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'13 CO OT John Lisella (Signed to Colorado)

9 minutes of highlights. Definitely worth the watch.

Good athlete who has the right attitude/demeanor for OL. This one's all about upside.
 
Good film. You get a glimpse there of the younger McDondle, number 2, who could be a good get for the class of 2014.
 
Highlights were mixed results for me. I didn't see one pancake in the entire 9 minutes which is pretty disappointing. Either he had someone really crappy making his tape for him or he honestly doesn't know how to finish bocks properly yet. Either way its clear he going to need a lot of coaching his first 2 years in the program and will be a redshirt. But the thing that stood out to me and REALLY IMPRESSED me is his athleticism. The way he runs the first play, the play at 7:15, and the last play are damn impressive. I'm not so sure any of the 4 stars last year or this year move as well as he does in open space making blocks. Like I said its going to take him time to develop in our program but I think he could end up turning into a solid player.

Regardless IMO he is either going to be a star for us or you will never hear from him after signing day.
 
Highlights were mixed results for me. I didn't see one pancake in the entire 9 minutes which is pretty disappointing. Either he had someone really crappy making his tape for him or he honestly doesn't know how to finish bocks properly yet. Either way its clear he going to need a lot of coaching his first 2 years in the program and will be a redshirt. But the thing that stood out to me and REALLY IMPRESSED me is his athleticism. The way he runs the first play, the play at 7:15, and the last play are damn impressive. I'm not so sure any of the 4 stars last year or this year move as well as he does in open space making blocks. Like I said its going to take him time to develop in our program but I think he could end up turning into a solid player.

Regardless IMO he is either going to be a star for us or you will never hear from him after signing day.

Great analysis.

The thing is, our expectations have been skewed from such little depth on such poor teams. An OL, unless he's a complete manchild, shouldn't be expected to contribute until he's at least 20 years old. I'm very happy to see us recruit superior athletes who have the right frame and then spend 3 years developing them with our S&C program. It's a much better approach than recruiting 300+ lb 17 year olds who are average at best athletes for the position. That's a trap that way too many programs fall into.
 
My money is on a greyshirt. Just because of the way our class has filled up and the lack of LBs in it.

Would probably be for the best. It would give him a chance to fill out, and would give us better class balance too. Having 6 or 7 O-linemnen graduate 6 years from now would be devastating.
 
Highlights were mixed results for me. I didn't see one pancake in the entire 9 minutes which is pretty disappointing. Either he had someone really crappy making his tape for him or he honestly doesn't know how to finish bocks properly yet. Either way its clear he going to need a lot of coaching his first 2 years in the program and will be a redshirt. But the thing that stood out to me and REALLY IMPRESSED me is his athleticism. The way he runs the first play, the play at 7:15, and the last play are damn impressive. I'm not so sure any of the 4 stars last year or this year move as well as he does in open space making blocks. Like I said its going to take him time to develop in our program but I think he could end up turning into a solid player.

Regardless IMO he is either going to be a star for us or you will never hear from him after signing day.

Agree with what you say here.

Also keep in mind that watching pancakes is fun and seeing a guy blow someone else up grabs our attention but those things don't neccessarily equate to quality OL play. If a guy is a mauler playing a physical game then these things are a part of that. On the other hand some of the very best OL are technicians, guys who rarely put somebody on their back but who are tremendously effective in keeping their guy from making a play defensively. A couple of good examples of this from the pro game were Billy Bryan and Gary Zimmerman of the Broncos who were both among the best lineman in their eras. Neither one spent a lot of time knocking guys down, much more often they just "got in the way" moving a guy a few steps one direction or the other allowing the play to work the way it was designed.

I am absolutely not comparing Lisella to these guys or saying that he will even be this type of player when he is fully developed but I am saying that if pancake blocks and decleating guys was the sole measure then Tony Madarich would be in the HOF instead of Zimmerman.

Lisella looks like a guy who is young. He is not as impressive as a lot of other guys in this years class but his ceiling is much higher. As mentioned he is very mobile for a big guy and has good balance. He also looks like the kind of player who can add substantial weight without losing his athleticism. Another advantage is that he plays in a very simple system in HS. He is not being asked to do a bunch of different things he isn't ready to so the coaches at CU won't have to unteach him a bunch of bad habits, he will come in as a fairly clean slate ready to work with.

