I went back and watched the game on tape, focusing a lot on Froholdt.
He missed a lot of assignments in his first start.
BUT, if he finds the guy he’s supposed to block, he is GOLDEN.
On the key play of the game, IMO, Walker’s dive on 4th and inches, Froholdt blew up the spot that Walker would go over.
Give him some time to figure out his position and he could be special.
He was completely lost in protecting the passer. Should not surprise. Run behind him and he was good.
Colorado he wasn’t always lost in pass pro. But he was too often. As the previous post indicated…and this was in pass pro and run blocking…if he understood who he was to get…then he got him.
But he was confused by all the slants, blitzes, stunts etc.
I agree with you Red. He has the talent, ability and intelligence. This game was tougher than a normal opener, and an opponent that schemed every weakness we had. Froholdt got picked on but we overcame it and he learned something. Now we have to practice against the stunts from this game since TCU will try to use the same ones.
He is much better than he was in the spring when he was not real good in pass protection. I think he is pretty good in the run game. Someone mentioned the Walker run, but he and Skipper were the lead blockers for Williams’ TD run in the first quarter.
From what I have seen in the replay (and it’s not everything yet), I think he probably graded out OK. It’s easy to forget that he hasn’t been an offensive lineman for very long because of some of the plays that he does make. I would say he’s like a true freshman there, but even true freshmen have played the position before getting to college.
Froholdt has talent but it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better with the kind of D-lines we’ll be facing shortly. That learning curve is going to be expensive and hopefully it doesn’t get Allen killed.
Basically, he just needs to play games. I watched him in run game and he blew some guys up. I mean crushed them. That’s what he has that’s special. I’m sure his head was swimming at some points. His physical ability in the run game is special. There was at least one time that a man came between him and Skipper and they’ve got to help each other. There was no one coming outside Skipper and he could have stepped down and they would have picked up that guy. He saw some stunts that they did not expect. He’ll learn everytime. What the coaches say, he doesn’t generally make the same mistake twice. He just needs to play. The last drive there were quite a few left side runs. They were going behind Skipper and Froholdt.
I agree with this, but it begs the question. Why are we relying on a DL from Denmark starting on the OL? Did one guy leaving early set us back that far? Have we made bad evaluations in recruiting?
I think it’s fair to say there have been some recruiting busts on the offensive line. Reeve Koehler was a 4-star prospect at guard, but never came close to seeing the field. Brian Wallace is bordering on bust.
This guy is a genuine talent and we are fortunate he found his way to the Ozarks.
The reality is that he was making his first start against a decent team that put in place a game plan of exotic blitzes designed to exploit his inexperience.
He will never again be as vulnerable as he was Saturday. We may wind up sending skip a thank you card for prepping him so well so early.
Word is that was by design to take advantage of his inexperience…Skippy, Daddy Lou, et. al have been scheming this for months with this one game in mind
[quote=“MattJones”]
I think it’s fair to say there have been some recruiting busts on the offensive line. Reeve Koehler was a 4-star prospect at guard, but never came close to seeing the field. Brian Wallace is bordering on bust.
[/quote]
I thought Pittman was a recruiting genius when it came to the OL?
[quote=“gonavy”]
He did commit Skipper, Kirkland, Tretola and Ragnow, who have all been or were very good in their careers. And there are some like Merrick who I think have potential. Merrick had a concussion in the preseason that set him back, otherwise he may have pushed Jackson more for the starting tackle job. And we have yet to see Heinrich play. He succeeded more than he failed recruiting linemen.
I would hope he is better than the spring, however he was atrocious in pass protection. I was afraid he was going to get AA hurt with A gap blitzes. As long as he plays, every team will do that. If you are weak up the middle, then you will have a hard time beating good teams
No he needs to sit behind a real OL and learn and not play until he understands. This is not a game for OTJ training of the type he needs. He may be great in a year or two, but we need OL now.
[quote=“MattJones”]
[quote=“gonavy”]
He did commit Skipper, Kirkland, Tretola and Ragnow, who have all been or were very good in their careers. And there are some like Merrick who I think have potential. Merrick had a concussion in the preseason that set him back, otherwise he may have pushed Jackson more for the starting tackle job. And we have yet to see Heinrich play. He succeeded more than he failed recruiting linemen.
[/quote] 4 in three years is not a good recruiter.
A lot of stuff was simple, such as they were just blitzing him inside and he did not step down, hope he can pick that up because, he is a marked man…
word!
Froholdt is a full grown man. He will be a player in time.
And perhaps sooner than some of you think.