In fairness, literally no one recruits the lines better than Saban. Kirby maybe is equal, although he loses his high quality OL somewhat often. No one else is even close.
Mike Detillier and Bobby Hebert were making a point last night that, if we were talking about Nicholls or SELU, makes a lot of sense. Go to these big 5A schools around the state and look for guys that are in the top weight classes of the wrestling program and recruit them, even if they're not football players. Their wrestling training gives them two fundamentals you're always looking for in a lineman, leverage and footwork.
I could live with getting out-recruited (more or less), but only taking one of each given our current status is negligent. Maybe we get more to round out the class, but this should have been O’s priority for years; we’re still left waiting.
Leatherwood, Brown, and Dickerson are all seniors that will be drafted, so I doubt they return. Chris Owens is their 6th guy, a RS SR, so I imagine he's gone, too. I don't know what to think about our guys. Ingram, Deculus, and Shanahan could all go.
The period is not over yet, but the pool is about dry. Our class will be ranked very high when its done, but if we miss on Leigh, it will be a failure at a position of critical need.
Ingram's the only one of those 3 who is remotely NFL ready at this point. Shanahan won't make it in any circumstance and Deculus' best shot is to move to guard. With Dumervil on campus already and Dellenger (hopefully Leigh as well) on the way, I wouldn't mind seeing our staff move Deculus inside. T-Bob was saying the other night that he's heard Rosenthal's hangers-on are telling him he's ready to make the jump now. That's the NFLSU culture at work; bad advice for the kid, and hurts the program to lose a kid early.
Shanahan is an Irish guy from Massachusetts with an economics degree from Harvard. He could go to Boston and make more money than most NFL players will in their lifetimes. Agree on your assessments of Ingram and Deculus, though. Deculus is a senior, though, so who knows what he decides to do.
As usual Scott Long offers an excellent analysis of yesterday's signings & those who didn't sign. https://www.dandydon.com/
