Spring’s 4-Deep OL

Pads were on yesterday. Should get some reports. Good stuff on Waites and Jones's improved conditioning and movement skills.

 

HOW IS THE OL DEVELOPING? | Page 8 | Swamp Gas Forums

 

HOW IS THE OL DEVELOPING? | Page 8 | Swamp Gas Forums

 

Some OL stuff at 1:55. Not much... Kinda see how BCD moves and a look at Westphal in pads.

 

3/19 (3rd practice) Update: This is an accuarte depth chart for the drills to start practice.

RT: 65-Brandon Crenshaw-Dickson R-Sr; 63-Caden Jones R-Fr; 55-Mike Williams Fr.

RG: 70-Damien George R-Jr; 53- Bryce Lovett R-Fr;60 Chase Stevens* R-Fr.

OC: 66- Jake Slaughter R-Jr; 71- Roderick Kearney R-Fr; 64-Riley Simonds; 59-Hayden Clem* R-Jr.

LG: 77-Knijeah Harris So; 56- Christian Williams R-So; 74- Noel Portnjagin F; 72-Bryan Rosenberg* R-Fr.

LT: 75-Kamryn Waites R-Jr; 57-Devon Manuel R-Jr; 68-Fletcher Westphal F; 73-Mark Pitts* R-Jr.

90-Connor Homa* R-Fr- practicing with DTs.
58- Austin Barber R-Jr- no contact, not in team drills.

Waites as LT1 is very interesting. I don’t remember him playing on the left side at all the past two years. It’s for a couple drills, so who knows what it means. It’s good he’s getting those reps though. By all accounts he’s moving better this spring than he has since arriving in 2022.

Want to see if Williams, Kearney, Lovett and Jones are ready for PT this year. Like Slaughter and Barber showed they were in the spring of 2022.

This is Williams 3rd season; he played some last year and graded out well. He should be ready for consistent PT. It appears both Kearney and Jones have physically improved. Kearney gained 15-20 lbs and now has the size to play while Jones lost around 15 lbs. Looks to be in much better shape.

 

100% agree.

Even better is I think the OL can still be good without Barber. Where as last year it was just bad without him.

 

It's a nonissue. Depth charts and rotations in early spring mean next to nothing. It’s just about practice and installations of the playbook. I saw it as a reward for a returning upperclassman who worked very hard to get in the best shape of his life. It means nothing in regards to Manuel’s evaluation.

Normally, for a look at what the OL depth chart might be against UM, the last two scrimmages would have been a good indicator. But, with Barber and now Waites out, we’ll have to see what happens in fall camp. Although I’m sure CBN will discuss it after the spring game.

 

Liked the Slaughter comments. The same thing could have been said about Barber, and from what I understand, Manuel too.

Slaughter and Barber struggled against Utah in G1 Of 2023, then played well the rest of the year. Slaughter was basically as good as any center in the country after the Utah game. Barber wasn’t the same after he hurt his arm against LSU, but still showed he was a quality SEC LT when healthy.

Evaluations on Manuel were inline with Barber and Slaughter. He played just over 400 snaps at LT for Arkansas. His last 200 snaps were reportedly noticeably better than his first 200 snaps.

 

Well, the first ⅓ of spring is in the books. Not a lot of info from the last two practices. Things pickup from here as we’ll have a scrimmage every week the next three weeks culminating with the spring game on 4/13.

Waite hurting his calf stinks, but as CBN said it gives the young guy more reps. It also highlights how much better the OT depth is this year.

Hope to get some good info on Lovett. All I know about him is he’s OG4, has good size and some athleticism.