So, we've lost basically the entire defensive line, yet seemingly only have one more scholarship available to allocate to that position group. And from what aggies22 is saying, we're likely using it on an edge rush DE and keeping another scholarship available for a WR (Montgomery). I am totally on board with wanting to sign Montgomery, but to me, I am really scratching my head about scholarship management right now and sort of worried about the "on-paper" quality of the guys we are replacing the departing DL guys with -- all of which are pretty lightly recruited JC guys.

There are many things to like about the recent signing class -- I love the length being added to the defensive backfield, I really like most of the high school signees, I love the AFA bounceback WR that we signed. However, at least on paper, it seems we were perhaps a little overenthusiastic in signing a significant amount of lightly recruited JC players. Maybe our coaches are the geniuses finding talent where other schools are not looking. I am totally on board with taking some fliers on the belief our coaches are superior talent scouts. What I don't particularly like seeing is a large JC signing class filled with too many guys whose only other offers were Eastern New Mexico State College of the Mines. This is particularly magnified to me on the defensive line where we are losing a boatload of really good starter level players and also some reliable contributors, and are basically exclusively expecting to replace these dudes with existing depth on the roster and lightly recuited JC guys. It seems, sort of, bananas to me? I get that coaches aren't omniscient and can't determine with certainty when an entire position group might decide to bail. But, if it is true that the entire DL has basically been looking to bounce since week 8, maybe the coaches should have been more attuned to this possibility and planned better for it?

I also don't get why we are in the position where we are having to choose between allocating a scholarship to a really talented JC wide receiver (Montgomery) and replenishing the DL. I am not going to name names, but we've already signed one lightly recruited JC wide receiver that I am not particularly excited about and a lightly recruited high school WR that I am not particularly excited about, that, as best I can tell, really had no competitive offers in the same stratosphere as our offer. Perhaps we could have kept those guys on hold pending Montgomery's decision and signed them during the late signing period? Sure didn't seem they had anywhere comparable to go if we had left them on standby. This is the case for quite a few of our JC recruits. I think I would have left a lot of them on standby to sign in the late signing period until I had a full sense of the transfer portal fallout and the position groups needing to be replenished. Seems like a scholarship mismanagement issue that could have fairly easily been avoided. Perhaps easy for me to say from my position, but I think I take the risk that one of JC guys gets mad and signs with Montana Tech if we ask him to wait til the late signing period.

Venting now done. Between this and my recent Rylan Jones-related post, I am feeling snappy today. Sorry/not sorry! I have now gotten what I need to off my chest.

Here's some help for the D line.

https://www.si.com/college/oklahoma/foo ... fer-portal

22 reported a DT from Duke was offered

We still got Hale, no? He’s the best of any of the others anyway and by quite a large margin!

aggies22 wrote: ↑

January 27th, 2023, 11:07 pm

Elkaggie wrote: ↑

January 27th, 2023, 10:31 pm

We still got Hale, no? He’s the best of any of the others anyway and by quite a large margin!

But we need four Hale's.

Seems to me maybe its time to switch to a 3-4 / 3 3 5 while we got a new line coach to start fresh. See if there are any blue collar work horses out there who are more interested in taking on double teams and clogging gaps rather than trying to pad their TFLs so they can transfer.

Every really good defense we have has been a 3 man front. I know the Aggies are thin at backer so let every athlete on the team give OLB a shot along with the striker spot. Maybe that would be a good use for the Wyoming QB transfer who is wasting away on the bench.