The Case For C.J. Mizell

While we are at it I would move Rankin out to end and use Kooyman as a backup. At tackle, move in Clayton, Hoffart, Laurenzie, and Pole once he is healthy. Throw Mizell outside or at MLB and turn him lose on the QB. Maybe Bucannon can work his way into one of the safety spots.

On offense, Wilson is clearly a starter with Barton pushing for the slot spot, and I would expect Kristoff Williams to get a lot of reps once he is healthy. Continue to get Monty reps but Staden was the only back that looked good on most of his carries whether there was room or no room.

Grippi says Roxas has worked himself back in at LG. Why not move Jacobson out to LT and Gonzales to RT until Fullington becomes the starter at RT? Hannam just has not show he has the talent for tackle, IMHO.

Markle looked good to me also….he was what 3-ish on the team in tackles and didn’t play every snap. AHE and Ledgerwood may be on their to backing up those two.

I was in Missoula watching the game until the idea of driving home to Spokane seemed more pleasurable than watching the second half.

We have no big hitters in the starting lineup, it seemed the starters did everything they could to avoid contact. The first play for OSU after the fumble, not only did AHE start seven yards deep, but he had no outside contain making it an easy decision for Hunter to bounce it outside for a big gain. This crap happened the whold time, bad angles, bad tackling, just epically bad LB play bottom line. Markle also seems to not have any hitting ability. Two seperate plays he was there in position and got drove back at least seven yards by the running back. Maybe bulk up Locker and Atofau, because I think those two and Mizell might be our three hardest hitters.

Having watched a lot of practices this summer, I can tell you that he is ready to play serious snaps, but I wouldn’t start him. He is a force against the run in every sense of the word. He reads the offense well and explodes through gaps and blockers to make very sure tackles. However, he looks fairly lost in coverage, which happens to be Ledgerwoods best attribute. He didn’t show much rushing the passer (from what I saw), which again is a relative strength for Ledge.

AHE and Beck both had fairly good games (AHE looked sloppy tackling though) and I don’t think Mizell should start over those two. Ledge is still the more complete player as well, but like AHE struggled getting players(Kendall Hunter) to the turf when they made contact.

I’m beginning to think that the tackling woes of our LBs may have to do with the added lbs they put on during the offseason. Growth like that (Both Ledge and AHE put on 20 or 25) can make the act of wrapping up change, which takes getting used to. Both Ledge and AHE have been solid tacklers in their careers, but both had an awful game tackling wise. For comparison, Lofa Tatupus tackling has gotten markedly worse over the years while he has put on a significant amount of weight.

Anyways, I too want to see Mizell on the field for plenty of snaps, especially on running downs and with running personnel from the offense, which I felt was one of the cougs biggest problems against OK state. They were running out of a 3 back set and we had 5 defensive backs on the field. He is certainly too talented to not see the field, but he needs to be put in a position to be successful.