How this year\'s recruiting class will affect future depth charts. (long)
I posted this on the Hive as well, but thought I would post it over here to maybe get some more discussion.
A few people have been worried that our small class this year will affect our depth charts down the road, so I decided to look into it to see where we stand. I determined that we are in fine shape for 2002, as well as in 2003 except for a few positions.
Below is a breakdown of each position, a minimum of how many we would probably like to have on the depth chart in any given year (in my estimation), and how many we will have on the depth chart in upcoming seasons if we didn’t sign anybody (we obviously will sign people…this is just to get an idea of how many we need to recruit at each position). I think you probably want to be at least 3 deep at pretty much every position. My numbers are also loosely based on the numbers we have right now.
OFFENSE
QB (4) 2002 (4) 2003 (4) 2004 (2) 2005 (2)
A.J. Suggs (RS JR), Damarius Bilbo (RS FR), Andy Hall (JR), Dawan Landry (RS FR)
We didn’t sign any QBs this year, but should be pretty much set for the next few years. We’ll want to recruit about 2 quarterbacks over the next 2 seasons so that we will have adequate depth in 2004 and 2005. We weren’t hurt for the future by not getting any this year.
WR (8) 2002 (9) 2003 (7) 2004 (6) 2005 (4)
Kerry Watkins (RS SR), Will Glover (SR), Jonathan Smith (JR), Nate Curry (RS SO), Levon Thomas (SO), Mark Logan (RS SO), Rahshan Johnson (RS FR), Lekeldrick Bridges (FR), Xavier McGuire (FR)
WR is oozing with talent and depth at the moment. Next season we’ll probably sign one or two, but we have a number of young quality players that will be around for a while. We got 2 good ones in this year’s class, and should be fine in the future.
RB (6) 2002 (6) 2003 (5) 2004 (4) 2005 (3)
Sidney Ford (SR), Jermaine Hatch (RS JR), Jimmy Dixon (RS SO), Ajenavi Eziemefe (FR), Michael Sampson (FR), Eddy Lee Ivery Jr. (FR)
We lose one RB each year for the next 3 years, so as long as we get at least one each year we should be good to go. I don’t think we were hurt here by not bringing in more than the 3 we got.
FB (4) 2002 (3) 2003 (3) 2004 (2) 2005 (1)
Johnathan Jackson (RS SO), Brian Johnson (RS FR), Brian Camp (RS JR)
We didn’t sign any FBs this year, but we should be fine for the next few years. Jackson and Johnson will both be around for a while, so we just need to get one in the next two years to provide depth.
TE (5) 2002 (5) 2003 (3) 2004 (2) 2005 (1)
John Paul Foschi (JR), Will Heller (SR), Brian Lee (RS SR), Darius Williams (RS SO), George Cooper (FR)
We lose two after this season, so we will probably try to sign a couple next year. Bringing in Cooper certainly didn’t hurt us at TE, but it would have been good to sign one or two more. We’re fine numbers wise in 2002, but we need to sign a couple next year so that we’ll have enough depth in 2003.
T (6) 2002 (7) 2003 (6) 2004 (5) 2005 (2)
Nat Dorsey (SO), Jeremy Phillips (RS SO), John Bennett (RS JR), Kyle Wallace (SO), Garren Findlay (SR), Salih Besirevic (RS FR), Zeb McHargue (FR)
All of our tackles are young, and we have good depth (assuming Phillips and Bennett come back healthy). If Phillips and/or Bennett can’t come back from their injuries, we’ll be short on depth. If that is the case we definitely could have used a few more signees at tackle. We weren’t hurt here by only bringing in one tackle unless we have more problems with injuries or problems with people coming back from injury.
By the way, Salih is in my ethics class. For anyone that isn’t sure whether he will be playing on the line or at tight end next year, just trust me when I say he is going to play on the line.
