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It’s always great to see young men from Arkansas have a good game for the hogs!
It’s also nice to see a walk on start
Playing Clary will wake up some of these upperclassmen or not, but it’s sure good to see freshman with the desire and drive we saw last night. WPS
Very happy for him and it really appears he was under recruited. Still, what does it say about the previous Oline recruiting and development when a walkon Freshman can come in and take a starting spot? That is the question I would like answered. It is one thing to look good against FL A&M, but a whole nother issue against SEC types. It is extremely difficult to win in the SEC with a Freshman starting in the Oline, be he walk on or 5 star.
Your progarm, especially at “Oline U” needs to have the depth to be filled with Jrs., and better yet, Srs. and 5th year Srs. Exceptions of course, and hopefully this is one, but after what I saw last night, I am very concerned. No way should our QB have been rushed like that or sacked, and there were several no gain or losses in the run game.
Let’s wait until after the next game to make some decisions. I saw some not so good things in the OL on one hand, but I also saw very good things, too.
I think calling Ty a walk-on is a bit misleading because he was given a scholarship, to start in January. That was creative recruiting by Bielema. He planned it. The only way to do that is not to recruit in the school. And, they made a decision not to recruit two other Fayetteville players (signed by Missouri) because they really wanted to add Clary without counting in that class. If they had go in the school to recruit those two (and they didn’t want them), then they could not bring in Clary as a blue shirt. It’s a very interesting development in recruiting to walk a tight rope on the rules.
Bielema said last winter that Clary was a player that was under recruited and missed by everyone. But not by the Arkansas staff.
But to say that they have missed on some of their offensive line signings would be correct. So the entire right side of the offensive line (Johnny Gibson and Ty Clary) was not signed as an initial counter. Also, Hjalte Froholdt, the left guard, did not have an offensive line offer (because he was a defensive tackle). Colton Jackson was not heavily recruited either.
Clay: all this stuff with Ty Clary has me a bit miffed. How can a true freshman offensive guard, whose understanding of the schemes/protections would be soft (understandably), beat out older, experienced players like Raulerson, et al? Is he a clearly better physical talent than the others? Is this promotion likely to stick or is this a way of motivating some older offensive lineman into playing better? Why does an experienced offensive tackle like Wallace need an earpiece in his helmet so coaches can tell him what to do? Presumably, he has been able to pass college-level academic work for some years now, so it seems like he would be able to pick up the football stuff after a while. I guess what I am saying is that I cannot figure all of this out.
The walk on that started was Gibson! And he is from Arkansas also! Everyone knows Clary is a blue shirt. That is if you’ve paid attention to the recruiting class.
We have to be honest about the recruiting by Pittman after the Kirkland class. Ragnow is the only one that Pittman signed since that has played to the potential. Anderson has picked up some good kids that aren’t 4 or 5 stars, yet they are carrying the load for us with Ragnow. Johnny Gibson and Clary have both played well enough to have supplanted Wallace. Malone and Ramirez were JC guys we signed for depth and hoped would blossom. Both of them have been passed by Clary too. Pittman’s oline at UGA has had problems last year too.
If you’re being honest, you also have to be honest about recruiting in the OL since Anderson got here. And you have to honest about the Oline development and performance since he arrived. Since we’re “being honest”…
First class was Malone, Ramirez, Heinrich, Raulerson (who will count against our 85 for two years just like the juco guys). All four have been passed by a true freshman blue-shirt. Lots to be desired in this class, let’s be honest. All from Anderson and none of them are “carrying the load”.
The second class was Kirby Adcock, Clenin, Wagner, Clary. None were highly touted, we will see how they turn out. Adcock’s offers were Iowa St., So. Miss, Ark. ST., La Tech… Clenin’s offers were Northwestern, Iowa St., New Mexico, Colorado St…Wagner’s offers were Missouri, Cal., Virginia, Purdue, Ill., Vandy, Indiana. These guys are young and we’ll see how they develop but each of them have been on campus since January with Anderson, Herb, etc. and all of them just got passed by a blue-shirt that has been on campus since summer school…Since we’re being honest, let’s be honest about who all we beat for this group. Time will tell how they turn out, not you telling us over and over how great they are on a message board. All of them but Clary have been on campus for 8 months and Clary comes in during the summer and passes them all. That concerns me.
How about coaching up some of the guys that you were telling us how great they were a year ago. You know, guys like Zach Rogers, who has been touted as the best high school center in the country around here for 4 years now, why can’t Anderson get him on the field? We beat some big schools to get Merrick, why can’t Anderson coach him up enough to crack the top 5 lineman in two years?
Who are “kids that Anderson has picked up that are carrying the load for us”? I give you Clary, who else (that has Anderson picked up) that is “carrying the load for us”?
I’m disappointed in the development of Rogers, Merrick, Heinrich, Malone, Ramirez, Wallace, and Raulerson. All of whom, have been in the system a number of years and just got passed up by a true freshman who has been on campus a month. Why can’t Anderson develop any of these guys? Most of them were highly recruited, why can’t they get on the field?
As far as the starters development, I haven’t watched the game in detail watching each player on every play but the play from the starters was spotty as well. Ragnow was great, I watched Clary quite a bit and thought he played well, I thought Froholdt looked much improved. Gibson got lost a few times, but playing RT, that is to be expected. After all the raving from you and others about Colton Jackson and “how improved he is”, he had a few major busts that get QB’s sent to hospital, cause turnovers, kill drives, etc. You can’t have your LT having lapses like that and expect to keep your QB upright and to win games. It seems like he loses focus, stays in his stance a split second too long and lets DT playing head up cross his face and disrupt plays, let a DE of this caliber speed rush him and cause an INT. Colton has to get better quickly or it’s going to a long, long year for Austin and all of us.
