Charles Turner Accepts Senior Bowl Invite

That makes Martinez leaving kinda strange , guess he felt he would get passed up by someone else

Best of luck to him. Any idea who would replace him next season?

Good luck, young man

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That makes Martinez leaving kinda strange , guess he felt he would get passed up by someone else

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Chester replaced him in the game where Turner was injured. Was that against Mizzou? But I do remember Martinez played poorly in relief and had a very bad snap. Kelly benched him and let him have it on the sideline. Chester finished the game and played better. I think the writing was on the wall after that.

After that, the next time I saw Martinez play was as a sub at Guard.

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That makes Martinez leaving kinda strange , guess he felt he would get passed up by someone else

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I think Chester is that guy.

Martinez is way too big to be a Center

Yea his game against Bama brought back Les miles oline type games vs them.

Two false starts and he had so many slow and bad snaps. His play really hurt the O

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Martinez is way too big to be a Center

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Don't you think Chester is a tad tall and lean to be ready to start there next year? I was really surprised they put him there just based on his height. Not that you can't be 6'5" and play there, just not ideal. I don't knowj this by any means, but it felt to me like they that was a move to get their best 5/6 in the lineup either if Turner went down this year or if he went pro (like he's doing) and everybody else comes back and that's the only real opening to get Chester in the lineup.

Like they think Chester is going to be one of the most talented 5 or 6 OL in '24, but even though Center is not his ideal position or where he projects long-term, they are willing to play him out of position. Or was it strictly a '23 move because they weren't comfortable with Martinez if Turner went down for a significant amount of time and didn't want to move Dellinger over after last year's experiment?

Will Chester put on the weight to match his height, be strong enough and technique-sound enough to get leverage on and be able to move some of the monster SEC DTs he'll have to face, and will he be able to handle all the mental responsibilities that come with the center spot. Or will they shuffle them around some? But that would take away from one of the huge advantages next year's team should have with continuity on the OL--4 of those guys have played a lot of games and snaps together at their current positions. Or will they bring in a vet and sit Chester and Heard again as the 6th and 7th guys? Or has Chester always projected as a Center, and I don't know what I'm talking about?

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If he came back that would be what, 3 straight years of the same O-line? that's a lot of chemistry built up

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Even without Charles, the other 4 guys have built up a lot of chemistry and that could literally be the biggest strength of next year's team. Is Chester ready to just slide in there at Center and keep it moving? The vets surrounding him could help. But then what about Heard? He was pretty open about wanting to come in and play right away. Would he sit for a 2nd year and not get pissed off and leave? Not that you can make decisions that might make your current team slightly worse to placate to an individual player, but there's such a balancing act these coaches are having to do with highly rated guys. Not just for Heard for example, but the next Heard is watching too.

I do think it's clear that even though Kelly played Will and Emory at the tackle spots as true freshman, that is not what he wants to do at all. Will was just a freak and ready, Emory wasn't too far behind, but it was more out of necessity that they both played. Just looking at the OL that Kelly recruited at ND and has continued to recruit here, it looks like his prototype is tall, athletic guys that he can add weight to and play them in multiple positions.

But that's a process, and I think ideally, he wants and OLD OL. He'll play guys he can't keep off the field, but in a perfect world his OL would be made up of 21-22-year-old JRs and SRs. Because they're more "men." and I think that gives you a bigger advantage there than any other position on the field save for maybe QB. But will that model work with the portal and NIL? Can he sell a Lance Heard on waiting until his 3rd year to start?


Just throwing this out as a possibility because people have seemed to assume they were eventually gonna move Jones to RG and slide Heard in at RT not just to get them both on the field, but because maybe Jones projects more as an IOL at the NFL level, but is there any chance Jones moves to Center next year? I'm not sure he'd do it or if it's even ideal, but there are a couple of potential pros to it.

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Or has Chester always projected as a Center, and I don't know what I'm talking about?

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I think this is it

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Will Chester put on the weight to match his height

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He's 6'6"/ 320 per his bio, how big do you want him?

For comparison, that's what Pocic is listed at in the NFL right now, and he was listed as 6'7"/ 300 his senior year at LSU.