Columbia going with small offensive line

[Weder]

Former Cornell football coach Pete Mangurian thinks you can use smaller, more agile linemen in college football and doesn't want any fatties at Columbia. Interesting.

http://www.culions.blogspot.com/2012/09/why-it-matters.html

[ugarte]

He may be right in the Ivy League where attributes like speed, technical skill and brute strength are more interchangeable.  His agile guys would probably get eaten alive in the SEC where you need all of those skills. There is a reason that the position evolved to fatties, and its that they got better at finding fatties who are also technically adept and fast.

[Robb]

He may be right in the Ivy League where attributes like speed, technical skill and brute strength are more interchangeable.  His agile guys would probably get eaten alive in the SEC where you need all of those skills. There is a reason that the position evolved to fatties, and its that they got better at finding fatties who are also technically adept and fast.

Probably?  My high school's current roster has 10 guys who are 230+.  227 isn't just small - it's tiny.

[ugarte]

He may be right in the Ivy League where attributes like speed, technical skill and brute strength are more interchangeable.  His agile guys would probably get eaten alive in the SEC where you need all of those skills. There is a reason that the position evolved to fatties, and its that they got better at finding fatties who are also technically adept and fast.

Probably?  My high school's current roster has 10 guys who are 230+.  227 isn't just small - it's tiny.

That's a fair interpretation of what I typed but I didn't mean "the small guys who are Ivy League quality football players." I more meant "the strategy of sacrificing size/strength for speed/technique".