FAMU is not a power FCS team. They got beat 70-3 last year by Miami. They are 6-18 under Alex Wood. To find great players from FAMU you have go back to Bob Hayes, Nate Newton, etc. They have been down for some time. Our Oline should not struggle with these guys.
The jury is still out on Anderson. I hope we show improvement. I hope he starts to develop some of these guys and it translates into wins for the Hogs.
One thing I was happy about when Coach B got the job was his dominant OL at Wisky.
So far it hasn’t translated here at Arkansas, if we’re being honest.
It’ll be interesting to see if they can get it figured out in year 5.
I for one am not gonna freak out about Clary. Unlike some instances in the past, there are other options. Raulerson for one. Obviously using 4* Wallace.
And he seems to have beaten them all out. Does that mean those other kids are all terrible? Or that Clary is damn good? Something in-between? Time will tell. But I rewatched the game last night and kept my eye on him alot. He played very well. Against a weak opponent yes. But I am hopeful we have found ourselves a stud. We shall see.
I know it was second team and late in the game against a beat-down, inferior opponent, but the second-string line did take the ball down the field with Cole Kelley at QB for the last score. The depth on the line may be better than in the past. Glass half full?
I think the depth on the o-line is definitely better than in the past few years actually. Which is why I am not freaking about about Clary.
I don’t think Wallace is a terrible player. Neither is Raulerson. Zach Rogers. Clary is clearly seen as being better than those guys. Or deserved the start based on his play anyway. He’s a freshman that has come in and just may be special. Just like Chase Haydon is obviously special. When a skill player comes in and beats out older players, we tend to not freak out. Because we are all better at assessing a special skill player. We don’t freak out when a 4 or 5 star comes in, like Sosa, and beat out older players. ts “expected.” But there seems to be some freak out with Clary. Let’s tap the brakes and recognize that 1)its harder to evaluate high school o-lineman…so there are always more misses and under-recruited success stories there, and 2) Clary might just be special. Like Sosa is special.
Let’s at least wait and see.
Clary at left tackle? Seems size-wise he fits better there anyway.
You make some fair points. But, of all our positions of typical strength, OL is one that I don’t really think you can look at the recruiting rankings and gleen much (aside from the proverbial can’t miss guys).
We were ecstatic over highly rated guys Merrick and Brian Wallace and they’ve done nothing.
Ragnow was rated similar to the OLs in the last group that they seem to like but you don’t seem to because of rankings.
The biggest gripe I have is with the Juco and Grad transfer OLs Anderson has brought in. They haven’t made a dent.
I agree, Merrick and Wallace were very highly rated and they’ve done nothing. That’s my issue with development, they had offers from Florida St., Bama, why can’t Anderson get them on the field.
I also agree with you recruiting rankings aren’t the end all in Olinemen, but the offers certainly give you an indication of what coaches think about a prospect.
I think the first group Anderson brought in was very weak. The jury is still out on the second, true freshman group. I don’t dislike them, they are just unproven. It does bother me, they have been in the system since January, and they were the one’s our coaches liked best and offered, then Clary walks in a month ago and passes them all. Can Anderson develop them, that’s the question. He hasn’t done it with Malone, Raulerson, Ramirez, Rogers, Merrick.
I do believe Frank was a higher rated recruit than any in our last class but I don’t recall his offers specifically. You could be correct.
I hope we see some of these guys start developing on the Oline.
I’m still very concerned about LT.
You guys make great points and I partially agree with some points. I just don’t agree with the level of disdain towards some players development. I am not worried about the recent Oline class of Adcock, Clenin, Wagner and Clary. Heinrich still is a very young player. Raulerson was on a badly injured ankle last year so I think he did pretty good in spite of that. His injury was bad enough it allowed Gibson to play. If all these players had desire AND talent like Gibson, Froholdt and Clary; then Anderson would look like a stud developer.
I watched the game again, and I came away impressed with Clary. Zac Rogers is a good player that is stuck behind an ALL AMERICAN. You don’t move a center to another position unless you have to, and Zac is too short for a long term move to the other positions. I know they brought them in as depth but I am not impressed with Malone BUT Ramirez is the 2nd string LT. As for Merrick and Wallace, I am at a loss for words about their talent and lack of desire. Sometimes the psyche is what holds a player back, and that is the worst talent for redevelopment. The jury is still out on Coach Anderson but I think he is doing fine. He was an NFL coach so he has not been recruiting a region to develop an existing network of HS Coach relationships.
I watched Ty Clary a lot because I really didn’t even know he was on the radar. I thought he was a development prospect. But his technique and leverage looked really sharp. When Clary got his hands on a defender he was relentless. I’m impressed. I’ll bet he graded out well in the game.
I saw things in our first game that made my 9-3 prediction for the year appear way too optimistic… but to listen to the whining about how terrible it was to see a grey shirt starting on the OL just baffles me. Talk about looking for something to complain about…
Look, CBB has always said he doesn’t recruit because of how many stars you have, and I sure hope that is not how we allocate playing time. They have to earn it. Appears this young man has earned it. Seems like to me but that should be a positive for the program. After all, who expected s to get a starter from a grey shirt in his first year.
The protection concerned me, but first games are hard to judge… especially against inferior competition. I actually thought AA was part of the problem and needs to listen to the clock in his head to get rid of the ball sooner. He never seemed in rhythm… almost like it was his first game.
There are some issues to resolve for sure, but I don’t think ringing our hands because we found a possible diamond to n the ruff is one of them.
We’ll know more after next week…