Comparing the 7/18 chart to 8/31:
- As said, it's interesting that Harris was the first of the true freshmen to make the two deep for the opener. He won't be the only one that will be heard from. The 7/18 chart had four wide receiver positions and now we have three, so there's not necessarily a demotion involved, I find it hard to believe that Sean Riley will be a starter for long and Custis still hasn't done anything yet.
- Chris Elmore is off the DL two deep and now is listed as a tight end. I don't want to see him running a pass pattern. I still think DL is his future.
- The deck has been shuffled a built on the OL two deep but I don't think it matters. They will alternate and can play multiple positions. I'm looking forward to see Dakota Davis play.
- We will now have three linebackers so the 4-2-5 experiment is over, although we may be in that set up for some situations. it wasn't going to work against power running games like BC's.
- We still have Sean Riley, who has never returned a kick for a score. Antwan Cordy has never returned a kick period. Shy Cullen is a linebacker- and athletic on,e but a line backer. Where are the Johnsons and the other young receivers? Were is Atrilleon Williams, Eh-FAN-too Mel-eh-FON-wu and Eric Coley?
I called the latter question into Orange Nation, which had Julian Whigham on. Julian totally agreed that big kick returns were important and can turn games around, although he feels they are more likely to come on punt returns than kick-off returns. he thinks Riley does a good job of catching the ball and not making mistakes and says that coaches tend to favor that over explosive returns. He described his frustration when Ritchy Desir used to return kicks - but not for very much. when Brisley Estime came in, the coaches had to adjust to his ability and his desire to make big plays. They talked about how we couldn't have won the Texas Bowl without Bris. Julian wants to see more of that and really wants to see Trill Williams out there. But he said that Antwan Cordy "is the most explosive athlete on the team and that overrides any potential for injury. He didn't discuss the use of Cullen, who i suspect will be used as a blocker and adviser on whether to return the ball, (so that Riley can concentrate on catching it). The problem with that is the same problem with having just one running back: if the kicking team knows who we want to return the ball, they can concentrate fully on that guy - or they can kick it to the other guy, knowing that's not the guy we want to have the ball.
