SWC75
Bored Historian
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 34,529
- Like
- 67,226
Defensive Linemen
Seniors: none Juniors: Chris Slayton and Kayton Samuels Sophomores: Brandon Berry, Josh Black, Kendall Coleman, Shaq Grosvenor, Jake Pickard, Kenneth Ruff and McKinley Williams; Freshmen: Justin Ellis, Curtis Harper, Kingsley Jonathan, Zach Morton, Tim Walton and… Chris Elmore?
Injuries and illnesses are going to happen but you don’t want to be over-whelmed by them. You want your key players to stay healthy and you don’t want any one unit of your team to take the brunt of it, as the defensive backfield did last season or the offensive line in 2014. It can take years for a unit to recover from that, as we’ve seen with the O-line.
Most of the off-season bad news seemed to be about the D-line. Before last season sophomore DE’s Amir Ealey and Qaaddir Sheppard were dismissed form the team due to a rape arrest and a positive drug test, respectively. Three star Redshirt freshman DE Jacquan Nelson was involved in a burglary with fellow RSF safety Devon Clarke. Clarke was later reinstated but Nelson is no longer with the team. DT Tyler Cross left “to pursue playing time” as he was passed in the depth chart by McKinley Williams. DT Anthony Guidice did the same. Troy Dunkelberger, who could play TE or DE also left after he graduated. Those might be good signs that the talent level is improving but then DT Steven Clark, a player we got away from Alabama, was DQ’d due to a blood clotting disorder. He has to take blood thinners for the rest of his life. He’ll be doing that at Western Michigan, where’s going to try to continue his football career, perhaps unwisely. JUCO transfer DE Josh Allen was then DQ’d because of a cardiac condition.
That’s 5 DE’s and 3 DT’s that could have been on this roster but aren’t. DE’s Jake Pickard and Josh Black were seen wearing knee braces to recover from injuries during fall practice. Their status is uncertain.
We can put together a decent front line but with no real depth. And these days, most teams alternate their linemen so there are really eight “starters”, (if they are playing a 4-3 rather than a 3-4). We don’t have eight interchangeable guys as many of our opponents will have. We are better positioned at tackle than end, where big juniors Chris Slayton (6-4 315) and Kayton Samuels (6-0 319) share one spot and sophomore McKinley Williams (6-4 292), who was responsible for those transfers in search of playing time and he rocketed up the depth charts last year will share the other tackle positon with ex-linebacker Kenneth Ruff, who has built himself up to 6-1 284. Black (6-3 250) and Pickard (6-5 250) are listed at one end spot, (hopefully one of them will be ready when the season begins). Kendall Coleman (6-3 240) who looked good as a freshman last year. His back-up is Brandon Berry (6-4 223). That makes us pretty small at that spot. That’s 6 sophomores and 2 juniors at those spots, so there’s not a lot of experience, either, although having all those young players bodes well for the future of this unit- if we can keep them around, that is.
Late Update: Babers has secured the services of JUCO transfer Alton Robinson (6-4 245) Cuse.com: “Made 67 tackles (31 solo) and ranked third nationally with 14 sacks ... Also forced three fumbles ... Six multi-sack games .” Syracuse.com: “Robinson signed with Texas A&M in February 2016, but did not enroll after being charged with felony robbery later that month. The case was downgraded to two misdemeanor charges, which were dismissed this July because of an uncooperative witness…Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack said in a statement that the school conducted a "thorough and comprehensive" review of Robinson and that the player has shown "deep regret and remorse" for his actions.” He’ll have deeper remorse if he does it again. So will we.He was rated three stars and the No. 27 weak-side defensive end in his cycle by 247Sports.
More depth is on the way in the form of the five freshman. It will be hard to redshirt them. I also wouldn’t be shocked to see Chris Elmore on the defensive side of the ball if they needed him, (and they sure might). Per Hudl, “Elmore recorded 80 tackles, including 19 for loss, and 14 sacks last season.” Sounds like a guy we could use. I guess his positon is “football player”.
Chris Elmore on Hudl
Tim Walton (6-3 230), from Michigan. He’s a 3 star who was evaluated as a linebacker. He was “listed the No. 29 inside linebacker in the Class of 2016 by and the No. 53 outside linebacker in the class by At their request, this network is being blocked from this site..” He redshirted last year after switching his commitment from Illinois. He hasn’t cracked the two deep yet and may be seen on special teams.
Justin Ellis (6-3 240) is a 3 star per Cuse.com- other articles say he was unrated but,247 rated him the #63 strong side DE, (meaning he takes on the tight end. He can also play OLB. Nunes: “Was a pass-rushing force as a senior in high school. He had 20 tackles for loss (19 sacks) — which amounted to about a quarter of his 82 tackles.”
6-3 245 Kingsley Jonathan from Maryland is another 3 star rated the #29 weakside, (no tight end) DE in the class. I’ve also seen him listed as “Jonathan Kingsley”, which should create come confusion in the offensive line as to who they are supposed to block. Syracuse.com: “He can play with a hand in the dirt or standing up and often uses his speed to get around the opposing tackles on pass rushes. Kingsley also shows patience in the run game, keying in on the mesh point in zone reads before breaking on the ball.”
Jonathan is from Nigeria and was brought here with promises of an education in what turned out to be a human trafficking scheme. He managed to wind up in high school and discovered American football. He sounds like a quick study who knows where the ‘mesh points are .
Zach Morton (6-4 220) from Michigan, is a bit smallish to play DE in the modern game but he’s got good height and will probably fill out. He’s a 3 star, (aren’t they all?) that ESPN picked at the #47 DE prospect. He also played basketball, so he’s god some athleticism. Syracuse.com: “Morton worked on his pass-rushing techniques throughout his senior season, adding a stab and wheel move to his repertoire. “He’ll be a ‘speed’ rusher. I suspect he might have to fill out a bit to play on the line at this level. He’s from the same high school as Tim Walton.
6-2 300 Curtis Harper from Pennsylvania got 3 stars and a #89 rating at tackle by Scout. Syracuse.com: “Harper uses his length well in the run game, holding off blockers while tracking the football. He also shows patience and control when attacking the backfield, keeping his hands up at times in passing plays to limit the quarterback's vision.” In other words, he’s the reason coaches like 6-8 offensive linemen.
Bailey says Slayton “is the clear anchor of SU’s defensive line” and can play either tackle positon. Williams figures to be next to him, backed up by Samuels and Ruff with the two bigger guys likely to be at the “nose”. Coleman will be at one end but Berry has now moved over to the other spot with Black now his back-up. Black had been the starter ahead of Pickard in pre-season. The injuries were the difference. Berry (223) and Coleman (240) make us rather small at that positon. He feels Kingsley Jonathan has the edge over Alton Robinson, mostly because Robinson is a very late addition to the team.
This group may be average to start with but with the injuries that figure to occur over a 12 game season, they are likely to drop below that by the end of the year.
Linebackers
Seniors: Parris Bennett, Zaire Franklin, Jonathan Thomas and Austin Valdez; Juniors: Ryan Guthrie and Kielan Whitner; Sophomores: Andrew Armstrong, Troy Henderson and Shyheim Cullen; Freshmen: Adam Dulka, Nadarius Fagan, Tyrell Richards, Kadeen Trotter, Tim Walton
The figures to be the best unit on the team. Zaire Franklin (6-0 236) had been our middle linebacker and captain of the defense since his freshman year. He’s the best player on the team. Parris Bennett (6-0 216), has played next to him for most of that time and nearly as well. Jonathan Thomas (6-1 209) is undersized but quick and has an instinct for making plays.
