Probably somewhat redundant but I would love to get a few takes from some of you guys more in the know than myself. I would like to see a breakdown of each particular segment of the team with a confidence factor- something like: no concern, somewhat concerned and maybe highly concerned.

QB
Running backs
Receivers
O Line
D Line
Backers
Corners
Safeties
Kick returners
Punter
Place kicker

In my feeble mind degree of confidence includes depth and experience- or whatever aspect seems appropriate

QB - No concern for starter / Somewhat concerned for depth only because of lack of field time
Running backs- Strength / No Concern
Receivers- No Concern / Lots of Potential
O Line - Somewhat Concerned due to depth across the front
D Line- No Real Concern / Still need to see proof that NT is deep enough for this season
Backers- No Concern / We always seem to have backers ready to battle
Corners- Only concern is depth due to youth behind starters
Safeties - No Concern
Kick returners- Somewhat Concerned (Darrynton, prove me wrong....)
Punter- Somewhat Concerned due to lack of game performance
Place kicker- No Concern

MDaniels84 wrote:QB - No concern for starter / Somewhat concerned for depth only because of lack of field time
Running backs- Strength / No Concern
Receivers- No Concern / Lots of Potential
O Line - Somewhat Concerned due to depth across the front
D Line- No Real Concern / Still need to see proof that NT is deep enough for this season
Backers- No Concern / We always seem to have backers ready to battle
Corners- Only concern is depth due to youth behind starters
Safeties - No Concern
Kick returners- Somewhat Concerned (Darrynton, prove me wrong....)
Punter- Somewhat Concerned due to lack of game performance
Place kicker- No Concern

Agree with this assessment totally. The one thing that I don't understand is our coaching philosophy with the OL. We had games last year that warranted some playing time for the backups on the OL and they are never thrown out there. Hopefully this doesn't come back to bite us! Anybody know why Clark refuses to play those backup guys even in a blowout?

I basically agree with MDaniels. Only things I would slightly change would be:

WR: No concern that they'll be competent, but can they finally take the step up and make this group a strength?
CB: I actually think we'll see a couple young guys push for a starting job.
KR: No concern, other than I'd rather not risk Duck's health on PR

QB - Starter - unconcerned -- Backups - somewhat concerned re: lack of game experience
Running backs - unconcerned - we're stacked here
Receivers - somewhat concerned - I'm hopeful and feel like they're going to impress this year, but we haven't seen it yet.
O Line - somewhat concerned with depth, I feel pretty good about the 1st string (could probably say this every year)
D Line - see O Line
Backers - unconcerned - we seem pretty solid here on the two deep
Corners - unconcerned - we seem to be pretty good here but we may question depth in nickel/dime situations
Safeties - unconcerned - good with the 2 deep
Kick returners - unconcerned - as long as the returner doesn't turn the ball over and with the athletes we have, whomever is returning
kicks will be at least OK.
Punter - somewhat concerned - I feel we have talent but it's a critical position with no in game experience.
Place kicker - unconcerned - I feel like Rubino stepped up to the plate after a rough start last year and look forward to improved distance this season.

Yeah...no way do I let Duck return kicks................

I thought Evans would pretty much be the return man

I imagine he (Evans) will be unless the coaches don't want a starter there (assuming he's starting in the slot). Also, I agree with Rek there's no way my starting punt returner is my All-Conference corner.

I agree, but Duck is listed as first-team PR and #2 KR on the pre-camp depth chart. (Josh Thomas is #2 PR, FWIW)

College teams do sometimes use star players in the return game, and I could see the risk if Duck were Reggie Bush back there or something. But he averaged 4.6 yards on five returns last year. Hopefully he's just a placeholder in that spot until someone else seizes the job.

Then again what is the percentage of actual kicks that have a return? Aren't most punts fair caught? I can see wanting him there for sure hands- until someone else steps up. That first punt at UGA will be a real adventure for someone

97APP wrote:I imagine he (Evans) will be unless the coaches don't want a starter there (assuming he's starting in the slot). Also, I agree with Rek there's no way my starting punt returner is my All-Conference corner.

Remember Corey Lynch returning a punt and how that worked out. Hopefully, that will never be repeated.

ASUROX wrote:

97APP wrote:I imagine he (Evans) will be unless the coaches don't want a starter there (assuming he's starting in the slot). Also, I agree with Rek there's no way my starting punt returner is my All-Conference corner.

Remember Corey Lynch returning a punt and how that worked out. Hopefully, that will never be repeated.

