The Lions' Pride

+1
Liitle bit more encouraged about the WR situation.
A lot of able bodies in offense that will spread the ball out to everyone, so there might not be a need for a "star" and hopefully Kenney or Smith can make those big plays down field

Good work sir. Congrats to you and your wife as well.

Thanks for the gem report Gem. Always appreciate feedback from a trained eye. Best on your new arrival too. Those days pass quickly.

As always, love your take!

Makes you wonder what you did with all your spare time. I must of been a complete slacker!

Thanks for the update..much appreciated. Best of luck with your family!!

I'm not surprised James is a good blocker. He was a wrestler in high school.

Any observations on Bill Belton's ball security? I thought he carried the ball too high and too loosely last year, especially in the OSU game when he ran the wildcat sets. He was a fumble waiting to happen at times last year.

It was still loose during the game, but it looked a little improved from last year. It didn't bother me near as much as it did last year.

Not gem, but I will say this: our OT depth is weak. Like really weak. We have solid interior guys, even Shrive didn't look terrible, but on the outside we are extremely questionable with guys who could play OT. Now Farrell is definitely the 3rd best of our current OTs, but we need some quality in there for the future.

It's surprising that he has such a good feel for it at this very early stage of his career (he should still be in high school). Most kids, regardless of their physical prowess, need some time to adjust to playing against D1 athletes every down. Now, we don't have a ton of speed off the edge, so we need to see him some more before making a final judgement. But he looked like he belonged.

As for Belton, I didn't notice anything obvious, but I honestly wasn't looking for it.

I did not spend a lot of time on the 2nd team OL. If there had been any reports of any 2nd teamers making a strong push I would have spent more time on it, but the starting five seems pretty set for now. Plus, that whole unit is going through a transition phase right now, both physically and from a coaching perspective, so now isn't a great time to evaluate all these guys.

Thanks, Gem. Thorough and interesting as usual!!!!