šŸˆ Former USC/Alabama/Southeastern Louisiana lineman Ishmael Sopsher in the NCAA Transfer Portal again.

Hopefully, you recruit and sign who you believe are the best players available. But many just don't have the heart, the desire or intestinal fortitude to do what ever it takes to see the field on game day. Hell, half of the roster don't have it and sit the bench.
 
247sports.com

Ishmael Sopsher, USC Trojans, Defensive Line

2018 First Team All-USA Louisiana Football Team First Team All-State all four years of high school
247sports.com 247sports.com

H.S. Scouting Report
EVALUATED 08/23/2018
Barton Simmons

Barton SimmonsDIRECTOR OF SCOUTING
PROJECTION
2-3 RoundDAY 2
COMPARISON
John JenkinsNEW YORK GIANTS


Densely built defender with a powerful lower-half and a thick upper-half who brings [BGCOLOR=rgb(250, 197, 28)]mass without a lot of bad weight.[/BGCOLOR] Has natural strength and punch and uses his hands effectively when he wants to. Can flash suddenness and get-off for a bigger defender and has demonstrated instances of good lateral quickness. Two-gap ability. Overpowering on the high school level. A high school defensive end that has been extremely productive and has an above average motor. Wins with size in high school and will need to develop a more well-rounded game for the next level including ability to retrace, change directions and play with consistent pad level and technique. May be close to his ceiling physically. Impact high level Power Five defender potential early round NFL Draft pick.

-------

If you want misevaluation, there it is highlighted.

If you want a pretty accurate eval, it's here (which seems to be a contradiction?)

May be close to his ceiling physically.
Click to expand...

Honestly, there's a part of me that empathizes with him. @football mentions "heart," and if by that he means "desire to be the player he could have been," he's spot on. I empathize because it takes a 'unique cut,' a mental fortitude if you will, to keep pushing with so much uncertainty this summer.

I believe we can all agree finding defensive tackles who can succeed at the next level is akin to the ol' "needle in the haystack." It's no wonder recruiting battles can be so intense for these guys.
 
Physically in the videos of what we see of them doing drills he looked soft. I think how active we have been in recruiting DT's in the last two cycles lets me know what the staff thinks off him not to mention he was at least 4th string currently.
 
I was under the impression he got his weight down and he was kicking tail this at the end of last year and into the offseason. Guess I was wrong. I hate seeing a highly rated guy pick us and then leave. I understand it's not always us, or always the player, but the optics on guys leaving don't look good to me atleast. And I realize it's a necessary evil, I just hate a young guy losing two years of his life. I partied too much in college and wasted a lot of time, and that's time I cannot get back and still trying to catch up on.
 
Always lots of moving parts to these situations. In my view part of the evaluation should be the intangibles to the best of the coaching staffs ability to ascertain it. I would expect some red flags to show up in conversation with those around him. I am sure the coaching staff does that but sometimes you do miss. As I said there are lots of moving parts, maybe the staff did see some concerns but simply took a chance they would be able to help the kid overcome issues. We will never know the full story.

Good luck to the kid hope he finds a place where he can excel.
 
mando said:
We will never know the full story.
Click to expand...
Well, yes we do. We've been talking about him since he arrived; the "red flags" you mentioned. His "full story" is in this thread.

BamaFan334 said:
I was under the impression he got his weight down and he was kicking tail this at the end of last year and into the offseason
Click to expand...
He was beginning to get into playing shape and starting to show what he could do (although, inconsistently.)

This is a lot of the reason I mentioned "empathy." With no spring camp the players weren't under the same type of discipline standards as we'veā€”as fansā€”become accustomed to seeing.

I don't know exactly why Vijay Singh comes to mind here but here goes anyway. Even at 50+ years of age the man is still getting up and hitting hundreds of balls each day. It's a self discipline thing with Vijay: he knows what he needs to do. He meets his daily goals.

Some people aren't cut like others; physically and mentally.
 
TerryP said:
Well, yes we do. We've been talking about him since he arrived; the "red flags" you mentioned. His "full story" is in this thread.
Click to expand...
By full story I was including the recruiting and evaluations of the intangibles. Was it known and the staff took a risk and thought they could help him overcome issues? What were those conversations by the staff? Maybe you know but not something I knew.
 
@mando they knew what they had when he arrived; grossly out of shape. One of his first meetings upon arrival was with Bragg outlining dietary changes. He had meetings with focus on conditioning and weight loss. By all appearances it seemed to start to 'click' with him last season.

It's pretty easily defined in layman's terms: He liked to eat, he didn't like to work. That's oil and water in football.

If I were to guess I'd say he's headed to a FCS school, like Southern Miss or the like. My instinct, based on his time in Tuscaloosa, tells me this story doesn't end with him playing on Sunday's, much less Saturday's. Certainly not at this level (FBS.)
 
BamaFan334 said:
I was under the impression he got his weight down and he was kicking tail this at the end of last year and into the offseason. Guess I was wrong. I hate seeing a highly rated guy pick us and then leave. I understand it's not always us, or always the player, but the optics on guys leaving don't look good to me atleast. And I realize it's a necessary evil, I just hate a young guy losing two years of his life. I partied too much in college and wasted a lot of time, and that's time I cannot get back and still trying to catch up on.
Click to expand...

I heard he was challenged with losing 20 lbs. at the beginning of the summer. Didn't happen.
 
To echo what Terry said (I typed this without reading replies yet which was dumb, but I'm going to post anyway)...

From what I understand, Sopsher had been making strides in the weight issue battle, then the COVID stuff came about and players were sent home. This was not ideal for a handful of guys who lost the structure of being in the facility and around support staff (S&C, Nutrition, Training, etc) every day. Not saying he wouldn't have eventually jumped into the portal anyway, but being detoured from his structured off season road map, put him back behind the 8 ball. And that's not a knock on the kid, I'd imagine at that age (any age really), it would be difficult to do what was being asked under those circumstances. Not like he could go home to a personal chef who could make him grilled chicken salads and fruit smoothies all day long.

Also, a conversation for another day is how these recruiting services as a whole do a pretty good job with the ratings, but it also obvious that they purposely inflate ratings on some players for their own selfish reasons (all-star game tie ins, deals for inside info, create more drama on late commits, etc.).
 

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