re: Leigh commits to Clemsoning

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but next year will be a big year for him.

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yes indeed. There are always misses in recruiting. But consecutive years are punishable offenses.

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I'm not as down on him as most on this board are

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me either.

At one point we had, going off memory, a 5 year drought of no OL drafted. We lost 3 to the NFL last year.

As far as development goes, one metric to look at is sack rate on passing downs (and standard downs); how does your OL hold up when the opponent knows it is a pass.

At one point under Grimes we were in double digit rate territory and under Grimes we were not once in the top half (<60) ranking.

In Cregg's first season ('18) we went from double digit % (almost 13%) in Grimes last year to single digits (9.5%). So that's Cregg with almost the same players as Grimes using the same zone blocking (slide protection most of the time) scheme having a marked improvement.

Last year was our lowest sack rate since Studwra (6.6%). With 4 new lineman, new QB, and new RB we took a step back to 7.3% this year. Which is still better than any year under Grimes.

Now this is only one metric. But it is an important, and telling metric. Again, how does your OL protect when the opponent knows you are passing. So if you want a quick idea of development- there it is. Granted, the rushing attack sucked arse. Cregg deserves a lot of pain for that (but not alone).

But we're a pass first team now that struggled with the run game meaning we were playing a lot of long 3rd downs and the OL performed 2nd best since 2014 (Grimes first year) in that context.

As far as coaching, Cregg is doing well. If the rushing attack was better I'd say he's doing damn well. Recruiting has been lackluster. But it isn't worse than Grimes; just not better. It should be better. Without Leigh but grabbing Dumervil last year Cregg won't have much margin for error. He's going to have to get Crawford or Wilson and they are going to have to shine behind Dumervil and Dare.