I was trying to put together a two-deep for spring ball and this is what I came up with. QB - Casey Thompson, Hudson Card. RB - Bijan Robinson, Roschon Johnson xWr - Joshua Moore, Marcus Washington (I don't think Troy Omire will be ready by spring ball). yWr- Jordan Whittington, Jake Smith zWr- Kai Money, Alvonte Woodard TE - Charlie Brewer, Jared Wiley ROT - Christian Jones, Jalen Garth RG - Tyler Johnson, Isaiah Hookfin C - Jake Majors, Rafiti Ghirmai LG - Junior Angilau, Denzel Okafor LT - Andre Karic, Logan Parr DT - Keondre Coburne, T'Vondre Sweat DT - Alfred Collins, Sawyer Goram-Welsch SDE - Vernon Broughton, Moro Ojomo WDE - Prince Dorbah, LB - Juwan Mitchell, David Gbenda LB - DeMarvion Overshown, Marcus Tillman Nick- Chris Adimora, Anthony Cook CB - D'Shawn Jamison, ??? CB - Kitan Crawford, ??? SS - BJ Foster, Tyler Owens FS - Montre Estelle, Jaren Thompson Thoughts?
Looks pretty good. It will be interesting to see how the new coach lines up the DL and linebackers. Is Tyler Owens, one of the most spectacular athletes ever to wear burnt orange, going to be ready to develop into a starter? It will be really interesting on defense... maybe spectacular... maybe not as good as last year. Certainly, I expect Collins to Coburn to start, but Sweat and Ojomo are going to get a lot of snaps. I like Kai Money, but I think Smith and Whittiington should both be on the field most snaps.
Probably need an "or" at QB position. I think Schooler is a starter. Don't think Mitchell starts in PK's D. Not sure they will put up with him never in position on passing plays.
Sark needs to get Jake Smith and Whittington on the field at the same time, even if only for a given situation or a few plays a games.
You bet! He hits the boards hard, has a good inside scoring game, blocks shots and otherwise plays good D. Errrrrrr, wait a minute. Wrong Kai and wrong board.
Majors looked good for a true Freshman. He plays mean, and he’ll be making OL calls from the Center position. Angilau should step up and be the leader. Although his pass blocking hasn’t always been what we would like.
keep in mind that Troy Omire will likely be the starter when he gets back. Our top 4 receivers are Omire, Moore, Whittington, and Smith. Hoping we don't have injuries because we are so paper thin at Wr, DB, Oline and DE.
yWr- Jordan Whittington, Jake Smith Sark is not Tom, but I wonder about these two. Whitt has to stay healthy. See Jake starting. Maybe?
They say Tom, along with his arrogance, had his favorites. I don’t see Sark doing that. Plus I wouldn’t be surprised if CDC filled him in on other bad habits Tom had around d here.
I think you'll see some early enrollees crack the 2-deep, especially with some of the minor injury issues. OL - with Kerstetter up in the air, I think Conner not only makes the two-deep at OT, but plays a bunch. CB - Jamier Johnson will get some long looks this Spring. S - Coffey will be pushing Estell for playing time, with Barron and Thompson slightly ahead I'm fine with the QB/RB situation. WR - Not a chance Kai Money is starting over literally any of those other options. If anything, I think we'll be seeing what Sark wants to do with Harrison and Dixon, who should both easily supplant Money. It's yet to be determined if Kennedy Lewis is coming back as well, but if he is, he has the talent to lock down a 4th WR spot if Omeire is hurt. TE - It'll matter more with the new staff, as the TE position has some bodies but little to do with game management these past umpteen years. While I do think Brewer will get his reps, I think the coaches will play around with Wiley, Epps, and Liebrock before also getting the new kid from Colorado some time to develop. OL - I think they'll roll out there with Okafor before just handing off the reins to Johnson at RG. Especially with Kerstetter out -- need a more solid foundation on the right side. DE - Probably the biggest question mark for the new staff with the transition we'll be going through. I agree that Coburn and Collins should have DT nailed down, but you left off Jones and Bimage, who will obviously both be on the two-deep if not starting. I'm also unsure about what the staff will do with Broughton... if they'll spin him down and make him lose some weight, or try to keep him as a DT rush guy. I don't know if Dorbah will be long for the DE world... maybe more of a Jack like Ossai if we do that on passing downs. LB - no disagreements as we'll probably never have more than 2 on the field at once. DB - Adimora will have the "Budda Baker" rover role for the foreseeable future, but I don't think Sark ever saw that as a nickel back. CB - Josh Thompson and Jamison, then a huge gap, then Crawford S - If Foster isn't in the dog house with the new staff, he'll easily be on the two-deep, but I'd expect a heavy dose of Barron and Jerrin Thompson back there.
I thought Josh Thompson declared? That was why I left him off. Also wasn't sure if Bimage and Jones were still on the team so I didn't include them as well. As for the Oline, I highly doubt Denzel Okafur is going to be starting next year, he will get a good look but I think the overall talent of the younger guys will win out. He will play a lot but I just don't see him as the starter. I actually see Kerstetter going back to right tackle or right guard, I think the staff will go with the guys who are the best fit across the board, however him being out for Spring ball will hurt his development and open the door for the younger guys. The talent is there to be a solid line for the majority of our games, but not against teams like Oklahoma and the elite programs in the country. That is going to take 3 or 4 years of better recruiting.
Okafor wouldn't come back to be a backup at a different position. He started all save for the bowl game this year. If that's how the Spring depth chart works out, he'll bolt before July. I'm not a huge "right side of the line" apologist either, but I still think it's preferable to trying something new with Johnson for the sake of trying something new. I'm hoping Conner eventually becomes the everyday RT, but not until 2022 or beyond. It's also why I think Kerstetter stays at C, because if he was to move anywhere to appeal to scouts, it would have to be RG because his future would be in the interior. And that position was already taken by Okafor.
Unless Okafor wants to join Reese Moore at ACU or maybe head down to UTSA I highly doubt there is another P5 program that would have him. He just isn't that good. I have always thought that Ketstetter's best position was going to be guard, but our need was at OT for the longest time. With his injury I don't expect he will be ready for Spring ball. However, Spring is the time to look at and develop the young guys, That is Parr, Majors, Hookfin, Johnson, Karic and Jones. For guys like Kerstetter, Angilau, and Okafor, their job is to get the mental part down and refine. We actually have a solid 2 man rotation however we don't have any depth beyond that so we need a big big recruiting year from Flood. We need two straight classes of 5 guys on the oline, maybe 3 straight. That is how bad our offensive line recruiting has been under Herman.
What we see in the spring and what we put on the field in the fall might differ a bit at a few key positions. To me we need to see Smith and Whittington step up. For these eyes, Whittington will be the guy. At TE, I’d like to see some separation. We seem to have plenty of options, and quite a bit of talent. Wiley, used well, might be the guy. The D-line seems reasonably well stocked, and stellar in the middle with the future NFL talent of Coburn & Collins. We certainly need a rush end and one way of another I am hoping we will have one or two by September. Overshown will be a breakout player at LB this year, and I think he will be joined in the fall by players not yet on the roster. In the secondary I’ve always been big on Foster and Owens. Perhaps the new staff can max their potential. The guy I want to see this fall, other than the obvious (Thompson & BR), is Sanders. My sense is that he might be a game changer early in his career at Texas.
