It seems unusual for us to have players get more than moderately bigger during their career here, going by roster weight. We have one guy, Colton Lamson, whose gained 50lbs in comparison to 2017, but he’s the exception. We aren’t small on the offensive line but we don’t have guys who are 310+. Not saying that’s good or bad, just different
The article had examples where they recruit guys with the frame to add weight and then they get bigger lifting, or so they say.
In the article they have a guy who was 240 ending up at 350. We tend to have guys gain maybe 10 or 15 lbs.
What does that mean? Who knows?
Maybe our guys are the right size for what we do, maybe not.
Cal Polys coach Walsh says something along the lines of bigger guys are better at horizontal blocking than vertical. It seems to me that big heavy lines tend to be better at pass blocking than run blocking, maybe related to what Walsh says. In the olden days linemen got downfield to block and they had pulling guards etc which required more mobility. Pass blocking requires that the lineman mostly stays on his feet and is hard to move so being big is advantageous. Walsh says run blocking has changed and is less vertical as well,
I see your point regarding the defense; but in their favor they had two interceptions, s fumble recovery and forced six punts. When you have an offense running without a huddle and scoring on multiple possessions in a about a minute off the clock you can’t judge the defense just by yards allowed.They got the ball back for the offense without allowing a score multiple times.
There’s that also. The game featured phases. Before the QB change our defense had the better of it against San Jose. After the QB change they consistently moved the ball, but our defense rose to the occasion a few times.