In reply to TheDuke!!!
TheDuke!!! said:
It definitely seems like posters on BearInsider favor the skilled positions over the OL. Even the list containing chancellors and ADs got more attention than this one.
The skilled position thread even contains angry false accusations against me! No one cares enough about the o-line to say aggressive and stupid things on this particular thread.
This probably has something to do with why our O-lines have sucked so badly under Dykes and Wilcox. But I am not smart enough to figure out the precise connection between internet apathy and hogs on the line.
If anything, I tend to think the posters in the FB board really want to see some solid line play, the problem is that with the last two HCs, that hasn't been as developed. Leaving aside that there's a much smaller pool of talented big men who can play football at the D-1 P5/4 level than there are skilled position players who can do the same, there's the simple matter that our last HC and current HC only really seem to coach one side of the football. That obviously makes it much more difficult to recruit the bigs for the other side of the ball. Even when it comes to recruiting for their side of the football, these two coaches haven't always been so great.
Dykes's offense was really Tony Franklin's, where big strong OL was not as crucial as quick OL. The OL were taught to play from a higher stance and with their hands up at the snap. (I may not know much about football, but that's antithetical to how most OL play as it leads to being out leveraged by the DL). I think the idea there was that the OL was supposed to be quick and agile enough to get to their blocking assignments for passing plays. Unfortunately, this also meant the opposing teams' DLs were getting lower and winning the trenches on running plays.
As for Sonny's defense, I think that's best summed up with "What defense?" Dykes was able to attract talented players, but was unable to coach them up on defense. Case in point, Dykes brought in future unanimous All-American Evan Weaver. However, Weaver played as a reserve defensive end under Dykes. When Wilcox took over in 2017, he moved Weaver to linebacker, where the latter flourished.
Under Wilcox, the defense made substantial initial progress, but has regressed in recent years. Some of this may be chalked up to Wilcox's inability to recruit DL depth, which makes it hard to overcome injuries to the DL. However, Wilcox has recruited LBs pretty well; this may be because he was a LB in his playing days and is better able at recognizing potential LB talent. Or it could be that the best DL players don't believe our DL coaches can develop them into the next Cameron Jordan or Tyson Alualu.
On the offensive side, it's been pretty apparent that Wilcox either (1) has no clue what he's doing, (2) handed over the reins to his OCs, or (3) a combination of 1 and 2. As a result, he's unable to attract the talent we need on the OL. Of course, it doesn't help that OL is one of the hardest groups of players for whom to predict collegiate success. Big young studs who regularly pancaked smaller HS opponents may struggle against playing opponents as large as they.
