"In the United States, the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) operates a voluntary beef grading program. The meat processor pays for a trained AMS meat grader to grade whole carcasses at the abattoir. Users are required to comply with Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) grade labeling procedures. There are eight beef quality grades. The grades are based on two main criteria: the degree of marbling (intramuscular fat) in the beef, and the maturity (estimated age of the animal at slaughter)." (Wikipedia)
So, according to the most reliable source on the internet, the following are the eight grades of beef:
U.S. Prime
U.S. Choice
U.S. Select
U.S. Standard
U.S. Commercial
U.S. Utility
U.S. Cutter
U.S. Canner
When other websites claim the Cougs have landed a side of "Grade-A Beef", they make me feel like I've been living in a house of lies. THAT'S RIGHT, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS GRADE-A BEEF.
Alternative headlines:
BREAKING: Cougs land half-pound rump roast graded out as U.S. Standard quality
BREAKING: Cougs land 12 ounce filet of Grade B+ sockeye salmon
BREAKING: Cougs land giant rack of lamb; deny reports indicating lamb was former star of "Lamb Chop's Play-Along"
BREAKING: Cougs land massive human being who excels at pushing other massive human beings around
BREAKING: Cougs land Turducken, most delicious combination of birds in human history
(Oh yeah, according to CougFan.com, last week, OT Eduardo Middleton verbally committed.)
If you want to view a longer video, there's one here that's just shy of 10 minutes. I like this one better because it highlights where he is on the field.
One thing I must confess is that evaluating offensive linemen is the hardest thing to do when looking at players. The best compliment you can give a big ol' side of beef buffet buster is that he was "invisible" on tape. This means that he executed his assignment well enough to where you didn't notice him. If an O-lineman shows up on tape too often, it's usually for being penalized or getting beat.
Eduardo Middleton is a rather large human. At 6'5, 280 pounds, he's got the ideal frame to add more weight. When I watched tape of Denzell Dotson and Sam Flor, both were consistently better than their man. I'm not sure if it's because he's facing better competition, but Middleton never really wowed me. This isn't to say he was bad; rather, just that he did his job just fine. He wasn't getting beat, but he wasn't crushing someone into the ground, either.
His fundamentals are solid. He never gets too upright. Sometimes he'll push the defender out of the play and then just start to jog. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but if you go back and watch tape of Dotson and Flor, you'll see the difference.
Overall, it's still a good get. Middleton is more of a Right Tackle than a guy you stick on the blind side against the other team's best pass rusher. He's a definite candidate for a redshirt, while hitting the weights and getting coached up. Should be a very solid contributor in a few years. Solid-yet-unspectacular recruits like this are what Washington State Cougar football was built upon.
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