Spring Football - UPDATE

Well we have all had a few weeks to recover from recruiting. Now it is time for Spring Practice.

As most of you know – It starts today.

Here are some things I am going to be looking at.

Offensive LINE – Will Caps, Johnson or Tatum completely lock down the Tackle spots this Spring.

I fully expect Andre to Start from day 1 – when he gets to campus in the fall. In His Junior and Senior appearances at the Army All American Games he completely dominated the best Defensive Linemen in the country.

That being said Tatum a Senior and Johnson and red-shirt Freshman along with Capps will battle it out for a Tackle spot this spring. Most will tell you that Tatum will start at Right Tackle and Andre at Left when we play Hawaii for the Season Opener but If Johnson locks down the Left Tackle spot this spring – I look for him to get some work at Right Tackle. He could very well replace Tatum next Fall if Andre comes to Fall camp in shape and ready to Start Left Tackle.

I am not worried about the Guard and Center spots at all. Between Cardwell, Caldwell, Marlon Davis and BJ Stabler we are solid there. I honestly think Capps will move down to one of the Guard spots and Andre and M Johnson will be the Tackles.

Running Back – We know who the #1 guys are, Le-Ron McClain and Tim Castille at Full Back and Ken Darby at Tailback. I do not expect to see those 3 get much work at all – instead Coffee, J Johns, Ali Sharief, and Huber will see the bulk of the Practice reps. Ali, Coffee, and Jimmy Johns will be battling it out for the Number 2 HB – and Huber will give it a go at Fullback. With that said I expect to see at least one of those guys change positions by the end of spring or at fall practice. Ali Sharief is a little small but could help out at LB. Huber will get plenty of reps at Fullback with Michigan X-Fer Max Martin getting a few as well. Martin – while he can not play next year will be a red-shirt Junior in 2007 and have 2 years left to play. Him and Huber could realy shore up the Fullback spot for a while if they both work out.

Defensive Back – Who will win out between Grey, T Robinson, and Lionell Mitchell at the Backup CB Spots. Who is going to emerge to take the Safety Spots? Jeffrey Dukes looks to be solid at One Safety and The other one will come down to Marcus Carter, Brunthall, and Townsend who is a Walk On. Cory Reamer will probably see some time there this fall but he is out of spring with a Torn ACL.

Line Backer is a big question that we will see a lot of guys tried out at. Darrin Mustin, Prince Hall, Zach Schreiber, Eryk Anders and just about everyone else will get the chance to earn the MLB spot. We will be solid with Simpson and Jones returning but they will need back-ups to step up and take the jobs. I wish Keys had not of broke his leg – but things happen.

The Defensive Line position is going see a lot of youth. Lorenzo Washington and Brandon Fanney will both get time at DT and Deadrick has to be chomping at the bit to get his shot at DE. Greenwood and are solid as the starters – we might be the deepest at D-Line than any other position on the field IMHO.

Wide receiver – DJ Hall, Keith Brown, and Matt Caddell are all returning Juniors and they need to step it up and take their game to the next level. Stover with 3 years to play will push all 3 for spot. After suffering from so many dropped passes last year look for us to develop a possession receiver – Oakley and Walker are my picks for this spot. Aaron Mcdaniel is perhaps the fastest guy on the team and has moved over from THE DB spot to work with the WR’s – I hope him and Oakley both can stay healthy for the whole spring showing that they can contribute next Fall.

QB – JPW is number 1 – he is far ahead of Guillon and Barnes. I hope that Barnes can get better and develop into a solid #2. Guillon will have to have some one one his heels to push him.

It will be interesting to see how Cole Harvey does at TE and Zeke Knight does at DE.

Going into the start of practice - this is how I see the Depth Chart.

That’s about all I got – Lets get it on.