LanderPoke said:
Tyler Hall emerging is probably the biggest story. He must be dang good to have come out on top of all the experienced corners that we have.
Milo Hall is the #1 RB, but I bet we see three backs get a lot of carries.
Wingard and Epps better bring their A games or else Halliburton and Boyd will take their spots. I still think, as I've said before, Wingard would be a better LB than safety.
Speaking of LB, our depth suddenly looks thin. Hope we are OK there with what we've got because it doesn't look great outside of the starters.
DE position looks solid for once.
Great post. I agree.
Tyler Hall winning the start is exciting. In addition, it looks like we'll have dangerous return men on kick-offs this year in addition to Conway returning punts. Our return game should be a strength this season.
I think all three of our running backs will average about 15 carries a game. I like that we have a speed guy to go with our power guys.
I'm excited to see what happens when the freshmen get here. I think Wells Ross, Trey Woods, and Ryan Gatoloai-Faupula all have a chance to make the two deep at linebacker. We'll see if any of them or all of them show up early this summer to get ahead of the game. Woods and Wells Ross have great height(6'4" and 6'5"). If they can gain some weight, they might play as true freshmen.
I also think that there will be some movement on the offensive line 2 deep. I think Patrick Arnold and Valazquez have a chance to make the oline 2 deep. Some of the guys on the offensive line 2 deep are probably going to lose their spots. Either way, we should have an eight or nine man rotation on the oline and the depth to absorb injuries.
We may see a tight end sneak into the 2 deep.
I was just talking to my brother on the phone, and we can't remember a time that we actually had a 2 deep that can realistically play effectively at almost every position. We've got good back-ups at a lot of positions.
Brett Gilliland making the 2 deep at d tackle is encouraging. I wondered who was going to step up after Baker got the boot, and it looks like Gilliland will be the man. We have real athletes starting on the interior of the line with Malualu and Ghaifan. That's a solid starting rotation. With Cain and Gilliland backing them up, I think we'll see a massive improvement in stopping the run and an ability to generate pressure with a 4 man rush(the key to being a dominant Tampa 2).
Our defensive ends looked stacked. Kevin Prosser had 6.5 sacks last year. With him and Granderson starting outside, we'll have the best edge rushers in the MWC and their back-ups are very good too: Hall and Windsor.
I really think the defense is going to be one of the better defenses in the MWC this season, especially with the entire secondary coming back.
We have a chance to be really good next year.
Hopefully the "Year of the Cowboy" will start with our freshman class getting to Laramie right away and the entire team working harder than anyone else in the country during the off-season.
