Lincoln football coach Steven Smith learned a lot from his first season with the Blue Tigers.
The former offensive line coach wasn't pleased with the O-line's performance in 2017, and he plans to do something about it in 2018.
Eight of Lincoln's 30 signees from National Signing Day on Wednesday are listed as offensive linemen, which is the first step to addressing Smith's problem.
"We needed guys to come in and have it mean something to them to protect the quarterback," Smith said Wednesday evening after introducing the signing class to Lincoln fans at The Sidebar. "We need it to mean something to them to see the running back have 100-plus yards every game.
"When you have guys who don't care about that, then what are you caring about? You're not caring about what your job is."
Lincoln ranked 158th out of 168 NCAA Division II teams in 2017 with 91.5 yards rushing per game. The Blue Tigers only surpassed 100 yards rushing in three of their 10 games last season.
Smith doesn't feel like the lack of production in the rushing department has to do with whom Lincoln had in the backfield.
"I went out personally myself and selected every offensive lineman," he said. "Because of my background, I felt like that was important, and it had to be important for me to make sure that the right kid comes in."
Another lesson Smith learned from 2017 is gearing up for the spring season. Nine of Lincoln's recruits as transfer players are already enrolled in classes for the spring semester, and of those nine, five are offensive linemen.
This gives Smith an edge on preparing to improve his offensive line, adding five players for the spring season. High school seniors wouldn't be able to participate with the team until the summer months.
"I brought the O-line in now so they could learn it," Smith said. " They'll be prepared for the fall with that six or seven months before the season starts."
Jonathan Vega, Dakota Cox, Zach Farrow, Jordan McCoy and Jacobi Cratic are the offensive linemen already on campus at Lincoln. They'll be joined by D'Andre Nutall, Harrison Brownell (Camdenton High School) and Drake Rucker (Moberly High School) during the summer and fall.
Cratic is one of 11 players in Lincoln's signing class to hail from the state of Georgia.
"I've been watching Jacobi since he was a young kid at Westover High School," Smith said. "I actually tried to recruit him to Albany State (when I was coaching there)."
Jakobi Jones, Garen McKinney and Tylan Oglesby are three Georgia players who not only come from the same high school - Tucker High School - but they all played in the same defensive secondary.
"They're going to develop into something special," Smith said. "They're going to battle, they're not used to not being starters. You want to go to places where you find guys who want to compete, guys who want to push themselves."
Brownell and Rucker are two of Lincoln's four signees from Mid-Missouri. They are joined by tight end Tre Vaughn (Fulton High School) and defensive tackle Hunter Schroer (South Callaway High School).
"Those kids bring a lot of attributes to what we're trying to get done," Smith said. " (Schroer) had a lot of good intangibles and he fit with what coach (Damien) Goosby and coach (Phil) Pitts wanted defensively. He's a guy who wanted to be taught. Tre Vaughn, he's versatile. He played fullback, played tight end, played receiver. We're just going to try and use him as a strong passing tight end, an H-back type deal, and give him an opportunity to put the ball in his hands and do what he did in high school."
Among the other top recruits in Lincoln's class are quarterback Hasan Muhammad-Rogers, who is transferring from Illinois State, and Fernando Ramirez, who was an All-American kicker at Tift County (Ga.) High School.
Another important item Smith is looking into this season with his recruiting class is players' ability in the classroom.
"What I wanted was guys who have great intangibles," Smith said. "Jonathan Vega is a very smart kid who hates to get a B in a class, which means he's going to be the same way on the field. He hates to get it wrong. He wants to be right, and to make sure he's right, he's going to study it and understand it.
"I need a guy to have the intangibles I'm looking for, and these guys have the intangibles."
As Lincoln moves into the spring football season next month, Smith said the Blue Tigers will go through three phases: meetings and weightlifting, instructional sessions and then the spring game in April.
He also wants to get a head-start on preparing for Lincoln's seven Great Lakes Valley Conference opponents, getting ready for them now instead of the week leading up to the game.
"The one thing you'll see me focus on more this year is the mental part of the game," Smith said. "I have 35 guys with 3.5 GPAs on the team, and I'm bringing another 25 or 26 guys with 3.0s, which means they had to study to get those 3.0s. All of them have athletic ability, but athletic ability doesn't win you games. I need them to give me that 3.0 on the football field side too, and study their opponent, know them like the back of their hand.
"That was the difference between last year and this year. We made the mistakes, they didn't."