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How good do you feel about Wyoming's linebackers?

Cowboy Junky

Well-known member
Hendricks and Shober in the middle.

You have Keith Lewis and Devyn Harris battling it out at weakside linebacker.

Ghali Muhammad and Todd Knight man the strong side.

That's a pretty gifted rotation and they can all cover. It could be extremely difficult to pass on Wyoming this year, with the back 7 we've got.

The Gibson brothers sit on the corners, and I have a feeling they might excel at bump and run man coverage. It's a more physical coverage style than zone and the Gibson brothers are as physical as any two starting corners in college football.

Chris Prosinski is the ball hawk and tackle maniac. Next to him is a freshman all-American. The depth is vastly improved as well as Marqueston Huff and James Caraway have knocked Kenny Browder out of the two deep early in camp. That should show up on nickle and dime packages and in the MWC you play a ton of those.

On top of that, our ends run well for defensive ends and can pursue the quarterback like a couple of roughnecks we had last year, but a step quicker. I think Gnapton and Biezuns are going to thrive in this defensive scheme.

The only question is back ups at defensive end and back ups at defensive tackle. Purcell and Martens looked more than capable during the first scrimmage. Again, we have an issue about the two deep behind them, but they look solid.

The strength of the defense is definitely our back seven. The two deep at linebacker is extremely impressive.

What do you think Pokes? It looks to me like our linebackers have the potential to be one of Wyoming's all time great groups.
 
I think the depth at MLB is pretty stacked with Hendricks, Schober, and Toney as well.

I think there's a lot of speed and athleticism on the outside, but no one is really proven. Lewis has gone from CB, to Safety, to LB at UW. My guess is that the outside lb's may start a little slow, (hoping I'm wrong on that), but by the time we're in conference play they'll be solid and the entire linebacking core becomes quite formidable. There's too much speed and athleticism for them not to be. Everyone on both sides of the ball will probably grow up a lot playing Texas and Boise in back to back weeks.

I agree that the secondary should be the strength. A lot of experience, speed, toughness, and now it looks like there's more depth. They definitely look solid at all four positions in the 2 deep, and probably almost 3 deep at corner.

I agree that knapton and biezuns should thrive in this scheme. I'm hoping it will be like having 2 Paul Krugers. (Couldn't stand the guy when he was at Utah, but he wreaked a lot of havoc in the backfield).

My biggest concern is also the DT position. Purcell and Mertens had a hell of scrimmage friday, but losing Stover hurts a bit. Bottom line is whoever is in, needs to step up. If I had to guess I'd say Taufa’asau, Strong work their way into that rotation, more because of their size. Then again, there could be some Dusty Hoffschneider's in the smaller group of DTs.

The strength of the defense is definitely our back seven. The two deep at linebacker is extremely impressive.

What do you think Pokes? It looks to me like our linebackers have the potential to be one of Wyoming's all time great groups.

I agree that the back seven is the strength of the defense. I think the 2 deep at corner is already pretty impressive, and the safeties look pretty good as well, but at this point I think the 2 deep at linebacker is potentially extremely impressive. Hendricks is the only proven linebacker right now. Muhammed should be just fine and Schober and Toney appear to be ready to fill in at any point, but other than that, no one else is
proven at linebacker. There's a lot of youth and inexperience there. Like I said before, I think once the season gets going a bit, the LB's as a whole should be very good through the 2 deep.

So, I'll agree that this group has the potential to be one of the all time greats at Wyoming. Can't wait to find out! September 4th needs to get here quick.
 
More speed than maybe ever at that position. Even coach C has made comments about it.

See Gags article below for more information:

http://www.laramieboomerang.com/articles/2010/08/17/sports/doc4c6a1e2ee0ed7762235609.txt
 

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