They expected Ekpe to grow a lot. If he is from a fairly normal family, they probably did not put as much food in front of him as the training table will, certainly not as much protein, and he was not getting the same level of training. He is just going to be a really big guy, the staff has been confident in that from the start. I doubt he will be anywhere near his eventual weight by next fall. I am still hoping he can redshirt, but that is not how it sounds.
As far as whether Coach Kill was talking about limiting the offensive sets they used or narrowing the gaps in the offensive line, they did both. They thought they had limited the sets they used early on but found out during the season they needed to limit them more mid-season, because they still were not executing that well. Additionally they also narrowed the gaps due to the inexperience and lack of physical development of the o-linemen, especially after they started having a new lineup every week due to injuries. So they did both, and when Coach Kill talks about trying to have a more normal look this year, he is also talking about both using more of the offensive concepts and making the o-line gaps wider. We'll see how ready we are for that, we will still be young on the o-line, and we will be playing a lot of guys at WR, who are new, so not implemeting the full offense would still seem to be likely to me. But that is just a guess, we played a lot better with the changes than we did before they made them.
As far as whether Coach Kill was talking about limiting the offensive sets they used or narrowing the gaps in the offensive line, they did both. They thought they had limited the sets they used early on but found out during the season they needed to limit them more mid-season, because they still were not executing that well. Additionally they also narrowed the gaps due to the inexperience and lack of physical development of the o-linemen, especially after they started having a new lineup every week due to injuries. So they did both, and when Coach Kill talks about trying to have a more normal look this year, he is also talking about both using more of the offensive concepts and making the o-line gaps wider. We'll see how ready we are for that, we will still be young on the o-line, and we will be playing a lot of guys at WR, who are new, so not implemeting the full offense would still seem to be likely to me. But that is just a guess, we played a lot better with the changes than we did before they made them.