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Four questions for Spring football (with practice schedule)

Duff Man

Duff Man

Club Member
Club Member
Junta Member
Date
Notes
Fri, March 7th
Players report
Mon, March 10th
Wed, March 12th
Fri, March 14th
Mon, March 17th
Wed, March 19th
Fri, March 21st
SPRING BREAK
Mon, March 31st
Wed, April 2nd
Fri, April 4th
Sat, April 5th
Mon, April 7th
Wed, April 9th
Fri, April 11th
Sat, April 12th
Spring Game
Mon, April 14th

* Tentative schedule that could adjust for weather and other considerations. Practices other than the Spring Game and possibly the April 5th (could be another scrimmage) are slated for 8:30am.

** Fall camp report date will be August 3rd with the first practice on August 4th.

1. Who is playing LT? Injuries to Jeromy Irwin and Marc Mustoe may make an already thin depth chart even thinner. Either way, the contenders for the job are all very inexperienced at the position.

2. Is Jordan Gehrke a viable #2 QB? He did not arrive on campus until after spring practices concluded last season, but will be one of only two scholarship QBs this spring and will get plenty of reps to prove himself.

3. Are any junior defensive linemen ready to breakout? The defensive line is overloaded with juniors and for a team desperate to find pass rushers and zone read defenders, it is essentially now or never for the junior class.

4. Is Lee Walker the answer at KR/PR? It may be a bit early for Walker to work himself into the WR rotation, but he should compete for the return jobs right away.
 
I don't think it's too early for him to work his way into the WR rotation. I think we are a bit desperate there.
 
Kind of surprised the WR depth chart isn't on the list. Outside of Spruce, it's wide open with LOTS of youth.
 
Right away? With him adjusting to college academics? I think it is early.
 
Darth Snow said:
Kind of surprised the WR depth chart isn't on the list. Outside of Spruce, it's wide open with LOTS of youth.
Click to expand...

WR is going to be much more important in the fall preseason practices IMO. Spring will tell us very little.
 
I don't have high confidence in the Embree WR recruits I guess, and I suspect we will learn the story in the spring.
 
Duff Man said:
WR is going to be much more important in the fall preseason practices IMO. Spring will tell us very little.
Click to expand...
decent argument with fields and others still not on campus. That said, the spring is going to tell us a lot about our redshirted frosh.
 
What RS Frosh will emerge from Spring Practices with spots on the two-deep? Anyone expected to break out?
 
The rest may not matter if we don't have a good answer to Duff's first question. Our O-line is going to be critical this year and the LT position is a huge question mark. Either way with Irwin and Mustoe we are going to be young. Idealy they will both be healthy and ready to go as I'm still not sure that Nembot is the answer at RT as well.

Do we have any idea of how either is doing in their recovery at this point.
 
OL and DL are the keys this year. Have to get better production in these areas. A safety valve TE would be nice too.

I think REC is one of the deepest positions like I have said before. This is the fastest and most athletic group we have had since McCoy and Hackett group. Bunch of slow possession types since then. Spruce is going to be solid but Bobo would have got significant reps w/o PRich. I think Lee is better suited than Walker for returns but someone has to take over. We were slow as could be there.

Gehrke is an unknown but I hope to not see him take a significant snap. He didn't have much interest from BCS level programs.



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'd like to see the defense emerge from spring looking like the dominant unit. There's several guys on the defensive side of the ball with the physical ability to be good Pac-12 players but who haven't quite put it all together. Plus you have our lone All-Pac 12 caliber player in Gillam on that side. HCMM and Baer need to earn their paychecks next year riding the defense while the offense sorts themselves out.
 
The OL is the "end all be all" for the Buffs success this year.

Losing the two most effective starters from a unit that had a lot to prove is a tough situation.

It appears the strength of the unit is in the interior O-line, while there are many unproven commodities at the tackle positions.

Daniel Munyer (1,732 snaps), Stephan Nembot (1,245), and Kaiwi Crabb (856) have the only significant career playing time. Brad Cotner (137), Alex Kelley (97), Jeromy Irwin (72), and Marc Mustoe (59) complete the list of those with game-time experience.

Munyer grades the best out of the returning starters, while Nembot and Crabb were effective only against lower-level competition.

