2008 Projected Lineup

[TRUTH D. Antagonist]

we need some big 350 pounders on the OL for next season.

the 6 projected starters (guess Bret wasnt sure whether Huners or Sims would get the starting RT spot) average 301 pounds.

Huners is 290, Sims is 265. 

losing Clebert at NT bothers me as well.  this team needs a balance of size to go with its speed, and while McClain is big, he gives up 6 pounds to Clebert while being 2-3 inches taller.

[usfgrad84]

we need some big 350 pounders on the OL for next season.

the 6 projected starters (guess Bret wasnt sure whether Huners or Sims would get the starting RT spot) average 301 pounds.

Huners is 290, Sims is 265. 

losing Clebert at NT bothers me as well.  this team needs a balance of size to go with its speed, and while McClain is big, he gives up 6 pounds to Clebert while being 2-3 inches taller.

I think this is where people just don't get it.  You can wish for a big 350 pounder to come in right away and play.  This is not the NFL with free agency.  You can bring in as many 4  and 5 star big boys you want.  They won't be truly ready to make a substantial contribution without mistakes for 2 years.  Even if they are that big, do you truly think they will come in from a HS program where they run about 7 to 10 plays against lesser competition and completely understand a more sophisticated offense and learn how to play against BCS caliber speed and strength?  Very silly assumptions.

For some reason people think you get high school kids to come in as big, fast, strong and understanding the game as soon as they get here in August.  It's very rare that even the best 5 star recruits come in and make an immediate impact as soon as they arrive here.  There is a lot to be said about experience.  No matter how good they are, most players (with a rare exception) red shirt for a reason and thats for all positions. 

Our BCS caliber recruits are just going into their JR years next year.  We will continue to get better and better recruits. 

Say what you want about getting pushed around by Oregon.  Say what you want about Ford being a 5 star recruit.  Then come back to the reality that they had about a dozen 4 and 5 star kids that had been in the program for 3 and 4 years playing against the top competition in the country.  They had time to physically and mentally develop.  Jonathon Stewart was a star recruit in his 3rd and 4th year in their program.  2005 was his freshman year and he gained a whopping 188 yards. As a true Freshman that hadn't really played football in two years.  he still gained 645 yards.  Most places he would have redshirted.  Same with Taylor. 

The future is bright for this team.  Silly to get bent out of shape about one game or even a couple of the other losses when we had sometimes 7 freshman plus another 2 or 3 sophomores playing on offense at the same time like we did in a few other games.  We got outcoached against oregon, plain and simple.  I guarantee it won't be the last time and I also guarantee that Leavitt and Wally will do some outcoaching too.

[DELdaBull]

we need some big 350 pounders on the OL for next season.

the 6 projected starters (guess Bret wasnt sure whether Huners or Sims would get the starting RT spot) average 301 pounds.

Huners is 290, Sims is 265. 

losing Clebert at NT bothers me as well.  this team needs a balance of size to go with its speed, and while McClain is big, he gives up 6 pounds to Clebert while being 2-3 inches taller.

I think this is where people just don't get it.  You can wish for a big 350 pounder to come in right away and play.  This is not the NFL with free agency.  You can bring in as many 4  and 5 star big boys you want.  They won't be truly ready to make a substantial contribution without mistakes for 2 years.  Even if they are that big, do you truly think they will come in from a HS program where they run about 7 to 10 plays against lesser competition and completely understand a more sophisticated offense and learn how to play against BCS caliber speed and strength?  Very silly assumptions.

For some reason people think you get high school kids to come in as big, fast, strong and understanding the game as soon as they get here in August.  It's very rare that even the best 5 star recruits come in and make an immediate impact as soon as they arrive here.  There is a lot to be said about experience.  No matter how good they are, most players (with a rare exception) red shirt for a reason and thats for all positions. 

Our BCS caliber recruits are just going into their JR years next year.  We will continue to get better and better recruits. 

Say what you want about getting pushed around by Oregon.  Say what you want about Ford being a 5 star recruit.  Then come back to the reality that they had about a dozen 4 and 5 star kids that had been in the program for 3 and 4 years playing against the top competition in the country.  They had time to physically and mentally develop.  Jonathon Stewart was a star recruit in his 3rd and 4th year in their program.  2005 was his freshman year and he gained a whopping 188 yards. As a true Freshman that hadn't really played football in two years.  he still gained 645 yards.  Most places he would have redshirted.  Same with Taylor. 

The future is bright for this team.  Silly to get bent out of shape about one game or even a couple of the other losses when we had sometimes 7 freshman plus another 2 or 3 sophomores playing on offense at the same time like we did in a few other games.  We got outcoached against oregon, plain and simple.  I guarantee it won't be the last time and I also guarantee that Leavitt and Wally will do some outcoaching too.