Their back-ups in the pre-season depth chart are 6-2 226 Andrew Armstrong, 6-2 215 Ryan Guthrie and converted safety 6-2 202 Kielan Whitner. Armstrong is seen as the eventual successor to Franklin and has been put under his tutelage. He is said to be bulking up for the role and wants to wind up over 230 after being 217 last year. Guthrie is a 3 star JUCO transfer. Whitner gives Babers the option of a sort of nickel back to cover a slot receiver, which is why he’s behind Thomas, who has that responsibility.
But I suspect that some newcomers will make a dent in that, including Austin Valdez, 6-1 236, a grad transfer from Baber’s Bowling Green team and highly touted freshman Nadarius Fagan (6-1 200). Valdez played in 37 games at BG, staring 23 and had 222 tackles, 13 for losses. He had nine 10+ tackle games. He was 1st team all MAC and on the list for the Butkus award. Fagan, from Miami, had “been offered by Alabama, LSU, USC, Louisville and Nebraska, among others” per the scouting service known as 247Sports.com. He was rated the 46th best outside linebacking prospect in the country and rated a 3 star recruit.
Troy Henderson, (5-11 213), was a 3 star recruit originally recruited by Babers at BG. “Shy” Cullen 6-0 209, was 3 stars from most services and was a star on special teams last year, making 8 tackles and recovering a muffed punt. (Late Update: Shy’s father says he’s up to 226 now, per a Syracusefan.com post.)
Adam Dulka, a rather short 5-9 but a solid 219, is a redshirt who was a preferred walk-on. He committed to Syracuse over Connecticut because he liked the “fast pace game and the speed of practice”. Well, it means practice gets over quicker.
Tyrell Richards (6-4 212) is a true freshman. He was the #4 overall Canadian prospect. ESPN gave him 3 stars and rated him the #98 OLB. “The Orange coaching staff thinks it has a steal in the under-recruited.” Per Syracuse.com. Richards’ high school coach: "They think Tyrell will be an NFL player, They think Tyrell's a four star that no one really knows about." Nunes: “Richards comes in as the type of linebacker Babers will most likely be looking for going forward. Taller (than we had), but slimmer -- could play safety in a lot of systems. The key, obviously, is speed, plus an ability to cover in space. While the team’s current linebackers did an admirable job of adjusting to the Tampa-2 and finding ways to make their skillset work for what was needed, they are predominantly pass-rushers.”
Kadeem Trotter is even smaller than Richards (6-2 200). In fact, he was evaluated as a safety coming out of high school: 3 stars and #72 by ESPN. He tore an MCL in his right knee during his junior season and then an ACL in his left knee during his senior season but Babers kept recruiting him. Syracuse.com: “A versatile coverage specialist, Trotter projects as a strong-side linebacker who'll match up regularly with shifty slot receivers. He could also move back to safety.” Interesting that they have him on the strong side at 200 pounds.
I was surprised that Bailey’s two deep doesn’t have Valdez. He says we won’t know how he fits in until the opener. I kind of think Franklin, Bennett and Valdez would be a strong trio. Either that or Valdez would be the primary back-up for Franklin and Bennett to get him out on the field as much as possible. Instead Guthrie is backing up Bennett, Armstrong backing up franking and converted safety Whitner backing up Thomas. Maybe that’s a comment on those guys rather than on Valdez.
I think our linebacking corps is well above average and may be the one unit we have that could match up with any of our opponents.
Defensive Backs:
Seniors: Devin M. Butler and Jordan Martin; Juniors: Antwan Cordy, Julian Dowels, Davion Ellison, Cordell Hudson, Sean Onwalu, Rodney Williams; Sophomores: Scoop Bradshaw, Christopher Frederick, Evan Foster and Carl Jones; Freshmen: Devon Clarke, Eric Coley, Anthony Lombardi, Ifeatu Melifonwu, Kevin Nusdeo, Kyle Strickland
The problems in the secondary last season began before the season when the troubled Nasean Howard, who had been kicked off the team, showed up at a cook-out and stabbed his former backfield mates Corey Winfield and Chauncey Scissum. (Howard will now be spending a decade in prison). Winfield played in all 12 games but then decided to transfer to West Virginia for his senior year. Scissum missed 6 games and then transferred to UNLV for his senior season. (We don’t just get grad transfers- we lose them, too). Then, in the second game, safety Antwan Cordy, (probably our best D-back) and cornerback Juwan Dowels were injured and out for the season. As the season went on the injuries continued to pile up. Cornerback Cordell Hudson missed 3 games. Safety Kiernan Whitner missed 2 games. Safety Rodney Williams missed a game. Guys who did play were often playing hurt. They were also learning a new defense totally different from the Scott Shafer concepts they were used to. They also weren’t getting much help from pressure up front. Babers relies on his D-line to disrupt passing plays and they were getting no penetration until Dino borrowed from Shafer’s playbook and began to blitz late in the season. And it didn’t help that we faced Lamar Jackson, DeShaun Watson, Quinton Flowers, DeShone Kizer etc. The result was the worst pass defense and the worst overall defense we have ever had. We really had no chance for any other result.
The silver lining of a year when you have a lot of injuries, (per one article I read, this team lost 50 starts to injury last year- that’s four players a game), is that it tends to increase your depth the next year and give your younger players, (all college athletes are ‘young players’), experience earlier than they would normally have had it. It’s kind of like blood doping, an (illegal) technique used in long distance running and cycling to add energy to the athlete. They take out a pint of blood a couple weeks before an event, which gives the body time to replace it. Then they reinject the blood to give the athlete more red corpuscles, (which carry the energy) than competitors would have. When you lose injured players, you replace them and then, assuming you get them back, you have the guys who were supposed to play plus the guys who did play and that can give a mediocre program like Syracuse’s some real depth. And Babers and his coaches were not satisfied with that. They brought in a collection of recruits and transfers that will add further to the depth. Some of them will be starters not only in the future but maybe now. The weakest unit on the team has become possibly the strongest, so much so that they transferred Whitner to the linebacking corps, which most people would chose as our best unit.
Antwan Cordy is not big (5-8 181) but you feel every pound when he hits you and he was said to have the best instincts of any of our D-backs. With him out, Babers played Daivon Ellison, who is the exact same size and hits just as hard but probably isn’t quite as good an all-around D-back. But he’s the perfect back-up for Cordy. Sophomores Scoop Bradshaw (5-11 167) and Chris Frederick (5-11 193) were listed as the starting CBs in the preseason depth chart. They got to play as freshmen due to the injuries. Another sophomore, Evan Foster (6-0 213) was listed ahead of junior Rodney Williams (5-10 191) at strong safety, probably because of his linebacker like size. It’s interesting that Dowels and Hudson didn’t make the two deep. I don’t think they got worse. I think they have more competition.
