Pitt has won a couple recruiting battles, they can't wait to play Penn State. Right now their focus is on Penn State in 2016, it is their super bowl. We are going to hear a lot of trash coming out of the PITT media, twitter, and social media. They have a date circled, you are going to hear a lot about it from now until then. You are going to hear a lot of stuff that is going to piss you off. They are going to attack our coaches, our fans, our school, and everything we love about Penn State. It will get ugly at times and there will be a lot of message board battles, a lot of people banned from BWI and from the PITT boards. Social media will not be worth looking at. Their players will try to intimidate ours, they may try to start something before the game. This is huge for PITT, everything they want comes to them the second game of the year. It is important for us to not try and win the battle on twitter, message boards, social media and press conferences but for us to win the battle between the lines. It will send a message, a clear message. It will be powerful in recruiting. It will mean the negative recruiting out of their head mans mouth will hold little meaning. It has the potential to ruin an entire season for PITT.
Time to dominate the state on the field. Enough crap with losing a 3 star WR to PITT who we wanted to play safety. When we start winning on the field recruiting will take care of itself. In a couple years there won't even be a PSU offer in this circumstance. Sure this class had hit a bumpy road down the stretch but we have a lot of the pieces solidly committed that we needed and have a lot of pieced over the past couple years in house. Our offensive line recruiting has been solid and we have kept them on board. The offense is more then fine moving forward with playmakers. Think about the stable of running backs….Saquon Barkley, Andre Robinson and Miles Sanders. Think about that, almost every college in the nation would trade even up for our 3 top running backs vs theirs. I think Ohio State and Michigan would make that trade as well. WR, Godwin and Hamilton have a ton of experience and both are 1000 yard receivers in the past 2 years. Polk and Thompkins both young and have a ton of speed. We have the twin towers who have received incredible praise thru their redshirt year. I think a lot of teams would love to have Charles and Johnson as redshirt freshman in 2016. We have talented QBs on the roster, they are young but there are young first time starting QBs all over college football who have led their teams to top 5 finishes, national championship games. You never know and can't concede a season or say it is rebuilding anymore because of a new QB…especially with all the weapons around them. There is plenty of talent, Jake had a very impressive offer list and Trace and Tommy have been in the program. They all fit the offense Moorhead wants to run. With all the weapons, the QB should be in a position to be successful, any 3 of them.
This comes down to offensive line.
A) Auburn, Miami, Ohio State, South Carolina,
B) Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio State, Tenn,
C) Michigan State, Ohio State, South Carolina, Wisconsin
D) Baylor, Miami, Ohio State, South Carolina
E) Clemson, Miami, Michigan, South Carolina, Wisconsin
F) Michigan State, Miami, Stanford
G) North Carolina, Northwestern, West Virginia
H) Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Michigan, MSU, Ohio State, Stanford, Tennessee
These are the offer lists from last years recruiting class and the current recruiting class for the offensive lineman. 8 guys that were wanted by some big successful programs. As with QBs, there are offensive lineman who contribute and play early on some top programs. We are starting to get kids who are not projects, or guys who need to add a lot of weight and strength….we are starting to get highly rated guys who are much more ready to play early. I think Menet and Mcgovern are prime examples of this. I also think Gonzo and Bates will show that in the 2016 season. When Franklin took over he had a handful of offensive lineman who might be able to get the job done, he added 2 more converting from DT. His first year he had a rotation of 6 or 7 lineman, some of whom were rushed into action, some of whom who had just made position changes. Tough deal. In year 2 it got a little better but some of the 2 - deep just weren't physically ready for action. Now over the past 2 years we have added 8 really solid lineman to the mix from the list above. Some maybe ready, some may surprise off of redshirt, some may redshirt but we are now starting to get into a position where we actually have a solid 2 deep, some places 3. You can start thinking guys like Sorrel and Beh maybe close physically, weight and strength wise to start pushing those ahead. You have guys who redshirted who will push the action, you have really talented guys coming in who may also push their way into the conversation. Hopefully the days of a guy being injured and moving your center to guard, your guard to tackle musical chairs is over.
That leads us to the coaching. Franklin made some staff changes, Moorhead was the big one. He let go of good friend and offensive coordinator John Donovon. He brought in Moorhead, he also moved Rahne to TEs allowing Moorhead to coach a his normal position of QBs. I think this is a little talked about switch that might be huge…the fundamentals of Hack the last 2 years just weren't good and didn't improve. That makes me question Rahne as a QB coach to some extent. I am glad Moorhead is coaching QBs. Franklin did a nice job replacing Hand with a proven guy who Moorhead certainly pushed for who fits his offensive style. These coaches have to earn their money, the talent is there. You need to develop these kids to play well out of the gates in 2016. The field product has hurt recruiting and we need to dominate the state on the field starting with Pitt and Temple. The word is that Moorhead's offense is simple to learn and execute…it can protect the offensive line. The offensive line has numerous guys who have experience, who have been in the program, and incomers who have big talent. Limegrover needs to get these guys playing at a much higher level then the past 2 years. Word is the zone blocking scheme Limegrover teaches that is utilized in Moorhead's offense is much more simple for lineman to learn. I think over the past 2 years the system has been confusing and players, coaches, head coach weren't all on the same page. To me from the outside and what little I know from people closer, it seems that the changes have put everyone on the same page on the offensive side of the ball.
