The Blue Board

Good point. My sophomore year, I notched 17 tackles according to the official statistics but I wasn't even in the game for that many snaps that year. I got the big head thinking that by the time I was a starter, I'd break all kinds of records - 600 snaps x 1.2 tackles per snap = 720 tackles. Let me tell you...it didn't happen that way. I sucked.

Reuben Foster? Ray Lewis JR????

Barton getting all serious on us tonight.

I was being sorta sarcastic about the stats holding weight, I knew about the Garret Gilbert debacle... but I wish they did.

I just want stars and will haggle them any way I can get them. I'm sure you understand.

Yes, that was his name, dude got benched midway through the season for this guy.

Star-whore.

Aren't we all?

There was a guy who went to a 4A (highest classification) high school in SC who had over 200 tackles his senior year. 6'2" 230 and did it against some good competition, but he stunk it up at all the camps. Ended up laying at Newberry College and was all Big South a few years.

No. I never got a star.

He still has two seasons left...

There are plenty of four stars that I have seen worse than him. I'm not saying he is very good but saying that a 3 star would be generous is laughable. We all know of four and five star players that never played...

he played sparingly.

Well that is it our coaches should take his scholarship away

I'm not an "expert" but I had the good fortune to have had a father-in-law who was the head coach at 2 Div. I schools and an assistant in the pros. He and i watched hundreds of hours of high school and college football film and he taught me a lot about what to look for in players. I watched Holland's "highlight" films and thought 3 star was a pretty fair ranking. Watching him last year, I realized that, unless he has great improvement, he is going to have trouble playing in the SEC. Holland biggest strength (and weakness) is his strength. He was able to "arm tackle" a lot of kids in high school and he apparently got into the habit of depending on that strength to overshadow his lack of lateral speed. This has become very evident in his college play. This has also led to some poor technique that coaching, so far, has not been able to correct. If you go back and look at his time at Auburn, he tends to leave his feet with his head somewhat down when trying to make tackles. This comes from poor/slow footwork and/or lack of lateral quickness. He also is somewhat slow to recognize plays developing which leads to even more slow and unsure footwork. Being slow to see plays developing can USUALLY be improved through coaching. Also, he appeared to be slow recognizing his "keys" in the other teams formations prior to the snap or "eye locking" on one player. Even my Auburn friends with no training in what to look for would tell me "he looks lost out there".This can also USUALLY be improved with coaching. Like I said, a lot of his techniques are from his well above average strength for a high school player. He is/was a good, strong high school player but, that seems to be where his ceiling is. He certainly may improve but, he has a lot too overcome. He needs better coaching than he got last year (and by the way, I think he'll get that with Auburn's coaching staff moves) but he will have to work extra hard to overcome some bad habits as well. Not saying he can't do it but, his lack of natural lateral speed and his past of depending so much on his strength will definitely have to be overcome. Not to mention he needs to spend a lot of time in the film room and get better at situational awareness both before and AS the plays develop. He seems like a good, hardworking kid so I am actually rooting for him (except against Alabama (g))...