Devin M. Butler is our ‘other’ Devin Butler, a grad transfer from Notre Dame who might have bene covering the offensive Devin Butler, who had a couple of catches in that game. Butler injured his foot last year and then had a minor scrape with the law, (a bar room confrontation with the police), before leaving ND. Jordan Martin, (6-3 206- great size for a D-back), is another grad transfer, from Toledo. “He racked up 74 total tackles, including 4.5 for loss, 11 pass deflections, two forced fumbles and an interception in three seasons” per Syracuse.com. Another former Notre Dame, Mykelti Williams, went to junior college and then wanted to come here but was “not admitted by the university”.
Carl Jones is a converted WR who, per Nunes, “played a large role on the hands team”. Sean Onwalu is a walk-on.
Devon Clarke (6-2 180) is a 3 star redshirt freshman from Florida who was rated the #80 safety coming out of high school. He’s lucky to still be on the team considering that Jacquan Nelson is not. The burglary must have bene Nelson’s idea. Now we need to see if Clarke can burglarize some passes. Nunes: “don’t expect to see much of Clarke this year on anything other than special teams or maybe in a pinch on defense.”
6-3 211 redshirt freshman Anthony Lombardi from Connecticut is a converted QB and a walk-on. He has good size. Nunes: “Lombardi is a great athlete but still a bit young. He will likely spend the season watching and learning. The defensive back core has struggled and has a lot to prove, but they have enough upperclassmen to fill the roles this year. His athleticism can definitely be of value on special teams this season.” It’s always good to have a Lombardi on your team.
6-0 177 Kyle Strickland of Georgia also red-shirted last year. He was a wide receiver in high school and walked on as a DB here last year. The most Nunes says about him is that he’s a cousin of basketball’s Rod Strickland.
6-2 175 true freshman Eric Coley is the son of Vincent Reynolds, Baber’s DT coach. He moved from Michigan and starred for -M last year, rushing for 1295 yards at 10 yards a pop and 216 a game and 17 TDs. Defensively, registered 70 tackles, including eight for a loss, five sacks and one fumble recovery. He was rated the #1 ‘athlete’, (meaning multi-positon speed guy), in the state and #51 in the country. Like seemingly every SU recruit, he was given 3 stars by the recruiting experts but this guy could be somebody special. I saw his highlights on TV every Friday night and he was running away from everybody. I couldn’t wait to see him in an SU uniform. I kinda wish they’d give him a shot on the offensive side of the ball.
Ifeatu Melifonwu (6-3 195) has a similar resume and even better numbers than Coley. Cuse.com: “As a senior captain, rushed for 1,876 yards and 25 touchdowns, while intercepting two passes on defense.” He is, of course, a 3 star and rated the #116 safety in the class by 247. We managed to recruit him away from Jim Harbaugh of Michigan. He might be able to steal a pass while the receiver is trying to figure out how to pronounce his name. They could use his nickname: “Iffy”:
Signing Day 2017 | Ifeatu Melifonwu
6-1 190 Kevin Nusedo of Connecticut is another preferred walk-on. He was a WR/DB in high school “Made 87 career tackles and had five interceptions, including 40 tackles and three interceptions as a senior.” (Cuse.com) “Adding Nusdeo is a quality depth move for SU, as it’s a position of need and one that will be young once again in 2017.”
Bailey has Frederick and Bradsaw at the corners ahead of Dowels and Butler. He has Cordy and Foster as the safeties with Rodney Williams as a back-up but Jordan Martin, not Daivon Ellison. Dowels and Williams began last year as starters and I assumed Butler, coming from Notre Dame, would be one. I guess that indicates a talent upgrade.
This unit was way below average last season after all the injuries and getting used to the new system. I believe they will be above average this season and the biggest factor in making this year’s Syracuse team better than last year’s.
The Kicking Game:
I was surprised by the number of kickers on the roster: Cole Murphy and Alex Grossman are senior place-kickers. Emerson Womble is a sophomore. Jeffrey Chan and Andre Szmyt are freshmen. Murphy has bene the placekicker for three years. He was excellent the first year: “Made 13-of-16 (.813) field goals and 11-of-12 extra points ... Also handled kickoff duties for the Orange and recorded nine touchbacks .” He was solid the next season: “Connected on 16-of-22 (.727) field goals and was a perfect 37-for-37 on PATs” but shakey last year: “Converted 10-of-18 (.556) field goals... Fifth on SU’s single-season record list for most PATs made by kick (36) and tied for sixth in attempts (39) ... Kicked off 53 times with 11 touchbacks ...” (all stats from Cuse.com). Murphy didn’t do the kick-offs in 2015, indicating a level of dissatisfaction at that point. But Babers put him back on that job.
Murphy is 6-3 215. Grossman is a 5-9 163 walk-on who kicked in junior college last year. Size doesn’t necessarily indicate leg strength, accuracy or mental focus. “As a senior he made 25-26 PATs and all four of his field goals.” Nunes doesn’t say how many field goals he attempted but does say: “Barring any injuries to Murphy, who was solid last season, I don't think you'll see much of Grossman.” Except Murphy wasn’t ‘solid’ last season.
Emerson Womble (Wobble?) is another smaller guy (5-9 180) who is also a walk-on, (most kickers are, even though you’d think, playing in the Carrier Dome, we’d attract the top kickers in the country). “Converted 6-of-11 field goals in his scholastic career and hit 70-of-80 extra-point tries.” (Cuse.com) That doesn’t sound too good to me.
Jeffrey Chan (5-10 175), came here all the way from Hawaii, (have fun this winter!). He has a good pedigree: “Rated 4.5 stars and the No. 72 kicker in the Class of 2017 by Chris Sailer Kicking ... Made 52-of-53 extra points and 5-of-7 field goals in 2016”. Nunes calls him “one to watch for the future.”
Andre Szmyt is a little bigger at 6-1 190. He’s from Illinois. “Rated four stars by Kohl's Kicking ... Connected on 9-of-12 field goals, including a school-record 48-yarder.” (Cuse.com) He ahs an interesting training video on You-Tube:
Andre Szmyt - Practice with Coach Gary Zauner
He and Chen are obviously the future at this positon. They will probably both redshirt so we’ll have them for four years after Murphy.
