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Justin Scott (DL Miami, FL)

I'm gonna get blasted for this so fire away. What you just described is exactly what Harbaugh has done at TCUN. He's built a team full of mostly lower ranked guys and kept them around for 4-5 years for development, and made good use of the portal and puts a team full of 22-23 year olds on the field. We tend to send our top talent to the League after 3 years and keep facing that veteran team with a team full of 20=21 year olds. Like it or not, TCUNs method has worked. Now of course we will have to see what happens next year when all of those veteran players are gone, but he hit a formula that worked in the meantime. Just food for thought.
That scUM method works for winning the B1G and beating OSU, but doesn't work against the SEC teams with superior talent with comparable size in the trenches. But those lineman are more athletic in the south. OSU loses to scUM because they haven't had the skilled players on the OL/DL in abundance. On top of running a scheme that has over corrected itself the last 2 years.
 
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I think recruiting some lower rated guys and developing them instead of just purely chasing only elite type recruits is part of the solution. Especially since these top top guys are also likely to transfer out after a year or two anyways if they don’t get adequate playing time right off the bat. Gotta have some guys who are more willing to stay for the long run in the tank. A good balance of developmental guys and higher rated elite recruits. Find the lower rated guys you really like earlier in the process instead of scrambling at the end when stuff like this happens. This along with properly utilizing the transfer portal. We aren’t going to and I think correctly so start throwing blank checks at HS kids like some. So gotta find solutions in other ways
That'd be ideal in theory, but we aren't even developing the 5 star guys anymore. JT and Sawyer have not come close to living up to their HS rankings. Neither did Zach Harrison. DL development has been substandard the last few years, and that's putting it kindly
 
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ry true. That scUM method works for winning the B1G and beating OSU, but doesn't work against the SEC teams with superior talent with comparable size in the trenches. But those lineman are more athletic in the south. OSU loses to scUM because they haven't had the skilled players on the OL/DL in abundance. On top of running a scheme that has over corrected itself the last 2 years.
Very true. My comment was made more in the context of them beating us the last 3 years when ,on paper at least. OSU held a large talent advantage. OSU tries to build a team a team that can play with the SEC. Harbaugh built a team that can win the B1G and beat OSU. There is a difference.
 
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I think recruiting some lower rated guys and developing them instead of just purely chasing only elite type recruits is part of the solution. Especially since these top top guys are also likely to transfer out after a year or two anyways if they don’t get adequate playing time right off the bat. Gotta have some guys who are more willing to stay for the long run in the tank. A good balance of developmental guys and higher rated elite recruits. Find the lower rated guys you really like earlier in the process instead of scrambling at the end when stuff like this happens. This along with properly utilizing the transfer portal. We aren’t going to and I think correctly so start throwing blank checks at HS kids like some. So gotta find solutions in other ways
This was our approach on OL for the '24 cycle, so we will see how landing 3 Ohioans and a kid from Indiana and low ranked Michigan goes after missing on the other OOS targets...I like the guys we got but I'm not convinced that is sustainable unless we can effectively hit the portal most cycles.

On DL, I think you really have to recruit at a high level or get left in the dust. A common theme to national title contenders is a strong DL with mostly 4*/5* recruits. Bama and Clemson dominated recent years with top ranked DL. And as for the portal, I am not seeing a ton of top DL winding up there...other positions seem ripe for the taking, but not DL so far.

I do agree we need to at least recruit lower ranked targets at an earlier stage though, we are getting left at the alter after the bridesmaids have already left. The more ideal solution of course is recruit the position better, which would require a transition strategy from LJ Sr to someone else. At some point after NLOID, a bright-line plan needs to be put out there to recruits on the DL coaching...they love LJ Sr, but they know he is not going to be their coach for their whole time in Cbus.
 
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Agree with the "the bucks won't/ can't compete against the nil bagmen discussions" ...

Yet Bucks will also be especially vulnerable to early playing time appeals, esp from teams like Miami who are rebuilding.
Can't blame any teams who hammer their early playing time opportunities and negative recruit against more experienced teams.
I wonder how much this section of Scott's commitment interview may be relevant for understanding Miami's talking points to get a flip.


“I reached out to Coach Salave’a about two weeks ago to let him know I wasn’t 100 percent with my commitment to Ohio State,” he added. “I was having second thoughts and things happened kind of quickly from there....
And they have shown that young guys have great opportunities to make big impacts. Coach Mario Cristobal plays young players, and that stands out to me because I will go in and have a chance to make an early impact."
 
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Agree with the "the bucks won't/ can't compete against the nil bagmen discussions" ...

Yet Bucks will also be especially vulnerable to early playing time appeals, esp from teams like Miami who are rebuilding.
Can't blame any team who hammers early playing time opportunities and negative recruit against more experienced teams.
I wonder how much this section of Scott's commitment interview may be relevant for understanding Miami's talking points to get a flip.


“I reached out to Coach Salave’a about two weeks ago to let him know I wasn’t 100 percent with my commitment to Ohio State,” he added. “I was having second thoughts and things happened kind of quickly from there....
And they have shown that young guys have great opportunities to make big impacts. Coach Mario Cristobal plays young players, and that stands out to me because I will go in and have a chance to make an early impact."
Honestly though, this kid would probably be starting pretty early because of need.
 
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Honestly though, this kid would probably be starting pretty early because of need.
probably not if LJSr is still here... it would seem that only skill positions (WR, RB, CB, S) are the only ones where "the best will play" with Ohio State and even then its not always a given ... see Hayden and the RBs this year.
 
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Ohio State refuses to play young players on defense. We have for years. Up 50? Starters still in. Makes no sense. Why Georgia and Alabama do it, but not us?
Idk if that’s fully true. I vividly remember both Bosas playing in year 1, same with Chase Young, Noah Spence, Raekwon McMillan and Jeff Okudah off the top of my head. And Hartford played a ton this year! Caden Curry also played a lot last year
 
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Idk if that’s fully true. I vividly remember both Bosas playing in year 1, same with Chase Young, Noah Spence, Raekwon McMillan and Jeff Okudah off the top of my head. And Hartford played a ton this year! Caden Curry also played a lot last year
And Denzel Burke started Game 1 and on as a freshman

Teams like Miami are going to tend to play more freshmen compared to premier development programs like the Ohio States and Alabamas of the world. We recruit high & develop players at a phenomenal level. By the end of their freshman year, they're making more contributions to the team in big games (Olave & Super Marv immediately come to mind). Jermaine Mathews is a guy on D this year that is contributing late in the year as he has developed

If a HS senior is taking the bag over the development and taking a perceived easy path at a school, like at Texas A&M, good on them. It won't be as a Buckeye. And I'm good with that, and I know I'm not alone in that thinking. Those kind of players are a bad culture fit. Give me the blue collar guys like Kienholz and Hartford who are eager to learn, humble, have the God-given ability, and have the drive to be great
 
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