Updated roster with weight increases. Wow!

[davefrat]

So, the plan this offseason wasn't for the O-Line to eat its way to the Joe Moore Award.

 

[RollTide_HTTR]

Proctor is listed at 369, and honestly that's pretty concerning. He wasn't exactly mobile last year, and this is a heavier listed weight. Hopefully he's moved some bad weight to good weight, but even though he moved up to first string recently, I wouldn't be shocked to see him get nudged back once we start getting into pass pro reps against some of our faster edge guys.

FWIW on Proctor, some insiders say he was playing above 369 last year and was closer to 380. They seem to think he has lost weight despite listed weight going up

 

[gtgilbert]

FWIW on Proctor, some insiders say he was playing above 369 last year and was closer to 380. They seem to think he has lost weight despite listed weight going up

I could see that for sure for last season. Hopefully that does mean he's slimmed up some and his agility and quickness will improve.

 

[Ledsteplin]

they just updated it. Fall was 355, rejoin weight was 360 and now it's 369 and I don't think they would just make it up. Typo maybe, but it's still a gain. I think it's likely 4Q is right and that Proctor was headed in the wrong direction for a bit - he did have a knee issue that might have required him to pause the conditioning and get off plan - and is hopefully getting it back where he needs to be. Whatever the weight number was last fall, he didn't carry it well on the field. Coaches are saying he's making progress, but I'll also reserve the right to be a little concerned until I see him quick enough to handle a speed edge rusher in live reps

There were rumors he was actually over 380 lbs last year, even though he was listed at 360. I'm gonna trust in the coaches and trainers on this one.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

So, the plan this offseason wasn't for the O-Line to eat its way to the Joe Moore Award.

Coming into CKD's tenure we were of the mindset that since his OL at Washington was smaller that would be what he does at Alabama. But what may have happened is he is smart enough to realize that type of OL will not work in the SEC or Saban told him that those size OL's aren't going to survive (over the long haul) in the SEC. So he may have met with his staff and they decided to bulk up the OL. But I'm sure their goal is to still retain agility. That's always the goal.

 

[JohnD]

well I wouldn't expect him to talk negative about a player when asked. Could all be true, or could be coach speak to encourage progress.

This new line of communication is somewhat of a question mark for me. CKD is all positive all the time. We are not used to that and I'm inclined to take it with a heavy pinch of salt. We know it's not all positive all the time. Although it wasn't always spot on, we could glean from Saban where the problem areas were, things they were focused on, and what the mindset of the team was. And he was very careful, for example, not to overly hype a freshman because that leads to expectations being too high as it relates to playing time and production on the field. Now we have assistant coaches putting things out there. It's just different.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

This new line of communication is somewhat of a question mark for me. CKD is all positive all the time. We are not used to that and I'm inclined to take it with a heavy pinch of salt. We know it's not all positive all the time. Although it wasn't always spot on, we could glean from Saban where the problem areas were, things they were focused on, and what the mindset of the team was. And he was very careful, for example, not to overly hype a freshman because that leads to expectations being too high as it relates to playing time and production on the field. Now we have assistant coaches putting things out there. It's just different.

He is a boring interview and that's not a bad thing. He won't be a topic on the Paul Finebaum show or snippets of his press conferences will not be a reporting piece on SportsCenter for the week's discussion. He gives all positive, unflavored answers and does his work behind the scenes. What's so bad about that?

 

[JohnD]

He is a boring interview and that's not a bad thing. He won't be a topic on the Paul Finebaum show or snippets of his press conferences will not be a reporting piece on SportsCenter for the week's discussion. He gives all positive, unflavored answers and does his work behind the scenes. What's so bad about that?

Didn't say it was bad. Just different.
I do think this vague commentary style combined with CKD's prior success may have this team ranked a bit high. That's not to say that we wont' get there, but everything is new and there's almost always some growing pains. Some things that get lost in translation in a big game. So a lot of unknowns have to go right. That being said, preseason polls are stupid, and other teams have similar question marks. But that's a different conversation.

