Kman I think you are on the money with your ideas on recruiting at H-back and Beaty and Meacham being on the same page. It looks like we agree that our OT situation makes going to H-back more feasible. I hope you are right about being able to run up the middle but based on the last 2 seasons I don't expect much in that area. Maybe the addition of Hannon and Tovi get us some improvement there. I agree on your points about H-back setting up some mismatches for the defense. That is why I want to see Matthews at H-back if he is able to play this season.

Meacham seems to thrive on creative offensive schemes so this H-back position should work well for him. I imagine Meacham is taking a very active role in figuring out how the H-back will work in the running game. Patterson's main criticism of the TCU offense last season was the inability to run the ball. I bet that caused Meacham to reconsider how he uses the running game in his offense for this season.

Just curious, did he use the H-back at TCU?

They used Turpin as a H-Back last year. He's their fantastic return guy. Small guy. 5ft9 weighing 155lbs.

30 catches for 295 yards for 5th on the team and 9 carries for 84 yards.

I think our problem of running up the middle the last 2 years comes down to 2 main things, lack of depth/experience(that roster thing I keep bringing up with certain posters) on OL and the other was predictability. We just didn't have enough OL guys over the past 2 years to have an effective run blocking OL. Hell, we barely had enough guys to have 5 starters in 2015 and barely had enough for a 2 deep last year.We also had little to no experience to speak of and a lot of the experience was with guys who wouldn't have been in our 2 deep had we had a full roster.

We also ran a lot of our running plays at predictable times over the past 2 years IMHO. Yeah, we ran them out of multiple formations, but we ran them in predictable circumstances a lot of the time too. The D's clued in to that tendency and were ready for those run plays despite the formation being different. To be fair though, even then we had the play working sometimes until someone missed an assignment they were in position to make. Most often it was only 1 guy who'd missed his assignment and it would blpw the play up. Not the same 1 guy, but different guys on different plays and that goes back to lack of depth and experience.

As for guys I think who'll step up at the OG positions, I expect Tovi to have a very positive impact here. He may even win a starting spot. Not sure about Hannon. He could add quality depth, but if he wins a starting spot that could be a bad sign for the rest of our OG's. I also expect Bragg to make a step forward this year. A few of the other guys are question marks who typically at this point in their college careers either make noticeable improvement from last year and become solid to good OL, or they reveal they are who they are and won't typically make much improvement from where they were last year.

I think the coaches are worried about that latter scenario possibly being the case with a few who seemed to take steps backward last year after showing signs of promise in their 1st year. Then again, these guys would have never been playing in their 1st year here if we hadn't had such a depleted roster and were desperate to field an OL of any kind. so it's hard to say how they'll do this year.

I've now heard that Baldwin has been suspended indefinitely. Had been walking on thin ice for a while now, showed up late to a conditioning session and refused to do the punishment for showing up late. Beaty and Woodfin conversed and chose suspending him. Hopefully he comes back, but it seems like he has to do a lot of things right.

Matthews made it on to the KU Athletics updated roster.

Couple of new names, Quiv with a new number, no one missing from my once over.

Baldwin seems to keep getting in his own way from the sounds of it.

Charles Baldwin, a 5 star tackle transfer from Alabama, was considered the #1 JUCO recruit in 2016. Beaty had to have been desperate to give this kid a second, third chance at college ball. Several posters here tried to adjust the recruiting team rankings back then based upon getting this kid here, but as I always say, wait for them to show up on the field and in class. Hope he can play at North Texas someday IMO.