To start winning consistently and at a championship level, The oline and dline both need a massive upgrade in talent and depth. I’ve listed out my thoughts right now on our impact players:
Priority 1 for Napier is to fix the oline
Barber - better at RT than left tackle. He hasn’t looked comfortable at LT
Leonard - limited by size and athleticism
Kingsley - playing injured most of the season Slaughter - limited by athleticism and strength
Mezzucua - terrible pass blocker.
Damien George - slow feet and not a tackle.
Those are our starters. If our depth can’t start over these guys that shows you where our depth is.
Our best back ups are kamryn waites, coming off an Achilles and knajeah Harris, true freshman)
The oline talent and depth is a huge problem. It’s hard to run the ball and we can’t pass block long enough to take deep shots. Also our lineman are too slow for screens. Fixing the depth and talent of the oline should be priority number 1 for Napier.
Priority number 2 - get difference makers on the dline
Sapp- good player but not a pass rusher
Banks- has been quiet this year. but still a young player
Cam Jackson- very good run stopper but not a pass rusher. He looks out of shape as well.
Watson- can’t move
Chris mcclellan - expected more from him this season. He looks out of shape as well but he has talent.
Jamari Lyons - young guy that has play solid at times. Needs to get in better shape.
Boone - torn acl. This is a guy we severely missed this season.
Princely has looked very good this year. He is the only guy that can get to the passer consistently. He’s played well.
Pyburn - reminds me of duke lemmings for obvious reasons and they both wore number 44. I like his potential but a young player.
Kelby collins - he’s played extremely well this season. Bright future
Tj searcy - he has a bright future.
We currently do not have enough experienced dlineman that make an impact behind the line of scrimmage. Both getting after the qb and getting tackles for loss. More difference makers at dline will create more turnovers and help our secondary out.
If we can upgrade these two areas with talent AND depth,the margin of error increases and we will consistently beat Kentucky, Arkansas, Vandy, South Carolina, etc. now uga tenn, lsu Oklahoma, Texas, texas A&M all have talent as well so those will be battles but we need to consistently beat those teams that we have better players than but it starts with upgrading the talent in the trenches. Can we coach better, absolutely. But we should not have to rely on Coaching to beat these teams we consistently beat under Meyer and spurrier.
Until we upgrade the trenches, we will continue to lose some of these games we believe we should win.
This is not a one year fix. Where the online and dline is today, we will continue to be inconsistent in 2024. However by 2025 the Napier will have enough time to get better players at these positions. If we do land those players, we should have a very good team in 2025.
Priority 1 for Napier is to fix the oline
Barber - better at RT than left tackle. He hasn’t looked comfortable at LT
Leonard - limited by size and athleticism
Kingsley - playing injured most of the season Slaughter - limited by athleticism and strength
Mezzucua - terrible pass blocker.
Damien George - slow feet and not a tackle.
Those are our starters. If our depth can’t start over these guys that shows you where our depth is.
Our best back ups are kamryn waites, coming off an Achilles and knajeah Harris, true freshman)
The oline talent and depth is a huge problem. It’s hard to run the ball and we can’t pass block long enough to take deep shots. Also our lineman are too slow for screens. Fixing the depth and talent of the oline should be priority number 1 for Napier.
Priority number 2 - get difference makers on the dline
Sapp- good player but not a pass rusher
Banks- has been quiet this year. but still a young player
Cam Jackson- very good run stopper but not a pass rusher. He looks out of shape as well.
Watson- can’t move
Chris mcclellan - expected more from him this season. He looks out of shape as well but he has talent.
Jamari Lyons - young guy that has play solid at times. Needs to get in better shape.
Boone - torn acl. This is a guy we severely missed this season.
Princely has looked very good this year. He is the only guy that can get to the passer consistently. He’s played well.
Pyburn - reminds me of duke lemmings for obvious reasons and they both wore number 44. I like his potential but a young player.
Kelby collins - he’s played extremely well this season. Bright future
Tj searcy - he has a bright future.
We currently do not have enough experienced dlineman that make an impact behind the line of scrimmage. Both getting after the qb and getting tackles for loss. More difference makers at dline will create more turnovers and help our secondary out.
If we can upgrade these two areas with talent AND depth,the margin of error increases and we will consistently beat Kentucky, Arkansas, Vandy, South Carolina, etc. now uga tenn, lsu Oklahoma, Texas, texas A&M all have talent as well so those will be battles but we need to consistently beat those teams that we have better players than but it starts with upgrading the talent in the trenches. Can we coach better, absolutely. But we should not have to rely on Coaching to beat these teams we consistently beat under Meyer and spurrier.
Until we upgrade the trenches, we will continue to lose some of these games we believe we should win.
This is not a one year fix. Where the online and dline is today, we will continue to be inconsistent in 2024. However by 2025 the Napier will have enough time to get better players at these positions. If we do land those players, we should have a very good team in 2025.