(Time for a funny story: Ben Schwartzwalder never seemed to have good kickers. Look at the historical scores and you’ll see a lot of 6s, 12s and 18s. When Al Gerlick barely made a chip shot to beat Pitt in 1957 it was the first field gal a Schwartzwalder team had ever ATTEMPTED. In 1968 Ben, seeing the success fo the Gogolaks at Cornell and Princeton, brought in his first soccer style kicker in, George Jakowenko. George was no Gogolak but he kicked 25 of 30 extra points and 7 of 11 field goals. I remember being a barber shop and somebody commented that Jakowenko was the best kicker we’d had in years. Another patron looked up and said “They finally got an Irishman!” )
Sterling Hofrichter was a classic example of a small guy with a big leg last year. He’s only 5-9 196, (a pretty good weight for 5-9). He punted for an average of 42.7 yards. He had to punt 77 times and 23 of them went 50+ yards, with a high of 65. He only had one blocked because he used the so called “rugby” punt most of the time, running to the side and kicking the ball on the run, something that takes quite a bit of talent. He may actually be Murphy’s place-kicking backup. “Ranked the sixth-best kicker and ninth-best punter by Kohl’s Kicking Camp” (Cuse.com)
The only other listed punter on the roster is redshirt freshman Nolan Cooney (a Murphy-like 6-3 208). He walked on and redshirted last season. “Cooney is also a testicular cancer survivor, after being diagnosed in high school (he’s been in remission since receiving chemotherapy his junior year)…. He’s unlikely to compete with either Cole Murphy or Sterling Hofrichter for the starting kicker or punter job. If he does not win either job, then he will serve as a backup for the 2017 season.” (Nunes)
The kick returners will come from the ‘skill positon’, (as if other positons don’t require skill), players: the running backs, receivers and defensive backs. Sean Riley returned the two punts Brisley Estime didn’t return. Brisley led the nation with 17.7 yards per return. The diminutive Riley (5-8 155) Riley returned his two punts 30 yards, which shows promise. But Brisley at 5-9 183 was a much stronger man and I always felt he had a chance to break one. Riley is more of a water-sprite likely to go down when hit. I’d like to see Nykeim Johnson get a chance at this spot. He’s not much bigger than Riley (5-8 163) but off his film I think he’s faster and more explosive. What I don’t want is to go back to punts being seen as an opportunity to make a fair catch and nothing more than that, which it was for years before Brisley arrived here.
Our kickoff returns have been a train wreck at the 20 yard line for years. I don’t understand why we can’t get them properly blocked. Riley returned 53 of them for 20.66 yards per attempt. Estime tried it 10 times for 18.3 yards. It may not matter who returns them if they get swarmed over at the 20 every time. Mykeim could help us here and Moe Neal had some big returns in high school. I wouldn’t mind seeing Eric Coley or Ifeatu Melifonwu a shot here.
We used to block a lot of kicks. That seemed to go away when we started fair catching all the punts. A team struggling to compete with superior opposition needs to use the kicking game to make big plays. It’s not just about hoping them miss and securing possession. A lot of that comes from the attitude of the players – you have to want to break it big or block it- and a lot of that comes from the attitude of the coaching staff. I note Babers brought in Justin Lustig, the Nation DII coach of the year, to be his special teams, (and running backs) coach. Maybe he’s a guy who will look to make big plays in the kicking game.
Bailey has Murphy place-kicking and kicking off and Hofriuchter punting, no surprise. Zach Mahoney is the #1 holder, ending a streak of inexplicably having punters rather than back-up quarterbacks hold for place kicks. Riley will be the #1 kickoff and punt returner, backed up by Shyheim Cullen and Nykeim Johnson. Cordy, (not Coley) has caught a few punts. I’d assume Coley and Melifonwu are likely redshirts and they want Neal to concentrate on offense. I think those three would all be better than Riley but what do I know?
Late Update: The depth chart of the season opener finally came out. The biggest surprise is that Antwan Cordy is now our punt returner, over Sean Riley and Nykeim Johnson . Why? Was he more reliable in catching the ball? Does it mean that Babers is looking more to simply secure possession rather than making big plays? Kayton Samuels, who looked to be a back-up DT to either Chris Slayton or McKinley Williams has bene moved ahead of Williams into the starting line-up. He’s our biggest DL at 319. Did Babers want more beef in the center of the line? Williams looked like a coming star. Austin Valdez is now on the two deep but behind Franklin. Andrew Armstrong has displaced Ryan Guthrie as the back-up to Parris Bennett, moving from 9inside to outside. Juan Dowells is backing up Scoop Bradshaw and Devin Butler is backing up Chris Frederick at CB. That’s actually not a change from the pre-season chart. It’s just the opposite of what Bailey projected. He was right about Jordan Martin displacing Daivon Ellison but wrong in that Martin will back Cordy at FS while Rodney Williams backs Evan Foster at SS.
There’s no fullback on the offensive depth chart but Chris Elmore made the two deep as a back-up tight end over Aaron Hackett. Keaton Darny, not Andrejas Duerig, is the back-up center. There are eight wide receivers listed Sean Avent is surprisingly listed behind Erv Phillips, who will surely be in the slot. Sharod Johnson is behind Steve Ismael and Nykeim Johnson is behind Sean Riley. I think this alignment must be for “empty backfield” situations and may indicate we’ll see a lot of that. (There goes the running game). I find it hard to believe that if Phillips were unavailable that they’d go for Avant in the slot instead of one of the Johnsons. Finally, we now have a back-up punter listed: Nolan Cooney, a redshirt freshman. With Hofrichter a sophomore, he probably won’t get much action the next three years unless Sterling gets injured on one of those rugby punts. Cooney is much bigger (6-3 208 vs. 5-9 196 and I suspect he’ll be a stay-at-home punter if we see him at all.
I’m a little concerned about the number of players who have scrapes with the law: Robinson, Clarke, Butler and the departed Howard and Nelson. I hope we don’t become one of those schools which achieve success by lowering standards for player character and behavior. (Like Baylor.) Hopefully these situations will work out and prove that we are not.
The biggest trend in reading about these players is that they seem to be either 3 stars or walk-ons. We’ve traditionally had a mix of 2 stars with a few three stars, so that seems an upgrade. But they will be going up against plenty of 4 and 5 star players. Of course the star system is tilted toward the best teams. If players go to Clemson or Florida State, they are likely to be 4 or 5 star players because the ‘experts’ assume that Clemson and Florida State would not have bene interested in them if weren’t that good. Similarly, those experts assume that if a guy settled for Syracuse, they couldn’t be better than a 3 star. Even if accurate, these ratings are measures of a player’s ability at a moment in time, right after their high school careers end. The key question is not how good they were in high school: it’s how good will they be in college. Judging these players by their star rating now is like looking at a single frame of film in a who-done-it and trying to figure out if the butler did it. (Hey, we have two Butlers who can do it!)
A couple more notes before we move on. You can see that this is a very young team: 11 seniors and 24 juniors. Obviously, these guys have a chance to get better before they leave here, (and I don’t see a lot of guys jumping to the pros early: I just hope we get some good enough to consider that). That also means that this is becoming Dino Babers team, rather than Scott Shafer’s team very quickly. (Even some of the upperclassmen are transfers obtained by Babers). Then there’s the fact that this is year 2 in the Baber’s system on both offense and defense. Not only are the players likely to perform more efficiently, (and, of course faster), but the coaches hopefully will be able to call for more things for them to do. We’ll see the whole playoff this year. I don’t think we saw it last year.
For all but the powerhouses, a college football team has something in common with a Triple A baseball team, (or maybe my Mets): the team you see at the beginning of the season is not the team you’ll see at the end of the season. Young players will improve, of course. But players will also get injured. Our equivalent of calling someone up from Double A is to put in an inferior or less experienced back-up, (who will also likely not be as strong or athletic because he hasn’t had as much time in the conditioning program). The powerhouses can replace players and not lose much. They might even find out that the next guy is better than they older player they had starting. That’s unlikely to happen here. Typically, we are a weaker team by the end of the season rather than a stronger one. You can project what you think might or could happen at the beginning of the season, then subtract a win or two and add a loss or two because of this. Discouragement and “playing out the string” are factors, too. That’s why our last game was a 61-76 game that somehow wasn’t really all that exciting for either team. I’d really like to see the regular season cut back to 10 games. It was easier on the players and you could figure averages more easily, too. But that’s something else on the list of what I’d like to see but will never happen.
