Depth Chart For Opener Released

by Akula Wolf on Aug 29, 2011 12:47 PM EDT

Holy smokes, there's good injury-related news contained therein. Offensive guard Duran Christophe, who suffered a meniscus tear during camp, is listed as the starter at left guard.

-- Aside from the specialists, two true freshmen made the two-deep, both on the defensive side. Michael Peek is DJ Green's backup at strong side linebacker, and Tyrell Burriss is the backup at boundary corner.

-- Not surprisingly, Brian Slay has replaced an injured JR Sweezy at defensive tackle. Love the size Darryl Cato-Bishop brings to defensive end; there's a lot of beef up front, which is always good. Now just stay healthy, dudes.

-- Reserve linebacker Sterling Lucas will miss the 2011 season with a knee injury.

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Standing out...

- The Lucas injury is scary because our depth at LB is thin now…but could Lucas redshirt this year? If so, next year we’d have 3 experienced LBs with the star probably being s Sr Terrell Manning…I know, silver lining…

- Peek joing the LB core is clearly a necessity, but either Smith isn’t back up to speed or Burris is that good…all of which will tell us a lot about our secondary…

by JEOHankins2 on Aug 29, 2011 1:09 PM EDT reply actions

Lucas played out of the gate as a true freshman,

so he can use this year as his redshirt year. Hate to hear about the knee injury for him.

by PirateWolf on Aug 29, 2011 1:16 PM EDT up reply actions

I'm glad to see that a couple freshmen are talented enough to crack the two deep...

… but I wish we were able to redshirt these guys. Aside from special teams and not counting the two true freshmen, we have 14 guys on the two deep who did not use a redshirt year (13 if you discount Frandsen since he’s a JUCO transfer). I think that may be an indication of just how bare Amato had left the talent cupboard when he left since so many of these players had to play early as inexperienced guys. Still, there are others that I wish we had redshirted instead of burning a year for a few snaps (Crisp, Ferguson, Slay).

by PirateWolf on Aug 29, 2011 1:10 PM EDT reply actions

was it the cupboard, or all the damn injuries we've had?

Backing The Pack

by Akula Wolf on Aug 29, 2011 2:24 PM EDT up reply actions

injuries

I get a little tired of the “oh the last guy left the cupboard bare” discussion. It’s a canned excuse every coaching staff that is not a friendly hand-off type situation can dust off. Amato got lucky by retaining Rivers, who if you recall got attention as a TE, but otherwise was thin as well (with a few notable exceptions – K Rob, Levar Fisher, Adrian Wilson, D Burnette).

Where we were thin, and are not anymore, and hopefully shall never be thin again until doctors invent a 24 hour ACL repair shop, is on the offensive line. It is AWESOME to have a real 2 deep at every position there, esp with the challenges we have at the skill positions and a new QB to break in

by ginger avenger on Aug 29, 2011 3:29 PM EDT up reply actions

Feel worse for the two...

out for the season. Lucas always seemed like a great guy. Just did his part, never moaned about playing time. Byrd, second year in a row, enough said. What is it with our knees? Must be because we don’t have an indoor training facility. Yep, that’s it. Damn you Lee Fowler.

by chip24spb on Aug 30, 2011 2:25 PM EDT reply actions