When Utah was in the MWC, they had a very good OL. But the first thing that Whittingham saw that he needed to emphasize on this level of football when they moved up to the Pac-12 was that they needed to get bigger. They and Stanford have been the standard in the conference and they are big OLs. Washington is joining that mix and they are built the same way.
I look at the teams at the top of the rankings. They have some of the biggest OLs in the nation.
The best college OLs are averaging over 310 pounds across the front.
That said, I can understand the rationale of being lighter than that and more agile. I saw it work with the Broncos and the 49ers during each of their glory years. Both teams had great run games.
Further, I get that if you want to play up-tempo and run 90+ plays a game that it's hard to do for OLs on the massive side because they'll get gassed.
But this isn't working. Not only can't our OL move anyone, but the athleticism isn't there either. They look lost in space, constantly get blown up when DLs shoot gaps or on run blitzes, and they can't stay with guys in pass protection.
At the end of the day, the simple fact is that OLs will never be as athletic as DLs. So they have to be bigger and stronger while being athletic enough to get into them so they can beat on them.
Beyond that, Coach Adams has not improved any player he has coached or the unit in general. In 2017, it wasn't just that we lost a blocking TE and a competent C. Irwin and Kough regressed instead of building on their junior seasons. Haigler was worse as a soph than as a frosh and he's even worse now -- couldn't hold down his starting job at RT over frikin' Kaiser or a true frosh who missed camp in Fillip. Lynott regressed in 2017 before his injury and has been a shadow of his 2017 self this year (maybe due to injury).
Further, Adams had one good recruiting year with the 2017 class. But that class also included losing his best commit to Baylor close to signing day and his next most heralded healthy recruit (Polley) has left the program. 2018 class was a disappointment. 2019 class isn't turning any heads. And his claim to fame as a recruiter when coaching RBs (how the **** was he ever in that job?) was landing Bisharat. There's almost nothing there that I can point to that justifies his continued retention on this staff, let alone him getting promotions and pay bumps. I guess I have heard that he's an absolutely awesome guy the players love, but if it doesn't translate into closing on the recruiting trail or getting your position group to develop & perform -- why would anyone give a **** about that?
TL/DR -- I believe our entire OL philosophy is wrong, it's not working and I put a lot of blame on Coach Adams.
I look at the teams at the top of the rankings. They have some of the biggest OLs in the nation.
The best college OLs are averaging over 310 pounds across the front.
That said, I can understand the rationale of being lighter than that and more agile. I saw it work with the Broncos and the 49ers during each of their glory years. Both teams had great run games.
Further, I get that if you want to play up-tempo and run 90+ plays a game that it's hard to do for OLs on the massive side because they'll get gassed.
But this isn't working. Not only can't our OL move anyone, but the athleticism isn't there either. They look lost in space, constantly get blown up when DLs shoot gaps or on run blitzes, and they can't stay with guys in pass protection.
At the end of the day, the simple fact is that OLs will never be as athletic as DLs. So they have to be bigger and stronger while being athletic enough to get into them so they can beat on them.
Beyond that, Coach Adams has not improved any player he has coached or the unit in general. In 2017, it wasn't just that we lost a blocking TE and a competent C. Irwin and Kough regressed instead of building on their junior seasons. Haigler was worse as a soph than as a frosh and he's even worse now -- couldn't hold down his starting job at RT over frikin' Kaiser or a true frosh who missed camp in Fillip. Lynott regressed in 2017 before his injury and has been a shadow of his 2017 self this year (maybe due to injury).
Further, Adams had one good recruiting year with the 2017 class. But that class also included losing his best commit to Baylor close to signing day and his next most heralded healthy recruit (Polley) has left the program. 2018 class was a disappointment. 2019 class isn't turning any heads. And his claim to fame as a recruiter when coaching RBs (how the **** was he ever in that job?) was landing Bisharat. There's almost nothing there that I can point to that justifies his continued retention on this staff, let alone him getting promotions and pay bumps. I guess I have heard that he's an absolutely awesome guy the players love, but if it doesn't translate into closing on the recruiting trail or getting your position group to develop & perform -- why would anyone give a **** about that?
TL/DR -- I believe our entire OL philosophy is wrong, it's not working and I put a lot of blame on Coach Adams.
