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Well for the next couple topics we move away from the skill positions and its time to give some love to the guys who are there to open up holes for the RBs and give the QBs time to get the ball to the WRs...yup, its every all you can eat buffet's worst nightmare...the big boys up front...the o-line. Now for this one I will make a bit of a departure from the format of my usual postings because there really arent stats kept for the offensive linemen (at least stats that are put up on statistics pages for athletics websites, so Im coming to my Big South brethren to help me out. This is your chance to talk up your top 8 returning linemen (in your opinion) and I'll look up what I can find and hopefully combine the two and have a ranking set up by the end of the week.

i dont no about the line this yr but i DO no that next yr we'll have a BEAST on the line. that is IF Grant Jones stays true to his verbal commit. and from what i understand he most def. is going to.

And he won't play much if any at all next year

Here are some names in the Big South I have:

OT Justin Vargas, Liberty, Sr.
OT Soeren Wendland, Liberty, Sr.
OG Corey O’Daniel, Gardner-Webb, Sr.
OG Alex Stadler, Liberty, Sr.
OG Tim Franklin, Coastal Carolina, Jr.
C Paul Fenaroli, Stony Brook, Sr.
C Jared Tavernier, Presbyterian, Sr.

O'Daniel is the top guy. He is a legit NFL prospect. I love his size, feet, and strength.

Next would either be Vargas or Fenaroli. Fenaroli is solid and Vargas is coming from a team that puts OL in NFL camps and has size. Wendland is a mammoth kid with potential. Stadler had a good year while Franklin and Tavernier are the best returning for their respective teams.

For VMI, I see four positions "locked up" going into August camp:

C) James Boatright, 6'0, 275, R-Jr.
G) Rob Bailey, 6'4, 320, Jr.
T) Bo Wren, 6'0, 280, Sr.
T) Steve Hite; 6'4, 285, R-Jr.


Philip Pickens (Soph., 6'1, 265), and Nick Sadowski (R-Fr., 6'5, 260) will battle for the other guard slot, I believe. Aaron Blue (R-Jr., 6'3, 270) will get reps at tackle. D'Angelo Smith (Jr., 6'1, 265) will see action at center and guard.

(I am guessing at these weights, going by last Fall's roster, and adding some poundage for off-season workouts, etc ).

I'll yield to EagleDawg, elcid, etc. since they have first-hand front line knowledge of our OL prospectus for the fall.

After Spring Ball and with a new OL Coach in the mix, I'm not sure that there is anything fixed for the Runnin Bulldogs OL. You gotta believe that O'Daniel is locked in at LG, Bryant at C and Dunaway at LT. It's the right side of the line where things could get interesting. On the other hand if O'Daniel were moved to LT and Dunaway to RT then both guard spots would open up. G-Dubb has two, Demilio and Martin who have prototypical size to play tackle but could also be moved inside. There are three who could fight it out for the guard or guard spots in Welch R-Jr, Sargent-So and Harris - RFr. Without seeing any of the incoming freshman play it's hard to know how much they may push for early playing time but with only 11 or possibly 12 OL depending on whether Wilson makes it back from a major arm injury all should get a shot at some PT.

Projected Starting OL IMO

LT - Jamie Dunaway - So 6'-4, 280
LG - Corey O'Daniel - Sr 6'-6", 320
C - C.J. Bryant - Sr. 6'-1" 285
RG - Zach Welch - Jr. 6-2" 290
RT - Steve Demilio Jr- 6'-5" 280

2 Deep

LT - ?
LG - Jeff Harris - RFR 6'-2" 285
C - Austin Sargent - So 6'-3" 290
RG - Patrick Wilson - Jr. 6'-4" 290
RT - Harrison Martin - 6'-6" 290

Incoming Freshman OL

Jacob McQueen - 6'-4" 265
Dave McConnel - 6'-6" 275
Tyler Hough-Jenkins 6'-4" 250

I think that the top three probably as of right now in my opinion are LU, G-W and CCU. I cant really rank everybody else til I hear from their fans (except VMI)

CCU

Keneth Page 6-5 305
Steve Simpson 6-2 265
Andrew Parsons 6-1 275
Kaleb Dees 6-5 295
Pat Williams 6'1 275
Seth Smalls 6-4 340
David Nixon 6-2 290
Jamey Cheatwood 6-5 310
Bryan Brooks 6-6 290
Tim Franklin 6-5 305
Drew Herring 6-3 320
Blake Culbertson 5-11 250
Coley Moore 6-5 295
Matthew "Moe" Ashley 6-5 305
Patrick Hansen 6-3 265
Devin Taylor 6-3 276
Chad Hamilton 6-3 290
Ken Fitzgerald 6-6 265
Cale Moore 6-5 310

Im not sure how our OL will stack up this season. I know it will be critical for them to open holes for Gowins and Maysonet( Hofstra transfer) and give Coulter time to throw. We have one kid returning who will be a soph and probably play tackle. he is 6'8 and 3330lbs. I dont think he palyed a down last year but he is huge. Saw him at couple of sports events this year up close- hope he develops into something of a beast.

Seawolf97 wrote:he is 6'8 and 3330lbs. he is huge.

I'd say

A fair point Seawolf but one guy does not an O-line make...and he has impressive height and weight stats but if he cant stop a blitzing lineman or linebacker all of that doesnt really mean much.