10-09-2018, 12:52 AM
(10-08-2018, 07:55 PM)BostonCard Wrote: The last few games have shown that we have some very concerning holes at key positions. The concern is that a lot of these positions have gaping recruiting holes.
Going to refer to the handy-dandy personnel matrix:
https://thecardboard.org/board/showthread.php?tid=16215
For example, consider OL, the subject of much discussion:
Of our five starters, three (Burkett, Hall, and Fanaika) are on their fourth year of eligibility and won't be back next year. A fourth is still a junior, but he has the measurables to go pro after this year (though given the performance of the OL, I'm thinking he might want to be back). Now look at the holes behind them, especially at guard.
At C, Drew Dalman probably gets the start next year, since he started during Burkett's injury. There was a big-ish drop-off, but hopefully Dalman is on the steep part of the learning curve and the fact he'll have had at least some experience starting is a plus.
At tackle, we should be ok with Little and Sarrell, though the latter has been injured and the former has not played as well as he did as a true freshman. It gets scary if Little goes pro after his junior year.
At guard, if Herbig leaves, we have Hamilton, an injured converted tackle and maybe an ineffective Nick Wilson or a redshirt freshman. Yikes!
No matter what there is not a lot of depth, and if we have injuries as we have had this year, we are looking at playing some true freshmen.
At Safety, Edwards and Simmons will be gone, leaving Buncom and Antoine, and a couple of redshirt freshmen who have seen no real action. I won't say anything about our current starting safeties, but will refer you to Phogge's ascerbic post about them https://thecardboard.org/board/showthrea...#pid232011
Likewise at inside linebacker, we are looking at a big hole as Okereke, Branch, and Perez all depart, leaving Barton and ? as an ILB for next year. Gotta hope the two guys redshirting can learn quickly.
Even at running back, we will have to plan for life post-Love, and while I suppose that with a better line Speights might be serviceable, see my biggest area of concern.
Finally, at QB, I assume Costello stays another year, even though he is draft eligible, and we are reasonably ok with Costello/Mills/West plus Richardson as a back-up. But Mills has yet to string together more than a couple months uninjured, and West is an unknown quality with mixed reviews (see slide's reply to Phogge's other ascerbic post: https://thecardboard.org/board/showthread.php?tid=16566)
Now to some extent we go through this every year. For years we fretted that our situation at defensive line was going to be critical, and somehow we managed to muddle through (the situation at DL isn't great this year either, but at least we have some depth with no one exhausting eligibility or likely to go pro early and some good young talent). We've had concerning holes on the OL before, and we had worries about QB's after Hogan graduated (which wound up well-founded). But it seems like given where we are now at some critical positions and the gaps lying behind, it will take some young, unproven players really stepping up, plus luck in the injury front, not to have critical weaknesses next year.
BC
We also lose our punter who will be very hard to replace. He has been terrific at cornering opponents near their end zone and getting us out of our goaline countless times. His kickoffs are rarely returned also.