Brent Qvale Makes Eleven
3 comments so far
August 18, 2008 by
Another day, another commitment from a three-star offensive lineman that goes 6'7". The Huskers have made it look easy to find offensive lineman that go 6'5" or taller. But scan some Division I depth charts and you realize that there are a lot of good teams that can't claim an offensive tackle as tall.
Qvale comes in looking game ready. He's already 300 lbs. and with his 4.0 GPA should do well in the classroom. He had offers from Wisconsin and Iowa, but the North Dakotan chose NU instead.
He becomes the third offensive lineman to commit to Nebraska's recruiting class of 2009 and the sixth lineman overall when you consider that the Huskers have three defensive line commits as well.
NU definitely needed to add big men for the future after 2008 commit David Grant failed to qualify and Baker Steinkuhler was moved to shore up the defensive line. That left only two 2008 recruits to man the offensive line (and Ricky Henry will only have two years of eligibility). The same was true of the class of 2007 where only Marcel Jones and Jaivorio Burkes remain on the offensive line. It's not hard to imagine the line (now one of the deeper areas of the team) becoming thin.
Look for the Huskers to continue to add big men to this class between now and signing day. Another trio of offensive linemen would not be too many. Qvale is a good get in the meantime.
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HuskerFan4Life Aug 18 08
Steve, what do you think the significance of the taller, longer armed offensive lineman are? During the glory years of Nebraska football, TO recruited shorter linemen because they created better leverage in the run game blocking(Will Shields). When Callahan took over he liked the taller guys for pass blocking. The current staff has said that they want to get more physical in the trenches and run the ball more effectively. So, what affect if any do you see in the run game using the taller guys???
qualuedtke Aug 18 08
Not too many years ago, I noticed that the Iowa Hawkeyes were bringing in these real tall O-lineman. My thought at the time was that it wouldn't work, the defense would get below them and win the battle. A few years passed and Iowa was going to bowl games, and ending up well into the rankings. It seems that it can work.
steve Aug 18 08
4Life,
I was having the same thought as I wrote the piece. Without a doubt, if you're going to feature the pass (i.e. at least 40-50% of the time) then you want tall offensive tackles. Pass protection is about getting your hands on the defender and these long lineman and great for that. But it's not as clear whether the same is true of interior lineman. Jaivorio Burkes was actually highly rated as a guard coming out of high school, so obviously there are those who think they know offensive linemen that don't think 6'4" or 6'5" is too tall to be a standout interior lineman.