Only 3 things speak to the truth. Small children, drunk people, yoga pants.
Under the radar players
- Thread starter leodisflowers
- Start date
Line 1, yes. Again, with the shitshow under Floss what good lineman would give NU a second look? Not one, and not Donovan's fault.
Line 2, Corc was forced into other positions on the line which were not his natural positions, due to injuries. Not Donovan's fault.
Line 3, you can call it an outlier, or more rationally, if DR stays upright due to the line it's because the line is improved under Donovan.
Line 4, if DR has to run for his life (see AM under Austin) all season, point to you. If he generally has time, point to Donovan.
Like I said, let's revisit this after Donovan has three years with his recruits. The lines for the last few years have been shit but if the line gets better.....well, that context thing.
I'm adding 18 y/o Swedish coeds who have bad judgement and know only one word of English: Okay!
last year Uncle Donnie's line produced the worst sack/attempt ratio in the country.
the only time Satt has had a QB of DR's caliber he was sacked at a top 20 rate.
allow me to adjust my statement: it's not only very likely DR is running for his life this year, it would be an actual miracle if he's not
especially since we don't have a consistent running game to take any heat off him
Well, yes. Context: he inherited players he didn't recruit who had abysmal conditioning. I'm not defending the line's performance last year because it was (almost) indefensible. But-----context------we also had QBs who couldn't make a pass to save their lives. Makes a team one-dimensionable and dead simple to figure out. That is not HH's fault but he was not a threat to pass and everyone knew it and so loaded the box ALL SEASON LONG. That'll play hell with your offensive stats.
you keep saying he inherited bad players. I don't disagree.
yet, he still cannot replace them after 3 recruiting cycles (context)
army and air force were each sacked less often per pass attempt than we were, and they're the most one-dimensional teams on the planet (more context)
can anyone even list who's up next at each tackle spot? Gottula seems to be one, then it's a big question mark - especially at LT. Brix is a popular name, but he has basically zero pass pro experience. who else?
Agreed he's had three recruiting cycles but I'm doing something you don't want to do: give him a mulligan on that first cycle. I won't regurgitate why I'm not faulting him on that first cycle, and I grant that another contributing factor in that first cycle was: who the hell is Donovan Raiola? Floss picking him out of relative obscurity caused good lineman to look at him and say "pass". I have zero beefs with that because it's a good argument but I'm also not holding that against Donovan. It was what it was. Again, adding context, Donovan wasn't responsible for the shitshow that made good linemen look elsewhere.
RE: Army and AF, neither team dealt with a new Oline coach and chances are both teams were better conditioned that NU. Also, not gonna research this but I'm guessing that neither of those teams had to deal with a lack of QBs who could actually complete a pass. That inability made it easy for every opponent NU faced to load the box because they knew our QBs had to run. Sacks become pretty simple, and context explains that.
As for Guttula, he would never start under Uncle Milt because back then our lines weren't replaced, they reloaded. But one indisputable difference between then and now? Milt had a culture in place for years, and that's why I'm giving Donovan three years of his recruits to get it done. It's just intellectually lazy to say a line (or team) culture can be fully flipped in one year.
Uncle Donnie was not a "new OL coach" last year. he was a 2nd year OL coach. he was hired in Dec of 2021.
Army completed just 50.6% of its passes last year. Air Force 52.4%. We completed 52.1%.
the transfer portal has existed during each of Uncle Donnie's 3 recruiting cycles here. we have had immediate playing time available to pitch during each of his 3 seasons here.
again, this is not a one year flip. it's his 3rd season running that room.
I honestly don't know which of his high school recruits will even play next year, much less this year, so I'm not sure what you'll be able to judge.
we will have to hit the portal hard, especially at tackle.
These are reasons, not excuses: he had never been an Oline coach at a single high profile job; I would be surprised if the service academies had to deal with overcoming poor culture, poorly conditioned linemen or trying to overcome a stupid number of injuries to starting linemen.
Our center came from the portal.
He has had TWO seasons, and under him Benhart went from being a thud to potential stud.
