A question many of us have asked.

Q: In your camp reports and blog entries you consistently mention a lack of depth at offensive line and linebackers. I would also consider there to be little quality depth at cornerback as well. For all of Wannstedt’s acclaimed recruiting, doesn’t the lack of capable backups speak poorly to this staff’s ability to get these players to translate that talent to the field?

ZEISE: Well, it is one of two things — there is an issue with evaluation of talent and recruitment or there is an issue of development of talent.

I think one thing that may help with the linebackers is it seems in recent years they’ve actually recruited linebackers — as opposed to safeties or receivers they want to turn into linebackers. But I really don’t know that it is a recruiting issue at linebacker or corner — I think, like you said, they seem to recruit a lot of good athletes and they have a lot of younger players on the field who seem to have some talent. To me that speaks to perhaps a development of talent issue and it is something that likely needs to be addressed. There is no reason there shouldn’t be a few more linebackers and corners out of this group who are ready to play. I’m not sure what the issue is but you are right, it is something that needs to improve.

Now the offensive line, to me, is an entirely different issue and that is all about evaluation and recruiting. They seem to take a lot of kids who are reaches based on potential or because they have “good feet” or whatever but as one high school coach said to me “if a kid can’t block anyone in high school, what makes you think he’ll learn to in college when guys are bigger, faster and stronger.”

So in short, I think they’ve missed on a lot of recruits at that position and they don’t have nearly as many viable options as they should given how many scholarships they’ve devoted to linemen in recent years. That position to me seems to be more of an issue of scouting and evaluation than development of talent.

Simply put, six years into a program you should not be in a position where your best center is a walk-on and his primary back-up is a redshirt freshman defensive lineman who has never played center. So I’d say recruiting for that position — offensive line — has been hit or miss and right now it looks like a lot more misses than hits.

As well as the offensive line played last year (and the good health the starters had) and the development of some players, the lack of quality depth on the O-line has been glaring. Especially with a coach that wants to run the ball, and was an offensive lineman in his playing days. It almost seems inexplicable. The failure to recruit true centers over the years has really bothered me.

I don’t think anyone has serious concerns with the coaching the O-line has received. Tony Wise has been doing exceptional work in my view. The recruiting for the O-line, though has been less than stellar. I would say that Coach Wannstedt has been a little too overconfident about the ability of his staff  to move and develop kids for the O-line.

So far things don’t seem to be rapidly improving on the inside of the O-line.

“I would just say that the center position and the right guard position, at this point, are open. I think that Chris Jacobson is doing a nice job; Jason Pinkston and Lucas Nix have come to camp in shape and with good attitudes. The center position and the right guard are still up for grabs. It might be a situation where we play a couple of guys every game: I don’t know. Once we get the pads on and we start doing everything live, top-to-bottom, then what I think usually happens is that guys have a tendency to separate themselves at that point.

Jack Lippert is in the mix. He’s doing a nice job and he’s playing center now, with a possibility of going to right guard. Ryan Turnley is also having a good camp. They’re all young, but we have some kids that are working extremely hard; the key is that they don’t go backwards, as long as we keep making progress day-by-day that’s all that we can ask of them.”

Paul Zeise was less positive.

Greg Gaskins right now is the best option the Panthers have at right guard and that is a little bit scary. Hopefully he gets better. Hopefully the light goes on and as he gets more comfortable and more experience, he plays better. I am not saying it can’t happen but I’ve watched him closely  for two days in shoulder pads and he has been really beaten badly by Myles Caragein almost every time they’ve faced each other one-on-one. Gaskins has been OK when he’s had the help of a double team but from what I can tell he is not quick enough out of his stance to really be an effective pass blocker and he hasn’t held his blocks long enough to be an effective run blocker. …  I thought interesting thing that Dave Wannstedt said after practice is that Jack Lippert could actually move from back-up center to guard which means the coaching staff is at least starting to come up with a contingency plan or two should Gaskins and/or Alex Karabin not pan out.

If the inside part of the line does not come together, it won’t matter how mobile Tino Sunseri is. Teams will overload up the middle and try to get him before he can even pull away from under center.