re: Transfer Portal & NFL Draft - Comings, Goings and Rumors Thread

Thanks for the insight. OL is a tough one for a true freshman. We've had a few do it well over the years but not many.

JMO but trying to evaluate OL in addition to signing them might be the most difficult task for the football staff.

It appears having 6 really good OL is a struggle each year.

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I wonder what happened to Brockermeyer?

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Nothing. He weighed like 280 pounds as a high school senior. I think he's listed at 300 in the media guide, but that's still really light for a guy who is 6'6" and playing OT. He still needs to put on another 20-25 pounds of good weight to hang as a run blocker.

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Nothing. He weighed like 280 pounds as a high school senior. I think he's listed at 300 in the media guide, but that's still really light for a guy who is 6'6" and playing OT. He still needs to put on another 20-25 pounds of good weight to hang as a run blocker.

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I believe he also had some type of ankle/foot injury during the season. He didn’t dress out all postseason and has been using a boot. Hopefully he can develop in the off-season. We could really use a technician like him manning one of those spots.

May have to do with 2 studs competing for a spot where the incumbent is poor at his job.

skill players can step in right away if they have the HS development and smarts to grasp the required learning to operate in a complex environment like Alabama. Less complex systems are just give Jimmy and let him run away for Joe.

O-line / D-line require a level of power that 18 year old frames rarely possess and mental development that take 2 or 3 years to catch up to. Blitz pick-up, pass-of and swing or shift, reach, tandem and slip, zone blocking, man-up blocking, hand placement, tight area warfare. The learning curve in the tenches on both sides is huge.

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Have we always, as a collective, been this obsessed about true freshman playing and contributing? I feel like this is relatively new. I guess the 2017 class just kind of reset expectations for some people?

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I think ever since Saban started recruiting at a high level people have been obsessed with it. Kind of like everyone loving the backup QB. People see stars and they automatically assume the guy is going to be a stud. Many times they are, but rarely are they studs right away. When occasionally that happens, maybe the expectation rises.

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Have we always, as a collective, been this obsessed about true freshman playing and contributing? I feel like this is relatively new. I guess the 2017 class just kind of reset expectations for some people?

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It's aggravating, the say the least, and even more aggravating when people use our stud draft picks' college careers as revisionist history for what they actually were as freshmen.

Reuben Foster (1st round) played in 6 games and had 12 tackles as a freshman.

Rashaan Evans (1st round) played in 9 games as a freshman and had 14 tackles and 1 sack.

Damien Harris (3rd round) had 46 carries for 157 yards and 1 TD as a freshman.

Jonathan Allen (1st round) appeared in 7 games with 15 tackles and 0.5 sacks.

Daron Payne (1st round) appeared in 8 games with 13 tackles and 0.5 sacks.

Marlon Humphrey (1st round) redshirted as a freshman.

We have regularly had freshman 5-stars not make immediate impacts and go on to be 1st round draft picks.

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Have we always, as a collective, been this obsessed about true freshman playing and contributing? I feel like this is relatively new. I guess the 2017 class just kind of reset expectations for some people?

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Yes, but I think that 2017 class showing out in the natty really amped up the subsequent calls for freshmen to start. People also want freshmen to start because this isn't pro football and it really sucks when dudes ride the bench for a couple of years, have one great season, and go pro. I will say though that the lack of major contributions from freshmen this year is a bit worrisome. Certainly nothing to be seriously concerned about, but with all the injuries and struggles from certain positions I was admittedly a bit disappointed that Turner and kinda sorta Kool-aid and Brooks were the only ones who were able to take advantage of the opportunity.

Yea, the class last year was kind of different thought in a few ways

- Our top 2 signees were OL who were either raw or undersized. I never got the feeling that there was much expectation for them to start as true freshmen.

- Our #3 signee was Dallas Turner, who was a stud

- Our #4 signees was Kool-Aid, who handled himself well for a true freshman the last 1/3 of the season

- Then of the next 5, 3 were WRs (Brooks/Hall/Earle). Earle played from Day 1, Brooks was next in line behind Metchie/JaMo and obviously Hall was up and down. We also had 1 RB who was hurt all year (Wheaton)

- Ouzts and Jackson had roles this year

- A lot of the rest were LB/S/DL, and we had an abundance of depth at those spots this year (Arnold, Lawson, Goodwine, Blackshire, Williams, Jackson, Keenan, Barnes)