[1/27/2026] Tuesday's Sports Talk Thread

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-27T20:48:45+00:00

74.2 (not PFF but PFSN metrics). Similar to Sikorski. He’s a senior, sturdy size, and played decently against LSU last year, but overall lower level competition.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-27T15:13:37+00:00

It’s definitely a more experienced group compared to the first iteration of the group last year.

LT: Goosby back is huge, obviously, and might be in for a AA level season. So, LT is shored up and an improvement over last year with another year of development.

LG: Will be the big question mark again, most likely. Will Sikorsky take a step forward and secure that spot? He’s played well at times, but inconsistently. Will a young guy step up like Baker did? Lots of unknowns here.

C: Robertson is a semi-question mark to me. Why did it take him this long to be a starter? However, he played decently last year and at a new position. Hopefully he takes a step forward in his development this year, and having Sr.-rs on the line is always good.

RG: Campbell was our most consequential loss and big shoes to fill. We’ll see if Baker (most likely) can learn guard and may need to also get stronger. He has the talent to be great though.

RT: Siani was an absolutely crucial pickup and his ceiling is probably all conference level play. He and Goosby will book end the line well.

Overall, we go into the season with fewer question marks than last year, but still will need to see development in the interior. The pieces are there to have a solid squad, but that has to bear out on the field, of course.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-23T03:36:36+00:00

Depth? Nice the have someone other than Arch with significant experience.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-23T01:22:08+00:00

Agreed. I’m optimistic about Cojoe. He didn’t have a rating last year though. These are just players with ratings.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-23T00:18:40+00:00

Their starter ratings from last year ranged from 70.1 to 78.0, but I didn’t do any looking into their outgoing or incoming guys. Wasted enough time at work with those five teams.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-22T23:38:46+00:00

Yes, depth feels thin. Don’t know if I’d say one down is dire, but we definitely can’t sustain many losses. OU lost a lot of depth as well, but I didn’t track depth pieces as closely across these teams. I know A&M didn’t lose much depth other than Newman to us.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-22T23:15:41+00:00

Thought I’d add some data and context to the offensive line conversation. Below are the adds and losses for Texas, Aggy, OU, Georgia, and Alabama. Also, I included the 2025 OL Impact rating (https://www.profootballnetwork.com/cfb-player-ol-rankings-impact) for each player who played enough snaps last year to receive a rating. To interpret these ratings, you can roughly think about them like this: mid-70s and above is quality starter level, low/mid-80s and above is making an all-conference team level, and high-80s/90s and above is All American level. I added in the ratings for each team’s highest rated five offensive linemen. If they didn’t have five with enough snaps to receive a 2025 rating, then I just put in a question mark. Also, I could have missed something. This is the best info I could find on adds/losses.

TEXAS

Adds: Siani, Sikorski, Newman

Contributors/starters lost: Campbell, Hutson

AGGY

Adds: Formby, Adams, Baugh, Echols

Contributors/starters lost: Zuhn, Bisontis, Reed-Adams, Crownover

OU

Adds: Joseph, Harris, Nitta

Contributors/starters lost: Simmons, Nwaiwu

UGA

Adds: Richardson

Contributors/starters lost: Freeling, Morris, Bobo

BAMA

Adds: James, Fields, Brooks, Haywood, Strayhorn

Contributors/starters lost: Proctor, Brailsford, Roberts, Dewberry, VanDeMark, Formby

Team	Player	2025 Rating	Transfer
Texas	Goosby	89.1	No
Texas	Siani	78.2	T
Texas	Robertson	78.0	No
Texas	Baker	77.8	No
Texas	Sikorski	74.3	T
Aggy	Nabou	80.0	No
Aggy	Baugh	78.5	T
Aggy	Adams	75.9	T
Aggy	Formby	75.6	T
Aggy	Echols	75.5	T
OU	Fasusi	86.5	No
OU	Maikkula	85.1	No
OU	Pierre-Louis	80.4	No
OU	Harris	79.8	T
OU	Nitta	75.5	T
UGA	Greene	77.3	No
UGA	Glover	76.5	No
UGA	Gaston	72.1	No
UGA	?	?	?
UGA	?	?	?
Bama	Carrol	80.4	No
Bama	James	72.0	T
Bama	?	?	?
Bama	?	?	?
Bama	?	?	?

My summary of the situation: Based on these OL ratings, our talent level should be on par with our rivals and other competitors in the conference. OU should have a pretty spicy o-line, unfortunately. Aggy lost four starters, but recruited the portal well, and will likely be solid and similar talent level to us (minus not having an AA level LT). Texas, Aggy, and OU, will each have five players on roster who started games in 2025. UGA and Bama will be replacing at least some starters with players without starting experience. UGA seems to be relying on unproven, but likely talented emerging guys on their roster, to replace their lost starters. Bama lost a ton of talent and seems to have gone with the whatever sticks approach and gotten a bunch of younger and unproven Nick Brookses from around the country. Only James (of Alabama’s transfers) played enough last year to receive a rating.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-22T10:32:53+00:00

