Mailbag – What Happened to Savage and St. John?
Posted on: November 1, 2013
A reader asked us why we haven’t really seen Savage or St. John play.
I surmise that for St. John and, to a degree, Savage have both struggled a bit with the mental aspect of the offense. Oklahoma’s offense is probably not one that is easily picked up quickly. Savage got here in the summer, and St. John got here fall and late in camp. To play with an edge on the offensive line, you have to know exactly what you’re doing. Since o linemen are already the slowest position group on the field, any indecision can make you a step slower negating your physicality and negating that half a tick you get by knowing the snap count and attacking people. Also, Tyrus and Daryl are two veterans out at the tackle positions. Both have played a lot, and it’s hard for a guy who doesn’t know the playbook to come in and unseat talented guys who have been around for a while.
What a lot of folks don’t understand is that most great O-line programs make their living off finding kids with just enough athleticism but plenty of intelligence, resilience, coachabilty and the desire to work hard. It takes time for O-linemen to develop. Just because a kid is “OU good” doesn’t mean he’s “OU ready”. People have already written off guys like Farniok but I found it interesting that Farniok picked up a little spot duty in the Notre Dame game and held up pretty well against Tuitt. A good program has a long term plan for O-line development because it’s one of those position groups that takes time to develop. There is a huge difference between an 18 year old and a 21 year old and that difference is probably no where more significant or obvious than in the trenches. If you look back at the years when Nebraska was running over people I bet you there aren’t many Nebraska fans that can name many of their O-linemen. And part of that is because many of those kids didn’t play till they were JRs or even SRs. They gave those kids time to develop. Wisconsin does a similar thing. Does that mean you aren’t going to get some kids in that are ready to go real early? No, but you don’t build a program or a plan around expecting that to happen.
When I watched St. John on film before we signed him he reminded me a little of Lane Johnson in terms of his athleticism. He’s not the freak athlete that Lane is but he’s got feet, he bends at the knees well, etc. but he doesn’t have those sledge hammer hands yet. He doesn’t even know how to use his hands yet. But Coach Bedenbaugh is a great teacher and I’m sure St. John is getting everything he needs now in terms of upper body development and coaching to be “OU ready” even if it isn’t till next season. Again, some OU fans are too quick to write these kids off (not referring to the reader who asked the question).
Not every player pans out. I’ll admit that. But what OU fans are going to have to understand is that Coach Bedenbaugh is a different kind of coach with a different kind of development and, it appears to me, he also has a different vision for how that development process works and when to play his kids. I personally think it’s the right plan.
Note: Ace saw St. John in fall camp and said he looked extremely athletic but had almost no technique. Which only confirmed what I figured.
As always, we thank the reader for the question and we invite y’all to send us any questions, comments or suggestions you might have.
3 Comments
Another thing too guys is that I really think that once St. John learns the technical aspect of the game, he has the potential to be very very good. Technique is one of the most underrated aspects of being an offensive lineman. Pad level, using your hands, stepping with the correct foot, all of those things are learned. The things that aren’t learned Josiah has in spades. You can’t teach guys how to be great athletes like he is. It took a conscious effort and one of my former teammates who became a grad assistant for us to remind me to use my hands. When I say that Josiah doesn’t have sledgehammer hands, I should have put a yet in there, because I know that Coach B is a great technical teacher. He’s going to get Josiah going and it wouldn’t shock me to see him redshirt this year. You’ve got Daryl and Tyrus for one more year, and that would give you a chance to have Josiah for a couple more instead of having him graduate when they do.
I was thinking he would redshirt by now since he didn’t even see any garbage minutes early. That might have been the plan all along since he got in late and didn’t have the tech down when he arrived. We’ve seen Farniok and Irwin outside when needed but we’ve been pretty healthy on the line so far..knock on wood…I think a combo of playing hard and a lesser degree with the nutrition have really helped the line stay healthy for the most part…then there’s just bad luck and we haven’t had a lot of that so far that’s affected the STs (Millard) and the D
Yeah, it’s really been tough injuries. Jordan Phillips, and Corey Nelson were playing at an all Big XII level, and as well as we held up against Notre Dame, you have to believe that we would have been able to shut down Texas in that game with those guys healthy. With Millard out that will hurt as well. Can’t replace a guy like that. Still, the young guys are playing hard and this experience will prove most valuable in years to come.