Wolverine247 Board

I'll give you Taylor Decker. I remember watching his film last year and thinking he'll be a solid player. Dodson looks good too, imo. So that gives you 2 good OLineman. Truthfully not impressed with any others though. I guess we'll see.

Was kind of curious where both OL's stacked up--so for anyone else that's interested:

76 Baldwin, Darryl 3-star
62 Beougher, Logan Unrated
64 Blackman, Ivon Unrated
50 Boren, Jacoby 3-star
55 Brown, Tommy 3-star
68 Decker, Taylor 4-star
66 Dodson, Kyle 4-star
65 Elflein, Pat 3-star
57 Farris, Chase 4-star (at DE, mind you)
79 Hall, Marcus SR 4-star
69 Kramer, Eric Unrated
71 Linsley, Corey SR 4-star
74 Mewhort, Jack SR 4-star
78 Norwell, Andrew SR 4-star
60 O'Connor, Joey 4-star
70 Trummer, Tim Unrated
73 Underwood, Antonio 3-star
Evan Lisle (incoming Freshman) 4-star
Tim Gardner (incoming) 3-star

Ohio State totals:
5-star: 0
4-star: 8 (discounting Farris)
3-star: 6

56 Joey Burzynski Unrated/Walk-on
58 Chris Bryant 4-star
60 Jack Miller 3-star
61 Graham Glasgow Unrated
62 Blake Bars 4-star
63 Ben Pliska Unrated/Walk-on
67 Kyle Kalis 5-star
69 Erik Gunderson Unrated
70 Kristian Mateus Unrated
71 Ben Braden 3-star
75 Michael Schofield 4-star
77 Taylor Lewan 4-star
78 Erik Magnuson 4-star
79 Dan Gibbs 2-star

Logan Tulley-Tillman (incoming) 4-star
Patrick Kugler (incoming) 4-star
Scott Sypniewski (incoming) 2-star
Chris Fox (incoming) 4-star
Kyle Bosch (incoming) 4-star

Michigan totals:
5-star: 1
4-star: 9
3-star: 2

Not trying to be scientific, just grabbed this off of rivals (so disagreement about ratings on certain players is warranted)/team rosters (OSU's is in alphabetic order, Mich's by #--just how each roster was naturally sorted). Much closer than I had anticipated, though. Let's just hope your last two classes earn their ratings, otherwise you're in as much trouble as we are haha. Something like 8 out of your 10 4&5 stars are from the last two classes (and Lewan's likely gone in the draft, which leaves you with 1 upperclassman rated above 3 stars). Was Rich Rod as bad at recruiting OL as Meyer's been so far? lol

HS lineman are the most difficult to project IMO. You never know how a kid is going to pan out until he steps foot on campus. Some kids may have already hit their ceiling, They might not have the feet, They might not have the work ethic or conditioning. Just because some kid is big in HS and is pushing around alot smaller kids, doesnt mean he'll be a great college player.

You have to look for footwork and how they use their hands, if they are good at those aspects, they should be good. Anything with knee bend, strength, or speed can be easily fixed when they get on campus.

I agree. But I am happy that Michigan is getting bigger OL who at least from a physical standpoint will help Michigan with a pro style offense in the future.

Sounds like it's a good thing we're taking lots of them.

Agree totally with the above.

I like the strategy though because you look at the Alabama and LSUs of the world...this has been their strategy.

If we get those guys (big if) then we're in good shape. if not, we have to hope that an unheralded kid pans out.

God, I love that this thread can now continue on into 2014.

Michael Ferns ‏@M_Ferns10
@Diezel75_ and I are future teammates, period. #PioneersOfTeam135

With Laquon Treadwell likely choosing Ole Miss, it seems like Hoke and Meyer have the same problem at different positions. Michigan is really thin at play-making WRs (in my opinion anyway), and OSU is really thin at OL. Luckily for you guys though, I don't think play-making WR is as much of a basic necessity as stout OL. Look at Bama this year, their only real playmaking WR threat is Amari Cooper (a true Freshman), and they're still a top 2 team in the country--the biggest reason imo being that they are stacked on the OL. You can do it without great WRs, but you can't do it without good-to-great OL.

I will say though, the Spread Offense is the one offense that you can function with average OL in. But you will definitely see this start to effect OSU in a couple of years (not so much next year given that 4 of our 5 OL starters are returning) if Meyer doesn't pick it up. I think proving to OL though that the Spread Offense is conducive to churning out NFL OL (which it frankly isn't) is an uphill battle he'll always have to fight.