 

[bamaga]

I see our 2 starting guards have slimmed down a little. And key reserve Bertrand . Probably asked to do so for pulling ? Man I cant wait to see this team play. So many possibilities.

 

[davefrat]

FWIW on Proctor, some insiders say he was playing above 369 last year and was closer to 380. They seem to think he has lost weight despite listed weight going up

He was so big last year that he had jowls.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

Didn't say it was bad. Just different.
I do think this vague commentary style combined with CKD's prior success may have this team ranked a bit high. That's not to say that we wont' get there, but everything is new and there's almost always some growing pains. Some things that get lost in translation in a big game. So a lot of unknowns have to go right. That being said, preseason polls are stupid, and other teams have similar question marks. But that's a different conversation.

Gotcha, just how you worded your post seemed like you had some "concerns" based on how CKD's communication was different than CNS.

 

[davefrat]

He is a boring interview and that's not a bad thing. He won't be a topic on the Paul Finebaum show or snippets of his press conferences will not be a reporting piece on SportsCenter for the week's discussion. He gives all positive, unflavored answers and does his work behind the scenes. What's so bad about that?

He's from SD, and I work with a lot of people from that part of the country (MT, ID, ND, SD)and they're all pretty much upbeat and positive people.

Very much down-home kind of people.

 

[Ledsteplin]

This new line of communication is somewhat of a question mark for me. CKD is all positive all the time. We are not used to that and I'm inclined to take it with a heavy pinch of salt. We know it's not all positive all the time. Although it wasn't always spot on, we could glean from Saban where the problem areas were, things they were focused on, and what the mindset of the team was. And he was very careful, for example, not to overly hype a freshman because that leads to expectations being too high as it relates to playing time and production on the field. Now we have assistant coaches putting things out there. It's just different.

Maybe he won't really know the negatives until he sees real game play. It's kind of hard from practice alone. He also wants to keep the players in a positive mind. Areas of concern might be those he speaks the least about, or avoids.

 

[Ledsteplin]

they just updated it. Fall was 355, rejoin weight was 360 and now it's 369 and I don't think they would just make it up. Typo maybe, but it's still a gain. I think it's likely 4Q is right and that Proctor was headed in the wrong direction for a bit - he did have a knee issue that might have required him to pause the conditioning and get off plan - and is hopefully getting it back where he needs to be. Whatever the weight number was last fall, he didn't carry it well on the field. Coaches are saying he's making progress, but I'll also reserve the right to be a little concerned until I see him quick enough to handle a speed edge rusher in live reps

Kadyn doesn't look fat in this photo He looks in good shape. He's just a big dude.

 

[gtgilbert]

Kadyn doesn't look fat in this photo He looks in good shape. He's just a big dude.
View attachment 44832

It's hard to address this without it seeming like player bashing, so I want to first acknowledge that the coaches all seem pleased that Proctor has made progress and has lost weight since arriving back on campus after spring. That's all goodness and positive that he's working on being where he needs to be.

OL guys, with very, very few exceptions, carry more weight, with some of that being of the non-muscle variety than folks who are in good shape (recent guys like Neal and Latham are possible exceptions as they both managed lower body fat ratios than most OL do). It's just part of the job description for the position to carry that type of mass. In that pic, I'd say neither player is in 'good shape', but they're trying to hit the right balance between the weight they have to carry to be successful as an OL in the SEC, and not so much weight that their mobility suffers. Like I said, that's true of every OL so not trying to pick on Proctor. The requirements of the position simply dictate that those guys aren't really ever in 'good shape'. They just have to find the balance.

Proctor, last season, didn't have the right balance between size and mobility. It's possible/likely that his actual weight was higher than his roster weight (350) and some have claimed 370-380. Maybe the listed 369 weight for this year is also not accurate. Whatever it was, and whatever it is, I just hope that he's found a way better balance than last year. Like so many things, we won't really know until that's the case until we get a few games into the season when we face teams with legit speed rushers on the outside that will test his mobility.

This pic however, still gives me a little pause. Maybe the power is there to have enough mobility. Like I said, we won't know till a few weeks into the season.