beerad12man said:
You can't just sign bodies and hope it works out. don't forget Moton who is redshirting too. We basically got two DTs with him and Madubiuke who might play both DE and DT, but is more than capable of giving you depth at DT. You have to find guys that can truly play in this league otherwise it's a wasted ship. With Moton and Madubiuke from last year, Peevy already committed this year, and the 2018 class looking stronger in terms of where we stand with Bobby Brown, Dominic Livingstong, and Keondre Coburn, just try to find one more who is the best you can get. Don't take a bunch of bodies. Take 3, 4 in 2018 if you have to. Much more talent there that we are in on.
The issue is, with Peevy, Madubuike, Henderson, and Moton, that's four guys for two spots in a four-man base front. Unless there's other guys I haven't heard about (haven't dug through the roster to pick out who's graduating and who's staying), you can't run an SEC squad with a single 2-deep of interior linemen. You need six to nine to have a serviceable rotation at DT. With only four players, if three players get injured, you're rotating in players from the ends to play on the inside, out of a rotation that is in itself thin at outside end. Line depth has become a critical issue going into next season, and an already thin front that could ill afford injury gets even thinner than it was this year.
Really, Sumlin's recruiting is reminding me of the Dallas Cowboys' drafting before Jerry surrendered control; they always were stacked in one unit, but thin and undermanned in others. One year they were short on offensive linemen, the next short on linebackers. Sumlin's reactive recruiting and over-signing of receivers and DBs has created the same issues. He has tons of wideouts and DBs on the roster, but not nearly enough front-seven players and almost no tight ends. An SEC team does not need 15 receivers and 18 cornerbacks (this is only a mild exaggeration; he still has about a dozen or more of each on the roster, which accounts for literally 1/4 of the program's total scholarships from only two units).
A smart coach recruits a certain number of players at every position, until a steady stream of players comes in at all positions, protecting against understaffing and ensuring there are always enough players to go three to four deep on the roster at all positions. They won't all pan out, but at least if you lose three players to injury you don't abruptly lose a literal 3/5th of your roster depth at that unit.
PS Edit: I said cornerbacks in paragraph 2, I meant DBs, safeties and corners. The incoming class has 4 receivers and 3 safeties so far, with no corners. That's still 1/4 of the class.
