backups and the other half either developing underclass types or, unfortunately, "busts".

Another way to look at it is that spread out over 4 years you are looking at an average OL class of 4 guys per year. If you want to have a full 2 deep, almost 3 out of every 4 are going to have to develop to starter quality. I'm not sure that is realistic for any coaching staff given the difficulty of projecting OLinemen out of HS.
Great points. But this is the 2018 recruiting thread. Without naming names I expect some more transfers and you have Price and Jones gone. With 16 now and little to no proven depth it just seems nuts to take 1 OT in the '17 cycle and just 2 in this one. My original point was that we absolutely need 3 OTs in this class. Maybe that will be the case.
 
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It's August. Wray is a committed OT, Carman looks like a pretty safe bet for the class and there are still other OT options out there for that third spot. This is to say nothing of the names we haven't even heard yet that could become options when December and January roll around. Just seems really Chicken Little to be sweating about this stuff right now.
 
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It's August. Wray is a committed OT, Carman looks like a pretty safe bet for the class and there are still other OT options out there for that third spot. This is to say nothing of the names we haven't even heard yet that could become options when December and January roll around. Just seems really Chicken Little to be sweating about this stuff right now.
Not sweating. The '18 thread was started months ago. That's what forums are for. Just judging based on what I see that it doesn't seem we have momentum with any other OTs than Jackson. And I'm commenting. Because that's the point of the thread.
 
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You're going to be greatly disappointed if you hold out for a year with a true 2-deep. It's always going to be a 1.0-1.4 deep, maybe a 1.6 deep in a great year.
Currently there are 17 OL on the scholarship grid at 11W site. That is an even 20% of the 85 man roster. I don't think it makes sense to go much north of that number and any given year, out of any given 17 guys you are going to have say as many as half of them (7-8) developed enough to be starters or primary backups and the other half either developing underclass types or, unfortunately, "busts".
NFL teams typically carry 8 or 9 OL on their 53-man roster, with 7 or 8 being activated for game days. That's your 1.4 to 1.6 deep.

If we use the same ratio for a college 85-man roster, we get 13 or 14 as the "right" number of OL for a roster, with 8 or 9 being your core players, and with another 4 to 6 being redshirts or developmental guys (equivalent to NFL practice squad players). Carrying 17 OL on a college roster seems too high to me; I could live with 15.

Great points. But this is the 2018 recruiting thread. Without naming names I expect some more transfers and you have Price and Jones gone. With 16 now and little to no proven depth it just seems nuts to take 1 OT in the '17 cycle and just 2 in this one. My original point was that we absolutely need 3 OTs in this class. Maybe that will be the case.
As I said before, I'd like a 3rd OT in this class, but only if it's someone like Nicholas Petit-Frere. You can't make up for past mistakes in one recruiting class or you're going to create other mistakes down the road. Overloading on OL in 2018 will mean under-loading at some other position, and in 2020 (let's say) we'll be complaining about the lack of WRs (for example) on the roster.
 
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NFL teams typically carry 8 or 9 OL on their 53-man roster, with 7 or 8 being activated for game days. That's your 1.4 to 1.6 deep.

If we use the same ratio for a college 85-man roster, we get 13 or 14 as the "right" number of OL for a roster, with 8 or 9 being your core players, and with another 4 to 6 being redshirts or developmental guys (equivalent to NFL practice squad players). Carrying 17 OL on a college roster seems too high to me; I could live with 15.
The high bust rate of OL is a major factor (which is more prevalent in college). There's an old adage that you can often split recruiting classes into thirds. 1 will be good/great, 1 will be ok/backup, 1 will not help.

So if you take 15, you hope to have 5 good ones, 5 mediocre ones and 5 busts. Then factor in that OL is the hardest position to project and that this ratio is a generic philosophy, and you can see why OSU ends up with lines with only 4-5 starters and 0-2 usable backups.

I also find star rankings to be fairly useless when it comes to OL. Their physical transformation is so much more spectacular than any other position. Some DBs and WRs bloom late, but many of them are within the ballpark of their eventual selves. RBs can be stars very early. QBs can develop but a lot of the raw talent is visible early on.

When you sign a 5-star like Josh Myers, you do so knowing that he knows next to nothing about pass protection which is the achilles heel of most OL. Furthermore, unlike the DBs who might face very comparable competition in games or camp drills, the OL either outclass their competition or participate in non-football isolation drills.

Just for discussions sake, if Munford becomes good/great, Davis solid and Myers a bust, that would be pretty average to above average.
 
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