A little perspective on O-Line recruiting

Dec 4, 2013, 6:37 PM

I am lucky enough to have an actual football coach in my family. My uncle played center for D-1 football team (and is in that teams athletic hall of fame) and then went on to coach offensive line on the D-1 level for 15 years. He doesn't like talking football at family gatherings, but after a few drinks he will talk some. This is what he has to say regarding offensive linemen.

Basically, he says they are the hardest players to recruit. You can watch tape and see that a 16 or 17 year old kid is 300 pounds, but that is about it. What you don't know is how big the kid is supposed to be. Almost all 290 pound+ high school are over weight, so the 300 pounder you think you are recruiting is actually a fat 240 - 250 pound kid. You have to consider where the kid carries his weight. If he carries legs it's good, if he carries it in the belly, it's not so good. You also have to consider who the kid is lining up against. Is he pancaking kids because he is good or because he outweighs them by 50+ pounds and just sort of falls on top of them. Since there is no AAU football, you rarely see two great big kids line up against each other in high school.
There are 2 schools of though in terms of O-Line recruiting, and we do a little of both, with mixed results.

You can recruit ready made big kids and hope that you can sculpt their bodies into an athletic linemen. We have done this with mixed results. The following linemen came in at 290+ (Timothy, Davis, Beasley, Maybank, Region, Guillermo, Jones, Crowder, Morris). These guys usually make up your interior line and tackles.

You can also recruit 250-280 pound high school kids and get them in the weight room and on an eating plan. My uncle liked this method better, especially since he wasn't always at a program with great recruiting. We do this as well (Thomas, Shatley, Webster, Anthony, Gore, Battle, Mac Clain). These tend to be your tackles.

One way to avoid this guessing game is to recruit JuCo offensive linemen. Instead of recruiting 17-18 year olds, you are recruiting 19-20 year olds. These guys have grown into their bodies, so you can get a better idea of their talent levels. Florida State is good at making this happen.

Finally, you could just do what Alabama does and sign nothing but 5* and 4* O-linemen, but keep in mind,there are only 13 O-linemen in the Rivals top 100, and those 13 can pretty much go where ever they want. I have been satisfied with our line under Caldwell, and think our recruiting, while not stellar is certainly not poor.

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Forget the star rankings on the lineman. Much of that is about the HS team they played for. Several lineman go relatively unnoticed out of HS. Good coaches look for tangibles like heart, desire, frame and leadership. Take a two star kid with a good frame at 265-275 and a mean streak that is coach able and you have the makings of a good one. #### the star ratings on lineman, they are usually wrong. Coaches want an athletic and quick big guy with a frame to one day get to 300. Mean streak is a plus. Many of the best CFB line played are overlooked every year and given 3 or 4 star status. If they come in around 270 with quickness and athleticism plus the mean streak and a good frame, forget the rankings or stars.

A little perspective on O-Line recruiting

OL are made

Re: A little perspective on O-Line recruiting

What we are seeing more of, , imho, are

Re: What we are seeing more of, , imho, are

Re: It is hard to manufacture desire. You either have it or

None of us really know who the coaches are going after, but

Great post - thanks. I think our O-line is developing

Good insight. Thanks!!***

we're getting probably the top OL in the country next year

Battle, Thomas, and Crowder were all blue chip players

Guillermo was too *

Re: Battle, Thomas, and Crowder were all blue chip players

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