What about Alex Kuzmack at d-tackle?
- Thread starter YakiCoug
- Start date
I really do not know. Usually the transition for an O lineman to defense does not work. This from the top of my head as i have not looked at his tapes for months, If i remember correctly,he was not an super aggressive lineman.
The cougs need defensive linemen period. They now have 3 DE s and O Dts in this years recruiting class. They have now have had 3 DE s decommit and 1 DT cancel his visit to Pullman in the last few weeks. The cougs need a D Line coach. It is looking more and more like Leach was caught flatfooted by the abrupt departure of his coach.
Most high school linemen play both ways, and I'm guessing that is more likely to be the case in a state like Idaho. I'm not saying he ends up on the d-line, but with a dearth of d-tackles in this class, WSU may have no choice. He'll likely redshirt anyway, so it won't hurt to start him there.
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You are right but most coaches project a players position based in what they see are his strongest attributes for a certain position
Brand X poster indicated that Jeff Phelps is now listed as a DL coach and "not looking for work" i hope he has accepted a job with the cougs as he seems to be a solid D Line coach.
I've posted this before, but Hunter Mattox, Lyric Bartley, and Danny Bender are roughly the same size that Destiny Vaeao and Xavier Cooper were as freshmen. I'm not sure if T.J. Fehoko is still at WSU, but he also could end up inside. He was Utah defensive player of the year in high school (34 tfl, 21 sacks as a senior). Some idiot recently posted we've pretty much only signed Thomas Toki in the last couple years to address the position. Would I feel better if we snared a couple 6-5, 320 pounders? You bet, but I wouldn't be surprised to see the above-mentioned younger players in the 280-300 range in 2018.
It looks like they better be if the cougs do not recruit more size at the D line positions.i would be happy of they were all about in the 270-280 range. for next year. Toki is a curious situation I looked up his stats and it did not appear that he was playing much in juco ball.. I do not know if he was injured or overrated in high school?
I can't recall where I read this, but I believe Toki was injured and requires/required some kind of surgery. His weight was down to the low 270s, and it appears he and WSU have gone separate ways. He was an academic risk from the get go. As far as his talent, he was a dominant d-linemen in the Seattle area, but he was only all league honorable mention his senior year in California. Better competition? It would appear to be the case.
I still have all 4 years of eligibility left, so I could be talked into coming back to play DT...but only as long as the training table has Little Chocolate Donuts.
I don't think it's a huge deal either way, most likely, but I'm not really understanding the purpose or utility of speculating on a public message board regarding the likelihood of an unsigned prospect being forced to change positions, especially when there's no real basis for it.
For one thing, we don't know yet who the Cougs are going to wind up signing at DT. They might surprise us. Maybe Fehoko will transfer to WSU, and maybe the new DL coach will bring a DT commit. Maybe a DT will come from out of the blue somewhere. Not sure how likely any of that is -- although I think the possibility of a DL coach hire bringing someone is at least moderately likely -- but the likelihood of any of those things isn't trivial.
For another, if the commit or his family is reading this, I don't know how welcome they'd find opinions as to the likelihood of him being required (or "asked") to change positions. On another service, there's a story with some quotes about him seeming pretty excited about playing OL for the Cougs and, without giving too much away, otherwise indicating that he'd probably prefer sticking as an OL.
I don't mean to make a huge deal out of this or give you too much crap, YakiCoug -- I know we're all just speculating -- and I doubt this commit, in particular, would want to play anywhere else that he's been offered, but really, what's the purpose and what's the point in doing this a couple weeks before NSD? Might make some more sense after NSD when we see how the class actually shakes out.
