Curious as to why you say that. Bonner and Williams haven't played a snap. Nor Mokwuah. Trumbetti, Cage, Balnkenship, and Hill have all played, but, honestly, have not contributed many (if any, really) "wow" plays. Most of the upperclassmen ahead of them on the depth chart should be back. I'm not expecting the current FR to have very, very good production.
I hope they do. But I'm with Lax, I've been a bit puzzled by last year's and this year's DL recruiting.
I wouldn't expect many wow plays out of true freshman, but I have to disagree with you. Cage's strength and ability to more than hold his own against Stanford's OL wowed me. Ditto for Trumbetti, who I think has played great. Kolin Hill has wowed me with his explosiveness, especially on the big 4th down sack of Gardner.
I haven't been wowed yet by Blankenship, but if Ishaq / Tuitt were around he would be redshirting along with Williams, Hayes, etc. And it is not their production to date honestly that gets me excited and high on their potential, it is their combined physical attributes, projectable upside, and character that makes me think so.
I am super, super high on Williams and Blankenship - one or two more years in the weight program and they are going to be great players IMO. Kolin Hill doesn't have the same upside, but he has the tools to be very productive at what he does. Trumbetti is just the man - gives 110% and is the type of guy OL hate to play against. I will be very surprised if he isn't productive throughout his career.
If you were basing it just on what we have seen so far, of course you wouldn't be crazy high on most. But it's what you can project them to be that's what's exciting. If you looked at Jarron Jones at the same point in his career, he would be on his way to being a bust, not possibly the second most important player on our defense. Dude absolutely mauled two of the better OLs in football, and he still has more ND football in front of him. It was his frame and potential that got ND coaches and others excited about him - sometimes it just takes a little bit for a kid to put it all together. I expect to see several in the freshman class in the front 7 do the same.