Seniors: none Juniors: Chris Slayton and Kayton Samuels Sophomores: Brandon Berry, Josh Black, Kendall Coleman, Shaq Grosvenor, Jake Pickard, Kenneth Ruff and McKinley Williams; Freshmen: Justin Ellis, Curtis Harper, Kingsley Jonathan, Zach Morton, Tim Walton and… Chris Elmore?
Injuries and illnesses are going to happen but you don’t want to be over-whelmed by them. You want your key players to stay healthy and you don’t want any one unit of your team to take the brunt of it, as the defensive backfield did last season or the offensive line in 2014. It can take years for a unit to recover from that, as we’ve seen with the O-line.
Most of the off-season bad news seemed to be about the D-line. Before last season sophomore DE’s Amir Ealey and Qaaddir Sheppard were dismissed form the team due to a rape arrest and a positive drug test, respectively. Three star Redshirt freshman DE Jacquan Nelson was involved in a burglary with fellow RSF safety Devon Clarke. Clarke was later reinstated but Nelson is no longer with the team. DT Tyler Cross left “to pursue playing time” as he was passed in the depth chart by McKinley Williams. DT Anthony Guidice did the same. Troy Dunkelberger, who could play TE or DE also left after he graduated. Those might be good signs that the talent level is improving but then DT Steven Clark, a player we got away from Alabama, was DQ’d due to a blood clotting disorder. He has to take blood thinners for the rest of his life. He’ll be doing that at Western Michigan, where’s going to try to continue his football career, perhaps unwisely. JUCO transfer DE Josh Allen was then DQ’d because of a cardiac condition.
That’s 5 DE’s and 3 DT’s that could have been on this roster but aren’t. DE’s Jake Pickard and Josh Black were seen wearing knee braces to recover from injuries during fall practice. Their status is uncertain.
We can put together a decent front line but with no real depth. And these days, most teams alternate their linemen so there are really eight “starters”, (if they are playing a 4-3 rather than a 3-4). We don’t have eight interchangeable guys as many of our opponents will have. We are better positioned at tackle than end, where big juniors Chris Slayton (6-4 315) and Kayton Samuels (6-0 319) share one spot and sophomore McKinley Williams (6-4 292), who was responsible for those transfers in search of playing time and he rocketed up the depth charts last year will share the other tackle positon with ex-linebacker Kenneth Ruff, who has built himself up to 6-1 284. Black (6-3 250) and Pickard (6-5 250) are listed at one end spot, (hopefully one of them will be ready when the season begins). Kendall Coleman (6-3 240) who looked good as a freshman last year. His back-up is Brandon Berry (6-4 223). That makes us pretty small at that spot. That’s 6 sophomores and 2 juniors at those spots, so there’s not a lot of experience, either, although having all those young players bodes well for the future of this unit- if we can keep them around, that is.
Late Update: Babers has secured the services of JUCO transfer Alton Robinson (6-4 245) Cuse.com: “Made 67 tackles (31 solo) and ranked third nationally with 14 sacks ... Also forced three fumbles ... Six multi-sack games .” Syracuse.com: “Robinson signed with Texas A&M in February 2016, but did not enroll after being charged with felony robbery later that month. The case was downgraded to two misdemeanor charges, which were dismissed this July because of an uncooperative witness…Syracuse athletic director John Wildhack said in a statement that the school conducted a "thorough and comprehensive" review of Robinson and that the player has shown "deep regret and remorse" for his actions.” He’ll have deeper remorse if he does it again. So will we.He was rated three stars and the No. 27 weak-side defensive end in his cycle by 247Sports.
More depth is on the way in the form of the five freshman. It will be hard to redshirt them. I also wouldn’t be shocked to see Chris Elmore on the defensive side of the ball if they needed him, (and they sure might). Per Hudl, “Elmore recorded 80 tackles, including 19 for loss, and 14 sacks last season.” Sounds like a guy we could use. I guess his positon is “football player”.
Chris Elmore on Hudl
Tim Walton (6-3 230), from Michigan. He’s a 3 star who was evaluated as a linebacker. He was “listed the No. 29 inside linebacker in the Class of 2016 by and the No. 53 outside linebacker in the class by At their request, this network is being blocked from this site..” He redshirted last year after switching his commitment from Illinois. He hasn’t cracked the two deep yet and may be seen on special teams.
Justin Ellis (6-3 240) is a 3 star per Cuse.com- other articles say he was unrated but,247 rated him the #63 strong side DE, (meaning he takes on the tight end. He can also play OLB. Nunes: “Was a pass-rushing force as a senior in high school. He had 20 tackles for loss (19 sacks) — which amounted to about a quarter of his 82 tackles.”
6-3 245 Kingsley Jonathan from Maryland is another 3 star rated the #29 weakside, (no tight end) DE in the class. I’ve also seen him listed as “Jonathan Kingsley”, which should create come confusion in the offensive line as to who they are supposed to block. Syracuse.com: “He can play with a hand in the dirt or standing up and often uses his speed to get around the opposing tackles on pass rushes. Kingsley also shows patience in the run game, keying in on the mesh point in zone reads before breaking on the ball.”
Jonathan is from Nigeria and was brought here with promises of an education in what turned out to be a human trafficking scheme. He managed to wind up in high school and discovered American football. He sounds like a quick study who knows where the ‘mesh points are .
Zach Morton (6-4 220) from Michigan, is a bit smallish to play DE in the modern game but he’s got good height and will probably fill out. He’s a 3 star, (aren’t they all?) that ESPN picked at the #47 DE prospect. He also played basketball, so he’s god some athleticism. Syracuse.com: “Morton worked on his pass-rushing techniques throughout his senior season, adding a stab and wheel move to his repertoire. “He’ll be a ‘speed’ rusher. I suspect he might have to fill out a bit to play on the line at this level. He’s from the same high school as Tim Walton.
6-2 300 Curtis Harper from Pennsylvania got 3 stars and a #89 rating at tackle by Scout. Syracuse.com: “Harper uses his length well in the run game, holding off blockers while tracking the football. He also shows patience and control when attacking the backfield, keeping his hands up at times in passing plays to limit the quarterback's vision.” In other words, he’s the reason coaches like 6-8 offensive linemen.
Bailey says Slayton “is the clear anchor of SU’s defensive line” and can play either tackle positon. Williams figures to be next to him, backed up by Samuels and Ruff with the two bigger guys likely to be at the “nose”. Coleman will be at one end but Berry has now moved over to the other spot with Black now his back-up. Black had been the starter ahead of Pickard in pre-season. The injuries were the difference. Berry (223) and Coleman (240) make us rather small at that positon. He feels Kingsley Jonathan has the edge over Alton Robinson, mostly because Robinson is a very late addition to the team.
This group may be average to start with but with the injuries that figure to occur over a 12 game season, they are likely to drop below that by the end of the year.
Linebackers
Seniors: Parris Bennett, Zaire Franklin, Jonathan Thomas and Austin Valdez; Juniors: Ryan Guthrie and Kielan Whitner; Sophomores: Andrew Armstrong, Troy Henderson and Shyheim Cullen; Freshmen: Adam Dulka, Nadarius Fagan, Tyrell Richards, Kadeen Trotter, Tim Walton
The figures to be the best unit on the team. Zaire Franklin (6-0 236) had been our middle linebacker and captain of the defense since his freshman year. He’s the best player on the team. Parris Bennett (6-0 216), has played next to him for most of that time and nearly as well. Jonathan Thomas (6-1 209) is undersized but quick and has an instinct for making plays.
