We recruited over him this year with SJ and only signed him because Lew flipped to Auburn. I will be surprised if he's ever our starting C. I included him as a miss to prove a point: Even when being overly harsh, we have hit on 3* OL at a good rate and OL in general at an elite rate since Mario and Mirabel got here.
100%. I played DIII football way back when. would have killed to be in these kids situation that have no chance in **** of playing pro ball but are getting paid real cash, free education so and so..........ridiculous.
Lew is starting at Auburn which is more proof. Niko looks like a potential starter after 2-3 years. You don’t pass on SJ.
Teams in the playoffs best players are from highschool. Portal is down this year talent wise because everyone has money to keep their best players. High school recruiting and development is king and queen portal is for when you miss in high school
You're arguing like they decided to take"projects" instead of plug & play studs.
Yeah this class for next cycle will need some top rated olineman for sure
Think they will bring in a good haul this class
If we can’t develop three OL out of the 3+ years of recruiting we’ve had with Mario, we have all been BSing ourselves regarding Cristobal and Mirabal. If Honcho sticks, that’s the question. I think McCoy and Alofaituli will be starters. Beyond that I’m not sure.
I agree with you on this, seems we need 17 OL on the team and only 4-6 of them are serviceable.
You need 15 to have a 3 deep at OL so you can have a scout team OL to practice vs the 1's & 2's
Part of why I’m not too worried about our OL “development”
For sure. The 2025 OL class was mid nationwide. Still snagged a couple good ones. Next cycle needs to be big time no doubt to stay ahead of the curve. We seem to have good early position with a handful of major 2026 OL prospects so I'll let it all play out.
Some of you are hilarious bashing Mario & Mirabal's management of the OL. Were you watching about 5 years ago when the OL was historically bad? The line has steadily improved and was consistently reliable last season.
Certainly, like most schools, we have a self-imposed budget/cap for the roster. CC's getting paid, of that you can be assured. The annual mercenary center takes a chunk too I'd imagine. Cooper and someone with Bell's measurables do well too, I'd think. You can't recruit 5 stars who are handsomely paid to sit on the bench for 3 years. That's the conundrum with Samson. The staph can be bashed for many things, but not for signing developmental OL on the cheap while fielding a very good OL.
