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https://www.philsteele.com/Blogs/2017/J ... une13.html

An interesting statistic to talk about today.

Nat'l rank School(conf rank) Career starts

4. MEMPHIS (1) 103
5. UCF (2) 101
13. TULSA (3) 91
22. HOUSTON (4) 86
30. SMU (5) 80
57. UCONN (6) 68
72. TEMPLE (7) 61
93. ECU (8) 46
108. USF (9) 40
115. TULANE (10) 37
116. NAVY (11) 36
119. CINCINNATI (12) 32

Discuss. I tend to think Memphis and Tulsa are going to be loaded on the O-line this year. Nice to see us with 80 starts, that is better than I had thought.

For the record, a low ranking is not always fatal. Case in point: Navy, who entered last season dead last in the country.

Very interesting stat. Thanks for sharing this. OL talk side note - I read that UCF picked up a 4 star 2016 transfer from Notre Dame. Young man is from Florida and claims to want to be closer to home. He'll of course have to red shirt but great add for them.

No substitute for experience, right?

Brown and Saena are solid. Pursley's a stud. If Hopkins can be the real deal, then it's just K. Smith stepping up and our OL starters will be rock solid (with a little bit of ok depth w Hyder etc, most of the talent in the youth - Todora, etc assuming the big time studs in last class all redshirt - Ali/Huhn/Howerton).

OL will be a strength for us the next 3-4 years.

DanFreibergerForHeisman wrote:No substitute for experience, right?

Unless the starters are horrible.

leopold wrote:
For the record, a low ranking is not always fatal. Case in point: Navy, who entered last season dead last in the country.

Doesn't take long to learn how to cut block.

However, I saw where we are #4 in the country with 94% of "offense returning" (#1 in AAC), which could be much more important. (Phil Steele). I'm as ever optimistic.

Look at where we have, and how far things have come:
Pursley, Brown, Natour, Saena have all shown that they can be solid players when healthy.
Wilds was a good recruit, wasn't good last year, but looked much better this spring.
K Smith was a good recruit, and everything coming out says he looks legit and is ready to compete.
Hyder was a good recruit, never completely panned out, but provides quality depth.
Todora and Webb were good recruits that were redshirted.
Huhn, Howerton, and Ali are really nice recruits coming in.
Hopkins will at least provide depth.
Rex Prince will provide depth.

This is a huge difference from a few years ago when we had a mix of really good looking o linemen and people that just couldn't block anything. Even Pursley came in and really struggled, but the new staff and workout regimen has really flipped him into a quality player.

OT competition: Pursley, K Smith, Wilds, Hopkins
G/C competition: Brown, Natour, Saena, Hyder, Todora, Webb

The OL flipping from a weakness to a strength puts this offense in the "scary good" category as long as one of the QBs really steps up.

Will be most exciting to see us roll out a full stable of running backs. We were banged up all year last year and now seem to have quality depth there as well.

Like Hicks a bunch, but it will also be fun to eventually see Morris's offense with an explosive runner at QB as a threat the way it is designed to be.

JasonB wrote:Look at where we have, and how far things have come:
Pursley, Brown, Natour, Saena have all shown that they can be solid players when healthy.
Wilds was a good recruit, wasn't good last year, but looked much better this spring.
K Smith was a good recruit, and everything coming out says he looks legit and is ready to compete.
Hyder was a good recruit, never completely panned out, but provides quality depth.
Todora and Webb were good recruits that were redshirted.
Huhn, Howerton, and Ali are really nice recruits coming in.
Hopkins will at least provide depth.
Rex Prince will provide depth.

This is a huge difference from a few years ago when we had a mix of really good looking o linemen and people that just couldn't block anything. Even Pursley came in and really struggled, but the new staff and workout regimen has really flipped him into a quality player.

OT competition: Pursley, K Smith, Wilds, Hopkins
G/C competition: Brown, Natour, Saena, Hyder, Todora, Webb

The OL flipping from a weakness to a strength puts this offense in the "scary good" category as long as one of the QBs really steps up.

I don't know that I am ready to call the OL a strength yet, but they shouldn't suck anymore. In particular, the fact they are legit 2-3 deep at every position mean we shouldn't see the 5th string TE forced to hit the field at tackle again.

Next year, they should be great. This year, at least adequate and probably AAC above average.

exactly-OLine is not a strength but its not a weakness either. If that's the weakest unit on Offense-and it is easily-then we're going to be strong offensively

I'm sure I'm mixing up a few spots here, but let's say the line looks something like this:

LT: Pursley / Smith / Webb / Ali
LG: Natour / Hyder / Lynch
C: Brown / Barton / Howerton
RG: Saena / Hyder / Printz
RT: Hopkins / Wilds / Todora / Huhn

Wow. Remember in Morris' first year, when everyone was hoping our starters stayed in one piece, because there was nothing behind them?

I know I'm guessing on a few positions. Maybe Hopkins slides inside to guard. Maybe some of the guys listed as 2s and 3s flip places.

It's a guess. But man, that's a better-looking group than we have had in a while.

PonyPower wrote:I'm sure I'm mixing up a few spots here, but let's say the line looks something like this:

LT: Pursley / Smith / Webb / Ali
LG: Natour / Hyder / Lynch
C: Brown / Barton / Howerton
RG: Saena / Hyder / Printz
RT: Hopkins / Wilds / Todora / Huhn

Wow. Remember in Morris' first year, when everyone was hoping our starters stayed in one piece, because there was nothing behind them?

I know I'm guessing on a few positions. Maybe Hopkins slides inside to guard. Maybe some of the guys listed as 2s and 3s flip places.

It's a guess. But man, that's a better-looking group than we have had in a while.

My guess is that Todora or Webb will slide inside so that Hyder is the backup at one guard, and one of those two is the backup at the other guard position.

Other than RT, I think the starters are average to above average in the league. Brown and Pursley should both make one of the all AAC teams at their respective positions. At RT, with the improvement we saw in Wilds in the spring, I think we at least are average at that spot.

That is why I think the group will become a position of strength rather than weakness. We go from one of the worst units to one of the better units in the league.

The beautiful thing about this is that despite having 8 returning starters and the potential for averaging 500+ yards a game we are still peaking after this year. We could return another eight starters next year and, despite the loss of Courtland, would take another step forward collectively and be one of the top offenses in the country after this year.

Heady times, indeed.