• The KillerFrogs

2020 Recruiting Thread

Froggish

Active Member
How did we miss so bad on Blackshear?..If ever there were a year to get a grad transfer in here who could play DE it was this year. He has been really disappointing and I see why he was playing a small number of snaps at SCarolina
 

Eight

Member
How did we miss so bad on Blackshear?..If ever there were a year to get a grad transfer in here who could play DE it was this year. He has been really disappointing and I see why he was playing a small number of snaps at SCarolina

first, what other options where there in the grad transfer market for de's?

second, i don't know the link that got shameik to tcu, but he is a MAJOR project.

consider his football history going back to high school. as a sophomore in high school he was a beast and got noticed by a number of major program, junior season he physically looked the part but he was injured most of that season and did not play very much.

senior season he tears his acl in the second game, but still is rated a 4-star based on physical tools and upside.

freshman year he gets shot taking one .40 calilber slug in the upper body and another in the lower body. obviously he is out the rest of the year and missed 2016 recovering.

start of 2017 he misses most of fall camp with a concussion and then sees action at the end of the year.

effectively blackshear missed 4 consecutive seasons of football and all the potential development from his junior season until 2017.

i mentioned before the season about my concern at de and lb and a number of people talked about gary always finding de's ,but i am not sure if many really looked at the roster and the story of these guys

adam plant sat out a year last year and is a long way from being ready, mathis physically isn't ready, workman is undersized, colt is recovering from the knee, and armstrong is undersized.
 

Wexahu

Full Member
i mentioned before the season about my concern at de and lb and a number of people talked about gary always finding de's ,but i am not sure if many really looked at the roster and the story of these guys

adam plant sat out a year last year and is a long way from being ready, mathis physically isn't ready, workman is undersized, colt is recovering from the knee, and armstrong is undersized.

I'm raising my hand.

The only way out of this mess might be a revamping of the defense to where we effectively aren't playing with DEs in the traditional sense. Not sure it's possible to adjust on the fly like that but teams are going to totally attack that position if we don't make changes and I don't have much confidence they can withstand it.
 

Eight

Member
I'm raising my hand.

The only way out of this mess might be a revamping of the defense to where we effectively aren't playing with DEs in the traditional sense. Not sure it's possible to adjust on the fly like that but teams are going to totally attack that position if we don't make changes and I don't have much confidence they can withstand it.

i have mentioned the idea, seen you wex, and a few others.

frogs have plenty of bigs in ross, bethley, cooper, ellis, and i think blackshear can be effective in playing head up on an offensive tackle and making a pile.

forgot who it was, but someone was spot on when they said that means gary can't play the 3 man front with wide de's out in a 9 technique but head up on the tackles or even with an inside shade.

the one question i have is do the frogs have enough linebackers to make this happen and i don't want to hear about moving safeties around because effectively the same.

no it isn't and it has been quite obvious this year in watching van zandt's struggles.
 

Moose Stuff

Active Member
I'm raising my hand.

The only way out of this mess might be a revamping of the defense to where we effectively aren't playing with DEs in the traditional sense. Not sure it's possible to adjust on the fly like that but teams are going to totally attack that position if we don't make changes and I don't have much confidence they can withstand it.

If Gary can’t adjust then he isn’t as good as we think he is.
 

TX_Krötenechse

Active Member
I think going to three bigs would be a good change, but we don’t have enough linebackers to run a 3-3 or 3-4 without further raiding our safety depth

somebody mentioned in another thread that we could move Blacklock outside and let Cooper take the reps at DT ... I think that’s a really interesting idea. Or we could do the same with Karter for four games.
 

Froggish

Active Member
I think going to three bigs would be a good change, but we don’t have enough linebackers to run a 3-3 or 3-4 without further raiding our safety depth

somebody mentioned in another thread that we could move Blacklock outside and let Cooper take the reps at DT ... I think that’s a really interesting idea. Or we could do the same with Karter for four games.

That was my idea on Blacklock. I still think it’s a great way to get you bigger and help hold the LOS..

