Performance, yes (if the amount of excess weight is extreme), but we consistently see athletic ability touted as something you either have or don't have.
"Athletic ability" is generally used to describe innate gifts -- speed, jumping ability, quickness, etc.. Can those gifts be honed and improved? To a certain degree, but it's definitely limited. For example, when so many posters say this OU team is not athletic enough, are they simply saying none of our guys are playing at their ideal weight? That they have not been trained correctly? Of course not. Athletic ability is largely built-in and it's presented as such in post after post after post on this board and elsewhere. So the sudden shift to the idea that athletic ability (or lack thereof) = weight was jarring.
I'll say it again: Noland became a Top 100 recruit at this weight, so the notion that it's seriously holding him back is iffy at best. But even if Noland's weight is holding him back a bit, that issue is so far down the list of problems this team has, it's silly that it's become such a focus.
