Remaking the OL

[Fightinibis]

Anyone who has watched Miami for the past three years knows the team has struggled to run block. Here are Miami’s run blocking rankings on PFF for the past three years:

2019- 110th
2020- 99th
2021- 90th

And if you're looking for more traditional stats, here are the rankings in yards per carry:

2019- 119th
2020- 73rd
2021- 110th

Oregon has been much better over the past three years, with a Top 10 ranking in YPC this year and a Top 10 ranking in run blocking grade in 2019.

What is the issue, and how can it get corrected?

To me, the biggest issue (no pun intended) is that we played too many small players. In 2019 and 2020, we started three guys projected at center out of high school (Gaynor, Clark and Scaife). In 2021, Jalen Rivers got hurt and our only other heavy dude (Navaughn Donaldson) struggled with balance.

How can we get this OL looking the right way? Coaching is part of it. But it is imperative that we add the right body types to the room. In my view, we should add a starting RT and a starting RG with size through the Portal. We’ve already sent offers out with more to come. Let’s say (this is not based on info) that we land Tyler Steen and O’Cyrus Torrence or similar players. This would allow us to move Scaife to center to battle with Clark and Seymore. Now, we only have 1 center body on the field instead of 3. And you would still have guys like John Campbell pushing to start.

The other part will come in recruiting. We are after Dave Iuli (6'5, 315), Matthew McCoy (6'6, 285) and Josh Conerly (6'5, 275). If we land two of those guys, plus two transfers, we may have enough to stop the bleeding until we load up on blue-chip monsters in the Class of 2023.

I sure wish it was just the last 3 years we have struggled at OL.

 

[gogeta4]

Tyler Steen may be 310+, but he doesn't seem to necessarily fit what you describe. To my amateur eyes, he didn't appear like a big mauler. If they're going after someone like him, I'd venture a guess that what they've evaluated so far (based on old film) is the need for athleticism and functional strength (like the balance you mentioned for Donaldson) over size. If they've got size, too, great. But, seems like a secondary preference. Some of Mirabal's comments reflect that, too.

Im in agreement with this and have commented on him. He isnt a mauler. He has solid technique, good kick step, is smart being he played at STA AND THEN VANDY...he looked for games on the dline well in the uf film.. But he isnt a finisher or mauler and needs more strength functionally.
Still a take because the Tackle talent ont he team is sort of Bare and he is a similar player to Jarrid Williams who was solid the last 2 years for us.

 

[gogeta4]

This is why I hope people understand there’s going to be some rough growing pains in the first 2 years on offense...

I spent most of the offseason trying to explain how bad our OL was & that you don’t go from a finesse passing offense to being a stout road-grading power run style team overnight, but it was mainly overlooked lol.

It’s gonna take some time before we can become the tough run style team that everyone wants.

Its why i wanted Lane ...really.

We have a finesse line that appears to pass block solid to good. They arent trying to maul or mangle ppl in the run game...and that doesnt just change with a coaching change or just can be coached into someone. It can be schemed up better (see Lane Kiffin) but knowing Cristobal...he wants to impose and come right at you with a power run game on offense.

For the simple fact that e may not just have 1` running play might help overall as well.

 

[LuCane]

Im in agreement with this and have commented on him. He isnt a mauler. He has solid technique, good kick step, is smart being he played at STA AND THEN VANDY...he looked for games on the dline well in the uf film.. But he isnt a finisher or mauler and needs more strength functionally.
Still a take because the Tackle talent ont he team is sort of Bare and he is a similar player to Jarrid Williams who was solid the last 2 years for us.

Just saw your initial post. I don’t know the nuances of OL, so I defer to you. Glad I didn’t misread some of those highlights. Maybe we get him solely to teach the others how to identify DL games. I’m joking, but seriously we’ve sucked at that.

 

[DMoney]

If they've got size, too, great. But, seems like a secondary preference.

Cristobal said improving the body types on both lines is one of his top priorities. He had some monsters at Oregon with Steven Jones (6'5, 337), TJ Bass (6'5, 318), George Moore (6'6, 324) and Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu (6'6, 315).

I don't think we'll have 350-pound slobs that can't move, but I think (hope) we are past the days of starting three 6'3, 300 players on the same line.

 

[LuCane]

Cristobal said improving the body types on both lines is one of his top priorities. He had some monsters at Oregon with Steven Jones (6'5, 337), TJ Bass (6'5, 318), George Moore (6'6, 324) and Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu (6'6, 315).