There really isn’t that much difference between the 3-3 and 4-2 GP runs other than that the 3-3 tries to get you numbers on the backend and the 4-2 tries to get you numbers up front..4-2 is typically more aggressive with the 3-3 designed to not allow big gainers..GP runs the 3-3 only as a 3rd and Long coverage move he doesn’t often attack out of it. GP loves to stunt up front and it’s much more difficult to do that in 3 man fronts
 

Eight

Member
I think going to three bigs would be a good change, but we don’t have enough linebackers to run a 3-3 or 3-4 without further raiding our safety depth

somebody mentioned in another thread that we could move Blacklock outside and let Cooper take the reps at DT ... I think that’s a really interesting idea. Or we could do the same with Karter for four games.

that is my fear, that the frogs are stuck in a damn bad place. they don't have many options at defensive end or linebacker which means running a base 4-man front isn't working right now and they don't have the personnel to put 2-true linebackers on the field let alone 3.

the hope is ben wilson returns fairly soon and is effective. that leaves the frogs with two linebackers and still one short.

not like the head coach focuses on defense. how the hell did they get into this type of mess personnel wise and i don't want to hear about injuries, because the only de you have lost is bowen and he hasn't really played due to injury and wilson at linebacker hasn't played in 2 years and all they were expecting was 15-20 snaps from him.
 

Moose Stuff

Active Member
that is my fear, that the frogs are stuck in a damn bad place. they don't have many options at defensive end or linebacker which means running a base 4-man front isn't working right now and they don't have the personnel to put 2-true linebackers on the field let alone 3.

the hope is ben wilson returns fairly soon and is effective. that leaves the frogs with two linebackers and still one short.

not like the head coach focuses on defense. how the hell did they get into this type of mess personnel wise and i don't want to hear about injuries, because the only de you have lost is bowen and he hasn't really played due to injury and wilson at linebacker hasn't played in 2 years and all they were expecting was 15-20 snaps from him.

This is kinda depressing.
 

berryfrog95

Active Member
we’re probably gonna need another Grad Tfr DE just to get the edge filled back up with bodies.

here’s hope Blackshear pulls a Juwaun Johnson and has a breakout 2nd half of the season...
 

Froggish

Active Member
that is my fear, that the frogs are stuck in a damn bad place. they don't have many options at defensive end or linebacker which means running a base 4-man front isn't working right now and they don't have the personnel to put 2-true linebackers on the field let alone 3.

the hope is ben wilson returns fairly soon and is effective. that leaves the frogs with two linebackers and still one short.

not like the head coach focuses on defense. how the hell did they get into this type of mess personnel wise and i don't want to hear about injuries, because the only de you have lost is bowen and he hasn't really played due to injury and wilson at linebacker hasn't played in 2 years and all they were expecting was 15-20 snaps from him.

This is the recruiting cycle we re in now where we have to recruit big at one position at the expense of others. We’ve had holes at DE for a while now. LJ was a limited contributor until junior/Senior..Banogu and Sunshine were both transfers. We have been really lucky with the guys who have transferred in or having the luxury not to really count on a guy until he was a Junior. Same at LB...This is a situation where the cupboard was left bare...Blackshear was clearly a reach out of desperation.

This is a pretty common problem for programs that recruit as average as we do. We can find skill players but the bigger more athletic bigs, who are physically closer to playing at the college level are all gobbled up by blue bloods. Baylor has sucked on defense forever but the DL has been better this year...Why..Well look they are starting all Seniors..They had to wait 3-4 years for them all to be decent. And they will drop off again

GPS mantra has always been to develop and grow kids up..Well in a competitive B12 you don’t 3 years to do it. He better start growing them up faster
 

Eight

Member
Isiah Chambers transferring and Brandon Bowen being unable to stay healthy has killed us at DE

chambers has been gone from the program for two years which means plenty of time to fill his loss through recruiting or transfers.

frogs signed 7 de's in their 2016-17 classes, 2 are juco's who are no longer eligible, 3 are gone from the program (chambers, collins, overshown), 1 moved down inside (cooper), and only 1 remains on the roster (bowen) and he can't stay healthy.

frogs simply can't go 1 for 5 on the roster and 0 for 5 in contributing and that is what is killing them at de.
 

Mavsman53

Member
I may have missed this, but is Danny Gray still committed to TCU? On his twitter account, I see very little about TCU and he keeps getting offers from other schools
 
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