SWC75
Bored Historian
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- Aug 26, 2011
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I decided that now that we have completed the football season, I’d look back at what I said in my season preview and talk about how things worked out. I’ll focus on the players and my discussion of various departments of the team.
LINEBACKERS
Then:
Our young, fast linebackers have grown up as well. Middle man Marquis Spruill will be starting for the fourth year, (he started on the outside), is 6-1 224, (up from 216). Strong-side man Cameron Lynch is 5-11 234, (up from 223) and even weakside linebacker Dyshawn Davis is up to 6-2, 220, (from 212). That’s still not huge but JUCO import Luke Arciniega weighs in at 6-2, 253. The size we have up front may make it less important for the linebackers to have bulk. Their speed enables them to make plays all over the field. Spruill was special enough to start as freshman. Lynch has always shown the ability to be in the right place at the right time and Davis produced the biggest hit people around here have ever seen in 2011, crushing a Rutgers running back and producing a fumble R’shard Anderson returned for a score. It’s on You-tube and is the sort of thing Orange fans never get tired of seeing. But the best-looking linebacker in the spring game was another Junior College transfer, Josh Kirkland. He’s small at 6-2 202 but covered the whole field and hit like a 250-pounder. Lewellyn Coker, (6-1 227) also has a reputation as a hard-hitter. Freshman Marqez Hodge has impressed enough in fall practice to suggest we’ll be seeing plenty of him out there, too. We are blessed at this position. I doubt we’ll see a team with a better line-backing crew all season.
Now:
We certainly had mixed results on defense this past season. We won games 54-0, 24-10, 13-0 and 20-3 and lost them 27-48, 14-49, 0-56 and 3-59. That doesn’t sound like we had the “best linebacking crew we’ll see all season”. Those first two bad scores had more to do with the secondary, (see below). The latter two had to do with the linebacking scheme. Faced with Georgia tech’s triple option and Florida State’s NFL talent, the normally aggressive Shafer and Bullough decided on a “keep them in front of you” concept that just didn’t work. Jim Boeheim has had great success in recent years by sticking to one defense, even if the opponent sometimes finds a way to score against it, because it’s still what we do best. It’s a good lesson and I hope Shafer and Bullough have learned it.
We certainly had good personnel in the line-backing corps. When they played against conventional offenses of average talent they were quite effective. And most of them are coming back. Spruill’s distinguished career, (he was a 4 year starter but never quite a star), had come to an end. So has Lewellyn Coker, who could never crack the starting line-up. Davis, Lynch, Arciniega and Kirkland will be seniors. In addition, Marquez Hodge looked like a coming star when he got a chance to play- and he got more and more of them late in the year. We’ll need a new “Mike” but otherwise are pretty well set up for another year here. We have one linebacker recruit in this class so far- Zaire Franklin, a 3 star. I’d like to see a couple more, considering all the seniors in this group.
LINEBACKERS
Then:
Our young, fast linebackers have grown up as well. Middle man Marquis Spruill will be starting for the fourth year, (he started on the outside), is 6-1 224, (up from 216). Strong-side man Cameron Lynch is 5-11 234, (up from 223) and even weakside linebacker Dyshawn Davis is up to 6-2, 220, (from 212). That’s still not huge but JUCO import Luke Arciniega weighs in at 6-2, 253. The size we have up front may make it less important for the linebackers to have bulk. Their speed enables them to make plays all over the field. Spruill was special enough to start as freshman. Lynch has always shown the ability to be in the right place at the right time and Davis produced the biggest hit people around here have ever seen in 2011, crushing a Rutgers running back and producing a fumble R’shard Anderson returned for a score. It’s on You-tube and is the sort of thing Orange fans never get tired of seeing. But the best-looking linebacker in the spring game was another Junior College transfer, Josh Kirkland. He’s small at 6-2 202 but covered the whole field and hit like a 250-pounder. Lewellyn Coker, (6-1 227) also has a reputation as a hard-hitter. Freshman Marqez Hodge has impressed enough in fall practice to suggest we’ll be seeing plenty of him out there, too. We are blessed at this position. I doubt we’ll see a team with a better line-backing crew all season.
Now:
We certainly had mixed results on defense this past season. We won games 54-0, 24-10, 13-0 and 20-3 and lost them 27-48, 14-49, 0-56 and 3-59. That doesn’t sound like we had the “best linebacking crew we’ll see all season”. Those first two bad scores had more to do with the secondary, (see below). The latter two had to do with the linebacking scheme. Faced with Georgia tech’s triple option and Florida State’s NFL talent, the normally aggressive Shafer and Bullough decided on a “keep them in front of you” concept that just didn’t work. Jim Boeheim has had great success in recent years by sticking to one defense, even if the opponent sometimes finds a way to score against it, because it’s still what we do best. It’s a good lesson and I hope Shafer and Bullough have learned it.
We certainly had good personnel in the line-backing corps. When they played against conventional offenses of average talent they were quite effective. And most of them are coming back. Spruill’s distinguished career, (he was a 4 year starter but never quite a star), had come to an end. So has Lewellyn Coker, who could never crack the starting line-up. Davis, Lynch, Arciniega and Kirkland will be seniors. In addition, Marquez Hodge looked like a coming star when he got a chance to play- and he got more and more of them late in the year. We’ll need a new “Mike” but otherwise are pretty well set up for another year here. We have one linebacker recruit in this class so far- Zaire Franklin, a 3 star. I’d like to see a couple more, considering all the seniors in this group.
