🏈 "There is no OL depth chart," but if Shank wants his starting job back for 2016?

[TerryP]

Pardon the use of an over-worked cliche, but "the ball's in his court."

Post-scrimmage comment from Saban was as definitive as a comment can be in regards to Alphonse Taylor: "He’s going to continue to be on the second team if he doesn’t get his weight down and get in shape."

To me, this story reads just like Kouandjio's story did a few years ago. Like Arie's junior year, Shank did really well in run blocking situations last season—arguably as good or better than any other offensive lineman. But, when it came to the agility needed to move quickly in pass pro? You know the story.

 

[TerryP]

Another little note here:

Frazier and Smith still have some development left; we can all agree with that, right? That said, in the spring of last year they spent quite a bit of time in the backfield during the A-day scrimmage—going against Ryan Kelly.

I know I'm beating a dead horse here—one I had a hand in its demise—but I still want to point to what we're looking at when it comes to Ross P. manning the center position. He had a better scrimmage performance against those two then Kelly did last year. For that matter, Pierschbacher did well against the 1st team DL.

One thing he said a few weeks ago was he felt his biggest adjustment was going to be getting the shotgun snaps down-pat. Not only did he do a good job with his blocking, I didn't notice a bad snap all day.

 

[rammerjammer]

Not from him.....but there was one to Barnett down near the goal line......don't know who was center, but it was obviously second team b/c Barnett and Hurts were second team Offense.

 

[Tidestalker]

Taylor was on second team all last summer/pre season as well but found a way to win the job. Kind of felt bad for Bozeman since he spent most of that time with the 1's but the staff went a different direction when it mattered. I would feel just fine about him starting... Big kid, athletic, works hard, experience... etc.

 

[TerryP]

Taylor was on second team all last summer/pre season as well but found a way to win the job.

Most of the attention in '15 was on Cam with few paying attention to the RG position.

As I recall, the only person that had Shank at RG was Chris Walsh (on BR, as strange as that may sound) and he was listed as "-or-."

Funny thing to me about those projections was seeing Bozeman listed as a first teamer in the same articles that had him on the White team on A-day rosters. That told me the position was far from settled. There wasn't anything definitive that pointed to Bozeman starting at RG like we've seen with Ross actually speaking with the media this spring about the center position—that's definitive with Ross.

(If you go back through the years you'll find it's been one of those keys to seeing how the chart is working itself out. I first noticed it as habitual with Saban around the time Colin Peek was here.)

 

[planomateo]

 

[TerryP]

Based on my gut instinct combined with what I've talked about with a few friends around the department Shank's story this summer looks like it's going to be Arie K. Part Duex. Remember how many were critical of his performance suggesting he'd lose his starting job going into his senior season?

I'm "this close" to believing we're looking at the right side of the line being Shank and Jonah.