Worst Offensive line

[Treadway21]

hopefully we will develop an offensive line during the preseason so we can make the Hawaii Bowl

Ha, good one.

We just gotta make it thru preseason with no injuries, steal one on the road, and we are off to Hawaii.

[PK]

In a variety of previous interviews Jones has said he needs to start recruiting AAC-type athletes rather than CUSA-type athletes.

That in a nutshell says it all. JJ doesn't have a clue about recruiting. From day one he should have been out there recruiting Texas top 100 players. He was going to miss on most of them, but you have to keep on it and at some point you will have a break through. You have to develop relationships with the high school coaches and that takes time. He has wasted 6 years in that department. I still don't know if JJ is the offensive guru many keep saying he is, but the biggest difference last night was the result of recruiting. The talent gap was enormous.

[Treadway21]

In a variety of previous interviews Jones has said he needs to start recruiting AAC-type athletes rather than CUSA-type athletes.

That in a nutshell says it all. JJ doesn't have a clue about recruiting. From day one he should have been out there recruiting Texas top 100 players. He was going to miss on most of them, but you have to keep on it and at some point you will have a break through. You have to develop relationships with the high school coaches and that takes time. He has wasted 6 years in that department. I still don't know if JJ is the offensive guru many keep saying he is, but the biggest difference last night was the result of recruiting. The talent gap was enormous.

Perfectly said.

[smufootballguy]

Our offensive line has gotten worse the last two years with Suan coaching. Did anyone else notice that 2nd an 3rd teamers got in the game late at every other position except Oline? How bad must our 2nd Oline be, they can't even get on the field in a blowout. It can't just be bad recruiting, how about we get a real Oline coach.

[Charleston Pony]

Our offensive line has gotten worse the last two years with Suan coaching. Did anyone else notice that 2nd an 3rd teamers got in the game late at every other position except Oline? How bad must our 2nd Oline be, they can't even get on the field in a blowout. It can't just be bad recruiting, how about we get a real Oline coach.

when they posted the 2-deep earlier this week and you saw there weren't 10 guys listed...that should have been our 1st clue as to how bad this unit would be

[JasonB]

About the oline...

I think we all expected better out of the starting tackles. They closed the year okay last season, they are RS So, and we all thought they would be fine this year. They got blown up. And Myers looked really slow in practice at tackle. He is a guard and shouldn't be playing out there.

I am with some of the others - I realize the OL needs to play as a unit, but surely Bo and Holloway couldn't be worse? And are probably more athletic?

To answer some other questions:

Current roster:
Weeks - Jr should be okay based on last year, but wasn't great last night.
Briggs - RS So - should be better than he was, but was part of the left side that got smoked
Brown - actually played okay at times, but is a true frosh and shouldn't be considered for starting normally.
Lasecki - Jr, but he got beat several times as well.
McCarty - So - not strong enough yet, was beat several times.
Myers - So - too slow to play tackle, should be fighting for a guard spot.
Bo - who knows.
Barns - Fr - Not strong enough, not in shape yet. Frosh, shouldn't play.
Chamagua - So - to me, didn't look like he was ready to play at tackle when I watched practice.
Fister - Fr RS - too small but is backing up at one guard.
Holloway - didnt see much of in practice. New position.
Hyder - FR - true frosh, shouldn't play. Looks the part but needs to get in better shape.
Natour - Fr, shouldn't play.
Pursley - Fr, shouldn't play
Reich - Jr - Have no idea what happened to him, he should be in the mix, but wasn't in the rotation when I watched practice.
Richards - Fr, shouldn't play.
Spencer - switched positions, I have no idea what he is like.

The big question, where are the junior and senior linemen??? This is not a knock on Klemm or anything like that. But ever since the super experienced line graduated we have only had like one upper classmen waiting to take over a starting spot, and this season we have none.

2012 class - should be fighting with upper classmen for a starting spot in their third year on campus:
Walling - not sure what happened, lightly recruited.
Rice - lightly recruited, but looked decent in playing time, and then went off the rails and left.
Myers - to me looks like a guard, not a tackle, but was at least a decently regarded recruit.
Chamagua - lightly regarded, not sure if he will make it.
Briggs - looked decent at the end of last year, not sure why didn't play much last night.