Their back-ups in the pre-season depth chart are 6-2 226 Andrew Armstrong, 6-2 215 Ryan Guthrie and converted safety 6-2 202 Kielan Whitner. Armstrong is seen as the eventual successor to Franklin and has been put under his tutelage. He is said to be bulking up for the role and wants to wind up over 230 after being 217 last year. Guthrie is a 3 star JUCO transfer. Whitner gives Babers the option of a sort of nickel back to cover a slot receiver, which is why he’s behind Thomas, who has that responsibility.
But I suspect that some newcomers will make a dent in that, including Austin Valdez, 6-1 236, a grad transfer from Baber’s Bowling Green team and highly touted freshman Nadarius Fagan (6-1 200). Valdez played in 37 games at BG, staring 23 and had 222 tackles, 13 for losses. He had nine 10+ tackle games. He was 1st team all MAC and on the list for the Butkus award. Fagan, from Miami, had “been offered by Alabama, LSU, USC, Louisville and Nebraska, among others” per the scouting service known as 247Sports.com. He was rated the 46th best outside linebacking prospect in the country and rated a 3 star recruit.
Troy Henderson, (5-11 213), was a 3 star recruit originally recruited by Babers at BG. “Shy” Cullen 6-0 209, was 3 stars from most services and was a star on special teams last year, making 8 tackles and recovering a muffed punt. (Late Update: Shy’s father says he’s up to 226 now, per a Syracusefan.com post.)
Adam Dulka, a rather short 5-9 but a solid 219, is a redshirt who was a preferred walk-on. He committed to Syracuse over Connecticut because he liked the “fast pace game and the speed of practice”. Well, it means practice gets over quicker.
Tyrell Richards (6-4 212) is a true freshman. He was the #4 overall Canadian prospect. ESPN gave him 3 stars and rated him the #98 OLB. “The Orange coaching staff thinks it has a steal in the under-recruited.” Per Syracuse.com. Richards’ high school coach: "They think Tyrell will be an NFL player, They think Tyrell's a four star that no one really knows about." Nunes: “Richards comes in as the type of linebacker Babers will most likely be looking for going forward. Taller (than we had), but slimmer -- could play safety in a lot of systems. The key, obviously, is speed, plus an ability to cover in space. While the team’s current linebackers did an admirable job of adjusting to the Tampa-2 and finding ways to make their skillset work for what was needed, they are predominantly pass-rushers.”
Kadeem Trotter is even smaller than Richards (6-2 200). In fact, he was evaluated as a safety coming out of high school: 3 stars and #72 by ESPN. He tore an MCL in his right knee during his junior season and then an ACL in his left knee during his senior season but Babers kept recruiting him. Syracuse.com: “A versatile coverage specialist, Trotter projects as a strong-side linebacker who'll match up regularly with shifty slot receivers. He could also move back to safety.” Interesting that they have him on the strong side at 200 pounds.
I was surprised that Bailey’s two deep doesn’t have Valdez. He says we won’t know how he fits in until the opener. I kind of think Franklin, Bennett and Valdez would be a strong trio. Either that or Valdez would be the primary back-up for Franklin and Bennett to get him out on the field as much as possible. Instead Guthrie is backing up Bennett, Armstrong backing up franking and converted safety Whitner backing up Thomas. Maybe that’s a comment on those guys rather than on Valdez.
I think our linebacking corps is well above average and may be the one unit we have that could match up with any of our opponents.
Defensive Backs:
Seniors: Devin M. Butler and Jordan Martin; Juniors: Antwan Cordy, Julian Dowels, Davion Ellison, Cordell Hudson, Sean Onwalu, Rodney Williams; Sophomores: Scoop Bradshaw, Christopher Frederick, Evan Foster and Carl Jones; Freshmen: Devon Clarke, Eric Coley, Anthony Lombardi, Ifeatu Melifonwu, Kevin Nusdeo, Kyle Strickland
The problems in the secondary last season began before the season when the troubled Nasean Howard, who had been kicked off the team, showed up at a cook-out and stabbed his former backfield mates Corey Winfield and Chauncey Scissum. (Howard will now be spending a decade in prison). Winfield played in all 12 games but then decided to transfer to West Virginia for his senior year. Scissum missed 6 games and then transferred to UNLV for his senior season. (We don’t just get grad transfers- we lose them, too). Then, in the second game, safety Antwan Cordy, (probably our best D-back) and cornerback Juwan Dowels were injured and out for the season. As the season went on the injuries continued to pile up. Cornerback Cordell Hudson missed 3 games. Safety Kiernan Whitner missed 2 games. Safety Rodney Williams missed a game. Guys who did play were often playing hurt. They were also learning a new defense totally different from the Scott Shafer concepts they were used to. They also weren’t getting much help from pressure up front. Babers relies on his D-line to disrupt passing plays and they were getting no penetration until Dino borrowed from Shafer’s playbook and began to blitz late in the season. And it didn’t help that we faced Lamar Jackson, DeShaun Watson, Quinton Flowers, DeShone Kizer etc. The result was the worst pass defense and the worst overall defense we have ever had. We really had no chance for any other result.
The silver lining of a year when you have a lot of injuries, (per one article I read, this team lost 50 starts to injury last year- that’s four players a game), is that it tends to increase your depth the next year and give your younger players, (all college athletes are ‘young players’), experience earlier than they would normally have had it. It’s kind of like blood doping, an (illegal) technique used in long distance running and cycling to add energy to the athlete. They take out a pint of blood a couple weeks before an event, which gives the body time to replace it. Then they reinject the blood to give the athlete more red corpuscles, (which carry the energy) than competitors would have. When you lose injured players, you replace them and then, assuming you get them back, you have the guys who were supposed to play plus the guys who did play and that can give a mediocre program like Syracuse’s some real depth. And Babers and his coaches were not satisfied with that. They brought in a collection of recruits and transfers that will add further to the depth. Some of them will be starters not only in the future but maybe now. The weakest unit on the team has become possibly the strongest, so much so that they transferred Whitner to the linebacking corps, which most people would chose as our best unit.
Antwan Cordy is not big (5-8 181) but you feel every pound when he hits you and he was said to have the best instincts of any of our D-backs. With him out, Babers played Daivon Ellison, who is the exact same size and hits just as hard but probably isn’t quite as good an all-around D-back. But he’s the perfect back-up for Cordy. Sophomores Scoop Bradshaw (5-11 167) and Chris Frederick (5-11 193) were listed as the starting CBs in the preseason depth chart. They got to play as freshmen due to the injuries. Another sophomore, Evan Foster (6-0 213) was listed ahead of junior Rodney Williams (5-10 191) at strong safety, probably because of his linebacker like size. It’s interesting that Dowels and Hudson didn’t make the two deep. I don’t think they got worse. I think they have more competition.
