The Official Offensive Line OL recruiting thread

It's easy to look good at Bama when everyone around you is a 5*.

This was a bad pick to begin with. He had a 2nd or 3rd round grade and Chucky took him in the first.

 

There have been quite a few Bama picks that have underperformed. Bama system and coaching are differentiators

Like Jimbo college QBs that fail in the NFL

 

When you have a ron of 5* players you don't notice a couple duds

 

Whoa!

 

Bears claimed him off waivers.

 

He was from the FL panhandle

 

Obviously there’s a lot of good players at Alabama too but when you play on a stacked team, the players around you do make you better than you really are

 

He’s a hot Roman candle from the Florida panhandle,
He can either go country or pop

 

We are closer to New Orleans in that way. We like it funky

 

Rivals thought highly of him and we fans wanted him badly. Hard to believe 5 years have passed.
Alex Leatherwood, 2017 Offensive Tackle - Rivals.com

 

Not so much the 5-star rating but him being a 1st rnd pick. Though several thought that was too high but getting cut after a year is a big deal.

Maybe after a 1st rnd contract he lost motivation or had character problems. Strange to give up this fast. Couldn't even trade him.

 

I think he’ll be fine.

Poles explains Bears' plan to rebuild 'talented' Leatherwood

 

^^^ but a waiver claim means you’re on the hook for his salary and a costly first round contract. No other team put in a waiver claim. May have been able to pick him up less expensively. Bears helped Raiders cap by picking up off waivers instead of waiting, but perhaps Bears felt he would sign elsewhere, if given choice of programs in free agency.

 

Asking the recruiting experts here saw hilights of Caleb Lomu. Apparently he's a kid from out west (maybe Ariz?) who visited for Utah and is coming back for UK. Any word on how good he is, how high is he on our lists, how is he rated by the usual suspects. What are our odds to get him? Thanks.
I know I can get some of that from searches, but I do appreciate gators in the know with their knowledge.
Edit:I did some more looking and USC and Oregon and Michigan have recently offered, so he must have done well at some camps? UF coming in sort of late, but he is a long way away.

 

Thanks Bobby, that’s the problem with really long threads. I did a GC search but not much turned up.

 

UFs OL dominated Alabama- really?!? Refresh my memory. When did I say that?

What I remember saying is UF had a god SEC line in 2018. A good pass blocking OL in 2020 that was part of a record breaking offense and a good OL in 2021, that manhandled Alabama, before injuries derailed it. Like it was against UGA. I also said it was nonsense that UF didn't mostly recruit well for four cycles on the OL and detailed why it was nonsense.

Interesting how you complained about picking and choosing, then you go ahead and pick and choose, lol... Again, UFs OL was good until the injuries last year. And, if you want to judge OLs by their performance against UGAs 2021 defense, then the NCAA had a league of bad OLs.

Has it been UFs plan to consistently rely on 2 or 3 star recruits on the OL? I've never known UF to do that, so I don't know why you'd state that as a question?!?

Has UF missed on higher ranked O-linemen, then signed lower ranked players they thought they could develop into quality players? Yes. Has that been successful? Yes.

You must have really disliked all those "2 and 3 star" O-linemen in the Swamp last week. Utah and UF had a bunch of them. There was no way they could have dominated the game- just no way.

Just thought of how bad UFs guards are. White and Torrence just might be the lowest rated OG recruits starting for any team in the country.

Anyway... Another thing I mentioned was Doering's comments about Gator fans. Did Doering have a valid point? Yes!

 

Nah. Every fanbase with some history of success is going to have its fair share of obnoxious fans. There are bama fans out there screaming about not having the top recruiting class or god forbid not winning the natty every single year. Doering is obviously closer to Gator fans so of course Gator fans feel the most entitled.

 

If the Oline was Godlike we wouod never have lost a game.

 

Exactly. All fan bases are the same. It’s just human nature.