I don't think we'll have 350-pound slobs that can't move, but I think (hope) we are past the days of starting three 6'3, 300 players on the same line.

Not sure we're saying things all that different, but I'll rely on Mirabal's direct comment on the issue:

“To me, you never sacrifice athleticism. You can’t. No matter how big or strong a guy is, if he’s not athletic, he can’t get himself into a good position and he can’t get himself out of a bad position or a bad situation. So that’s one of the things that we don’t sacrifice. And then, also, you try with length. When I say length, I’m not talking about necessarily height, I’m talking about more long arms. That’s something that we try to look for. Obviously, you are never going to get that all the time. But arm length, because arm length can help you get out of a bad body position. Arm length can get you out of bad footwork, if you take a bad step. Those are things that we kind of look for, and obviously they’ve got to be tough. They’ve got to be physical. I’d rather have to pull a guy back or pull on his leash, then teach a guy. I’m not going to teach a dog how to bite. He’s either gonna bite or he’s not gonna bite. Those are things that we look for. If you get all that stuff in a 6-6, 325 package, that’s awesome.” - Mirabal

I think those last two sentences drive home the point. There's a profile. If they get it in the perfect height/weight package, great, but all of the other things - athleticism, length, toughness, etc. - are what dominate their analysis.

 

[Juancane]

Zion, Rivers...the rest is a real crapshoot.

100% agree, we need a RG and RT right now. The rest become depth pieces.

Want to see some jumps from Big Baby and Ryan Rodriguez. Kind of want to think Ryan will be a little pet project of Mario/Mirabal for obvious reasons.

I don't want to speak for DMoney but are these some of the bodies we are talking about? Both in the 6'2 range and we were talking about having one of them at guard. We need bigger. Hope they work out, I certainly don't know enough to konw. But just feels like what we've been doing for years, hoping some smaller dudes can over-achieve.

 

[skyman]

THANK GAWD!!! Been saying for YEARSSS we cant have tiny fullback types playing oline.. Knowing Mirabal and what I know of Cristobal they want to maul people and pound **** thru, too bad we dont have the jump on portal like a couple years ago, gonna take time to build that brick by brick thru recruiting and the S&C. Hopefully some monsters fall in our lap in this class to help us get a jump because we dont have many on roster it seems, Rivers probably only one and coming off injury. Need to overrecruit on the lines AGAIN!! Good to see more on board see the light..

 

[dudenate]

It’d be nice to have a line that isn’t constantly needing 1 or 2 TE helping block all the time. Using our TE’s as receiving weapons more often will be nice-not mostly coming in to help block

 

[The U is back to work]

Cristobal said improving the body types on both lines is one of his top priorities. He had some monsters at Oregon with Steven Jones (6'5, 337), TJ Bass (6'5, 318), George Moore (6'6, 324) and Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu (6'6, 315).

I don't think we'll have 350-pound slobs that can't move, but I think (hope) we are past the days of starting three 6'3, 300 players on the same line.

Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu What a name lol

 

[Angry Ibis]

This is why I hope people understand there’s going to be some rough growing pains in the first 2 years on offense...

I spent most of the offseason trying to explain how bad our OL was & that you don’t go from a finesse passing offense to being a stout road-grading power run style team overnight, but it was mainly overlooked lol.

It’s gonna take some time before we can become the tough run style team that everyone wants.

And is why they OC hire is so important to keep the offense humming while Mario builds the wall…

 

[BoxingRobes]

I don't want to speak for DMoney but are these some of the bodies we are talking about? Both in the 6'2 range and we were talking about having one of them at guard. We need bigger. Hope they work out, I certainly don't know enough to konw. But just feels like what we've been doing for years, hoping some smaller dudes can over-achieve.

Big Baby is smaller than Ryan Rodriguez and likely a pure C prospect. Ryan is a little bigger in person that you'd think and I think he's got some room to grow but he's not there yet. I think he can be a good C but a better G. Maybe in 2023 for both?

 

[Paranos]

Paranos in full effect!

For instance had Coach Diaz done a better job recruiting with DT Jalen Carter from Apopka, FL owwwww weeeehhh. Ms. Carter is a niccccceeee mama of a prototypical larger future recuit UM wants .



Go Canes

 

[gogeta4]

Just saw your initial post. I don’t know the nuances of OL, so I defer to you. Glad I didn’t misread some of those highlights. Maybe we get him solely to teach the others how to identify DL games. I’m joking, but seriously we’ve sucked at that.

