Arkansas' offensive line signing class, and their top four other offers

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So only one of them is any good?

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Is that your take?


You aren't under the impression I'm bragging are you?

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So only one of them is any good?

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We will find out how good they are fairly quickly. We are so low on O-Linemen I'm worried we'll start pulling people from the stands to suit up for games next year.

If you are an O-Lineman at Arkansas and you aren't getting playing time you are either injured or so godawful that the coaching staff is afraid playing you will awaken the vengeful spirit of Frank Broyles to devour their souls.

The board you're looking for is on the left.

I don't drink the Jim Jones Koolaid

Feel free to react as you feel

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Cunningham

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Who?

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Stromberg is terribly underrated. He's a 4 star on 247 but 3 star composite, Rivals hasn't updated his profile in like a year.
He played at Tulsa Union and against very good competition, and absolutely mows people down.

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and here they come

O Line is the weirdest, hardest position group to forecast. You get the random Jonah Williams or so who can come in and contribute on a high level from day one but most of even the best sit for a few years while they develop physically and technically. Eric Fisher went first in the draft as a LT a few years back after originally being recruited as a 225 pound TE.

Then you have chemistry. A offensive line can absolutely be greater than a sum of its whole (Auburn 2010) or less (any Mario Christobol coached Alabama line.)

I think I saw somewhere that recruiting star rankings have the least amount of correlation with professional success as any position.
That’s not to say it’s by any means a crapshoot. The best talent evaluators absolutely know what they’re doing, it’s just that the recruiting services (which are for us, not actual coaches) lag a bit and development and coaching play a much larger role than many other positions.

you people are fricking retarded. that is a solid o-line class with several future starters. the 2 JUCOs and Strombourg are animals.

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OL recruiting is the weirdest. Development is more important than star rating outside of the few kids physically ready to contribute right away in the SEC. Most kids take at least two years before they are ready. You guys did alright.

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When everyone does revisionist history on Johnny Manziel’s Heisman, they tend to say, “he just threw jump balls to Mike Evans”. While this sounds plausible given some highlight reels of Johnny Football throwing to Mike Evans, nearly all of those highlights are from 2013, not 2012.

Mike Evans only had 5(3 against the FBS) TDs as a freshman during Manziel’s Heisman season. Both Ryan Swop and Uzoma Nwachaukwu has more TDs, and Nwachamwu was out against Florida, Ole Miss and Bama. Evans TDs came against some of the worst competition as well. Two TDs against Sam Houston State(FCS), one TD against Louisiana Tech, one TD against Missouri, and one TD against Arkansas.

His only games with over 100 yards receiving were SMU, Ole Miss, and Louisiana Tech. Only one SEC game. Swope had four SEC games over 100 yards; Arkansas, Auburn, Mississippi State, and Alabama.

Johnny’s Heisman was not due to throwing up jump balls to Mike Evans. It happened, for sure, especially a particularly important 3rd and long against Ole Miss, but Evans was not the absolute monster we all think of him as, during his freshman year.

I say all this, not as a slight to Evans, but to bring attention to what his 2012 Heisman campaign should have really been about. Johnny’s Heisman was due to his incredible talent, and the key contributing factor from his teammates was his offensive line.

Manziel was the SEC’s leading rusher, as a quarterback, with only 5 guys blocking up front, as Sumlin used a tight end for all of three meaningful snaps that season. Against Alabama, Manziel has 92 yard rushing(including the longest rush Alabama conceded all season) and Evans has 40 yards receiving.

And the core of that offensive line started in 2010. Texas A&M’s 2010 recruiting class featured Jake Matthews, Luke Joeckel and Cedric Ogbuehi. All three would be first round draft picks. Jake and Luke didn’t redshirt, but Cedric did. They took their licks, but by 2012, they were entrenched and experienced starters that had spent their first two years in a west coast offense learning from Mike Sherman and Jim Turner, two guys with decades of NFL offensive line coaching experience. The entire starting line returned from 2011.

If Arkansas can emulate that even partially, then it’s going to go well for Chad Morris in a couple years. A mix of talent, letting guys develop, and multiple years of cohesiveness, could go a very long way.