The heirs to the linebackers thread

[Bambrewer]

I think you will all be surprised

 

[TheCusian]

I think you will all be surprised

In a good way I hope

 

[OrangeinNH]

I have heard great things about Richards. He and Wallace will battle for the MIKE position.

I would make Guthrie and Armstrong early favorites for the outside positions but neither is a lock. Could see the staff leaving Guthrie at DE for pass rush situations.

Whitner is already getting PT and could win a spot, especially in passing situations.

Cullen has a nice blend of speed and strength and could see him become a blitz specialist in passing situations. Troy Henderson has gotten early PT and might get some playing time.

Trotter, Fagan and Whitner need to get stronger. Incoming frosh Smith might surprise too. He is a great talent.

Yeah, I'm inclined to think that we see more mixing and matching based on the type of offense we're facing, and the down and distance. This year we start and play 3 guys fairly exclusively due to their wealth of experience and consistently high level of play. It's been a luxury!

On a side note, of the 5 backers we recruited in this senior class (Cabinda and Colton Moskal who transferred to Penn), I thought that Parris had the least upside. Too small and slow. He's proven my eye for talent to be plenty suspect. Same with Chris Frederick

 

[tbonezone]

Zaire didn't take over immediately as a freshman but I believe he played a bunch over the last like 8-10 games of the season.

zaire was named as a team captain as a soph. yes i'd say that kind of leadership is difficult to replace.

 

[SWC75]

Zaire and Parris are seniors. It's not just their skills that are being replaced. it's their experience.

 

[brandokc]

Jake Flaherty and the Utica Club, Vincenzo Giruzzi? I loved those guys, but man have we upgraded our talent.

 

[Trueblue25]

Zaire and Parris are seniors. It's not just their skills that are being replaced. it's their experience.

Skills not an issue in my opinion. We have back ups currently in the ranks with the size and athleticism. I made this thread due to your point on experience.

Do we have any current players on the roster that have the brains/heart/charisma of Bennett and Franklin to make the transition easy and the experience a lesser factor than worried?

 

[anomander]

Franklin and Bennett are the heart and soul of this team. It's only natural we experience an early drop off in production, but if there is 1 position i'm not worried about replacing it's LB. As I said you can't replace the leadership and experience we are going to lose, but we will be replacing it with bigger, quicker/faster athletes.

Armstrong - Strong-side
Richards - Middle
Fagan - Weak-side

I could see Wallace pushing Armstrong by the end of the year.

Just imagine the size we will have on the defensive side of the ball next year. It won't even be recognizable in comparison to 2015.

 

[CuseCrew08]

How often do LB's rotate? If we have 6-8 linebackers that can play would it make sense to rotate them like they do linemen to keep everyone fresh?

 

[RICuse44]

How often do LB's rotate? If we have 6-8 linebackers that can play would it make sense to rotate them like they do linemen to keep everyone fresh?

In college they do not rotate nearly as much. The pros you will see guys be first and second down with sub packages for third down for pass coverage. But in college with the spread you are basically running the same 3 with occasional subs.

The biggest factor for next years LBers is the Slayton & Kayton show. They will make breaking in new LBers a thousand times easier.

 

[jgeorge322]

I think you will all be surprised

No bias here

 

[Bambrewer]

No bias here

Or you are all thinking I mean something I don’t

 

[jgeorge322]

Or you are all thinking I mean something I don’t

Im busting your chops. Im biased too as an orange fan. Lots of young talent at lb.

 

[SmilinBob]

One thing we are not short on with the younger guys is talent and athleticism. Initial drop off in production can be expected, but, they'll be good to go as experience builds.

Exactly...they are going to be fooled by misdirections and play fakes but will make it up with talent and athleticism. That stuff takes experience and it's easier to hide one new LB but 3, there will be a lot of lessons learned on the field and in theory Armstrong should be the highest on the curve.

 

[shu 49]

Look, as long as we have guys who can come down hill and hit gaps with size and speed, im all good. As previously stated, our 2 dt are studs and that will help a ton.

 

[texascpa]

Zaire didn't take over immediately as a freshman but I believe he played a bunch over the last like 8-10 games of the season.

He certainly did.

 

[SmilinBob]

Look, as long as we have guys who can come down hill and hit gaps with size and speed, im all good. As previously stated, our 2 dt are studs and that will help a ton.

Touche shu...those guys up front being healthy and in the backfield of the O can help hide some of that inexperience. I really want to hear opposing coaches say they have to work extra hard to game plan ways to stop the DL next year.

 

[shu 49]

Touche shu...those guys up front being healthy and in the backfield of the O can help hide some of that inexperience. I really want to hear opposing coaches say they have to work extra hard to game plan ways to stop the DL next year.

That would definitely be a good issue to have. Wouldn't that entail a lot more offensive trapping seeing it's easier to block someone sideways than straight up.

 

[All4SU]

Move Dungey to LB, or let him play both O and D. He has LB size, wevknowvhe has the mentality, he can strip a football, and who needs to tackle when you can karate kick people down!

 

[SmilinBob]

That would definitely be a good issue to have. Wouldn't that entail a lot more offensive trapping seeing it's easier to block someone sideways than straight up.

Why it is also important that the DL has the experience to know when they are being "mislead". It feels nice to have quality LB's coming in and not panicking about this. The depth is being built and for once I feel confident in a lot of areas on this team depth wise...still a ways to go but we can see the path.

 

[PhatOrange]

I’m going with

OLB Armstrong
MLB Richards
OLB Fagan

I think Guthrie will spell them all and play situationally at DEnd.

Here's a picture of Fagan #27 from the Clemson game. He looks like he's been hitting the weight room.

 

[Trueblue25]

Not gonna lie, for looks and aesthetics alone i wouldnt mind seeing a blitz package of Shy, Richards, Henderson. The big boys