I am optimistic the coaches will do the job, the players will respond and 2016 will show an upward trajectory even if we aren't ready to battle for the conference championship. That is what I was looking for the past 2 years, not wins and losses but signs that exciting things were on the way. I wanted to see the arrow pointing up as we were showing signs of turning the corner, we didn't see that. We didn't see huge offensive explosions for the most part outside of a couple games, not even against the lesser opponents. The Franklin head coaching job length will be determined by trust of his hires from this point on and the performances of Moorhead, Pry and their assistant coaches.
Time to dominate the state on the field. Enough crap with losing a 3 star WR to PITT who we wanted to play safety. When we start winning on the field recruiting will take care of itself. In a couple years there won't even be a PSU offer in this circumstance. Sure this class had hit a bumpy road down the stretch but we have a lot of the pieces solidly committed that we needed and have a lot of pieced over the past couple years in house. Our offensive line recruiting has been solid and we have kept them on board. The offense is more then fine moving forward with playmakers. Think about the stable of running backs….Saquon Barkley, Andre Robinson and Miles Sanders. Think about that, almost every college in the nation would trade even up for our 3 top running backs vs theirs. I think Ohio State and Michigan would make that trade as well. WR, Godwin and Hamilton have a ton of experience and both are 1000 yard receivers in the past 2 years. Polk and Thompkins both young and have a ton of speed. We have the twin towers who have received incredible praise thru their redshirt year. I think a lot of teams would love to have Charles and Johnson as redshirt freshman in 2016. We have talented QBs on the roster, they are young but there are young first time starting QBs all over college football who have led their teams to top 5 finishes, national championship games. You never know and can't concede a season or say it is rebuilding anymore because of a new QB…especially with all the weapons around them. There is plenty of talent, Jake had a very impressive offer list and Trace and Tommy have been in the program. They all fit the offense Moorhead wants to run. With all the weapons, the QB should be in a position to be successful, any 3 of them.
This comes down to offensive line.
A) Auburn, Miami, Ohio State, South Carolina,
B) Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Mississippi, Ohio State, Tenn,
C) Michigan State, Ohio State, South Carolina, Wisconsin
D) Baylor, Miami, Ohio State, South Carolina
E) Clemson, Miami, Michigan, South Carolina, Wisconsin
F) Michigan State, Miami, Stanford
G) North Carolina, Northwestern, West Virginia
H) Alabama, Auburn, Florida State, Michigan, MSU, Ohio State, Stanford, Tennessee
These are the offer lists from last years recruiting class and the current recruiting class for the offensive lineman. 8 guys that were wanted by some big successful programs. As with QBs, there are offensive lineman who contribute and play early on some top programs. We are starting to get kids who are not projects, or guys who need to add a lot of weight and strength….we are starting to get highly rated guys who are much more ready to play early. I think Menet and Mcgovern are prime examples of this. I also think Gonzo and Bates will show that in the 2016 season. When Franklin took over he had a handful of offensive lineman who might be able to get the job done, he added 2 more converting from DT. His first year he had a rotation of 6 or 7 lineman, some of whom were rushed into action, some of whom who had just made position changes. Tough deal. In year 2 it got a little better but some of the 2 - deep just weren't physically ready for action. Now over the past 2 years we have added 8 really solid lineman to the mix from the list above. Some maybe ready, some may surprise off of redshirt, some may redshirt but we are now starting to get into a position where we actually have a solid 2 deep, some places 3. You can start thinking guys like Sorrel and Beh maybe close physically, weight and strength wise to start pushing those ahead. You have guys who redshirted who will push the action, you have really talented guys coming in who may also push their way into the conversation. Hopefully the days of a guy being injured and moving your center to guard, your guard to tackle musical chairs is over.
That leads us to the coaching. Franklin made some staff changes, Moorhead was the big one. He let go of good friend and offensive coordinator John Donovon. He brought in Moorhead, he also moved Rahne to TEs allowing Moorhead to coach a his normal position of QBs. I think this is a little talked about switch that might be huge…the fundamentals of Hack the last 2 years just weren't good and didn't improve. That makes me question Rahne as a QB coach to some extent. I am glad Moorhead is coaching QBs. Franklin did a nice job replacing Hand with a proven guy who Moorhead certainly pushed for who fits his offensive style. These coaches have to earn their money, the talent is there. You need to develop these kids to play well out of the gates in 2016. The field product has hurt recruiting and we need to dominate the state on the field starting with Pitt and Temple. The word is that Moorhead's offense is simple to learn and execute…it can protect the offensive line. The offensive line has numerous guys who have experience, who have been in the program, and incomers who have big talent. Limegrover needs to get these guys playing at a much higher level then the past 2 years. Word is the zone blocking scheme Limegrover teaches that is utilized in Moorhead's offense is much more simple for lineman to learn. I think over the past 2 years the system has been confusing and players, coaches, head coach weren't all on the same page. To me from the outside and what little I know from people closer, it seems that the changes have put everyone on the same page on the offensive side of the ball.
I am optimistic the coaches will do the job, the players will respond and 2016 will show an upward trajectory even if we aren't ready to battle for the conference championship. That is what I was looking for the past 2 years, not wins and losses but signs that exciting things were on the way. I wanted to see the arrow pointing up as we were showing signs of turning the corner, we didn't see that. We didn't see huge offensive explosions for the most part outside of a couple games, not even against the lesser opponents. The Franklin head coaching job length will be determined by trust of his hires from this point on and the performances of Moorhead, Pry and their assistant coaches.