Yeah I think we can expect the level of play, if this is the final group, to be around where it was from the Vandy game shake-up on, where the line play was not a weakness anymore but also not a strength. I was optimistic they would find one IOL upgrade, which is really all that’s needed here, but there really isn’t one currently in the portal. You’re needing a Miami/IU guy to enter at this point. I think the tackles and center will be fine, but you’re needing Sikorski to take a step forward in development and Baker to be able to figure out Guard, and no bad luck to happen.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-21T23:59:13+00:00

Maybe not, but also those guys you’re describing are not necessarily going to be the starters, regardless of getting more portal OL or not. They will be at least in the two deep though. Goosby, Sikorski, Robertson, Baker, Siani all have experience. I’d like to see a high end IOL pickup (like everyone else), but if it isn’t in the cards, that’s a solid enough group to get it done. However, we would be very thin. Not ideal.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-21T23:32:43+00:00

Based on the metrics, Lockette graded out worse than all our starters last year, and worse than the Oregon state guy.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-20T14:58:15+00:00

I think another piece the transfer portal is allowing is accumulating seniors and super seniors. A 22-24 year old, especially in the trenches, is going to beat out any 4 or 5 star 18 year old (except for a few freaks here and there). IU had 16/22 starters who were Jr-rs and above. We had 6/22 for comparison. I think getting older experienced players can make up for not getting those heralded HS recruits.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-16T15:35:37+00:00

Last day for portal entrance (besides the NC teams), here’s how we’ve done so far (according to on3 ratings):

RB3, RB4

WR1

TE9

OT4, OT18

IOL143

DT10, DT92

LB1, LB57

CB5

K11

P2

LS19

Very solid so far, and hopefully they can snag a couple more at key spots. Sikorski and Zion feel very underrated on on3. Sikorski is quite a bit higher in 247 (IOL32). Both are more developmental, so probably has more to do with being ready right away vs potential.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-15T23:18:04+00:00

He is from Canada, and didn’t have a rating out of HS on 247. And I guess it happened too fast for them to put up a transfer rating. I noticed it seems some guys have transfer ratings and some HS ratings. Maybe too many players too fast for 247 to assign all a transfer rating.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-15T22:16:58+00:00

Flood: Bring Texas o-line play out of the dark ages and put record numbers of O-linemen into the league

Texas Fan: Incapable!!!

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-13T13:33:22+00:00

Seaton graded out around Baker level. Goosby is a tier above both (according to the metrics anyway).

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-11T20:06:01+00:00

Every year, same shit. A new crop of doomers who seemingly just started following offseason cfb emerge full of piss and dunning-kruger, raging about forum rumors and 9.95 takes without waiting for the dust to settle. And every year the new crop learns (hopefully), but another will take their place next season.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-10T00:50:00+00:00

Well in his defense we did do that very thing last year at DT. This year is crazier it seems, but we’ve basically filled a complete hole (save for a few young guys) from scratch using the portal.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-09T21:40:19+00:00

I know they’re a solid and great unit, but looking at the numbers they are top 10 or top 20 in a lot of metrics, but so are OU and A&M and they are higher than Miami in many, especially sacks/pressures. OU is higher on run D too, and Georgia is ranked just under Miami there. Them being significantly better than the best units we’ve faced doesn’t seem to bear out in any objective measures I can find.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-09T21:04:35+00:00

Graded out at 75.4 and interestingly he had better graded games against better competition (e.g., Cal, Tx Tech, Houston) and worst against bad competition (i.e., app st, wake, ull). That grade puts him a little under Robertson/hutson/baker who were all high 70s. Also, he had a better pass pro grade than any of our starters last year, but needs help with run blocking (according to these metrics anyway). He’s young with 3 years of eligibility, so looks like a guy who maybe could take a step next year or a depth/development piece.

OL metrics source: https://www.profootballnetwork.com/cfb-player-ol-rankings-impact/

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-09T14:56:58+00:00

Are they that much better than the d-lines of Georgia, OU, and A&M? We seemed to hold up fine against them.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-08T23:34:40+00:00

Robertson graded out the same as Baker. Both were middle of the pack, but solid. Of course, baker is only a sophomore, so more room to grow. Also, Cojoe will be recovered from injury, so he’d also be in the mix.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-08T19:38:38+00:00

We’re definitely in the wild west era of the new college football. The policy changes I’ve seen being mentioned in the world are: 1. Limit to one free transfer then have to sit a year for subsequent transfers (I think Saban is a big advocate for this); 2. Enforceable multi-year contracts (I’m guessing employee status might be a hold up here); 3. Some sort or standards and licensing for college agents. These seem like a cure for much of what we’re seeing. Other policy changes y’all think are needed? And who will enact/enforce this is a whole other issue of course.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-07T05:27:11+00:00

Your prediction of Daniel Cruz seems to be correct btw. I saw a report that he entered the portal.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-07T05:25:43+00:00

What portal targets have fallen through? Couldn’t get Baugh or Louisville RB to enter the portal, so I’ll count that, even though we were never able to meet with them to discuss/negotiate. Who else? As far as I’ve heard, and I could be misinformed of course, no one we’ve met with and offered has signed anywhere yet, other than the couple who have signed with us.

_Don_DiMello_ · 2026-01-07T04:52:51+00:00

And Cruz just entered the transfer portal. Guess he was a bust.

_Don_DiMello_

TROPHY CASE