Commodores stockpiling young offensive linemen for next year... and in great position for the future

Commodores just got another verbal commitment from a three-star offensive lineman. Earlier this summer, it was James Lewis, an athletic, basketball-playing, 6-5, 275-pound tackle prospect from Arlington, Tenn., with offers from Kentucky and Illinois. This week, it's Jake Bernstein, a physical, hard-nosed, 6-4, 275-pound guard prospect from Illinois with offers from Cincinnati, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Memphis and others.

This is great news. We needed running backs and went out and got two good ones last year. We needed wide receivers and went out and got four this year, and three of them will likely be on the field as true freshmen against Northwestern. And we needed O-linemen and have gotten two good ones already.

You know about our woes on the offensive line this season. Some ill-informed fans are blaming a lack of planning in our recruiting efforts. Not true. A returning starter (Reilly Lauer) left school before his fifth year, our best lineman (James Williams) got drummed out academically, two past recruits left school at least two years early (Rob Ashabranner and Richard Cagle), a solid backup can't keep his balance because of an inner ear problem (Chris Aaron) and a promising redshirt freshman wrecked a knee (Justin Cabbagestalk). That's six guys gone. So we're starting over.

But wait till next year. Here's what we'll have in 2011:

• Eight of this year's top nine linemen: Senior Kyle Fischer; juniors Ryan Seymour, Caleb Welchans and Jabo Burrow; and sophomores Wesley Johnson, Mylon Brown, James Kittredge, Logan Stewart
• Three raw talents, at least one of whom will have redshirted: Grant Ramsay, Chase White and Andrew Bridges
• Two talented true freshmen with the option of redshirting: Lewis and Bernstein

That's 13 solid offensive linemen, and 14 when Cabbagestalk returns. And of those 14, all but one of them are slated to return for the 2012 season.

I'd say that's good planning.

Big offensive lineman chooses Commodores

James Lewis, a 6-5, 275-pound offensive tackle from Arlington, Tenn., has chosen the Commodores over Illinois. He's a two-star player, which doesn't mean much. You know, Chris Williams was a two-star guy coming out of high school. We really need offensive linemen.

Vandy was the last team in the SEC to get a verbal commitment for the 2011 signing class, so it's good to finally get a name on the board. But Lewis had apparently committed to Vanderbilt three weeks ago, so who know who else we've already locked up. And upcoming camps and recruiting weekends should yield some commitments too.

While Vandy had one of its best recruiting classes ever, Kentucky had shockingly few commitments heading into the fall but finished with a class rated equal to or better than Vandy's. So keep in mind that it matters most how you finish.

Oh, and it's nice to get a big player at a position we need, and it's also kind of nice that he's not highly rated. I trust that the coaching staff offers its first round of scholarships to the players it really wants and then rounds out the class with second-tier players as signing day approaches. So I believe Lewis will be a good player for us, and I'm kind of glad he's not a four-star guy who'll have to stave off poachers during the upcoming season.

No, Lewis is a guy who'll likely stick with the Commodores until signing day. Hopefully we'll get some prep superstars, but hopefully they'll sign closer to signing day — after we've had a winning season — so we can avoid last year's painful, last-minute loss of talent.