The Rebel coaches released a miniature depth chart for the season opener today. I personally am quite confused by it. I put the two deep into an excel sheet and organized by class. There were a few players listed on the depth chart outside of the two deep, and I'll pay them a little bit of lip service in the explanation after the jump.
Key:
Black = Senior
Blue = Junior
Red = Sophomore
Green = Freshman
Analysis after the jump.
As of right now, there are nine freshmen on the two deep. Two of them are starting, while Nick Brassell drew consideration with an "or" between his name and Logan's. Having seven freshmen listed as primary backups is incredibly alarming. I know we just signed a good class, but our football team was not good last year. All we're saying by placing these freshmen at second in many of these races is that they're good but not quite as good as a lot of players who helped us lose eight games last year. I'm not advocating for starting more freshmen. I'm just giving perspective.
Things that stick out to me:
- Korvic Neat and Melvin Harris are not on the depth chart (even the part I cut out).
- Damien Jackson and Brishen Matthews are not listed as starters
- Frank Crawford is
- Charles Sawyer is now listed as a safety. I had heard it a lot, but I still can't believe it.
- Aaron Garbutt and Ivan Nicholas are starting at "SPUR" which I can only assume is a safety who plays close to the line. This makes no sense. This would be perfect for Brishen or Damien. Maybe Garbutt will flourish, but I just don't understand how you start a juco transfer expecting him to be good without seeing him play in an SEC game over two returning starters who have proven they can hit.
- 4-2-5 it is.
- I'm surprised that Mosley hasn't passed Ferbia Allen. I like what Allen can do, but I am fond of Mosley's ability to make plays with the ball. I guess this settles what we plan to primarily do with our tight ends this year.
- Joel Kight, who started last year and played a lot the year before was passed by a freshman in Ralph Williams.
- Either we have previously unknown faith in Vincent Moss, or either Sawyer or Brassell will play the fourth corner spot in the dime.
- Carlos Thompson is listed at third in the RE rotation. I hope we play him a lot more than a normal third stringer. He may struggle against the run, but he consistently beat tackles around the edges for sacks in the scrimmages this Summer.
- Tobias Singleton is listed as an "or" with Terrell Grant for third in line at Flanker. That's not good.