And you said there were "tons of examples of successful 8 man programs moving up to 11 man and seeing no drop off", because "it's the same game and it's all just blocking, tackling, catching and throwing."
So I guess I don't get how you say that, and provide no examples btw, and I am supposed to interpret that as comparing 8 man to the BIG?
We would agree that D1 to BIG, or C2 to BIG, would result in the same, overwhelming, complexity and skill jump.....but you didn't say that. You never specified class or jumps to college. Just 8 man to 11 man.
So I agree with you, that it's still a massive skill jump and it's overwhelming whether D1 or C2. Wouldn't matter.
I dont agree with you that 8 man and 11 man are the same game and that it doesn't make a difference whether he played 8 or 11....Those games are so different, I would argue that it still matter when you're not used to their being 2 more OL on the field, true TEs on the field, even basic things like seeing zone vs man defenses(not saying reading a specific coverage, but even just game planning for a true zone), etc. An athlete like him, would probably still play multiple positions at a lot of levels of 11 man ball, but he'd also probably have got to spend a lot more time at a specific position.