I think the "keys" to figuring out the OL for 2014:

1) Where does Crabb play?
Last year Crabb was listed on the depth chart at LT (#2), LG (#1), C (#2), and RT (#2).
Now that Harris and Handler are gone, which position is most vital for him to fill? Left Tackle, Center, or remain at Left Guard?
2) Can Nembot be a truly effective tackle? He gave up the most sacks and pressures by far amongst the offensive line last year; but he also led the team in knockdowns and tied for TD blocks.
With an unproven group of TE, will he be even more isolated and exposed; or will his learning curve begin to accelerate?
3) Can Cotner hold down the Center job?
He is the "de facto" starter based on previous depth charts, but that doesn't mean he is the best option.
Munyer has experience there (6 games in 2012); and Alex Kelley was a Center recruit.

Weifels could make things interesting if he makes enough impression at either RT or RG. If he could overtake one of the incumbents there, they would likely battle for a spot at a different position on the line (Munyer to LG, for example).

Without a healthy Mustoe, I would favor Crabb to be the starting LT during Spring.
If Nembot remains atop the chart at RT and Cotner at Center, then that leaves the two guard spots as the real battle.
Munyer certainly deserves to own one of them, with Kelley, Wiefels (RG), and Huckins (LG) challenging in the spring; and possibly Irwin (LG) when healthy.

"Status Quo" unit: Crabb-Kelley-Cotner-Munyer-Nembot
"My preference" unit: Crabb-Munyer-Kelley-Wiefels-Nembot

Stating the obvious: seeing some underclassmen step up and challenge the upperclassmen would not only be huge for us, but almost necessary.
 
Of the young guys Irwin may be the best player and most likely to end up at LT if healthy.
 
You think Handler was one of our best OLineman last year? Curious as to what made you think that?

Irwin will start just about anywhere if he is healthy.
 
Handler was not very good and Cotner is unlikely to be a serious contender for a starting job.
 
patebuff said:
You think Handler was one of our best OLineman last year? Curious as to what made you think that?

Irwin will start just about anywhere if he is healthy.
Click to expand...

I said graded out as one of the best. He got high grades in the CSU, Cal, and USC games (ignoring the UCA game); scoring above 80% "plus plays", only gave up 2 sacks and 7 pressures.

Harris had the most with CSU, ASU, UofA, Cal, USC, and Utah with 3 sacks, and 10 pressures.

I'm not saying they were all great, but those two had the best scores and stats; Munyer was right there with them, but Nembot and Crabb were a step below.
 
I was going to say that the top priority was to find the LT. But Irwin and Mustoe will both be limited during spring, so I'm not sure that can get settled before August.

I think the focus needs to be on places where other seniors have graduated (or we lost to NFL):

* replacing Chidera at DE
* replacing Handler at C
* replacing Webb at OLB
* replacing Orms at S
* replacing P-Rich at WR

That DL rotation is particularly interesting. Lots of guys who are basically the same player. That needs to shake out.
 
Buffnik said:
I was going to say that the top priority was to find the LT. But Irwin and Mustoe will both be limited during spring, so I'm not sure that can get settled before August.

I think the focus needs to be on places where other seniors have graduated (or we lost to NFL):

* replacing Chidera at DE
* replacing Handler at C
* replacing Webb at OLB
* replacing Orms at S
* replacing P-Rich at WR

That DL rotation is particularly interesting. Lots of guys who are basically the same player. That needs to shake out.
Click to expand...

PRich aside, "anybody" is an upgrade at the other positions.

As for DL: who matured and worked the hardest at S&C during the off season, particularly with their lower body? That will be the difference there.
 
WizzersGhost said:
PRich aside, "anybody" is an upgrade at the other positions.

As for DL: who matured and worked the hardest at S&C during the off season, particularly with their lower body? That will be the difference there.
Click to expand...

If they weren't the best we had, they wouldn't have been starting.

I do think that there's opportunity to improve everywhere except with replacing P-Rich, but the guys who started had productive careers at CU.

Meeting or surpassing the bars they set last year while the other positions improve through age, training & familiarity with the system would be the hope. It would mean improvement across the board.
 
Buffnik said:
I was going to say that the top priority was to find the LT. But Irwin and Mustoe will both be limited during spring, so I'm not sure that can get settled before August.

I think the focus needs to be on places where other seniors have graduated (or we lost to NFL):

* replacing Chidera at DE
* replacing Handler at C
* replacing Webb at OLB
* replacing Orms at S
* replacing P-Rich at WR

That DL rotation is particularly interesting. Lots of guys who are basically the same player. That needs to shake out.
Click to expand...
So who is slotted to play LT in the spring since those guys are limited?
 
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