DMN NT line far from solid..good analysi

[OldTimer]

This is not a 4 year problem...it has been that way since DD came to NT. I did a post a couple of years ago on the linemen NT recruited that were busts, or gone.

UNT line far from solid

North Texas limited to 35 yards rushing in its two losses

09:04 PM CDT on Monday, September 18, 2006

By BRETT VITO / Denton Record-Chronicle

DENTON – The list of offensive linemen who have left North Texas early in the last four years reads like a Who's Who of Mean Green recruits.

Trent Stanley was a second-team junior college All-American, Brady Harman a SportsDay Area Top 100 recruit and Rendel Bailey a TAPPS Class 4A all-state selection.

Coach Darrell Dickey said Monday that losing one offensive line recruit in each of the last four years and a season-ending injury to starting left tackle Josh Alexander could be coming back to haunt the Mean Green.

UNT finished with just 27 rushing yards in a 28-3 loss to Tulsa on Saturday after gaining 8 yards on the ground against Texas in its season opener.

"Losing those players has hurt us in terms of depth and competition, but we feel good about the players we have," Dickey said. "There have been times that they have blocked plays adequately so that we could gain yards, but we have made mistakes in other areas. The line gets the blame when you don't play well, but none of the credit when you do."

There might not be a more important challenge for UNT heading into its game against Akron on Saturday than sorting out the problems on its offensive line that reached a critical point with the loss of Alexander.

The junior was expected to return from a knee injury he suffered at the end of the 2005 season. Alexander tried to rehabilitate the injury, but it didn't respond and ended up having season-ending surgery this summer.

UNT shuffled its lineup to replace Alexander but has struggled to find the right combination of players while averaging 67.7 yards rushing, which ranks 110th out of 119 teams in Division I-A. (UNT helped its average by rushing for 168 yards in the win over SMU.)

"We had a lot of plays that didn't work out like we thought they would," Thomas said after the Tulsa game. "It was a lot of little things like not finishing a play, someone going the wrong way or someone missing an assignment that hurt us."

UNT's struggles are surprising for a team that produced national rushing champions in 2003 and 2004 in Patrick Cobbs and Thomas. UNT has had a 1,000-yard rusher in each of the last five seasons.

Thomas hasn't found much room to run while rushing for 161 yards behind a line that is still trying to find its form.

"It's frustrating," UNT tackle Joel Foster said. "We have to come out here and work harder than we did the last week. If we let that frustration get to us, it's not going to help. We still have the whole rest of the season to play."

E-mail bvito@dentonrc.com

Edited September 19, 2006 by OldTimer

[NT80]

Asking linemen to block on a gut-run play that is doomed from the start because the opponent has a run blitz on or 7 in the box is just poor play calling or the QB not changing it IF allowed to. If the problems are blindly obvious to the fans and media why don't those on the sidelines see it??

[Norwester]

Trent Stanley was a second-team junior college All-American, Brady Harman a SportsDay Area Top 100 recruit and Rendel Bailey a TAPPS Class 4A all-state selection.

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I don't think the team is missing these players, as much as regretting offering them ships in the first place.

[GrandGreen]

I don't think the team is missing these players, as much as regretting offering them ships in the first place.

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Yes I think Vito was reaching here to make a point, all of these guys were very questionable recruits. Stanley was 2nd team juco all american but the fact that he was not highly recruited should have been a strong signal. Vito does not address the point that a lot if not the majority of offensive linemen are originally recruited as defensive players. Generally linemen prefer the defensive side and the more talented high school players are on the defense. Therefore, they are recruited as defensive linemen and many converted to offense as it is obvious that their playing time will be limited on the defense. Alexander, Peachey, Foster, Veneges were all recruited as defensive players. It is rare at NT when a linemen such as Lineberry is recruited as an offensive player.

[UNTFan23]

Until the offense does something to get the defense to unstack the box, our O-line will continue to perform poorly. Even 2-TE sets won't fix the problem. 5 linemen can't block 8, 9 or 10 defenders.

We can't continue to run the ball up the gut because everyone in the world knows we're going to run the ball on almost every down. You also have a high probability of preventing a conversion by blitzing on 3rd down when we try to pass the ball because it's 3rd and long.

[GoMeanGreen1999]

Asking linemen to block on a gut-run play that is doomed from the start because the opponent has a run blitz on or 7 in the box is just poor play calling or the QB not changing it IF allowed to.  If the problems are blindly obvious to the fans and media why don't those on the sidelines see it?? 

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This discussion is like a broken record that plays over and over each year. The problems are only obvious to fans, media and any coach that coaches against us. The problem in our coaches is that the head coach was the OFFENSIVE LINE COACH when he was hired, from a team that was 1-10 the year before he came here.

Until the offense does something to get the defense to unstack the box, our O-line will continue to perform poorly.  Even 2-TE sets won't fix the problem.  5 linemen can't block 8, 9 or 10 defenders.

We can't continue to run the ball up the gut because everyone in the world knows we're going to run the ball on almost every down.  You also have a high probability of preventing a conversion by blitzing on 3rd down when we try to pass the ball because it's 3rd and long.

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EVERYONE in the world except DD and RF.