MSU Red Cedar Message Board

I was thinking the same thing.

I'd say based on talent not too worried....based on depth, read.."Experienced" depth... a tad more worried. As both 4 year starters you just know there were plays made by Gordon and Jones that were made with their brains and experience. Substract that and a play that is stuffed becomes one that keeps a drive going. Thats the potential problem I see with the LBs.... Lack of experience leading to misread plays, not quite being in the right place plays, not atticipating quickly enough plays. That can cause problems for any D. LB will become a problem though I believe only if one of the starters gets hurt.

I see a good two deep at LB.. but nothing after that unless you count freshmen. Plus although Gardiner and Gainer have talent they are rather small; I think both are under 225. They can give you some minutes and both are talented but should they be pressed into starter's minutes due to injury I think the LB unit suffers a drop off. Hammock was a highly regarded RB/FB coming out of Fort Wayne were he essentially took his small catholic school team to the state title on his back. He EARNED the nickname "The Hammer" Gotta love a kid like that. The problem will come if any of the projected starters go down.

I still have a dream linebacking starting 3 of Bullough, Norman and Thomas swirling in my head with Thomas making the immediate impact at MLB the way Katzenmayer did at t OSU several years back. Can you imagine what it would be like to have a 6-4 255 guy in the middle with 6-3 240 Bullough at the SAM and Norman at 6-1 230 at the Mike? Geessh..doubt many could run against the Spartan front and even fewer qbs would want to try to set up and throw.

Alas, althouhg my dreams say one thing.... my brain, cursed with my scientist, look for all the problems first training and mentality, doesn't see this happening. There is too much for Thomas to learn in terms of understanding offenses and setting the defense as the "QB of the defense" for him to jump in and start in the middle on day one. Plus, as many have noted here.. he is disturbingly getting overweight, pushing 280 now!...earlier this year it looked like he was just getting bigger and stronger... now...everytime we turn around he's put on another 10 pounds.. and...guessing from the fact that the staff put him on a special diet.. I suspect he's gotten more "fat" than just plain in shape bigger. Put the two together and he's not going to start at LB.

Some of the loudest comments made regarding incoming freshman are regarding how good Harris and Jones look. Do not sleep on either of these guys. I know this doesn't translate into field ready, but they are receiving high praise. We'll learn more in a few weeks, but we have some pretty impressive talent coming in.

Third string/fourth string guys should be freshman/re-freshman.

Thought I saw something out of the LSJ that Thomas is at 273 or 278....something like that. if he is really 264 then that is workable in that it shouldn't be hard for Thomas to drop 10 pounds between now and the start of the season. and....if that is fat, it will be a plus for him to lose the weight.

I've been seeing lots of LBs playing at 250ish now in the college game (and to be fair, a good number playing at 210-215 too).. I think 3 out of the 4 , in not all 4 of the Irish's LBs are at 250+ and I think Bama had a guy like that too. (Granted the Irish play a 3-4 and in that system the "big" lb take on the role of a DE)

Thomas, at 6-4 could carry 250-255 and still move well enought for a MLB. and at that size he'd be a killer in the middle. Again though, I think the learning curve is too steep for him to earn a starting role this season barring any injuries to the starting 3.

LT apparently ran a 4.6 at 270lbs. If he gets to like 255 he's going to have freakish speed.

I'm not thinking we're getting an upgrade, but if we get 80-90% of that production, along with improved DL play, I think we'll be ok. I don't think that's too much of a stretch (80-90%)

I'll tell ya; I'm not going to argue with you, those concerns are totally legit. In my opinion, we won't see a big drop-off, but hey, that's why they call it an opinion and not a fact. I think Norman coming back will help in terms of leadership, and Bullough, according to the coaches, came into campus with a mental understanding of the game equivalent of a Senior. Now whether he can translate the brains onto the field remains to be seen.

I guess the difference between the LBs and the OL, is that even those we're replacing a higher % of the LBs (66 vs. 60), the guys coming in don't have lingering injury concerns or underwent position switches.

Also, when I said production, I didn't just mean measurable stats. I meant overall play; that's my bad, I didn't clarify.

I'd love to see that too, especially since he's just sick in coverage for a bigger man, but it's probably time to Clifton Ryan / Gholston his ass and bite the bullet and move him to DE

Man...its been a while, unlike back then...you get a sense things are only get better. This program is in SUCH better shape than it has been since....perhaps the 60's.

LT won't move to DE during his time here, I'd put money on that. 3-4 rush end in the league maybe once he gets drafted.

Kid is not like Gholston he moves like a safety.

How about just posting it?

DISCLAIMER: I read it on another board, not sure if there is anything to it, I am not following him on Twitter, etc.

With that said, he tweeted he was waiting for x-ray's on his foot.

Now I look at this with a very skeptical eye seeing you can't hurt hardened steel, but you never know....