It will be interesting to see his development this year in HS compared to last year. I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't come on strongly and have a lot of schools pushing on him to switch his commit before it is all over with.
 
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Chilled with him yesterday. He said that a greyshirt is a big possibility and he is on the younger side of his class age wise. Just a heads up Columbine is scrimmaging Chap in the next week and John was excited to line up at Defensive end against Parsons at TE. He is already starting to look bigger and in a couple years look for him to compete.
 
Thanks for the info, FightCU.

A year and a half from now, he'll add significant good weight to that frame of his. He's got the athleticism to be a very good OL for us. I really hope he ends up grayshirting. He wouldn't play as a true frosh and it's better to save that redshirt in case of injury.
 
Thanks for the info, FightCU.

A year and a half from now, he'll add significant good weight to that frame of his. He's got the athleticism to be a very good OL for us. I really hope he ends up grayshirting. He wouldn't play as a true frosh and it's better to save that redshirt in case of injury.
Of course and he seemed very open to the greyshirt which is honestly a good sign.
 
'13 CO OT John Lisella (Verbal to Colorado)

In before walk...

Intriguing prospect
 
sorry for all the bumps on this but Air Force is coming in pretty hard. He will most likely stay a Buff. Like the upside and he is getting bigger!
 
This kid fits TunaMac's office better than some of the other wide bodies Embree has committed. The kid can move and has the potential to be plenty big enough
 
Grayshirting

I think that was kind of the plan all the way along. He is a solid kid who has had good HS coaching and has the frame to be a big, strong college player while still being athletic for his size.

Unfortunately (or fortunately since if this weren't the case I think he would have had a lot of other interest) he is still way under the weignt and development he should reach to be a FBS level player. The GS will give him and extra year to develop and grow with a good part of it under the supervision of the CU staff. It will also give him an extra spring training to work on some things that he never got to do much at Columbine like pass block techniques (assuming he ends up on the OL.)
 
Re: '13 CO OT John Lisella (Verbal to Colorado)

Can we give a GS granola bars without going on probation.
 
I feel bad always commenting on my guy John's page but I will. Greyshirting i believe was the option all along, but if he can't put on the weight (I think he can) I could see a switch to Tight End. He is big and is very athletic. I see his ceiling to be what Ryan Miller gave us at CU which in my opinion was disappointing, but John has a better work ethic from what I've heard.
 
No way his ceiling is the equivalent to Ryan Miller coming out of HS. Miller went to the NFL and was a 5 star recruit coming out of HS. He didn't live up to expectations as a dominating tackle but he turned into a very good guard for us. If Lisella's perceived ceiling was even close to Millers he would have offers from 50 D1 schools.

With that being said I think taking guys with athleticism and good frames is a good strategy for CU. Lisella can GS and possibly RS and by then should be ready to handle the size/speed of Pac 12 players. I would be fine with CU taking a couple GS guys every year as projects on the OL/DL.
 
No way his ceiling is the equivalent to Ryan Miller coming out of HS. Miller went to the NFL and was a 5 star recruit coming out of HS. He didn't live up to expectations as a dominating tackle but he turned into a very good guard for us. If Lisella's perceived ceiling was even close to Millers he would have offers from 50 D1 schools.

With that being said I think taking guys with athleticism and good frames is a good strategy for CU. Lisella can GS and possibly RS and by then should be ready to handle the size/speed of Pac 12 players. I would be fine with CU taking a couple GS guys every year as projects on the OL/DL.

You got this wrong. Miller was a 5-star out of high school because he already had an NFL body. He was very near his ceiling, so no projection was necessary. He was going to have all of the physical attributes to play high-level D1 football without any question.

Lisella is a big question mark, but IF he can put on 70 pounds, his ceiling may be as high or higher than Ryan Millers. In hindsight, Ryan may have had some other things that hold him back that have nothing to do with size or strength.

Sort of Nate Solder vs. Ryan Miller. Solder is by far a better NFL linemen, but he wasn't going to be as highly recruited as Ryan Miller even if they went to the same high school.

Big time programs don't mess around with IFs. They don't have to. The less variables the better. That's the difference.
 
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