Here’s the pre spring 2-deep. My guess is these are your starters unless Bleich can play then he bumps Tisdale. Tisdale is your first off the bench and maybe backs up at tackle, I know the staff is really high on Red to.
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Did you forget about Dakota? I think he is a lock at LG unless he is not healthy. I see no reason to think he will not be 100% for the fall.
So that leaves us for the RG position.
Let’s talk about the three walk ons first, Austin Chandler, Josh Kosciol and Ryan Kisselstein.
Props to Austin and Josh for cracking the two deep. I think you have to consider them ahead of Ryan right now. I think Kosciol is a center exclusively right now and too small to play OG (he might be our next starting center though). Let’s eliminate him. Chandler has been focusing on the LG position and I think his role on the 2020 team is to be the backup there to Dakota.
Then you have the two first year Germans, Mark Petry and Max Mang. Petry is currently considered a tackle but is undersized for that position and might be better suited to OG. The staff has shown a consistent willingness to move players on the OL around to get the best 5 players on the field. Mang is listed as a TE but is already 250 pounds and has a frame that says he will be 300 pounds after a year in the program, and playing OL. They are destined to be factors on the OL but are probably a year away.
Then we have the two behemoth red shirt sophomores to talk about, Qadir White and Wil Froumy. Qadir is listed at 343 points right now. I just can’t see him, or anyone for that matter, playing as a starter in this fast paced offense at that weight. One of the first things I do when they update the roster in the spring and the fall is check Qadir’s weight. If it gets below 320, it tells me he is serious about getting playing time and making an impact. So for now anyway, I don’t see it happening. Wil has done a remarkable job of keeping on the down low so far in his SU career. Two years. No snaps, no playing time at all. I assume he was in competition for PT as an OL on special teams last season and got beat out by some other backups. He has terrific size. Pretty sure he is one of the strongest players on the team, was a really good powerlifter in HS. Wil made the AD honor role in the fall of 2019 and is a biochemistry major. If academics count here, he has an advantage. You want feel good story for the fall about a guy who came out of nowhere and win a starting job? Wil would be that guy. I wish I could talk about watching these guys play in the spring game and have something more solid to go on. But I don’t.
I can say this: they got passed by a true frosh last year (Bergeron) and a classmate (Vetterollo) last year. They played different positions than these guys but as mentioned before, if the staff likes you, they will find a place for you. That was not a good development for them.
It is an important year for both of these players. Especially if Bleich cannot play immediately.
That leaves Pat Davis, Darius Tisdale and Anthony Red. I would say these are the primary contenders for the RG job if Bleich can’t play. You couldn’t have three players with more different backgrounds.
Patrick Davis is a senior from Canada who has played quite a but over the past 3 seasons, where he has been on the second team each year. He has bounced around between tackle and guard. Also has been an important contributor on special teams. Very versatile. I don’t see any academic honors in his bio.
I think when you try and project starters on the OL, a good approach is to figure out which candidate has the most playing time to date and pick that person. OL is a cerebral position. You need to know your assignments. You need to be reliable.
If this is the approach you are taking, you have to go with Pat.
Darius Tisdale is a junior from Jersey. JUCO guy. I don’t see any academic honors but he was relatIvely highly recruited. Got some playing time last season. Given that and his playing time the one year he played at the JUCO level, he probably has the most game experience of the bunch.
The final guy to talk about is Anthony Red. Anthony redshirted this past season. He is the youngest of the true contenders. He has to my knowledge played OT exclusively at Syracuse. No academic honors in his bio. But if you judge this competition based on pure athletic ability, he is probably your guy. Might be a year away from being ready to play. Only listed at 287 right now.
The last 2 openings on the OL were filled by frosh (Vet and Bergeron). I think they were the most athletic guys. It seems to me as though this staff really values athleticism. They want mobile guys that are in shape and can keep up with the insane pace this offense plays at.
For all these reasons, if Bleich is not eligible to play, I think the position goes to Red. Even though he isn’t technically a guard.
Let’s hope this competition is not needed and Chris can play. And let’s hope he gets his weight down in the 310 range. That will help him out a lot adjusting to the fast pace of the offense.
