Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Fresh faces on Depth Chart

We haven't even played a game yet, but Spaz is setting the tone early with all the true freshman on his first depth chart. This will by no means be our look for the rest of the season, but the coaching staff is sending a few messages. First to the current, more experienced players: play better, get healthy or you won't get much playing time. Second to potential recruits: if you come to BC, you can play right away. Finally, to us fans: Spaz is his own man and not following TOB's approach to redshirt as many players as possible. All of this speaks to a win now mentality. It is refreshing and somewhat expected when your Coach is north of 60. Here are a few of the surprises and a few of my thoughts on the depth chart.

-- Andy Gallik as back up Center. A very important spot for an untested true freshman. My hunch is that if anything happens to Richman, you would see Claiborne move over first before they officially burned Gallik's redshirt or threw him in against ACC level talent. Regardless of if he plays this season, it speaks well to Gallik's future.
-- Sterlin Phifer as Harris' backup. After all the kudos piled on the true freshman running backs, I wondered if Phifer would get lost in the shuffle. It looks as though he has earned a few carries a game.
-- Jaryd Rudolph at second team DT. We knew we were thin at DT, but I didn't expect Rudolph to get used early. We will see if he gets many snaps.
-- Kevin Pierre-Louis and Steele Divitto. If there is any area where we can be conservative redshirting it would be LB. Yet here these two are on the depth chart. Maybe we have two more players in the Kuechly mode!

11 comments:

Unknown said...

No Isaac Johnson?

Eagle in Brighton said...

Suprised to see no Phillips either at WR (especially when wideout is considered a position with perhaps the least barriers to entry for a true freshman). I know freshman make you question depth, but can't help but get excited to see KPL and Devitto potentially getting reps with Herzlich and the Boy Wonder.

ATL_eagle said...

Phillips has been hurt. He still might play this season but not against Weber State.

mod34b said...

KPL is a starter as a true Freshman! Wow. And that's against some pretty good competition. Pretty impressive.

The starting roster is very experienced group.

9 of 11 on offense started at least one game last year (only the 2 WRs are new) and 9 or 11 on D also started at least one game last year (new are: KPL and Scafe fill-in Conor Neal).

Newman, at nearly 260 lbs, looks like he has beefed up quite a bit. That heft should help.

The O-line really is massive: 300, 300, 308, 323 and 332. 6-7, 6-7, 6-8, 6-6 and 6-3 (avg. 312 lbs, and 6-6).

eagle1331 said...

LaGrande and Phillips with a 3rd year starter next year at QB and Montel...

Dan said...

hhmm Goodman didn't make either line?

mod34b said...

Just did a quick comparison of BC OL to the top OLs in the league:

BC -- avg OL 6-6 312 lbs
FSU -- avg OL 6-4 297 lbs
VT -- avg OL 6-4 291 lbs
GT -- avg OL 6-3 288 lbs

NY Giants: 6-4 and 315 lbs

No one has Claiborne and Lapham sized dudes. BC's OL is big and we know they can block. Life should be very good for Montel and PHifer! Now I hope Shinskie realizes what a gift he has for an OL and starts making some clutch passes.

eagle1331 said...

Link to video on ESPN's front page about Herzy, posted yesterday

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=5513585&categoryid=2378529

Eagle in Brighton said...

Great stuff Mod: O-Line U tradition continues.

Big Jack Krack said...

Dan - I'm surprised about Mike Goodman, Jr. as well.

I was under the impression that Mike would be "a beast" in the OL - and then I thought he would adapt to the DL.

Atl - have you got any scoop?

I hope Scafe is back for Virginia Tech for sure.

eagleboston said...

Don't get too excited about the size of the line. TOB had some massive lines towards the end but they were constantly beat off the line by quicker, more nimble defensive lineman. BC could not run the ball worth a crap during TOB's final two years. I'm hoping this year's version of massive lineman can explode off the line and pull quickly when necessary.

I do like Spaz's predilection for smash-mouth football. With nearly every offense running the spread, today's defenses are not designed to stop a massive, punishing running attack. It's contrarian, but it just might work.