101 Days of BC Football: Dan Lembke, #71

Boston College has evidently done an alright job in recruiting Illinois in recent years, as the Eagles’ roster has six returning players from the Land of Lincoln. One of them is redshirt freshman Dan Lembke, a 6-7, 282 offensive lineman from Orland Park.

The 19-year old joined Boston College in 2011 after being recruited by Coach Mike Siravo and committing in 2010. He played his high school football for Providence Catholic in New Lenox, Illinois, where he was an All-State honorable mention at offensive tackle. Depending on where you look, he was a two or three-star recruit.

His scouting report speaks of him as a capable run blocker who needs to add some size and strength to his game if he’s going to succeed at this level. Fortunately for him, though, he got some apparent playing time during the spring football season, and it was enough to help him crack the two-deep. Lembke is at left tackle behind Emmett Cleary.

The spring depth chart now lists Lembke at 287 pounds. The thing that would concern me about this, other than the scouting report which said he needed to improve upon his strength, is that he’s the second-lightest guy on the two-deep at offensive lineman aside from fellow redshirt freshman Dave Bowen. He’s going to have to put on some mass if he wants to stick on this line if the scheme is similar to what BC’s been running; yes, the fact that he’s done well in the past as a run blocker is good, but these aren’t high school defenses he’ll be facing. If Lembke can add some more muscle, we will hopefully be able to evaluate him more favorably.