Thought this would make for a good jumping off point for a blog discussion:
Some random thoughts:
- This is the year of the defensive lineman. Ten — count ’em, ten — of the top twelve Hinton lists play on the DL.
- How sorry do you feel for ACC offensive linemen? Clemson has four of those ten defensive linemen. Sheesh.
- Tua ahead of Jake. Sigh.
- As Matt himself notes, that Kyler Murray ranking seems a little aggressive at this point.
- Florida Atlantic has three players on that list. Florida has none. Ouchy ouch.
And here’s how the SEC shows out:
- Alabama: 7
- Georgia: 4
- Auburn, TAMU: 3
- LSU, MSU: 2
- Kentucky, Missouri, Ole Miss, South Carolina, Tennessee: 1
- Arkansas, Florida, Vanderbilt: 0
No, élite talent isn’t everything. Depth matters, too. But every great program has its fair share of top-end players who elevate. I suspect there’s a reasonable (not the same thing as exact) amount of correlation between the order of that list and how the conference shakes out this season. Your thoughts?
Get The Picture 
Not only Fromm. Tua is also ahead of Lock and Stidham. I want some of whatever this guy is smoking.
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Tua, Schmua. I’m tired of that.
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You and me both, Brother.
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Why do I keep having the feeling it may be UGA’s O’line vs Clemson’s D’line for all the marbles at the end of the year?
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T’would be fine with me. Climpsn’s defensive line reputation is genuine “Made In The ACC.”
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4 potential first round picks all on the D line. That is the best position group in college football this year.
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Has to be, also has to be bothering Carolina fans..
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They have been stacked for a while on DL talent. Venerables needs a head coaching job.
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Pretty sure that list for the most part is not “ranked”. It is way too patterned mathematically to be a ranking. He went school to school, or position by position and just wrote names.
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SI.com did one of these things too. They did not rank D’Andre Swift or D’Andre Walker in the Top 100 but DID rank Rodrigo Blankenship (#100) and Jonathan Ledbetter (#73)…and put Tua #84 and Fromm #65.
Ah, good old “need filler in late June” coverage.
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Also, SI ranked three Clemson D-Linemen in the top 10, so Hinton isn’t too far off the reservation there.
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I don’t understand all the love for Trey Smith and not for Andrew Thomas. Thomas played OT last year and not guard unlike Smith. Now I’m not saying Thomas is way better than smith but will it translate this year for Smith. Then again I think teams may not be attacking Smith as I am pretty sure UT will have some other holes. So at the end of the year I guess Smith might be better than Thomas stat wise.
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Andrew Thomas is going to be a star. He was incredible last year at right tackle as a true freshman and, barring injury, is going to be a high draft pick in a couple of years.
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Swift and Fromm are good, but I think by year’s end neither will be considered the top 2 players on Georgia.
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D’Andre, Jake, Damien, Tua, Drew, and Jarrett all in one big group.
What’s the gradient here 1-30? Heck, 1-100? You could probably hit a random sort button out of that group and end up with an arguable list. They all good.
Oddly team-centric list, heavily weighted towards conference favorites.. And the ACC has by my count 4 players not playing for Dabo, 2 at Duke. None at Florida State.
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Cam Akers is on the list at RB for FSU. Hard to see at the bottom of first column though. Think there is a DE from FSU as well.
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Yeah, I missed them, plus a Miami player. Need my reading glasses 🙂
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We have the D’Andre team locked up.
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And I think they have the wrong one on top
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Sorry…not sorry…this season will show who the better QB is. Mark it down Bama’ will have a QB controversy the entire season.
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UGA is starting to close the gap, finally.
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Andrew Thomas should be on the list. Most NFL scouts have him already at the very least a 2nd rounder when he enters the draft.
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D(e)’Andre’d
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