2011 class - should be starters
Lasecki - is starting, wasn't great last night, but should be solid this season.
Levingston - left
Reich - not sure what happened to him, maybe won't recover from his injury?
Weeks - starting at one OT, should be decent, but struggled with everyone else last night.

2010 - should be RS seniors I think
Duhe - was horrible, left
Gottshaulk - was very solid.

So, as Bus would say, we should be taking a handful of linemen every year. Right now we are suffering because we only brought in two linemen in 2010, and we didn't offer enough in 2011 to make up for it. Our starting linemen should be coming out of the 2010 and 2011 classes to be Jr and Sr heavy. We only have three on campus from that group, one of whom, Reich, isn't in the mix for whatever reason.

Stallion, because you love to call me out, I'll answer you directly. I still think Weeks - Brown - Lasecki - McCarty - Briggs is "good enough" when we get into conference play. That said, I did think McCarty and Briggs would be better and both really struggled. I think I mentioned in my preseason stuff and practice notes that depth was a major concern on the line. Myers is not ready to play tackle, he just doesn't move well enough.

This all comes down to not recruiting enough linemen in 2010 and 2011. I think we had a lot of defectors when Klemm left that one year, which might explain part of it. But really it is on the staff to make sure we recruit enough players at every position. We have spent so many scholarships on WRs that didn't work out when we probably needed to invest more in the offensive line. And it makes allowing Saenna to play around on DL even more puzzling because we need help at OT.

[Rebel10]

But as I stated the O line played really well from the time JJ got here with Bennett recruits and they were mostly redshirt freshmen and sophs learning a new system. The difference was coaching. McKnight coached those kids really well and had them prepared for every game whether we won or lost.

[Charleston Pony]

this OL would be a very capable bunch...if we played at the FCS level. Let's see how they look against UNT, a team playing in CUSA west, where we fit better as a football program

[Stallion]

The BUCK stops with June Jones-period-for not signing enough OLM in 2010 and 2011 in FULL CLASSES. Go take a look at the signing distribution of signees by position in those classes. I don't understand the Klemm bashing based on the fact they produced (hit) on a high percentages of our decent starters (and Gottshalk too) from those small OLM classes. Klemm was gone before 2012 signed. Signing distribution is a HEAD COACH level decision. June had plenty of time to address this gap whether by transfers, JUCOs or quality recruiting in 2012-2013. He just about struck out with OLM signees as we were pointing out on successive signing dates. The revisionist history by several well known experts on this site implodes by actual facts

[Rebel10]

Lowe and Ashcraft did not help much either.

[Rayburn]

Let's see how much the line can improve. It can't get worse. Hopefully a little more game action -- and some rough handling in practice -- will get them moving in the right direction.

[Stallion]

This is hilarious

Get this SMU signed 6 OLM out of 53 commitments in 2010-2011 and they found serviceable multi-year starters in Gottchalk, Laseki, and Weeks. Reich got hurt.

The blame lies directly at the feet of June Sheldon Jones. He screwed up like we said at the time

[Hoop Fan]

yup, sure does look like a Juco lineman or two would have helped, thats what i was thinking yesterday.

[RGV Pony]

This is hilarious

Get this SMU signed 6 OLM out of 53 commitments in 2010-2011 and they found serviceable multi-year starters in Gottchalk, Laseki, and Weeks. Reich got hurt.

The blame lies directly at the feet of June Sheldon Jones. He screwed up like we said at the time

How many slot receivers and/or guys that never set foot on campus ?

[Stallion]

26 Offensive and Defensive skill positions in 2010 and 2011 for RB,WRs and DBs for 9 spots v. 6 OLM for 5 positions. Its shocking our offensive line was porous isn't it. Klemm doesn't have a damn thing to do with it. Come to think of it Jones' whiff percentage might be worse at the skill positions who didn't exactly contribute much yesterday