Devin M. Butler is our ‘other’ Devin Butler, a grad transfer from Notre Dame who might have bene covering the offensive Devin Butler, who had a couple of catches in that game. Butler injured his foot last year and then had a minor scrape with the law, (a bar room confrontation with the police), before leaving ND. Jordan Martin, (6-3 206- great size for a D-back), is another grad transfer, from Toledo. “He racked up 74 total tackles, including 4.5 for loss, 11 pass deflections, two forced fumbles and an interception in three seasons” per Syracuse.com. Another former Notre Dame, Mykelti Williams, went to junior college and then wanted to come here but was “not admitted by the university”.
Carl Jones is a converted WR who, per Nunes, “played a large role on the hands team”. Sean Onwalu is a walk-on.
Devon Clarke (6-2 180) is a 3 star redshirt freshman from Florida who was rated the #80 safety coming out of high school. He’s lucky to still be on the team considering that Jacquan Nelson is not. The burglary must have bene Nelson’s idea. Now we need to see if Clarke can burglarize some passes. Nunes: “don’t expect to see much of Clarke this year on anything other than special teams or maybe in a pinch on defense.”
6-3 211 redshirt freshman Anthony Lombardi from Connecticut is a converted QB and a walk-on. He has good size. Nunes: “Lombardi is a great athlete but still a bit young. He will likely spend the season watching and learning. The defensive back core has struggled and has a lot to prove, but they have enough upperclassmen to fill the roles this year. His athleticism can definitely be of value on special teams this season.” It’s always good to have a Lombardi on your team.
6-0 177 Kyle Strickland of Georgia also red-shirted last year. He was a wide receiver in high school and walked on as a DB here last year. The most Nunes says about him is that he’s a cousin of basketball’s Rod Strickland.
6-2 175 true freshman Eric Coley is the son of Vincent Reynolds, Baber’s DT coach. He moved from Michigan and starred for -M last year, rushing for 1295 yards at 10 yards a pop and 216 a game and 17 TDs. Defensively, registered 70 tackles, including eight for a loss, five sacks and one fumble recovery. He was rated the #1 ‘athlete’, (meaning multi-positon speed guy), in the state and #51 in the country. Like seemingly every SU recruit, he was given 3 stars by the recruiting experts but this guy could be somebody special. I saw his highlights on TV every Friday night and he was running away from everybody. I couldn’t wait to see him in an SU uniform. I kinda wish they’d give him a shot on the offensive side of the ball.
Ifeatu Melifonwu (6-3 195) has a similar resume and even better numbers than Coley. Cuse.com: “As a senior captain, rushed for 1,876 yards and 25 touchdowns, while intercepting two passes on defense.” He is, of course, a 3 star and rated the #116 safety in the class by 247. We managed to recruit him away from Jim Harbaugh of Michigan. He might be able to steal a pass while the receiver is trying to figure out how to pronounce his name. They could use his nickname: “Iffy”:
Signing Day 2017 | Ifeatu Melifonwu
6-1 190 Kevin Nusedo of Connecticut is another preferred walk-on. He was a WR/DB in high school “Made 87 career tackles and had five interceptions, including 40 tackles and three interceptions as a senior.” (Cuse.com) “Adding Nusdeo is a quality depth move for SU, as it’s a position of need and one that will be young once again in 2017.”
Bailey has Frederick and Bradsaw at the corners ahead of Dowels and Butler. He has Cordy and Foster as the safeties with Rodney Williams as a back-up but Jordan Martin, not Daivon Ellison. Dowels and Williams began last year as starters and I assumed Butler, coming from Notre Dame, would be one. I guess that indicates a talent upgrade.
This unit was way below average last season after all the injuries and getting used to the new system. I believe they will be above average this season and the biggest factor in making this year’s Syracuse team better than last year’s.
The Kicking Game:
I was surprised by the number of kickers on the roster: Cole Murphy and Alex Grossman are senior place-kickers. Emerson Womble is a sophomore. Jeffrey Chan and Andre Szmyt are freshmen. Murphy has bene the placekicker for three years. He was excellent the first year: “Made 13-of-16 (.813) field goals and 11-of-12 extra points ... Also handled kickoff duties for the Orange and recorded nine touchbacks .” He was solid the next season: “Connected on 16-of-22 (.727) field goals and was a perfect 37-for-37 on PATs” but shakey last year: “Converted 10-of-18 (.556) field goals... Fifth on SU’s single-season record list for most PATs made by kick (36) and tied for sixth in attempts (39) ... Kicked off 53 times with 11 touchbacks ...” (all stats from Cuse.com). Murphy didn’t do the kick-offs in 2015, indicating a level of dissatisfaction at that point. But Babers put him back on that job.
Murphy is 6-3 215. Grossman is a 5-9 163 walk-on who kicked in junior college last year. Size doesn’t necessarily indicate leg strength, accuracy or mental focus. “As a senior he made 25-26 PATs and all four of his field goals.” Nunes doesn’t say how many field goals he attempted but does say: “Barring any injuries to Murphy, who was solid last season, I don't think you'll see much of Grossman.” Except Murphy wasn’t ‘solid’ last season.
Emerson Womble (Wobble?) is another smaller guy (5-9 180) who is also a walk-on, (most kickers are, even though you’d think, playing in the Carrier Dome, we’d attract the top kickers in the country). “Converted 6-of-11 field goals in his scholastic career and hit 70-of-80 extra-point tries.” (Cuse.com) That doesn’t sound too good to me.
Jeffrey Chan (5-10 175), came here all the way from Hawaii, (have fun this winter!). He has a good pedigree: “Rated 4.5 stars and the No. 72 kicker in the Class of 2017 by Chris Sailer Kicking ... Made 52-of-53 extra points and 5-of-7 field goals in 2016”. Nunes calls him “one to watch for the future.”
Andre Szmyt is a little bigger at 6-1 190. He’s from Illinois. “Rated four stars by Kohl's Kicking ... Connected on 9-of-12 field goals, including a school-record 48-yarder.” (Cuse.com) He ahs an interesting training video on You-Tube:
Andre Szmyt - Practice with Coach Gary Zauner
He and Chen are obviously the future at this positon. They will probably both redshirt so we’ll have them for four years after Murphy.
(Time for a funny story: Ben Schwartzwalder never seemed to have good kickers. Look at the historical scores and you’ll see a lot of 6s, 12s and 18s. When Al Gerlick barely made a chip shot to beat Pitt in 1957 it was the first field gal a Schwartzwalder team had ever ATTEMPTED. In 1968 Ben, seeing the success fo the Gogolaks at Cornell and Princeton, brought in his first soccer style kicker in, George Jakowenko. George was no Gogolak but he kicked 25 of 30 extra points and 7 of 11 field goals. I remember being a barber shop and somebody commented that Jakowenko was the best kicker we’d had in years. Another patron looked up and said “They finally got an Irishman!” )
Sterling Hofrichter was a classic example of a small guy with a big leg last year. He’s only 5-9 196, (a pretty good weight for 5-9). He punted for an average of 42.7 yards. He had to punt 77 times and 23 of them went 50+ yards, with a high of 65. He only had one blocked because he used the so called “rugby” punt most of the time, running to the side and kicking the ball on the run, something that takes quite a bit of talent. He may actually be Murphy’s place-kicking backup. “Ranked the sixth-best kicker and ninth-best punter by Kohl’s Kicking Camp” (Cuse.com)
The only other listed punter on the roster is redshirt freshman Nolan Cooney (a Murphy-like 6-3 208). He walked on and redshirted last season. “Cooney is also a testicular cancer survivor, after being diagnosed in high school (he’s been in remission since receiving chemotherapy his junior year)…. He’s unlikely to compete with either Cole Murphy or Sterling Hofrichter for the starting kicker or punter job. If he does not win either job, then he will serve as a backup for the 2017 season.” (Nunes)
The kick returners will come from the ‘skill positon’, (as if other positons don’t require skill), players: the running backs, receivers and defensive backs. Sean Riley returned the two punts Brisley Estime didn’t return. Brisley led the nation with 17.7 yards per return. The diminutive Riley (5-8 155) Riley returned his two punts 30 yards, which shows promise. But Brisley at 5-9 183 was a much stronger man and I always felt he had a chance to break one. Riley is more of a water-sprite likely to go down when hit. I’d like to see Nykeim Johnson get a chance at this spot. He’s not much bigger than Riley (5-8 163) but off his film I think he’s faster and more explosive. What I don’t want is to go back to punts being seen as an opportunity to make a fair catch and nothing more than that, which it was for years before Brisley arrived here.
