Different lines in 2022 vs the one in 2010. Likely no one on the current line who is as good individually as Clayborn. Hell, perhaps no one as good as Ballar or Klug as well. But the 2022 line is 7-8 deep with average to good players. Very important to be able to put fresh bodies on the field all the time at DL. Van Ness and perhaps the freshman Graves have star potential. Time will tell.
Ballard was an athletic freak ... but really didn't have the love for the game necessary to truly hone his craft. He never really rid himself of his bad-habits in terms of technique ... consequently, for as high as his ceiling was in terms of potential ... he never really scratched the surface.
Klug was initially an undersized, twitchy guy who was super-productive for us at DT ... a lot like a taller version of Mitch King.
I think that folks are criminally underselling Logan Lee ... he's a guy whose style is much like that of a Klug.
Noah Shannon, himself, comps himself to Bazata ... and I think that is fabulous and accurate. Nate did nothing but help the D play better together as a unit!
Obviously, Van Ness is a guy who arguably is pretty comparable to Chauncey Golston ... and if I could, I'd clone Chauncey and have a whole army of his clones on our DL. Unselfish player who was productive every place Coach Bell put him ... was a leader too!
Black is a guy who the coaches have been high on from day 1 ... guy seems physically pretty impressive. He played quite a bit last year - just needs to keep on improving his technique and fundamentals. Unlike Ballard, one of the main reasons why Black came to Iowa was because he wanted to develop and be coached - he knew he had a ways to go in order to achieve his potential. I love that about him!
If Evans can channel his inner Nate Meier ... then we're in store to observe some great things! Both guys being really explosive, tough guys ... albeit, undersized.
Obviously, if the buzz is to be believed ... then Graves is a guy who has pretty elite potential. On top of that ... much like Epenesa ... he's a guy who was highly touted as a recruit, but goes about his business like a 2-star recruit. Love these guys who want to go to work ... who play for the love of the game and the love of the Hawks!
If you look at Waggs, he was injured off and on through much of his career. Last year was really his first experience playing extensive snaps. In all honestly, while some folks might dismiss him - the guy did nothing BUT do the gritty work of doing his job last season. Now can he continue to grow his game and refine his craft like Logan Lee? I don't even think we're close yet to seeing the best from Waggs. I hope he enjoys a healthy SR campaign so that he can show us and his brothers (on the D) what he can do!
Not unlike Waggs ... I think that it is premature for fans to suppose that we truly know what we have on the DL quite yet - other than a battle-tested unit that played pretty well last year but still has plenty of room for growth AND that the unit does appear to have decent battle-tested DEPTH.
While many fans seem to suffer from Ferentz-fatigue ... however, the truth remains that his encouragement of player development AND the expectation that players are the ones who write their own story ... that's the reason why the Hawks have so many "success stories." Those stories of emerging guys ... guys who go on to be great Hawks ... really productive players ... hell, even consensus AA sometimes ... that's the life-blood of this program.
