Rockne's Roundtable

Coach,

I guess I'm looking at dividing it into Skill, Big Skill (tight end/linebacker types) and Power (linemen). I think in any given recruiting year you need at least six to eight Power (linemen), with the understanding that maybe some Big Skill can grow into linemen.

Even in an off year with six, my preference would be four defensive and two on offense. I'm not saying don't recruit offensive linemen at all. But the preference is if a lineman has good enough all-around skills, especially feet, then he can play defense as well.

illestdomer2005,

A very plausible case you present. I'm not inferring that the way Vinny and Co., did it is the only way, and can also appreciate how challenging it is to gain admittance for the elite defensive linemen. Getting two in per year can be a task, never mind four to six. The staff has a far better handle on it than I ever could.

They did do it in 2008 (Ethan Johnson, Kapron, Sean Cwynar, Hafis Williams and Brandon Newman), but that goes to my point that when you recruit four, you hope two can truly pan out for the defensive line, and in 2011 (Aaron Lynch, Stephon Tuitt, Chase Hounshell, Tony Springmann and Brad Carrico) — although Lynch transferred and Carrico had his football career ended for medical reasons. Attrition can catch up pretty quickly.

I think Bama proves what a basic of the game is. You win most games from the line of scrimmage. A&M might have had Maziel but they also had a very good o line as evidenced by the fact that two of the tackles may well go in the top 10 of this years draft. The d line is also going to be represented by at least one if not more players in the first round. I think there is some under estimation of the talent that A&M had. They were far from weak on the lines and I would go as far to say that the lines are the strength of this years Aggie eleven. They did not beat Bama without some awesome big uglies of their own.