Slauson's young, talented, and seems to be gelling just fine. He's not going anywhere. You can swap receivers and linebackers every year if you want, but you don't fuck with a line every year unless you absolutely have to. If Woody's out next year and Vlad steps up at RT then that'll be our line for the next 6-7 years.
Look at who is posting what. That should clue you in. His future most certainly lies at RT. The Slauson competition was need based in case Slauson wasn't developing as anticipated. The best case scenario was for Slauson to win the competition and leave Ducasse as the future at RT.
Let's say there is a party in the future and you're in the mood for steak, but you want to cook it yourself. This steak will feed a bunch of other people. You have two different choices in this case: A: Go to whole foods or some other yuppy market and select a beautiful cut of ribeye or filet (wagyu beef) that's been dry-aged and all that jazz. Expect to pay in the realm of $50 per steak or something. B: You go to the butcher and buy a beef tenderloin (certified angus) for the party. You plan on doing all the prep work yourself - trimming the fat, cutting it down to individual steaks, seasoning/marinating, etc. The entire loin costs you $100, or roughly $10 per steak. In case A, we have a top-15 first round pick. He's capable of starting and making an impact immediately. He's NFL ready. In case B, we have guys from the tail-end of the 2nd round to the 4th round. They have the basics of what you're looking for, but need to be shaped and crafted into a masterpiece. Vladimir Ducasse is steak B. Guys like Nick Mangold are steak A. In the end, both steaks will taste pretty similar, but the process involved is quite different.
Just in case anyone is actually reading any of the posts in this thread, UMass is not a small Division II school - it is a Division I FCS school (formerly called Division I-AA), and it has an enrollment of over 26,000 students.
It's currently ranked #12 in the country in FCS (I-AA). Their conference (Colonial Athletic Association) has 7 teams in the national top 15 of FCS. They lost by 5 points to Michigan in Ann Arbor a month ago. They play James Madison on October 30th, who beat Virginia Tech in September. They're not FBS (I-A), but for I-AA, they're in the toughest conference in the country by far.
Very nicely done. And for those asking where Vlad is you're not watching a Jets game because you can see him on the sidelines out of uniform.
I was wondering that too, how any one calling themselves a fan of this team could ask such a question..
