BillySee58

Huge scrimmage today. Will be posting tweets from Brune and Vito since it looks like both are there today.

Per Vito. Redshirt sophomore offensive lineman who did not appear to be a factor in the competitions for the starting o-line spots. Was a scholarship player, signed in the 2018 class.

I really don’t understand how you interpret my posts in such bizarre ways. I’m clearly giving a hypothetical to explain why our recruiting improving shouldn’t be evaluated based on us offering guys first who quickly become P5 targets. You said: I responded by saying: If. Second word there. You are saying the better indication on if our recruiting is improving is if we are offering guys who go on to P5 before anyone else does. I am saying it doesn’t matter that we offer them first IF we aren’t landing good quality players. And that if we aren’t landing good quality recruits, and aren’t getting recruits to choose us over other schools, our recruiting is not improving even if we might be offering those guys first.

For sure. That’s the benefit of putting together back to back solid classes. If we could pull off a 3rd class in a row of similar caliber to 2019 and 2020, we should be in very solid shape to have good rosters for the foreseeable future. Much more to work with for Littrell and the staff than really anytime since they have been here.

But if we aren’t pulling any of those players that doesn’t indicate improved recruiting. That’s an example of good evaluating, but good recruiting is convincing players to choose your school over others. If we offer a bunch of players who later become P5 signees, then have to fill our class with a bunch of guys who we don’t really have to beat out other teams to get, then we aren’t actually recruiting well. And we saw that a lot under Mccarney, especially in 2012 and 2013.

NCAA granted him a waiver so he is eligible this season

Good point. I was strictly going off of scholarship guys though, which is why I didn’t even consider Cunningham. Was really hoping we’d get Bray from OK State too because I really think we should be looking at the OL transfer market since we have not had as much success there as other positions. Hope Bloesch brings us a mix of better HS recruiting and can land some talented transfers.

While looking through the roster and the various position groups it really stood out to me how many of these guys had at least one P5 school offer them in high school. We can basically put together a starting lineup of guys who had P5 offers, and are 2-3 deep there in some positions. So I did. This obviously is nothing like what our starting lineup will look like and some of these guys will get or have already been outplayed by guys who didn’t have P5 offers, but it’s encouraging to see so many of these type of players competing for spots. That’s how you build a good roster. The guys who emerge from these competitions will be the real deal. QB: RS SO Austin Aune (TCU, Texas Tech, Kansas) RS FR Will Kuehne (Maryland) RS FR Amani Gilmore (Kentucky, Tennessee) - Sitting out season due to transfer RB: RS JR Tre Siggers (Louisville, Texas Tech) RS SR Nick Smith (Cal, Purdue) FR Ikaika Ragsdale (Arizona, Oregon) WR: SR Jaelon Darden (Virginia Tech) SO Deonte Simpson (Northwestern) RS FR Kealon Jackson (Kansas, West Virginia) FR Detraveon Brown (Ole Miss, Kentucky, Kansas) FR Loronzo Thompson (Baylor, Utah) TE: RS FR Khatib Lyles (Indiana, Texas Tech, Kansas, Utah) RS FR Asher Alberding (Kansas) FR Jake Roberts (Colorado) Offensive Line: RS SO Jacob Farrell (OK State, Kansas, TCU, Texas Tech) - Sitting out season due to transfer Defensive Line: RS SO Davontae McCrae (Miss State, Arizona, Colorado, Missouri) FR Jonathan Pickett (Arizona, Arizona State, Vanderbilt, West Virginia) FR Kortlin Rausaw (Colorado, Iowa State) Linebackers: JR KD Davis (Illinois) RS FR Taylor Jacobs (Texas Tech) Cornerbacks: RS SO Jordan Rucker (Purdue) RS FR Jevin Murray (Louisville, Oregon State) Safeties: JR Alex Morris (Indiana, Louisville) RS SO Jaxon Gibbs (Illinois) FR Garnett Burke (Kansas) 25 guys with P5 offers out of 85 scholarship spots available is extremely impressive. Especially when you consider 20 of these guys are underclassmen and only 2 are seniors. Really excited to start seeing this type of talent on the field for us.

Gotta think the potential saliva testing would help make this possible.

Due to ODU dropping out

Kind of surprised to see Deonte Simpson’s name so little. I still think he’s our starter on the outside opposite Shorter, but having Ogunmakin behind them is a great asset. Not to mention 3 freshmen behind them who all had multiple P5 offers when we signed them out of high school (Kealon Jackson, Detraveon Brown, Loronzo Thompson). That’s a great situation to have, and whoever emerges from that talented group will likely be all-CUSA caliber. I am hoping we see one of the younger guys play Sanders out of a spot. He seems like a passable player, not a liability, but I just didn’t see much playmaking ability from him. Don’t see him covering a lot of ground in coverage and he got blocked out of plays too easily and frequently. We do have a lot of talented secondary players, including a good bunch who had P5 offers in high school. Would be nice to have some playmakers in the secondary again, not just do your job guys.

I think he’ll be playing nickel while Burke and Nichols are more true safety types and Weaver is a true corner. So not really looking at it that way.

Not sure this is really indicative of Martin’s stock rising. Each QB (Aune, Bean, and Martin) got two lines mentioning them, with Aune getting play of the day. Also, separate prediction. I’m thinking we see Upton Stout as true freshman who gets some playing time this season. Undersized but I think he fits that nickel role really well as a corner/safety hybrid, and LeAndre Davis leaving the team could help boost him up the depth chart sooner.

