Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.
I hope Brostek redshirts
Gladstone
Member Posts: 16,419
Another player whose freshman year was disgracefully burned by Sark. With the Sarkisian OL cliff looming next year we need all the depth we can get.
Comments
Sark played lots of potential beasts before they were ready for the physicality of Pac-12 football. Porter, and to a lesser extent Kohler, come to mind. With a redshirt, they get to play big boy D1 football at a year older than most of the competition. Makes a big difference for people aged 18-23 years old.
Most competent coaches make an effort on redshirting and making sure at least some JC talent gets in. Sark.... not so much.
However, the physicality, speed and technical aspects of the college game are much, much harder than high school, and the position has the highest learning curve of any position besides QB. All OL should be redshirted in their first year because they need time to build up their strength and speed and even more time to learn how to read defenses and pass-block correctly. Sure, if they're big enough, they can do well at run-blocking but they're going to get blown away in pass-protection because defenses are more sophisticated and players are that much better. If you want two recent examples of this, look no further than UW in 2011 (Porter started at RG, Kohler at RT) or UCLA in 2013 (3 true-freshman OL starting, Hundley sacked 3 times per game).
Redshirting Brostek now is a bit of a waste in the fact that he has had time to adjust to the physicality and speed of the game now. However, it makes sense considering a number of other factors. Sark moved Brostek from OL to DL last year for whatever asinine reason, so spending a year on the sidelines will help him redevelop his skills as an OL and help him with pass-blocking. Redshirting him in 2014 would mean he could then play in 2015 and 2016. We're losing 5 OL this year including 4 starters, meaning our starting OL next year will might look like:
Eldrenkamp (rs-JR)
Charles (rs-SR)
Tufunga (rs-SR) OR Crane (rs-SO)
Brostek (true-SR or rs-JR)
Dolbec (rs-SR)
If we redshirt Brostek, we'd only lose 2-3 starters next year. Otherwise, we lose 3-4. As you can see, losing a potential of 7-8 starting OL over 2 years is a significant hurdle, so developing depth this year and next will be essential. And one of the best ways of doing that is to preserve a year of eligibility for Brostek. And it makes sense because it won't cost us anything this year and pay huge, HUGE dividends in 2016.
The rest of your post is spot on. Charles, Tanigawa, Atoe, and Tufunga were all ahead of him during Spring Ball. We also have Crane to back up Criste at center and they had Tanigawa getting some reps there during Spring. We are 2 deep at all the interior OL positions and I don't see a need for Brostek. Hopefully he redshirts and competes for a starting job in 2015.
Here are the highlights from the Stanford game where he started at RG (FWIW, Criste was starting RT that game, then switched to RG at halftime).
Yes, I realize they're bias since they're Husky highlights (and not the whole game, where we could better gauge his performance) but if you look for #60, he does well getting to the second level and engaging LBs. I mentioned before he did well except when it came to pass-blocking, and from those limited clips, you could tell he struggle mightily. It's not like he's Porter or Tanigawa or someone like that, but he did well, especially considering the fact he was a true freshman going against Stanford's front 7.
If he was doing well, he would have stayed in after halftime. I also remember a Portland State DT knocking Brostek on his ass and tackling Eric Wilson for a loss. He was a freshman who wasn't anywhere near ready and never should have saw the field.
Secondly, Coz was bad for recruiting and never developed our kids. Many on these boards come to his defense, but I think the proof became more apparent once he was gone. Pete isn't having a problem recruiting linemen like Sark/Coz did.
I hate Sark.
I don't see Dolbec starting at RT next year. Probably Andrew Kirkland or even Coleman Shelton would start over Dolbec in 2015.
One thing is for certain - he's not going to play any meaningful minutes this year. He's like the 5th or 6th guard in the depth chart. Even if he sucks now, it makes sense for depth reasons to RS him
After this year we lose Tanigawa, Atoe, and Criste
Next year we lose Charles, Tufunga and Brostek if he doesn't RS
After that you have Andrew Kirkland and a bunch of guys like that who will have hardly played
Praise Allah for Pat HadenFS
He never should have played in the first place, but you do have to consider the possibility that he was never any good. Cooper Pelleur, Taz Stevenson, Garrett Gilliand, Eric Wilson, Talia Crichton, Sione Potoae. Sark played a lot of guys who had no business playing. Some of them had no business even getting a scholarship. The bottom half of Sark's classes were mostly shit.
Brostek went from 280 to 260 by the end of his freshman year. I truly don't get why he didn't redshirt one of his first two years, but if he can't hold weight and doesn't have the ability, get him through the program, especially if some of the true freshman look like better players. There's no point to hold up a scholarship for a guy who will never contribute.