• Follow us on Twitter @buckeyeplanet and @bp_recruiting, like us on Facebook! Enjoy a post or article, recommend it to others! BP is only as strong as its community, and we only promote by word of mouth, so share away!
  • Consider registering! Fewer and higher quality ads, no emails you don't want, access to all the forums, download game torrents, private messages, polls, Sportsbook, etc. Even if you just want to lurk, there are a lot of good reasons to register!

WR L'Christian Smith (transfer to Cincinnati, transfer to Western Kentucky)

Count me in the 'tall receiver' crowd. Megatron, Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, T.O. - all 6'2 or over. Being tall is neither necessary nor sufficient to be a good receiver, but all else being equal it sure darn helps.

As for Ohio State specifically, we seem to have recruited an overabundance of shifty, speedster types over the past few years, which is great and all - but given the mediocrity of the receiver corps in that time frame, it is clear we need some tall, 'pure' receivers to balance them out.
 
Upvote 0
Count me in the 'tall receiver' crowd. Megatron, Jerry Rice, Randy Moss, T.O. - all 6'2 or over. Being tall is neither necessary nor sufficient to be a good receiver, but all else being equal it sure darn helps.
But usually, not all else is equal.

Tall receivers (and athletes in general) generally don't as much "quick twitch" (much more important than straight line speed for WRs) ... which means that they are slower into and out of cuts ... which means that they tend to round off routes ... which allows the DBs to read the routes more easily and to recover more quickly. Also, tall receivers tend to lunge for the football, relying on their height and arms length as opposed to getting body position on the DB (Terrelle Pryor was a good example of this in 2016).

A tall receiver with quick twitch and discipline in route running and who uses his body to shield defenders away from the ball has an advantage over shorter receivers ... but those tall guys are rare commodities indeed.
 
Upvote 0
I can think of some other advantages that make coaches covet a long arm big body athlete like Blue in their system. Urban wants specific skill sets at his x, y, z and must be dreaming about how LCBS would excel at the X in his.
Find that long armed, big body type at x for 1. Run blocking on the edge and 2. attacking defenses who apply press coverage.
Defensive cooordinators love corners who can set the edge against the run and disrupt wr routes and timing against the pass.
Curtis Samuel and Paris Campbell can be effective at the h back or "y" and lined up off the LOS where it's hard to press cover.
But Urban's offense puts long armed and bigger bodies at the "x" and "z". Think Noah Brown, Devin Smith, Evan Spencer, Austin Mack, Bin Victor. They Have a physical advantage for run blocking and also have the length and strength for a quick release against press coverage.
Put LCBS in coach Mic training and then ask a corner to match up against a 6'8" 240 wr. That kind of mismatch will give def. coordinators nightmares.
 
Upvote 0




giphy.gif
 
Upvote 0
Back
Top