The coaches may not want to say it outright, but it’s hardly surprising that John Theus is making steady progress towards grabbing a starting spot on the offensive line.
The big thing about that isn’t so much that the true freshman is living up to the recruiting hype – “Head coach Mark Richt did nothing to dampen expectations, comparing Theus to A.J. Green and Matthew Stafford in terms of immediate impact.” – but that he’s not flopping. The offensive line’s outlook is better with a true six man rotation. And if Theus continues to improve, it wouldn’t surprise me to see him move to left tackle during the season, allowing the coaches to move Gates to a position inside. Fingers crossed.
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My fingers are crossed that Gates so dominates the LT position that no matter how much Theus improves they never consider moving gates.
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This a little. But isn’t Gates a more natural fit at guard? It all depends who develops along with Theus at tackle
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Yes and no, the one advantage Gates has over Glenn from last year at tackle is that he is not near as big. I think he is 20-30 pounds lighter meaning theoretically he should be able to handle speed rushers better.
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I had heard before that Glenn agreed to stay his senior year on condition that he got a shot at LT, and that is why Gates was moved inside. The guys at LHB say Gates is a more natural fit at LT and Theus is suited for RT.
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Theus will likely stay at RT if Georgia lands Laremy Tunsil in this recruiting class. Tunsil will anchor that LT spot when he gets here, imo.
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Wouldn’t they slide Theus to left with his experience and break in Tunsil at right? I assume Theus was an LT in high school. Wasn’t that why we lost OT Avery because we already had an LT in Theus?
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Nevermind…I see above about RT. I’ll shut up now.
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With Long’s broken foot from yesterday’s practice it is “all hands on deck” (and was before then too) it is great to hear that Theus may be as good as advertised. We have enough OL players, the key will be avoiding the dreaded injury bug. We will have injuries for sure, but we don’t need a breakout of them like we have had a couple of times in recent years. Rotating liberally and getting less experienced players some playing time in early games will be crucial before we get into late October. OL injuries have been particularly heavy this past decade, especially when we were having all the shoulder problems.
I know OL has been my biggest concern but I really believe if we can survive the depth issues, I still have hopes we will be better than last year….simply because we were so weak that we don’t have much further to fall. Fingers crossed.
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and maybe Houston gets cleared. a man can dream, yes?
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Pipe dreams, yes.
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This. And Merritt Hall. Some guys worked mighty hard over the summer. This is the kind of commitment you need when the roster is a bit thin in some places. GATA!!!1
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Love to see Theus be that good that early! Keep recruiting those O-linemen especially from state of Georgia. Hope Coach Richt holds back a few of those extra scholarships instead of giving them all to walk-ons. Love our coaching staff! wedgeorgia.com
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There is no harm in giving them. He is offering it to them only for this fall. They get no promises that it will be for the rest of their career. It won’t affect the number we can sign for next year at all.
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Those walk-ons bust their asses to earn those schollies, I have no problem with them being rewarded with them. Guys like Connor Norman and Merritt Hall have certainly been more deserving of a scholarship than guys that have squandered them (Crowell, Ealey, etc) were.
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We proved that we can still have a good passing attack with a mediocre (and sometimes flat out poor) O-line in 2011. We need to make sure this O-line knows how to get some yards on the ground too.
Theus is coming along in his pass blocking but is already a force (thanks to his HS days) in run blocking. When we run to his side you can bet he will have some space cleared for whoever is behind him. That excites me because if we can get our faster RBs some space, they can fly.
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I’ll take all the good OL news we can get. Maybe someday the OL will be a team strength every year.
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