re: 4-Star OT Anthony Bradford of Muskegon (Mich.) commits to LSU

quote:

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I just find it ironic that those same people that bitched about converting guards under Miles are now all of a sudden okay with it.

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for the record my opinion on converting guards, and my gripes about Les doing it, was twofold:

1. Are we doing it out of basically desperation, or less extreme need to get a body at the position? If yes, then the recruiting strategy is off. It's how you got into that position. We simply didn't recruit enough natural tackles OR guards that were good enough to move over. We started last year with two OTs that both almost quit (Weathersby and Malone), Malone had neither the frame (6'4"), feet/posture/balance, or strength to be a starting tackle. My gripe is not that we converted Malone (because with those short comings he did ok), but we were in the position to have to convert a Malone. Go back and look at the rosters from 2008 on. Many times we only listed 2 OTs (when we had Joe and Ciron is a good example). There's an issue there and it lies in pipeline/development followed by "oh shite, we need a body at LT".

2. Case by case basis. The assumption seemed to be experience was the priority when choosing who to move over. Both Les and Orgeron seemed to do this; I'll offer Malone (experienced) and Charles (freshman) as my evidence that experience is 3rd or 4th on the list of decision making factors in who to convert. Gotta start with the feet, it's the foundation that everything else as skill sets for an OT builds on. Then comes frame/length/size and agility/balance at 2a and 2b. After that it's experience (with technique embedded here) and strength at 3a and 3b.

In short, they could've done a better job of picking who to convert. Here we have Charles at 6'5" 320ish with a slightly longer wingspan for his height (nothing to write home about) with agility/footwork off the charts who played mostly OG but some OT (similar to Weathersby, he moved in HS) in HS who should have been singled out as an OT in HS, projected to be OT in college. And we have Bradford here, who both I and tubucco (and a couple others) are questioning the OT projection because of feet.

While they "missed" on Saadhiq, if they can't get Bradford's agility improved, then they will "miss" on him too. If Cregg thinks he can work it, then that's what they'll do. It would be a mistake to call Bradford THE tackle in this class, but he is indeed a tackle (who needs development).