We only run 7 plays anyway

[TRUTH D. Antagonist]

I think this is where people just don't get it.  You can wish for a big 350 pounder to come in right away and play.  This is not the NFL with free agency.  You can bring in as many 4  and 5 star big boys you want.  They won't be truly ready to make a substantial contribution without mistakes for 2 years.  Even if they are that big, do you truly think they will come in from a HS program where they run about 7 to 10 plays against lesser competition and completely understand a more sophisticated offense and learn how to play against BCS caliber speed and strength?  Very silly assumptions.

For some reason people think you get high school kids to come in as big, fast, strong and understanding the game as soon as they get here in August.  It's very rare that even the best 5 star recruits come in and make an immediate impact as soon as they arrive here.  There is a lot to be said about experience.  No matter how good they are, most players (with a rare exception) red shirt for a reason and thats for all positions. 

Our BCS caliber recruits are just going into their JR years next year.  We will continue to get better and better recruits. 

Say what you want about getting pushed around by Oregon.  Say what you want about Ford being a 5 star recruit.  Then come back to the reality that they had about a dozen 4 and 5 star kids that had been in the program for 3 and 4 years playing against the top competition in the country.  They had time to physically and mentally develop.  Jonathon Stewart was a star recruit in his 3rd and 4th year in their program.  2005 was his freshman year and he gained a whopping 188 yards. As a true Freshman that hadn't really played football in two years.  he still gained 645 yards.  Most places he would have redshirted.  Same with Taylor. 

The future is bright for this team.  Silly to get bent out of shape about one game or even a couple of the other losses when we had sometimes 7 freshman plus another 2 or 3 sophomores playing on offense at the same time like we did in a few other games.  We got outcoached against oregon, plain and simple.  I guarantee it won't be the last time and I also guarantee that Leavitt and Wally will do some outcoaching too.

whoa, slow your roll with all that "people just dont get it" crap, skippy.

i've had just about enough of the pompous condescending remarks from members on this forum towards people they don't agree with.

NOWHERE did i say it would be easy to simply pull a few 350 pounders out of Leavitt's @$$. 

NOWHERE did i say a fully prepared, BCS-calibre 350 lb lineman was just waiting to be discovered and inserted into the starting lineup.

those were faulty inferences that YOU made, and proceeded to rant about for 5 paragraphs.

all i said is more size on the lines is what we NEED.

it may not come next year or the year after, but it's no secret USF recruits based on speed.  it's time to start adding some bulk to the lines. 265 lb. guards aint gonna cut it when we run into massive lines like Oregon's.

BTW- high school is not the only option.  there is also JuCo and transfers from other programs that are possibilities as well.  if i recall, a big time OLineman almost transferred in from FSU, but it fell thru.  never know who might be looking at USF.

[usfgrad84]

we need some big 350 pounders on the OL for next season.

the 6 projected starters (guess Bret wasnt sure whether Huners or Sims would get the starting RT spot) average 301 pounds.

Huners is 290, Sims is 265. 

losing Clebert at NT bothers me as well.  this team needs a balance of size to go with its speed, and while McClain is big, he gives up 6 pounds to Clebert while being 2-3 inches taller.

It was not directed solely at you BigBully.  It gets tiresome reading on here constantly that one simple move here and there would bring us to another level.  The top line of your post above states that we need to bring in some 350 pound OL for NEXT YEAR.  A lot people were ******** and complaining that Ford should have been more involved in the offense.  I was one of them, but the reality is he clearly wasn't ready to carry the load.  There is simply a lot of people here that either don't really understand what it takes to develop football and what it takes to create a Natiionally competitive team and then they rant and rave like the world is collapsing when we lose some games.

As soon as we lose, a lot of people get on the fire Gregory rant.  Yeah he called a few bad games, but there were also a few games that could be blamed on personnel issues.  I like to deal with the rality of things and the reality is we are an up and coming team that won some big games early, got ranked way higher than we deserved and then everyone thought we were the next national powerhouse.  We aren't there yet.  We still need to learn how to win as a frontrunner with targets on our backs and we still to be deeper.  You may get it, but a lot of others don't.  We are getting there sooner than later but it will still take some time for these young kids to develop.

[Bull Dozer]

we need some big 350 pounders on the OL for next season.

the 6 projected starters (guess Bret wasnt sure whether Huners or Sims would get the starting RT spot) average 301 pounds.

Huners is 290, Sims is 265. 

losing Clebert at NT bothers me as well.  this team needs a balance of size to go with its speed, and while McClain is big, he gives up 6 pounds to Clebert while being 2-3 inches taller.

Im sure Mcclain will put on more than 6 pounds while working with coach Mac and the guys in the strength and conditioning program between now and August.  The offensive line on the other hand must make huge strides as individuals and as a unit or next year really could be a let down. 

[BiggTipp]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Genus geting lots of playing time next year as well.  He played a fair amount this year.

Look for Him,McKaskill and Edenfield to push for starting spots