Stevens

[duckgrad99]

Rivals had Stevens as the # 2 center in the country. You just don't replace a guy like this, especially after losing Unger. This is huge news if true.

[chapelhillduck]

On the other hand...

it opens up a schollie for next year (trying to think positive)

[buckmarkduck]

Don't get me wrong this is a huge blow but from most reports he wasn't going to be starting this year anyways. It does hurt us down the road though.

[duckgrad99]

Don't get me wrong this is a huge blow but from most reports he wasn't going to be starting this year anyways. It does hurt us down the road though.

Who was expected to start at center?

[Mops]

I was slating Stevens to start right after the season was over but as the winter has gone on and I've been thinking more and more about replacements I had changed my tune. Greatwood doesn't like putting guys in the starting line up without having some experience unless we totally have to. Holmes has shown he can play center and did it last spring. I can see Holmes sliding into Center and being backed up by Carson York who I guess is also in the running. I'll check and see if I can find anything out.

[VinnyKnuckles]

Greatwood has said in the past that Hamani was a long ways away from being ready, so Holmes was probably the odds on favorite to be the starter at center next year regardless. This is really bad news from a depth standpoint though. I think a lot of fans have the false perception that the Ducks have a lot of depth on the offensive line. That is simply not the case, particularly if Hamani is out of the picture. As I have pointed out before, the failure to distribute offensive line recruits relatively evenly throughout the recruiting classes resulted in 6 scholarship offensive linemen graduating and 0 senior offensive linemen on the roster for next season. This has left the offensive line deficient from an overall numbers standpoint and from an experience standpoint. Without Hamani, there are only 8 scholarship offensive linemen left on the roster that will not be true freshmen next season. That number is about 4 below what you would ideally like to see. There are some serious questions about how good the offensive line will be next season even if everybody stays healthy. A couple of key injuries on the offensive line could turn this unit into a real mess very quickly.

[chapelhillduck]

Greatwood has said in the past that Hamani was a long ways away from being ready, so Holmes was probably the odds on favorite to be the starter at center next year regardless. This is really bad news from a depth standpoint though. I think a lot of fans have the false perception that the Ducks have a lot of depth on the offensive line. That is simply not the case, particularly if Hamani is out of the picture. As I have pointed out before, the failure to distribute offensive line recruits relatively evenly throughout the recruiting classes resulted in 6 scholarship offensive linemen graduating and 0 senior offensive linemen on the roster for next season. This has left the offensive line deficient from an overall numbers standpoint and from an experience standpoint. Without Hamani, there are only 8 scholarship offensive linemen left on the roster that will not be true freshmen next season. That number is about 4 below what you would ideally like to see. There are some serious questions about how good the offensive line will be next season even if everybody stays healthy. A couple of key injuries on the offensive line could turn this unit into a real mess very quickly.

While I agree with you in general...have the classes really been that uneven? The 6 seniors graduating stems from 4 freshman staying around and being very good and a couple of JC guys. Truelove leaving, Webb not really showing up, Stevens leaving...are these really problems with uneven recruiting?

[wiseforexinvestor]

Being LDS and a huge Duck fan I am ecstatic that Stevens has chosen to better himself. We all knew when we were recruiting him that this was a high possibility. We had a healthy discussion on this topic on the old board. When I was on my mission in Baltimore, Maryland I got to hang out with Edwin Mulitalo who is also LDS, served a mission in the middle of his college career, finished at Arizona and then got drafted by the Ravens. He won a super bowl with them while I was there.

I can second the previous poster that said he found school much easier after coming home from a mission.

I believe that MB built into the scholarship offer to him the option to go on the two year mission. If he wouldn't have done that we would be having this discussion now because Stevens would have come to Eugene.

Last thing, being that Stevens is going on a mission means that he is living a higher standard of moral code than most students at the U of O and there isn't much to do for a kid of this caliber to do since he isn't married and doesn't (at least shouldn't) participate in the party seen which is so prevalent in Eugene. Is there a chance that we lose him when he gets back.... yes. Is it likely in my mind....no. I think he will honor the agreement that he had with MB and the scholarship structure they set up for him.

[duckscribe]

We have Jordan Holmes who did a great job helping Unger last year and is more consistent with his snaps. We also have: Karrington Armstrong, Jamaal Burrell and Trevor Fox.

Maybe we need to attract some center prospect walkons next week also?

Center is vital in our spread offense!

[VinnyKnuckles]

While I agree with you in general...have the classes really been that uneven? The 6 seniors graduating stems from 4 freshman staying around and being very good and a couple of JC guys. Truelove leaving, Webb not really showing up, Stevens leaving...are these really problems with uneven recruiting?

Yes, as Greatwood has acknowledged, it is a problem of uneven recruiting. When you are recruiting, you have to look at the depth chart, view the overall numbers you have a particular position and take note of how those numbers are distributed amongst the classes. You then determine how closely that matches the optimal distribution at that position and recruit accordingly to help shore up any deficiencies or to simply keep the pipeline flowing. Obviously, things aren't always going to go exactly according to plan. Some years you might want to land a certain number of players at a particular position and you just can't get them. Sometimes players fail to qualify, become academically ineligible during their time at Oregon, get hurt, transfer, etc. All of these things will contribute to variations in the optimal distribution. However, if you are consistently able to recruit a position and bring in numbers to keep the classes relatively balanced, you shouldn't veer too wildly off course. Graduating 6 scholarship offensive linemen in one class while leaving 0 seniors behind is veering wildly off course.

On a happier note, even without Hamani, if the Ducks can weather the overall numbers and experience deficiency on the offensive line this upcoming season, they will be set up very nicely for the future. Let's hypothetically say that one of the incoming offensive line recruits burns his redshirt this upcoming season and the other 3 redshirt. The offensive line scholarship distribution for the 2010 season would then look like this:

SR - 3
JR - 3
SO - 3
FR - 3

If the Ducks could then bring in 3 offensive line recruits in the next recruiting class and redshirt them to go along with these existing players, that would be perfect from an overall numbers standpoint and from the standpoint of spreading it out across the classes.

[nogerO]

I sure hope he comes back, but it sounds like he may not.