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The Way Too Early Look at 2019 Thread

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I think the offensive line is going to surprise some people this year. Brandon Walton seems to be an underrated tackle - how he didn’t earn any CUSA honors at the end of last year shocked me, honestly - and Calvin Ashley, if he’s eligible, is a big addition at right tackle. Etienne showed potential last year and looked good in the spring. I’m really high on Nick Weber at right guard. And with Diaz at center, he just has to do two things: be a competent blocker and not mess up snaps. He does both. 

Twitter: @JakeElman97
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A good center has to do much more than that.  Pre snap reads, take on nose tackle, get to 2nd level and block LB…amongst other things.

There’s hope here, but the difference between our 2019 center and 2017 center is an ocean and it matters.

Teambeer is the most knowledgeable FAU sports fan I know, way smarter than me.
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JakeElman said

I think the offensive line is going to surprise some people this year. Brandon Walton seems to be an underrated tackle - how he didn’t earn any CUSA honors at the end of last year shocked me, honestly - and Calvin Ashley, if he’s eligible, is a big addition at right tackle. Etienne showed potential last year and looked good in the spring. I’m really high on Nick Weber at right guard. And with Diaz at center, he just has to do two things: be a competent blocker and not mess up snaps. He does both. 
Posted On: Jul 14th 2019, 7:25 AM #387222



I thought Calvin Ashley was already on campus taking classes?
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LawOwl said

I thought Calvin Ashley was already on campus taking classes?
Posted On: Jul 14th 2019, 9:02 AM #387224

He is, I meant eligible as in he gets a waiver to play immediately. It sounds like he will, from what I’m hearing. But he’s here, he’s working out with the team. 

If he doesn’t get a waiver, it’ll probably be Marquice Robinson at RT since he took the starting reps all spring. 

Twitter: @JakeElman97
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walty12 said

A good center has to do much more than that.  Pre snap reads, take on nose tackle, get to 2nd level and block LB…amongst other things.

There’s hope here, but the difference between our 2019 center and 2017 center is an ocean and it matters.
Posted On: Jul 14th 2019, 8:46 AM #387223



I agree. What I meant was more I’m not really concerned with Diaz at center. He’s an experienced veteran who was fine last year. Antonyo Woods was great. Can Diaz reach that level? To be seen, but I don’t personally view center as a position I’m concerned about right now. 

Twitter: @JakeElman97
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JakeElman said

I agree. What I meant was more I’m not really concerned with Diaz at center. He’s an experienced veteran who was fine last year. Antonyo Woods was great. Can Diaz reach that level? To be seen, but I don’t personally view center as a position I’m concerned about right now. 
Posted On: Jul 14th 2019, 5:00 PM #387226

Agreed. He can do the job well enough.

I've been more interested in hearing health and status of Harrison, Mitchell, Wright, NG1, NG2 and so on. Whether Robison shows improvement or if Tronti shows enough Driskel. And as far as walk-ons go, will one of these new kickers be our new kicker…what's his face has a long of 52, so, OK? And did we make enough/the right changes to the staff on defense (because I believe in the talent there, and that, last year was not representative of what they can do)?
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Art Vandelay said

JakeElman said

I agree. What I meant was more I’m not really concerned with Diaz at center. He’s an experienced veteran who was fine last year. Antonyo Woods was great. Can Diaz reach that level? To be seen, but I don’t personally view center as a position I’m concerned about right now. 
Posted On: Jul 14th 2019, 5:00 PM #387226

Agreed. He can do the job well enough.

I've been more interested in hearing health and status of Harrison, Mitchell, Wright, NG1, NG2 and so on. Whether Robison shows improvement or if Tronti shows enough Driskel. And as far as walk-ons go, will one of these new kickers be our new kicker…what's his face has a long of 52, so, OK? And did we make enough/the right changes to the staff on defense (because I believe in the talent there, and that, last year was not representative of what they can do)?
Posted On: Jul 14th 2019, 6:50 PM #387227



I agree Art. I think we know we have one of the better Defenses in the conference  but the question is going to come down to how well the O performs. Can the WR corps stay healthy? Can we at least fill half the void left by Kerrith and Motor at RB? Can we have a mature decision making leader at QB? Too many questions to be answered IMO but we will see. I don’t doubt we have the talent to get it done but whether it can all stay healthy enough to come together and gel is the question. We had a lot of question marks heading into 2017 as well and look at how that turned out 
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I'm very optimistic about parts of the OL. Ettiene showed last year he can be very effective. Walton is great. Weber is good and I hope the staph infection is done. We should have the Auburn transfer which sounds promising. But the play of our C was not fine last year. You can't just say it'll be fine. We have 2018 which shows a huge dropoff in the OL. It was most likely due to the C (and man to his immediate right  :Laughing: ). I'm going to be realistic and assume this will cost us games again. If I'm the coach I'm trying to find my C for the future. I recall an article several months ago talking about how the 2 grad transfers at C and RG did a solid job in 2018. After I stopped laughing, I very much took offense to that opinion. Because I think they were so atrocious they cost us games. I think I was watching a different team perhaps 
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jgf2017 said

I'm very optimistic about parts of the OL. Ettiene showed last year he can be very effective. Walton is great. Weber is good and I hope the staph infection is done. We should have the Auburn transfer which sounds promising. But the play of our C was not fine last year. You can't just say it'll be fine. We have 2018 which shows a huge dropoff in the OL. It was most likely due to the C (and man to his immediate right  :Laughing: ). I'm going to be realistic and assume this will cost us games again. If I'm the coach I'm trying to find my C for the future.
Posted On: Jul 15th 2019, 1:33 AM #387229

Lane better, Diaz is on his sixth year…

I'm not sure if anyone is arguing that there was or wasn't a drop-off in the OL from 2017 to 2018. I think the real argument is that we had at least four more-pressing matters that lead to our downfall (I used "that" twice in one sentence, already three times total and I hate myself).

I feel pretty good about the line this year, especially when you extend that(!) out to Bryant (and Raine?).

We had two freshman; one at a position no one takes for granted and one in a position almost everyone takes for granted. If Robison progresses, or Tronti wins-out, (logic insists) it's an improvement. And it wasn't just the kicks we missed, it was the kicks we chose not to take. Same-same. Receiver play. And a philosophical shift from (a working) "keep it in front of you" defense, to "attack, attack, attack"(which maybe didn't work so much?).

It's too bad our money-game starts the year. We might not really know where we stand until UCF (…maybe not until conference play?).
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All the questions being raised are valid to me.

MY question is has our young 2nd year OC learned and improved. My concern was and still is until shown otherwise this year, the AWFUL 2nd half drop off on the O side of the ball, especially in HOME games.

Was this just a fluke, an anomaly, a coincidence? Or was/is this a real problem, being outcoached in the 2nd halves of games, meaning better half time adjustments, better half time motivation, not keeping the pedal to the metal to put teams away?

That was worse than the D falling off a lot last year, which WAS at least partly due to these 2nd half failures on the O.

I tell ya guys, I am gonna really HATE seeing the FSU O explode this year under Briles if ours struggles to put up points again. I know we did not drop off that far in yards, but POINTS are all that matters. Ya gotta finish the drives.

Here's to praying that Coach K's boy genius OC improves as much as some of the players do! Go Owls!!!!
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