Fun thought about Kardell and Ishmael

I have no doubt they will both be great players. Really hoping to land 2 d-linemen in this class between Sopsher, Moore, and Young. Pickering is fully MSU at this point.

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I watched a highlight video of Thomas on YouTube and he’s manhandling some kid by the shirt and talking smack to him. Was that Sopher ?

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No, but there was a time that Kardell was wanting to go to every elite camp to challenge the best and he was dominant. His rating dipped a little when he was given a shot to line up at OT. Big surprise he's not an OT. He has taken on a little too much weight, but he seems like the type of kid with enough drive that he will get in shape and stay motivated.

He lined up with Sopsher in one camp and played close to a draw. I haven't seen enough of Ish to have an opinion of his motivation. I would think all of the "overrated" talk will light a fire under him. Hopefully that's at LSU and not with a rival.

They both were overweight during their sr year. When you look at their jr film, they don’t have the weight and are athetic. Dominate at their positions.

Therefore, you know it’s there if you can get them at the right playing weight.

I’d try and get them both in the 290’s. I think you see totally different players. Heck, Thomas was running relay when he was around that weight.

LSU will gladly take both of these talented, “overweight”, 4* recruits and hopefully they possess the requisite motivation level to work themselves back into shape and can contribute significantly to the program.

Stoked about kardell. Sophser, not so much. Kardell has the fiery edge to him, sophser needs to have a fire under his arse to compete day in and day out

Man sharpens man as iron sharpens iron

I agree. Lose the “bad” weight through diet and conditioning, but they’ll also put on “good” weight with the lifting. I think they can lose some of that bad weight pretty quickly if they buy in to the strength, conditioning, and nutrition programs in good order.

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For Kardell, I think he's just very top heavy. We should cut down on a lot of the excess weight he's carrying up top while turning his lower body into a whole bunch of muscle...like you were saying.

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"top heavy" is relative to a couple things for any player, but especially the one's that play with their hands in the dirt.

Looks CAN be deceiving...
pad level, technique, posture/agility, and strength in the muscle groups.

And for OL even more, how do they come off the line and/or out of stance.

There's many guys out there that look to be perfect porportions but then have a bad base, or come out of their stance out of balance, etc. that turns them into no-leverage top-heavy speed bumps.

While I think Kardell is top heavy also (just to a lesser degree than many here) it is worth noting that the technique and agility he's displayed at camps makes it much less a problem for him in comparison to your avg IL coming out of high school.

And it's a normal problem for linemen in HS... they are dominating the avg opponent, and coaches just urge them to pile on the pounds because that's all they need to continue dominating. It's "the easy way out" for these HS coaches. And it irks me to no end. Easily fixable if the player is truly dedicated however.

Neither will see 290. Kardell would be fine at 320. Probably a year away from that weight. He will lose fat but gain muscle in his first year in our program. The extra weight he is at now likely ensures he is a year away from playing time, but many were probably too optimistic about him playing as a true freshman anyways. Quality guards ahead of him on the depth chart. The comments from him about renewed motivation are good signs that he will work hard and be the beast we are hoping for.