Flip side to that, isn't that injury what allowed him to still be around in 2007 and block that fg attempt at the big house and help lead our team to 3 straight national titles? Things always happen for a reason.

Bearboy wrote:Agree with this assessment totally. The one thing that I don't understand is our coaching philosophy with the OL. We had games last year that warranted some playing time for the backups on the OL and they are never thrown out there. Hopefully this doesn't come back to bite us! Anybody know why Clark refuses to play those backup guys even in a blowout?

Simply put, our backups weren't good enough. One reason we tried Tyson over there to start the season. We had a short rotation around 7 (number bumped around a lot) that were getting any meaningful minutes. We were short on guys and depth due to attrition as well. We lost one whole class that would have been So or higher, using four as the standard number of signees, from two classes. And Clark didn't recruit the upperclassmen. His first recruited guys were Fr. We're just now getting some of his guys into the mix this year and they will still need game experience. But at least we have some now. We'll just have to see who steps up.

I would play o-line backups only if TL comes off the field.

firemoose wrote:Clark didn't recruit the upperclassmen. His first recruited guys were Fr. We're just now getting some of his guys into the mix this year and they will still need game experience. But at least we have some now. We'll just have to see who steps up.

Moose, in your opinion and anybody else here that really knows, I know we have limited on field data to draw from but what is your take on the quality and quantity of Clark's recruits? Does it look like we are building a strong OL foundation or not? If so, how quickly are we going to start seeing results?

AtlAppMan wrote:

firemoose wrote:Clark didn't recruit the upperclassmen. His first recruited guys were Fr. We're just now getting some of his guys into the mix this year and they will still need game experience. But at least we have some now. We'll just have to see who steps up.

Moose, in your opinion and anybody else here that really knows, I know we have limited on field data to draw from but what is your take on the quality and quantity of Clark's recruits? Does it look like we are building a strong OL foundation or not? If so, how quickly are we going to start seeing results?

I've been hearing some pretty good things from our RS Fr from spring and more recently from our true Fr from the 17' class. The ones of those guys that were able to come for Summer 1 got a month head start on working with Mike and it has helped them to jump start into camp. But as always it all depends on how quickly both the RS and true Fr can pick up the full offensive playbook as to when we'll start seeing what we really have. Playing on the scout team is so limited as it comes to your offense, since the primary goal of scout team is to play the role of the next opponent and their offense. The normal timeline for redshirt guys is around half a season to get the experience, confidence, and knowledge necessary to be a true backup. And then it's usually as a fill in player or 3. Usually takes a couple of years of game experience to become a 2 or 1. But we don't have enough upperclassman depth due to the reasons I listed above to use some as 3's only. A couple of these guys will find that pushed up to try and find a full 1/2 rotation but that's what these next few weeks are for. Once we get to our second scrimmage we'll start seeing who they feel might be able to speed up the timeline and break into the rotation. It's one of the things I'm watching the closest right now. Hopefully we can get to a 10 man rotation with a couple of fill in's as needed. Tall order right now. Hope it can happen as we need guys in case of injury.

What ever happened to the twin guys we signed and redshirted last year?

They were on the roster, one TE and one DE, at last check a couple of days ago. Not now. Still listed in school. I don't trust the roster as it hasn't been right for a year now but I'll find out if they have quit or not. Which is big if they have since that's two pieces of the puzzle, especially at TE, that we were counting on. They have been in all the offseason things right up to the start of camp. Would be surprised if they quit now but I'll find out.

firemoose wrote:They were on the roster, one TE and one DE, at last check a couple of days ago. Not now. Still listed in school. I don't trust the roster as it hasn't been right for a year now but I'll find out if they have quit or not. Which is big if they have since that's two pieces of the puzzle, especially at TE, that we were counting on. They have been in all the offseason things right up to the start of camp. Would be surprised if they quit now but I'll find out.

Got to take my boys down on the field after the ODU game and saw them walking around- big dudes. Seems like recruiting twins is always risky. If one gets homesick usually means losing both

bigdaddyg wrote:

firemoose wrote:They were on the roster, one TE and one DE, at last check a couple of days ago. Not now. Still listed in school. I don't trust the roster as it hasn't been right for a year now but I'll find out if they have quit or not. Which is big if they have since that's two pieces of the puzzle, especially at TE, that we were counting on. They have been in all the offseason things right up to the start of camp. Would be surprised if they quit now but I'll find out.

Got to take my boys down on the field after the ODU game and saw them walking around- big dudes. Seems like recruiting twins is always risky. If one gets homesick usually means losing both

I wondered about this last year when they were signed. Let's hope they are still with us both had great size.