CAN U IMAGINE ME A FORMER LEFT TACKLE LOOKING AT SOME OF THE STUFF WE DID WITH DL GAMES.

I ALMOST HAD A STROKE THE FEW TIMES I SEEN SCAIFE COMPLETELY LET A DL GO LOOKING FOR A BLITZING CORNER OR SOME DUMB MESS ONLY TO BLOCK NO ONE.

Like i said STEEN is a for sure starter here...He hs enough to work iwth and to be a main stay out wide. Preferably ill take 2 ol in the portal

 

[Dwinstitles]

Anyone who has watched Miami for the past three years knows the team has struggled to run block. Here are Miami’s run blocking rankings on PFF for the past three years:

2019- 110th
2020- 99th
2021- 90th

And if you're looking for more traditional stats, here are the rankings in yards per carry:

2019- 119th
2020- 73rd
2021- 110th

Oregon has been much better over the past three years, with a Top 10 ranking in YPC this year and a Top 10 ranking in run blocking grade in 2019.

What is the issue, and how can it get corrected?

To me, the biggest issue (no pun intended) is that we played too many small players. In 2019 and 2020, we started three guys projected at center out of high school (Gaynor, Clark and Scaife). In 2021, Jalen Rivers got hurt and our only other heavy dude (Navaughn Donaldson) struggled with balance.

How can we get this OL looking the right way? Coaching is part of it. But it is imperative that we add the right body types to the room. In my view, we should add a starting RT and a starting RG with size through the Portal. We’ve already sent offers out with more to come. Let’s say (this is not based on info) that we land Tyler Steen and O’Cyrus Torrence or similar players. This would allow us to move Scaife to center to battle with Clark and Seymore. Now, we only have 1 center body on the field instead of 3. And you would still have guys like John Campbell pushing to start.

The other part will come in recruiting. We are after Dave Iuli (6'5, 315), Matthew McCoy (6'6, 285) and Josh Conerly (6'5, 275). If we land two of those guys, plus two transfers, we may have enough to stop the bleeding until we load up on blue-chip monsters in the Class of 2023.

**** u be on it dmoney

 

[KANE]

“I’m the O’Cyrus of this ****! Wu-Tang is here forever! Motha f++€az!”

Triumph! Great song.

 

[JTKoval]

Oh dare we dream?

 

[g8rh8rMD]

This is why I hope people understand there’s going to be some rough growing pains in the first 2 years on offense...

I spent most of the offseason trying to explain how bad our OL was & that you don’t go from a finesse passing offense to being a stout road-grading power run style team overnight, but it was mainly overlooked lol.

It’s gonna take some time before we can become the tough run style team that everyone wants.

It all depends on finding the right OC. I do think between the portal and HS recruits we can drastically improve every position group, including OL, but, the character of the team is not going to flip in one season. We need an OC who knows how to do both, be flexible, play to the strengths of the current roster, self-scout, and wait for it... game plan based on the opponent - instead of rolling out the same plays and same tendencies every week regardless of what the opponent wants to do and what their strengths are. Adaptability and unpredictability are key.

The same goes for the defense as well.

There is no doubt we've got holes all over the roster. They can be papered over to some extent in the first 1-3 years, but the only "fix" will take a few classes and really great coaching.

 

[GojiraCane]

This is why I hope people understand there’s going to be some rough growing pains in the first 2 years on offense...

I spent most of the offseason trying to explain how bad our OL was & that you don’t go from a finesse passing offense to being a stout road-grading power run style team overnight, but it was mainly overlooked lol.

It’s gonna take some time before we can become the tough run style team that everyone wants.

We tried being a pro-style offense under Enos and had one of the worst offenses of the last 30 years, in part because it was our worst offensive line in recent memory. The switch to Lashlee was in part performed to make something out of the resources we had; hence the switch to the spread.

Have we improved so much since 2019 that we can go back to a conventional offense in 2022? I fear that Tyler might have a major regression next season, in part because he'll get clobbered in a traditional offense that has him under center.

 

[GojiraCane]

Its why i wanted Lane ...really.

We have a finesse line that appears to pass block solid to good. They arent trying to maul or mangle ppl in the run game...and that doesnt just change with a coaching change or just can be coached into someone. It can be schemed up better (see Lane Kiffin) but knowing Cristobal...he wants to impose and come right at you with a power run game on offense.

For the simple fact that e may not just have 1` running play might help overall as well.

I have horrid memories of the 2018 Richt offense. I think that it was best described as:

- Run
- Run
- Pass
- Punt