Per Gina, these are the starters:
Barring health setbacks, it’s pretty safe to pencil in linemen Baker Pritchard, Sumner Houston and Kalani Vakameilalo, linebackers Bright Ugwoegbu, Caleb Saulo, Manase Hungalu and Titus Failauga and defensive backs Treson Decoud, Brandon Arnold, Devin Chappell and Dwayne Williams as the starters (with Irvine as the extra DB in nickel packages).
If that’s the case, the defense will stink.
Houston, Saulo, and Hungalu are all awful.
Pritchard is probably the only guy who would get playing time with any other Pac-12 team. Ugwoegbu is fast and intriguing. He could break out and become viable. Secondary is weak, but with that front 7 they’ll appear even weaker than they are.
Interestingly, the guys I thought had the most ability Napolean and the Payne Brothers, aren’t mentioned. Keep an eye on those guys. They’ll jump the garbage above by season end, and we’ll all wonder why it took so long for the coaches to figure out.
Interesting bit is that I had Pierce as the #1 recruit in this class (ahead of Wallace and Thompson, unlike Rivals), and he appears to be the top freshman prospect at this point.
Better question is, will they be better than last year? I see no standouts on this side of the ball. Hard to see any of them getting a honorable mention when the all conference teams are named.
I like Decoud, but he’s going to have to cover the #1 receiver every week.
Napoleon will be a beast.
If he can keep his hand out of his jersey.
Somebody got it.
On Napoleon, Horowitz quotes Clune:
“The two junior college guys (Phillip Napoleon and Paisa Savea), they’re gonna have a major role in what we do. They’re gonna rotate in and be big players for us, but they’ve gotta lock down some of the finer details that maybe some of the other guys already know.”
Sounds like motivational coach speak to me, I agree with angry; Napoleon should have a good career for the Beavs, hope it starts very early this season.
Well the D line is GAs baby, and he’s been making a point that 6 D linemen will play by rotation. Let’s see what happens.
I think they will be a smidge better this year, but only enough to hang with teams like Idaho State, maybe BSU, Colorado, CAL, and possibly even Oregon. Strength and Conditioning should be 5X better than last years team.
I think we’ve been overlooking Boise St. They could be better than last year, returning most of their key pieces on offense. When we revise our season predictions i think they’ll be an L for me.
It’ll be interesting to see how Joah Robinett develops. At least he didn’t have to be spend 3 years at receiver before playing defense.
That’s funny!
The talk was always about Riley’s complex playbook and there was some chortling. Now, every article I read about this year’s team refers to what a long time it takes to learn the playbook.
I think it takes a long time to learn a play book because the players coming in from high school don’t get a college playbook 85-95% of the time. Then the leftover Riley guys have to learn new terminology and a different style of plays. Then again, what is their definition of “long time to learn playbook”? Season, 2 Seasons, Full off season? Summer workouts?
Shhhhhhh
That’s a false equivalence. In Riley’s system, learning the playbook took three to four years for some guys. Every year, the same players would be put in the same positions only to continue learning some mysteriously complex playbook.
And the D was just as bad as the O.
That’s completely different than asking frosh to learn a playbook in the span of fall camp, no matter how simple.
And the holdovers have to unlearn the mindset that football is some mythically complex and difficult struggle, thus explaining (more like enabling) their lack of progress.
I’m thinking that if the offense steps up and is viable this season it should help keep the D off the field as much as last year.
I’m trying to be optimistic…it’s hard
That will certainly help. Having good special teams could help, too.
Everything is intertwined. A viable QB will result in a few more wins. So at least 4 wins.
I have no numbers to back this statement up, but why would that stop me or anyone here?…
It seemed like the offense last year was so inept that the ‘d’ was always on the field. A Ray Lewis led defense would look craptastic under similar circumstances.
Now I better see if I can find stats to back that up…
Source?
OSU was 123 out of 127 in time of possession last year. Stanford was #1 for reference. I have believed this to be the primary culprit of the defensive ineptitude all along. Lack of a pass rush has been #2.
Where is Aydon? it sounds like he is our best linemen.
If they still plan on using heavy rotations on the D line Elu should see plenty of time, making the “starter” moniker less important than say CB or OLine.
vakameilalo is going to be good.
He and Aydon should become quite effective…both young too.
Baldwin will not be calling the shots. Offense will be light years better. Defense will be much better without the scapegoater DC as well. I do not know about the record, but play will be much improved from last year.
From your lips to God’s ear.
Sumner Houston, Caleb Saulo, Manase Hungalu, Brandon Arnold, and Devin Chappell all surprise me as starters.
It looks to me like the coaching staff is going for so much substitution, they don’t want much drop off when they go to second string.
I say put your best players on the field as starters…and keep them there as situation dictates. Game time is only 60 minutes, there’s plenty of breaks, tv timeouts, they’re young, play them.
IF Garretson can be efficient, the skill players and Nall/Cook/Pierce can make things interesting, but the OLine has to perform. There’s so much potential for offensive diversity, they just might be able to help out the D.
From what i understand it seems like a lot of these players are starters right now because they have the best grasp ofbthe D. I think we’ll see different lineups as the year progresses and the young guys get more comfortable. I’m also not so sure that this will actually be the starters on day 1.
Sounds about right. I expect heavy substitution on the D line.
I agree.
Defense should collectively take on the identity that they are going to hand out the punishment instead of taking it. Have that attitude across your D for a full 60 minutes and you will see the difference.
The Golden Rodents will be releasing their depth chart today. I don’t expect major surprises. One CB and one safety position up for grabs on the first team. Perhaps something with the WR’s will shake out differently than expected. The only other thing is who will be named back up QB. Injuries are about the only thing that will significantly change the expected lineups from the start of camp.
Go Rodents!
What is the scouting report on the Gophs? My brief review found they got torched by one of the worst Nebraska teams in recent history….
Looks like GA lost to the Gophs in 2014 at Wisconsin. Yikes.
Yeah… these guys would be ST and filler players on a really good D. I don’t think anyone thinks we have a really good D. And I don’t think anyone wants to say what it will be until we actually see them play.
What we have left is just a handful of holdovers who bought in. I was surprised at how many diapers needed changing last year. I expected Riley’s legacy to at least be mature about the realities of Riley ditching them.
Saulo and Hungalu are serviceable for now. Willis moved inside and will likely garner the most time once he’s acclimated. W. Payne and Hughes-Murray will also overtake those two eventually. But they are just steady role player types. They don’t make any spectacular plays. They don’t make any spectacular mistakes. They will likely have a couple very good games over the course of the season.
Ugwoebu is going to be good. Smith, Robinette, and a troupe of frosh OLBs (Garcia?) will get their chances and garner more time themselves.
Houston isn’t bad. I don’t know where you get that. He looked like a frosh who was just thrown in a grinder last year, something that would not have happened if we had anyone on the roster who could play. That experience plus a full off-season of training will make him much improved this season given what work he did show last year. And I expect at least incremental improvement from Pritchard. Vakameilalo and Tago unfairly had to deal with the effects of the dirty play of Max Turd last year. They should be more than solid if they rehabbed well.
And then there’s Elu.
The CBs don’t worry me too much except that Williams might get picked on for his height. But that’s a CBs life. But the Ss worry me. Hopefully Irvine, Omar and Moore make an early and consistent impact.
Clune says, “we have to get this year going and create our own identity of what we’re gonna be all about…”
So, is there a difference between “create” identity and “find” identity (ala Riley)? I think so.
Yes, creating an identity is active, aggressive. Finding it is like your lost and hoping you can figure it out, much more passive