Manuel commits. The Big Uglies are back.

I'll take it.....if someone thinks we got the worst end of the trade, please illuminate why you'd want to keep Micah

 

Ohh, I don’t disagree. I figured it would be korn or Callaway. Still rumblings that an OC may come, Marion whispers

 

Things are looking up. That is, if you are standing next to him. If I presume we are standing pat with the offensive coaching (and yes, that is a double entendre) then I think we need one more transfer, just to be "safe". The only other viable explanation for the end of last season is that our S&C was REALLY bad and now the younger guys will be better developed. We shall see.

 

If we can't go toe to toe, blow for blow, we'll never be able to impose our will and we won't have the chance to excel.

 

Hard to pick up blitzes and switches your first year in a new system, playing a different position, or next to a player you never played with before. Some of the top OLs in college football have continuity. Think we are 2 years away from that stability on our Ol. Like the recruiting last year and this year. Would like to hit on a 5 star but look like good prospects. Hopefully the new S&L can develop them. Supposed to be one of best in football. Just needs two years to show that growth

 

Maybe, maybe not. On top of the two on field O line coaches, we have 3 off field analysts/coaches who work with the o line, including former gator Chester Blackshear. He could be alluding to the totality of people helping not necessarily the two on field guys.

 

And I messed up. If it’s Calloway, we still have a spot left for a special teams coach.

 

Yeah… Frankly, this is just complete nonsense.

You’re throwing out hot take generalizations about the OL without specific details.

Long term continuity on the OL is more of an NFL thing. The problem there is generally when backups are in or if the OL just isn’t good. College in general has a 20% to 50% turnover on the OL every year. The guys play 3-5 years, then are gone. Now with the portal, the turnover percentage is only going to go up.

You’re also bellyching about recruiting and continuity. You can’t have it both ways. CBN can’t bring in his HS guys unless there’s attrition.

For a specific breakdown on the Gators. They lost 4 players from the 2-deep, 4 out of 10. All four were generally average players. That's not an issue. It’s the normal season to season attrition. It would be an issue if the Gators weren't ready for the attrition, kinda like last season. In 2024, the Gators are replacing the attrition with 2 in-house CBN recruits and two veteran OT additions. All four look like improvements. There's also other CBN recruits looking to compete for two deep spots. All of them (including the rest of OL) are on campus for winter/spring work. When fall camp opens, they’ll be ready.

Lastly, the issue with picking up blitzes and stunts is much more of a talent issue. Torrence had no issues in his one season. Some less talented and/or inexperienced players have the issues. Doesn't matter if they’re new or old.

 

Donzo - Keep with your negative emojis about everything and everyone. You know very little about football and even less about people. I’ve now blocked you and I don’t block anyone. Good riddance.

 

Have some integrity and stop playing the victim card.

 

I think the jury is out on this one. He didn't start on a bad SEC OL although he had some injury issues that may have had some impact. Unless we were getting Braun back, I can't get too excited about an OL transfer from a program whose Oline was a bigger dumpster fire than UF's.

I was much more excited about George who had initially won the job at Bama, but was benched during the year. I thought that it might have been the case of being Tackle 1b at Bama. My Brother was right, unfortunately, and he looks to be more suited to OG.

 

What's this based on? Specifically how is the "jury still out" on him?

I never heard of Manuel until a few days ago. Then I read a couple things, including GCs OL article, watched a couple analysis vidoes, then formed an educated opinion. What I found out was Manuel's movement skills are impressive. For comparisons sake, they're much better than George's. What I realy liked is that his play at LT improved later in the year.

What I discovered was an O-linemen following the developmental path to become an SEC quality starting OT as a rising R-So.

 

I wonder if the offensive line had blocked effectively this year, if we would have an entirely different opinion of Billy‘s playcalling?

 

Probably not tbh, crying about playcalling never stops because the cryers assume any failure of the offense to get a TD can only occur by calling bad plays.

 

The "jury is out" means we don't know if he'll be a good SEC level OT or not. Development is good if it happens, but is also just speculation that it will occur until its not. Waites was thought to be a good developmental player at OT, but has not fulfilled (so far) those expectations. We'll just have to wait and see.

 

The Waites' comp is poor. He was a developmental player at Louisiana before he came to UF. Manuel has already proven to be a quality starting OT in the SEC. An LT at that... As a Soph he had over 400 snaps at LT and his PFF grade was over 70.

So, the jury has spoken.

 

If they have spoken, they only said that he was a part-time starter on an awful line. Does that mean he is awful? No, but we'll have to wait and see if he can play the position at the level that we desperately need. Hopefully he "develops."

 

FWIW, I have a good friend that is an Arky alum and fan. He said Manual was a good OT that showed a lot of promise but struggled with injuries. He said we are getting a good player.

 

I understand that most teams do not have a ST coach, but a position coach assigned to oversee STs. UF and uga are 2 two teams that do not follow that

 

You double downed on the nonsensical. You've gone from a poor Waites comparison to faulty generalizations. I suggest reading up on his situation a little bit. I spent about ten minutes researching him after his transfer and learned a lot. You'll learn about his OL coach leaving, his y/y improvement and a few other things. Once you're a little educated on his situation, I'm sure you'll feel better about him.

The facts are he was a part time starter as much as Barber was a part time starter in 2023. Manuel and Barber had similar seasons as R-sophmores at LT with Manuel grading out on a higher level. Obviously we're still looking for continued improvement as we are with all rising R-Sophmores (Barber, Slaughter, Boone, Sapp, etc.); but, we don't have to "wait and see if he can play the position at the level that we desperately need", because he's already done it. He's one of the top returning LTs in the SEC with a +70 PFF grade.