No. Not saying he doesn’t have a shot, just don’t expect him to win a starting job.

Manase is moving to center. Was somewhat expected, but now confirmed. Pretty much the same for me. I’d swap Brown for Carroll. Been getting some shoutouts and I think he cracked the 2-deep before Carroll last year. Also really liked his footwork in his HS film, just needed to add weight and he did.

He and Chandler Rogers split time. https://www.maxpreps.com/m/high-schools/lake-ridge-eagles-(mansfield,tx)/football-fall-17/stats_by_player.htm Rogers signed with Southern Miss last year but has since transferred to Blinn

With Bean, to me it’s not as much about results as it is him not showing contrary examples to his struggles in certain areas. Having bad games happens, and sometimes all conference players will get you, although with those throw velocities it did not need to be an all conference player to result in a pick. The lack of velocity is more concerning to me than the result. He has shown he struggles hitting boundary throws from the pocket, mainly because his arm strength is lacking. Same for Aune. Maybe he was freezing backups but at least he was showing the ability to look off defenders. Maybe against the starters he doesn’t freeze them solid but it’s enough to complete the pass and get a big gainer, even if there wouldn’t be as much YAC available. I’m worried about Bean’s physical limitations (arm strength and frame) more than I am his decision making. If he can’t hit boundary throws from the pocket, I think he shrinks our playbook and offensive potential more than his running expands it. Unfortunately in the one throw we have seen from practice this fall he made a boundary throw from the pocket and obviously it was intercepted by Gaddie. But the part that was concerning wasn’t the interception, it was that Shorter’s chest was parallel to the line of scrimmage when he was going up for the ball. Until that starts happening for Bean, I think Aune makes our offense harder to defend.

Well yeah, we haven’t seen much. Which is why the “based on what I’ve seen” qualifier is just that, and not a full-blown analysis on why we’re picking Aune over Bean. But, here is what I have seen that has me picking Aune over Bean. I have been watching a lot of our QB film lately (obviously mostly Mason Fine) and I think there’s a very real chance that Aune had the best understanding of coverages out of our QBs. Fine obviously had a lot of playing experience, but his film shows he was a first read and throw guy. Even Patrick Mahomes admitted that this was the first year that he really started to actually read defenses and before was pretty much just playing and throwing to his guys, so it’s not that crazy a notion our senior QB wasn’t really adept at reading defenses. I watched all of Fine’s 29 TDs from last year and only one came on his second read. It was this touchdown against Cal where his second read (Shorter) was in almost the same spot of the field as his first read (Darden). Video is at the bottom as video attachment 1. Otherwise it was almost always the ball going directly where his eyes were showing he wanted to go the whole time. As for Aune, in his two big gainers against La Tech he showed his ability to hold safeties and linebackers with his eyes, which I didn’t see from Bean and I hardly saw from Fine. Also solid arm strength. In the endzone view against La Tech on the pass to McCrary (below) watch Aune’s head and the linebacker #39. Based on Aune’s eyes, he thinks the pass is going to be to his left until it’s over his right shoulder. That ability to hold safeties and linebackers with your eyes while still making a strike is a very impressive trait and it’s how you get your playmakers the ball with room to move after the catch. In the TD pass to Lawrence the defenders reactions are similar (video is at the bottom as video attachment 2). Watch on the replay as #48 moves his body like he’s expecting the ball to go in the middle of the field, and even the cornerback he throws over (who is watching Aune the whole time) is reacting like the ball is going to the field side of him and not the sideline side of him like it did. That cross up by Aune caused that corner to fall down and Lawrence to have a free sideline to race down. As for Bean, I didn’t see any of that. I am also concerned about ball control and arm strength. Look at the lack of mustard behind his two INTs against La Tech (both below). Bean struggles throwing to the boundaries from the pocket, and that’s a big thing as far holding back his potential. If he can only hit passes in the middle of the field and has to rollout to hit passes on the boundaries, that’s much easier to gameplan against. If Aune is hitting those boundary passes from the pocket and Bean isn’t, unless Bean is much better everywhere else, I want to see Aune getting the ball to these playmakers. 63DC7565-739D-4E03-8F3C-263557C48743.MOV EDCE09D2-13DB-4607-9127-722D75CDFB32.MOV

With the uncertainty of the season, it makes a lot of sense to keep this race going as long as they can. Picking a starter even a week out from the start of the season could be dangerous. If the season gets postponed to the spring, the QBs who don’t get picked will know they lost out on the job and could transfer now to an FCS or JUCO instead of waiting another semester knowing they’ll be a backup. Could be another reason we have been seeing Martin in the competition.

Yes, Bryce Bray. He started 10 games last year as a redshirt freshman. Looks like we’re recruiting him as well so hopefully Farrell helps our chances with getting Bray.

https://247sports.com/Player/Jacob-Farrell-46041922/high-school-194021/ Offers out of high school also included TCU, Texas Tech, and Kansas Saw action in 2 games last year as a redshirt freshmen. https://www.google.com/amp/s/oklahoman.com/article/5668909/osu-football-jacob-farrell-reportedly-enters-transfer-portal/amp

Jacob Farrell transferring in from Oklahoma State. Presumably will have to sit out this year, then have two years of eligibility remaining, starting next school year.