A Pair of 2024 Offensive Line Prospects Stood Out in Final Pokes Minicamp

The problem I have is we find these types of kids all the time and they have the frame of mind and work ethic but when do we get the darn good product part? As far as I can tell some years are better than others but we have had a average at best lines for many years now. I understand why Robert jazzes it up but I think the actual reality is different. We need to get some development kids here and there but we need natural talent and size. Kids that with our development program could take our lines a notch up.

some of that may be true, but I think we need to make sure to separate the poor evaluation prior to Dickey's arrival.

We went through a few years (Wickline's last, Bob Connelly, Greg Adkins, and Josh Henson's kids never panned out and coach Wick had to bring in Sills and other transfers over them.

Connelly just wasn't a good fit, and recruited a different "body type" than what we needed to run Gundy's offense, Adkins had 3 top recruits decommit to UT or A$M, and we ended up with only Arlington Hambright that year. Lots of our kids quit early (one to start a job, and another to attend grad school at Houston, etc.)

Personally, I believe that Dickey has us on the right track now, and with the Portal stuff, we'll likely see fewer and fewer freshman OLine recruits.

Completely agree Cal. If Dickey has a healthy group this year, I think we'll see OSU start having a very solid OL by mid-season this year and next. And Cowboy Red, Dickey has had two complete recruiting cycles (at most) now (three seasons as OL Coach but started in Feb. '19. So generally the old rule is a coach needs 4 to 5 years to get his full impact felt. I think that's very much the case at OL.

I don't think Dickey is a problem at all. Just in general besides who is coaching getting better players to start with would be much better for our line success. The proof is there with some schools that recruit better in the trenches. We develop so well so let's get some talent that maybe needs less time or have higher ceilings. Regardless of who is coaching our strategy hasn't been a success I wouldn't say. We have done a pretty good job of holding it together I'll say that but we aren't good yearly on the line. We get kids we have to push to reach the minimum of what we need at this level. I think that also contributes to why we have some many lineman injuries each year. Just would be nice to see us get kids that were more naturally gifted that we could take further

I also don't want any of this to come off negative. I just aspire for us to reach the next level in the trenches. We have the ingredients usually if we could just have consistently good to great line play. I can imagine the success we would already of had if we could land better lineman