Duke University has a young, former (undersized) center named Nate Leonard. I don’t think Nate Leonard knows me, but I remember hearing from him once that he used to go to combines in high school with pads in his socks to make himself taller. He felt he had to do that to get the coaches to notice his height less and the fact he’s kicking every butt in front of him more. He ended up playing for Duke and very well and now is a graduate assistant on the staff. He will have a very bright future as a football coach at whatever level he settles.
Right now he is probably the best Twitter poster when it comes to football on the internet. I love his stuff, it is why I follow him. One of his great witticisms is Offensive linemen say “We” more than any position group in the world. It is part of who[m] we are and what [is] our purpose. “We have no carries, no catches, no tackles, no TDs. Our impact is the W’s or L’s! Nate Leonard. I think about that every time I write a feature about a Nick Bingham or a Logan Smith or any number of faceless, nameless heroes who populate the offensive lines across the Commonwealth of Kentucky. It is a thankless job, and it takes MEN to do it. A brief digression, Coach Leonard also tweeted out one day that the only position to have the distinction, Men, in its position title is offensive lineMEN.
Nick Bingham is a rising offensive lineman. His frame for a Class of 2021 guy is ideal for offensive guard, at least at the FCS level, with plenty of time to add to it as he matures and goes along. Corbin, last year, behind lineMEN the ilk of Bingham, and a lineman formerly featured in Logan Smith, passed for 2,852 yards and rushed for another 1,965 yards in route to finishing State Runner-up in Class 3A and finishing the season 13-2. the Redhounds only lost 11 seniors to graduation but 8 or so of the seniors were positional starters from off of last year’s team. Corbin, in 2018, will welcome a senior class of 24 players but they also welcome some strong, mobile, big-bodied trench-men like Bingham and Smith.
Now we would love to give you a bunch of pretty statistics detailing Bingham‘s play a season ago and forecasting his likely success in 2018, but those statistics aren’t kept for where he aligns, which is unfortunate. W‘s and L‘s are an offensive lineMAN‘s only true measure. Coach Leonard has said one other thing I really like about a position which draws little to no ink outside of KPGFootball. As a lineman, you must be able to look to the men next to you and know that they are as committed to fighting for the cause as you are. You must know that our power is together, not alone. We are a unit, and the WHOLE is GREATER than the sum of its parts. W‘s and L‘s are accumulated with the kind of lineMEN like the Nick Binghams…like the Logan Smiths? They are Coach Leonard‘s type of fighters, and if they stay that way, it won’t be long, at all, before the Nick Bingham‘s will be getting off the porch and running with the big dogs. It is Bingham‘s destiny and it will mean many W‘s and L‘s for a bunch of Redhounds accustomed to hunting, and hunting damn well.
Reporting for KPGFootball, this is Fletcher Long reminding all of you ballers out there to PLAY THROUGH THE WHISTLE.
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