April 5, 2017 · 7:13 AM

Name that caption, “mountain of a man” edition

I don’t know if Ben Cleveland is an SEC-caliber offensive lineman yet, but he damn sure looks the part already.

ben-cleveland-by-joshua-l-jones-018_vlfdvr

Josh Jones/AJC

That is one big dude.

18 Comments

Filed under Name That Caption

18 responses to “Name that caption, “mountain of a man” edition”

  1. Macallanlover
    April 5, 2017 at 8:16 AM

    He was a young, soft freshman needing work on technique/footwork from what I heard. No reason to discount him because he is truly the poster child for letting a young OL prospect come of age slowly. May not make a big contribution this season but we may get a good 2-3 years out of him if he grows a mean streak. Glad to hear some good things about his progress.

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  2. dawgxian
    April 5, 2017 at 8:20 AM

    he looks like he ate another offensive lineman

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  3. Russ
    April 5, 2017 at 8:52 AM

    It was a mystery to me why he never played. Hope he figures out whatever he needs to be a great one.

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  4. Timphd
    April 5, 2017 at 8:55 AM

    And that’s without pads on.

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  5. PTC DAWG
    April 5, 2017 at 9:07 AM

    He is still very young.

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  6. Class A
    April 5, 2017 at 9:28 AM

    “I need to get a bigger helmet”

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  7. 92 grad
    April 5, 2017 at 10:02 AM

    “Is that char-grilled beef I smell?”

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  8. Got Cowdog
    April 5, 2017 at 10:24 AM

    Wait, Coach Smart recruited a couple of great big linemen and redshirted them? So they could get some experience at the D-1 level and mature physically? So they have 4 years of eligibility left? That’s crazy! What was he thinking?

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  9. eethomaswfnc
    April 5, 2017 at 10:29 AM

    I’ll take Ben Cleveland and these other young offensive linemen as 5th year seniors over the same guys as true freshmen. No doubt that offensive linemen should redshirt unless they are absolutely ready on day 1.

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    • Got Cowdog
      April 5, 2017 at 10:35 AM

      Me too. What about that whopper of a kid from New York that signed this year? Wonder if he redshirts as well. Berate CKS all you want, he appears to be managing the roster for the long haul. I like it.

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      • eethomaswfnc
        April 5, 2017 at 11:28 AM

        I would be surprised if he plays this year. Similar to Eason, he played in a spot that’s not exactly a high school football hotbed. I also assume they want him to slim down a bit.

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        • RandallPinkFloyd
          April 6, 2017 at 7:55 AM

          Take it FWIW, but most of the 247 guys have him in the 7 man rotation for OL. If he doesn’t play, that’s probably a good sign that we finally have some depth.

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  10. AusDawg85
    April 5, 2017 at 11:29 AM

    “Mind if I dance with your date?”

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  11. Otto
    April 5, 2017 at 11:50 AM

    I was expect to see him at guard but they say he has been working at tackle with good results. That sounds promising especially given what I heard on AM750 this morning is attacking.

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  12. 69Dawg
    April 5, 2017 at 12:01 PM

    Ben Cleveland was recruited during UGA’s we want them big annual selection criteria. So after spending a year eating like a horse, he finds himself too big for this years slim down. If only our coaches on both sides of the ball could make up their minds about what sizes we want they might be able to get on with the business of winning football games. Yoyo weight loss accomplishes nothing. Our scholarship offensive lineman have lost a total of 37 lbs and that includes weight gains by Bynum of 27lbs, Wynn 22lbs and Hardin 10lbs. The remaining 8 have lost 96 lbs. The biggest weight loss was Kindley’s 29 lbs followed by Baker’s 23 lbs. Kindley remains the heaviest at 341 lbs with our boy Cleveland close behind at 340. I think Cleveland is in the Dawg house because he only lost 5 lbs. The boy likes to eat.

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  13. W Cobb Dawg
    April 5, 2017 at 4:05 PM

    Sorry, but if the kid has any talent whatsoever, he shoulda been playing in 2016. Building for the future is all well and good when you have a capable OL. But in 2016 we were desperately needing OL help. At the very least Ben would’ve gained valuable game experience, much the same as Eason did. If big Ben shows out, Kirby & Pittman will look the fools for redshirting him. Much the same as CMR did when redshirting Knowshon.

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    • Bob's your Uncle
      April 5, 2017 at 7:13 PM

      Cobb Dawg, the only fools are those fans that expected a true freshman OL who didn’t turn 18 till sometime during the season and who hardly played on the o-line the last couple of years of high school to come in and get significant playing time or start. The kid could bench press a mountain but couldn’t bend over and touch his toes and had trouble keeping his pads low to get leverage. He’s been taking yoga the past year to improve his flexibility and seems to have paid off.

      Will he start this year? Probably not. Will he contribute or get any playing time? Maybe, but even if he doesn’t, hopefully, he’ll do so as a redshirt sophomore in 2018. It takes time to develop o-linemen and very few start or are effective as true freshman or even sophomores.

      As far as the o-line, Kirby Smart and Sam Pittman played the best five on the roster they had to work with because the previous coaching staff left UGA with no true offensive tackles on the roster and a bare cupboard in the big hog mollies department. If Big Ben had played, he would have got his butt kicked worse than Tyler Catalina did.

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      • eethomaswfnc
        April 5, 2017 at 11:02 PM

        “Smart and … Pittman played the best five on the roster”

        That is likely true. The $3,000,000 question is whether they actually schemed to those 5 guys strengths or set them up to fail by asking them to do things they couldn’t.

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