Was Starting Darling at LT a major miss by this staff?

[JHallCanes]

The only one who shouldnt start is probably linder. Dude is too small and weak. Gall hasnt been that bad at center since linder got hurt.

Baffles me how well Linder played as a freshman. Gotta be more to it than just "small and weak"

He was sandwiched among 3 guys who are currently in the NFL. Harder to hide his deficiencies now when he's playing center. He missed all of spring with the shoulder so I'd assume that hasn't helped but I like what I've seen from Gauthier so I'd hope he would be given a shot there.

He was playing center as a freshman, rooster man

 

[rok]

Considering how bad St. Louis looked early on, it's no surprise that they settled on Darling. KC played fine against UVA but struggled against better rushers last week. Dogflu just isn't a LT. What were the other options?

Now that St. Louis has asserted himself as a capable player he has a legitimate shot at LT imo. He looked ok against GT when Darling missed a series. Nobody has any idea if Brown is any good so it's hard to speculate. Same for Donaldson.

St. Louis -- McDermott -- Gauthier -- Darling -- Donaldson/Brown

 

[rok]

The only one who shouldnt start is probably linder. Dude is too small and weak. Gall hasnt been that bad at center since linder got hurt.

Baffles me how well Linder played as a freshman. Gotta be more to it than just "small and weak"

He was sandwiched among 3 guys who are currently in the NFL. Harder to hide his deficiencies now when he's playing center. He missed all of spring with the shoulder so I'd assume that hasn't helped but I like what I've seen from Gauthier so I'd hope he would be given a shot there.

He was playing center as a freshman, rooster man

He started games at LG iirc. I'm sure he took some snaps at center but they kicked Feliciano to RT for a while.

There were two lineups used in 2014:

Flowers - Linder - McDermott - Isidora - Feliciano

Flowers - Felciano - McDermott - Isidora - Darling

All of what I just wrote is irrefutable

 

[westcoastcanes]

The biggest mistake we made was not offering Darling's bookend at Central, Reggie Bain. I asked one of the recruiting staffers about Bain and he told me Golden didn't like him. We ended up signing Joe Brown and Tyler Grimsley late.

Bain ended up making first-team freshman AA at LT and was preseason all-conference this year before breaking his hip in an accident. If healthy, he probably would have held down our LT job.

Tough to make that statement definitively, the kid is playing at a much different level in CUSA.

You may be right (and I am not suggesting the other signees that class were better), but he is relatively short, relatively light and has too much sunshine in his profile picture.

I do agree with going for the local kid on a good team than out of state for the likes of Joe Brown however.

 

[JHallCanes]

The only one who shouldnt start is probably linder. Dude is too small and weak. Gall hasnt been that bad at center since linder got hurt.

Baffles me how well Linder played as a freshman. Gotta be more to it than just "small and weak"

He was sandwiched among 3 guys who are currently in the NFL. Harder to hide his deficiencies now when he's playing center. He missed all of spring with the shoulder so I'd assume that hasn't helped but I like what I've seen from Gauthier so I'd hope he would be given a shot there.

He was playing center as a freshman, rooster man

He started games at LG iirc. I'm sure he took some snaps at center but they kicked Feliciano to RT for a while.

There were two lineups used in 2014:

Flowers - Linder - McDermott - Isidora - Feliciano

Flowers - Felciano - McDermott - Isidora - Darling

All of what I just wrote is irrefutable

I agree the talent around him certainly helped. I have a hard time believing Gall is better that Linder, but it appears that way

 

[SevenNSeven]

It really just depends on if Darling would be the top-end guard most on the board like to say he'd be.

I'd rather have a top-flight guard and another mediocre tackle than a mediocre guard and a mediocre LT.

 

[LuCane]

The only one who shouldnt start is probably linder. Dude is too small and weak. Gall hasnt been that bad at center since linder got hurt.

Baffles me how well Linder played as a freshman. Gotta be more to it than just "small and weak"

He was sandwiched among 3 guys who are currently in the NFL. Harder to hide his deficiencies now when he's playing center. He missed all of spring with the shoulder so I'd assume that hasn't helped but I like what I've seen from Gauthier so I'd hope he would be given a shot there.

He was playing center as a freshman, rooster man

More to do with the type of blocks he's being asked to make in this system - plus, with injuries. He's simply not strong enough or has enough wingspan right now for what we need. If we were running more zone blocking, I bet people wouldn't notice the glaring mistakes.

 

[Sabetta]

The writing is on the wall with Sonny imo. There were reports of the coaching staff easing his workload because they felt he was injury prone. Then he goes and breaks his ankle. After missing the spring with a torn MCL. He's been here for four years and would obviously be welcomed back because he's not bad but I think he's through here.

Sonny is at least serviceable and the 3rd or 4th best OL on the team which isn't saying much. But it's not like we're loaded and can just discard decent OL. We have no clue if Brown is any good and counting on a Tfr is always a bad idea. He'll be back.

