Buy Grown Men, Not Just Big Humans

[Steamboat Willie]

Portal wish list this year is simple: smart + nasty > just massive.
Size without diagnosis is just expensive cardio.

When the line finally settled this season, it wasn’t because we suddenly got stronger — it’s because guys actually understood their assignments and could pass off movement without turning the backfield into a demolition derby.

OL is five brains acting as one. If the communication is bad, it doesn’t matter how big you are — you’re wrong fast and wrong loud.

I’m excited and optimistic about going shopping for 3 portal starters if they can think, talk, and adjust. Zone lives on timing and trust, not weight-room leaderboards.

Credit to Sark: he saw the problem, stabilized the season, and — for the first time in a long time — is talking portal priorities like someone who actually watched the same OL tape we did.

If 9–3 is the floor now, I’ll take it. We’ve lived through worse.

Now go kick the tires on the Colorado LT. Make him tell us no. Then keep dialing.
Go get grown men who can play chess at 320.

[Steamboat Willie]

Follow-up thought: This is exactly why the portal matters more for OL than any other position. You’re not just buying size — you’re buying reps, scar tissue, and communication under fire. Those things don’t show up in 7-on-7 camps or Rivals stars.

High school OL are projects. Portal OL are products. Both matter — but only one saves you next September.

And to be fair, Sark finally sounds like he gets that balance. He’s not talking about “potential” right now — he’s talking about solving problems. That’s progress.

If we walk out of this portal window with:

2 interior starters who can communicate

1 swing tackle who won’t panic

and no more build-a-bear experiments at guard…

Then this whole debate disappears by mid-October.

Until then — I’ll stay, hopeful, and fully ready to overreact

[Realist Horn]

Coach Shipley said it best - ask these linemen how many fist fights they have been it....