I have made a few of these points before in various threads, but its the off-season so some redundancy wont hurt anyone. Obviously the happenings in camp can change things but I look for the following items this fall.
1. The safety position. IMO we will rotate 4 safeties this year much like we did last season. I think those 4 will be Kelly Jr, Gaulden, Ev Berry, and Abernathy. I think the rotation will be driven, in part, by down-and-distance or situational football. I think the starters (likely Kelly and Gaulden) will play 60-70% of the snaps. Dividing the work load here will build depth but also allow these guys to be involved heavily on ST. Evan Berry has been written off by too many on this board as a non-factor at safety because he missed spring... He earned more and more PT as the season progressed in 2015.
2. Jakob Johnson. I think he will have a role in this offense. He seems like the most natural fit to fulfill the H-Back type role that Ellis played last season. I think between Wolf, Croom, and Johnson we could really gives teams hard time with all the formations you can give people. We can be in 11 personnel or 13 personnel, or anything in between, without substituting anyone.
3. I have concerns with JRM's health to start the season. Not sure the actual injury or surgery procedure was ever made known, but if he is not 100% today I have my doubts he will be the same JRM by Sept 1. I would hope to see him 100% by Ohio for a nice "knock the rust off" type game before Florida. The good news is, Sapp or McDowell look more than ready to be SEC level LBs if JRM misses any time.
4. McDowell playing Sam. I am not sold that we will run much 3 LB stuff unless the offenses' personnel demands we do so... But if I am wrong and Shoop wants to run it, I think McDowell is the "modern day sam" we would need. The sam aligns in place of the nickel so we need a guy athletic enough to drop on WRs but also stout enough to play a 9-tech vs a TE... McDowell is not as long as you would like for this, but he is very similarly built to the guy Shoop played at Sam for PSU last season.
5. I really like the idea of rolling some OL during games. I am not an OL expert and understand that chemistry among them is an important item that you would not want to disrupt. But how much fresher would our guys be had they plays 10-20 less snaps when the 4th quarter arrives? Or to steal one from Butch, the cumulative snaps throughout the season... How much fresher would our guys be in week 10 playing roughly 100 less snaps? If we trust the likes of Boulware, Jones, Moseley, Kendrick, etc. I say we roll them in from time to time. I recall Fulmer rolling his guards back when Vlad Richard and McClendon were here.
1. The safety position. IMO we will rotate 4 safeties this year much like we did last season. I think those 4 will be Kelly Jr, Gaulden, Ev Berry, and Abernathy. I think the rotation will be driven, in part, by down-and-distance or situational football. I think the starters (likely Kelly and Gaulden) will play 60-70% of the snaps. Dividing the work load here will build depth but also allow these guys to be involved heavily on ST. Evan Berry has been written off by too many on this board as a non-factor at safety because he missed spring... He earned more and more PT as the season progressed in 2015.
2. Jakob Johnson. I think he will have a role in this offense. He seems like the most natural fit to fulfill the H-Back type role that Ellis played last season. I think between Wolf, Croom, and Johnson we could really gives teams hard time with all the formations you can give people. We can be in 11 personnel or 13 personnel, or anything in between, without substituting anyone.
3. I have concerns with JRM's health to start the season. Not sure the actual injury or surgery procedure was ever made known, but if he is not 100% today I have my doubts he will be the same JRM by Sept 1. I would hope to see him 100% by Ohio for a nice "knock the rust off" type game before Florida. The good news is, Sapp or McDowell look more than ready to be SEC level LBs if JRM misses any time.
4. McDowell playing Sam. I am not sold that we will run much 3 LB stuff unless the offenses' personnel demands we do so... But if I am wrong and Shoop wants to run it, I think McDowell is the "modern day sam" we would need. The sam aligns in place of the nickel so we need a guy athletic enough to drop on WRs but also stout enough to play a 9-tech vs a TE... McDowell is not as long as you would like for this, but he is very similarly built to the guy Shoop played at Sam for PSU last season.
5. I really like the idea of rolling some OL during games. I am not an OL expert and understand that chemistry among them is an important item that you would not want to disrupt. But how much fresher would our guys be had they plays 10-20 less snaps when the 4th quarter arrives? Or to steal one from Butch, the cumulative snaps throughout the season... How much fresher would our guys be in week 10 playing roughly 100 less snaps? If we trust the likes of Boulware, Jones, Moseley, Kendrick, etc. I say we roll them in from time to time. I recall Fulmer rolling his guards back when Vlad Richard and McClendon were here.
