I read Tom Murphy’s article today about the back up tackles training and maybe moving to the 2 guard spots. This is what I have a question about:
“St. John, a 330-pound redshirt freshman, switched from left tackle behind Myron Cunningham to compete with Limmer at right guard. Crawford, a 350-pound sophomore, went from backup right tackle behind Dalton Wagner to compete against Latham at left guard.”
I know next to nothing about OL play. Is there a reason that Sam would want to move the back-up LT to RG and the back up RT to LG. That certainly seems backward to me??
I assume the guards were not performing well enough. In my day, guards were usually quicker than tackles but in todays world, guards do not weigh 200 pounds.
Lotsa beef there and after they wrestle 10-12 times the D-line dude will need to take a break. If we can keep the ball for 12 minutes of the fourth quarter, it weighs heavily in our favor. That is if we score some TD"s. Many a game is won in the fourth quarter because your offense dominates time of possession and is able to convert to points.
Sam has always preferred really big OG like we saw Sat with Ga and that’s bc you have to be able to run inside to make the LB’s respect the play action fakes, this is just a way to get bigger people blocking on the 3 interior people of the defense NT,2 LB’s when we run straight ahead which is what you have to do in this league and what Ga did to us and also make it more difficult for LB to blitz A gap.
This will be a work in progress bc it just takes time to get the chemistry/trust down in the run and Pass game…I like the possibilities of them playing OG but not as easy is just putting them there and saying go get em…We will see how much they play Sat.
I would like to know if there is a technical answer as well Harley. I understand the size issue but why switch sides of the line as well as position. Is there something technical about those positions that would require moving to the other side of the center, or just coach preference?
Coach preference. Key point is SP felt St John was further along and where he placed him would in my opinion be Pittmans larger concern or expected benefit compared to the other guard position. What Pittman would really like is for Crawford to be the one best to start at guard but he is behind St John in knowing the things Youdaman has indicated are needed to play–communication, experience ,etc.
SP is also changing his prior instructions to Oline coach on who plays. Since the coach has to make it work ,the move from one Side to other might be accommodation to help him as this is a work in process for all of the members of the o line.
St. John is further along than Crawford, and from the looks of the Georgia game the right side of the line is the bigger concern, so SP probably thought that St.John would be able to provide more help to Wagner. JMO
Billy is the resident OL expert on the board though, so I would defer to his opinion.
I was wondering when someone would actually answer the original question. You and WSOP finally did. I knew the reasoning because an article 2-3 days ago explained it.
Yes. Hawgcotton also made a good stab at the answer. But yes, after reading the first few posts, I went back and reread my post to see if I actually asked the question I thought I asked.
Anyway guys, thanks for all the responses. In the end it does make perfect sense.
Believe it or not, I typed the answer you see here from me much earlier, but for some reason the post didn’t save. I looked at my phone browser and saw my answer still there. I hit send. Sorry.