Our kickoff returns have been a train wreck at the 20 yard line for years. I don’t understand why we can’t get them properly blocked. Riley returned 53 of them for 20.66 yards per attempt. Estime tried it 10 times for 18.3 yards. It may not matter who returns them if they get swarmed over at the 20 every time. Mykeim could help us here and Moe Neal had some big returns in high school. I wouldn’t mind seeing Eric Coley or Ifeatu Melifonwu a shot here.
We used to block a lot of kicks. That seemed to go away when we started fair catching all the punts. A team struggling to compete with superior opposition needs to use the kicking game to make big plays. It’s not just about hoping them miss and securing possession. A lot of that comes from the attitude of the players – you have to want to break it big or block it- and a lot of that comes from the attitude of the coaching staff. I note Babers brought in Justin Lustig, the Nation DII coach of the year, to be his special teams, (and running backs) coach. Maybe he’s a guy who will look to make big plays in the kicking game.
Bailey has Murphy place-kicking and kicking off and Hofriuchter punting, no surprise. Zach Mahoney is the #1 holder, ending a streak of inexplicably having punters rather than back-up quarterbacks hold for place kicks. Riley will be the #1 kickoff and punt returner, backed up by Shyheim Cullen and Nykeim Johnson. Cordy, (not Coley) has caught a few punts. I’d assume Coley and Melifonwu are likely redshirts and they want Neal to concentrate on offense. I think those three would all be better than Riley but what do I know?
Late Update: The depth chart of the season opener finally came out. The biggest surprise is that Antwan Cordy is now our punt returner, over Sean Riley and Nykeim Johnson . Why? Was he more reliable in catching the ball? Does it mean that Babers is looking more to simply secure possession rather than making big plays? Kayton Samuels, who looked to be a back-up DT to either Chris Slayton or McKinley Williams has bene moved ahead of Williams into the starting line-up. He’s our biggest DL at 319. Did Babers want more beef in the center of the line? Williams looked like a coming star. Austin Valdez is now on the two deep but behind Franklin. Andrew Armstrong has displaced Ryan Guthrie as the back-up to Parris Bennett, moving from 9inside to outside. Juan Dowells is backing up Scoop Bradshaw and Devin Butler is backing up Chris Frederick at CB. That’s actually not a change from the pre-season chart. It’s just the opposite of what Bailey projected. He was right about Jordan Martin displacing Daivon Ellison but wrong in that Martin will back Cordy at FS while Rodney Williams backs Evan Foster at SS.
There’s no fullback on the offensive depth chart but Chris Elmore made the two deep as a back-up tight end over Aaron Hackett. Keaton Darny, not Andrejas Duerig, is the back-up center. There are eight wide receivers listed Sean Avent is surprisingly listed behind Erv Phillips, who will surely be in the slot. Sharod Johnson is behind Steve Ismael and Nykeim Johnson is behind Sean Riley. I think this alignment must be for “empty backfield” situations and may indicate we’ll see a lot of that. (There goes the running game). I find it hard to believe that if Phillips were unavailable that they’d go for Avant in the slot instead of one of the Johnsons. Finally, we now have a back-up punter listed: Nolan Cooney, a redshirt freshman. With Hofrichter a sophomore, he probably won’t get much action the next three years unless Sterling gets injured on one of those rugby punts. Cooney is much bigger (6-3 208 vs. 5-9 196 and I suspect he’ll be a stay-at-home punter if we see him at all.
I’m a little concerned about the number of players who have scrapes with the law: Robinson, Clarke, Butler and the departed Howard and Nelson. I hope we don’t become one of those schools which achieve success by lowering standards for player character and behavior. (Like Baylor.) Hopefully these situations will work out and prove that we are not.
The biggest trend in reading about these players is that they seem to be either 3 stars or walk-ons. We’ve traditionally had a mix of 2 stars with a few three stars, so that seems an upgrade. But they will be going up against plenty of 4 and 5 star players. Of course the star system is tilted toward the best teams. If players go to Clemson or Florida State, they are likely to be 4 or 5 star players because the ‘experts’ assume that Clemson and Florida State would not have bene interested in them if weren’t that good. Similarly, those experts assume that if a guy settled for Syracuse, they couldn’t be better than a 3 star. Even if accurate, these ratings are measures of a player’s ability at a moment in time, right after their high school careers end. The key question is not how good they were in high school: it’s how good will they be in college. Judging these players by their star rating now is like looking at a single frame of film in a who-done-it and trying to figure out if the butler did it. (Hey, we have two Butlers who can do it!)
A couple more notes before we move on. You can see that this is a very young team: 11 seniors and 24 juniors. Obviously, these guys have a chance to get better before they leave here, (and I don’t see a lot of guys jumping to the pros early: I just hope we get some good enough to consider that). That also means that this is becoming Dino Babers team, rather than Scott Shafer’s team very quickly. (Even some of the upperclassmen are transfers obtained by Babers). Then there’s the fact that this is year 2 in the Baber’s system on both offense and defense. Not only are the players likely to perform more efficiently, (and, of course faster), but the coaches hopefully will be able to call for more things for them to do. We’ll see the whole playoff this year. I don’t think we saw it last year.
For all but the powerhouses, a college football team has something in common with a Triple A baseball team, (or maybe my Mets): the team you see at the beginning of the season is not the team you’ll see at the end of the season. Young players will improve, of course. But players will also get injured. Our equivalent of calling someone up from Double A is to put in an inferior or less experienced back-up, (who will also likely not be as strong or athletic because he hasn’t had as much time in the conditioning program). The powerhouses can replace players and not lose much. They might even find out that the next guy is better than they older player they had starting. That’s unlikely to happen here. Typically, we are a weaker team by the end of the season rather than a stronger one. You can project what you think might or could happen at the beginning of the season, then subtract a win or two and add a loss or two because of this. Discouragement and “playing out the string” are factors, too. That’s why our last game was a 61-76 game that somehow wasn’t really all that exciting for either team. I’d really like to see the regular season cut back to 10 games. It was easier on the players and you could figure averages more easily, too. But that’s something else on the list of what I’d like to see but will never happen.