 

[rok]

I'll tell ya what, I don't see why Darling wouldn't be a good guard, man. He doesn't seem to lose many battles run blocking and only gets beat by a speed rush. I don't know much about OL play but he looks like a technician. That's wild.

 

[rok]

The writing is on the wall with Sonny imo. There were reports of the coaching staff easing his workload because they felt he was injury prone. Then he goes and breaks his ankle. After missing the spring with a torn MCL. He's been here for four years and would obviously be welcomed back because he's not bad but I think he's through here.

Sonny is at least serviceable and the 3rd or 4th best OL on the team which isn't saying much. But it's not like we're loaded and can just discard decent OL. We have no clue if Brown is any good and counting on a Tfr is always a bad idea. He'll be back.

But you could always kick Darling and/or McDermott out to tackle. I realize what I'm saying is kind of a longshot but Sunny's legs are just asking for it man.

 

[SwagUniversity]

So, and I'm being serious here, are there any OL who don't suck? I feel like even the guys I thought were good before are now liabilities.

Danny Isidora has had a good career here and I wish him the best in the NFL, my guess is 6-7th rounder.

 

[datdude81]

dude can't get back in that spot, nonetheless, any, is he still banged up, or did we have the wrong 5? we just won the LOS against a pretty good defense

I don't know if we had a choice we just had to put our best 5 out there...and roll the dice... we survived the year... thank god..

 

[caneaddict]

Were you watching the same McDermott I was watching? He fought hard, but he's a **** LT.

either darlings still hurt or hes having a **** of a time getting the job back

 

[SpikeUM]

The only one who shouldnt start is probably linder. Dude is too small and weak. Gall hasnt been that bad at center since linder got hurt.

Baffles me how well Linder played as a freshman. Gotta be more to it than just "small and weak"

Played hurt all year. Should have probably taken a redshirt.

 

[cubin10]

52 sucks balls. false start, hold, missed block etc. orlando franklin all over again.

Huh? The same Orlando Franklin who been in the NFL for 6 years?

And just got a big FA contract, that Orlando Franklin

 

[252cane]

The only one who shouldnt start is probably linder. Dude is too small and weak. Gall hasnt been that bad at center since linder got hurt.

Baffles me how well Linder played as a freshman. Gotta be more to it than just "small and weak"

He was sandwiched among 3 guys who are currently in the NFL. Harder to hide his deficiencies now when he's playing center. He missed all of spring with the shoulder so I'd assume that hasn't helped but I like what I've seen from Gauthier so I'd hope he would be given a shot there.

He was playing center as a freshman, rooster man

He played guard his freshmen year.

 

[JHallCanes]

The only one who shouldnt start is probably linder. Dude is too small and weak. Gall hasnt been that bad at center since linder got hurt.

Baffles me how well Linder played as a freshman. Gotta be more to it than just "small and weak"

He was sandwiched among 3 guys who are currently in the NFL. Harder to hide his deficiencies now when he's playing center. He missed all of spring with the shoulder so I'd assume that hasn't helped but I like what I've seen from Gauthier so I'd hope he would be given a shot there.

He was playing center as a freshman, rooster man

He played guard his freshmen year.

Yeah thought he played both?

****. The last couple of years have been such an unending parade of bull****, details escape me.

 

[gfer1988]

The only one who shouldnt start is probably linder. Dude is too small and weak. Gall hasnt been that bad at center since linder got hurt.

Baffles me how well Linder played as a freshman. Gotta be more to it than just "small and weak"

He was sandwiched among 3 guys who are currently in the NFL. Harder to hide his deficiencies now when he's playing center. He missed all of spring with the shoulder so I'd assume that hasn't helped but I like what I've seen from Gauthier so I'd hope he would be given a shot there.

Uhhh no he looked good as a freshman and sometimes even better than those two NFL guys who like most of Golden's guys looked like jags here. We've had this viscous cycle of guys playing better their freshman year and then either not improve or regress as their careers go on. I'm confident richt can put an end to it.

 

[gfer1988]

Baffles me how well Linder played as a freshman. Gotta be more to it than just "small and weak"

He was sandwiched among 3 guys who are currently in the NFL. Harder to hide his deficiencies now when he's playing center. He missed all of spring with the shoulder so I'd assume that hasn't helped but I like what I've seen from Gauthier so I'd hope he would be given a shot there.

He was playing center as a freshman, rooster man

He played guard his freshmen year.

Yeah thought he played both?

****. The last couple of years have been such an unending parade of bull****, details escape me.

He did play both and held his own even against FSU.

 

[rok]

If Linder was so good in 2014 then why did Darling start the last five games? Why was McDermott receving snaps ahead of Linder before getting injured against Duke? Face it, he was never all that good then or now. He happened to be playing next to someone drafted 9th overall for a few games in 2014 and everyone thought he would be as good as his brother. He was better in 2015 but was still far from dominant.