Marlon Martinez

This dude screams 4 star

i spoke to one of his former coaches at st. thomas aquinas and he told me he's a later bloomer that will be a stud. i've never watched his film so just passing info along

I think he ends up settling in at center. Most likely will redshirt next year with another year as the primary backup and taking over as the starter as a redshirt sophomore much like Cushenberry. He will need time to gain strength and get used to the speed of the college game but he looks like a hard nosed kid who will be eager to learn. We have a lot of talent on the OL, particularly on the interior.

I thought Xavier Hill could also play some center.

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He can play center

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Just another example of why I will never melt over recruiting

I don’t think SVP is looking promising, unfortunately. Sucks, bc I REALLY wanted that dude

If they can somehow get Crawford in this class (obviously SVP would be welcomed) this would be a MASSIVE haul considering where we thought we were 3-4 months ago

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i spoke to one of his former coaches at st. thomas aquinas and he told me he's a later bloomer that will be a stud. i've never watched his film so just passing info along

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I think 'late bloomer' is not quite the right description.

He's one of those guys that just keeps chugging along. And if you think that's negative, you're wrong.

Everytime you turnaround he's just better and stronger. It's just a steady improvement that makes you wonder just where the plateau is... he never seems to reach it.

He's got the physical skills for OC, but OC is an OG++.

+1: can he snap? dead snap? spiral? consistency? Snapping in shotgun is one of the most risky plays in modern football when you consider you're at less than 3 sec. for a defender to be where that ball will likely land and the # of times it happens a game; to boot it's, statistically, better than a 60% chance a bad snap is a turnover. It's one thing to learn how to snap the various methods. It's another to do it 63 times a game with 0 error when you get tired and beat up and your head is ringing.

+2: Calls and adjustments. Let him play OG for a while and be the recipient of calls, that makes it much easier to make the calls. There are times the line-calls make you go 'oh shite' as an OL. Like ok, I have to seal block this dude. He just shifted, how am I going to do this? Once you've been put in that position numerous times, when it comes time to make those same calls you have a significantly better feel for it. An OC (making line-calls) has to know the other OL's capabilities better than the OL coach.

As an OT... have my doubts. BUT, let's see what that body and feet look like in about 16 mos and go from there. Not to mention, especially in P5 and even more so in the SEC you could be the physically prototypical cyborgish OT ever, but without practiced and muscle memory technique and decision making you'll get eaten alive. Against the rusher they face, it's really hard to adjust mid play if you made a mistake in the first 1/4 second after the snap. Experience is everything.

Very happy with the 3 solid OL prospects we have secured, in addition with the addition of CamRon Jackson (academics), Crawford (academics) and Van Prann - some more likely than others -the class could be greatly improved. Van Prann has not shown any interest in our TIGERS to date. If F. Wilson is hired quickly after the NC game and makes him a priority - who knows what could happen?

Focus of OL in the next class should be a priority IMOO