G (6) 2002 (5) 2003 (3) 2004 (2) 2005 (1)
Raymond Roberts-Blake (SR), Leon Robinson (RS SO), Clay Hartley (RS JR), Brad Honeycutt (RS FR), Tim Brown (RS SR)
Our two starters should be solid, but after that I’m not sure. Perhaps Reilly will stay at guard instead of moving to Center. We might be short on the depth department. I wish we had signed a couple more guard prospects. We definitely need to sign a few next year. I think this is one area where our small numbers (zero) brought in this year could hurt us.
C (3) 2002 (4) 2003 (3) 2004 (2) 2005 (2)
Hugh Reilly (RS JR), Gavin Tarquinio (RS FR), Andy Tidwell-Neal (RS FR), Beau Cleland (SR)
I’m just assuming that Reilly gets moved to center since we don’t have another obvious choice as starter. If Reilly does move to center then we will be fine next year, and should be fine in 2003 assuming we bring in one or 2 in next year’s class.
DEFENSE
DE (6) 2002 (6) 2003 (5) 2004 (4) 2005 (2)
Greg Gathers (SR), Tony Hargrove (SO), Hobie Holiday (JR), Chirod Williams (RS SO), Travis Parker (RS FR), Michael Matthews (FR)
We have lots of talent, and good depth. As long as we sign a couple next year we will be fine.
DT (8) 2002 (10) 2003 (7) 2004 (6) 2005 (5)
Alfred Malone (RS SO), Gary Johnson (SR), Fred Wright (SR), Reggie Koon (JR), Casey Loesch (RS SR), Omar Billy (RS FR), Eric Henderson (RS FR), LeRon Lee (RS FR), Terron Pullen (FR), Brad Brezina (FR)
Where did all these defensive tackles come from? Are they all actually going to play DT, or are some of them going to play DE? Looking at the number of players we will have here, I think we’ll be fine. We lose 3 after this year, so we do need to sign a few next season.
OLB (6) 2002 (7) 2003 (6) 2004 (2) 2005 (2)
Recardo Wimbush (SR), Ather Brown (RS JR), Keyaron Fox (JR), Anthony Lawston (RS JR), Sterling Green (JR), E.J. Kuale (RS FR), Gerris Bowers-Wilkinson (RS FR)
Outside linebacker is one area that I think we may be hurt by not signing any. We lose Wimbush after this year, and lose four after 2003. We certainly need to sign a bunch next year.
MLB (3) 2002 (3) 2003 (2) 2004 (1) 2005 (0)
Daryl Smith (JR), Tabugbo Anyansi (SO), Matthew Etheridge (RS SR)
The same thing goes for the mike backer position. We don’t have a lot of depth, so we need to get a few signed on next year.
CB (6) 2002 (7) 2003 (5) 2004 (3) 2005 (3)
Marvious Hester (RS SR), Albert Poree (RS JR), Jonathan Cox (JR), Reuben Houston (RS FR), Dennis Davis (RS FR), I-Perfection Harris (FR), Kelley Rhino (SR)
We’ve got good depth for this year, as well as for 2003. We only lose Hester and Rhino after this season, and then lose 2 more after 2003. We’ll be fine as long as we sign a couple next year.
SS (3) 2002 (3) 2003 (2) 2004 (1) 2005 (1)
Cory Collins (SR), Tony Hollings (JR), Chris Reis (FR)
Strong safety is ok on depth for right now. We’ll need to bring in one more next year.
FS (3) 2002 (2) 2003 (1) 2004 (1) 2005 (0)
Jeremy Muyres (SR), James Butler (SO)
Free safety is a position that we could have used one of in this class. We definitely need to sign a couple next year since we lose Muyres. Maybe Reuben Houston could be moved here.
SPECIAL TEAMS
K (2) 2002 (3) 2003 (1) 2004 (1) 2005 (1)
Luke Manget (SR), Dan Burnett (SR), David Jordan (FR)
We signed one of the best in the country. We’re fine.
P (2) 2002 (2) 2003 (0) 2004 (0) 2005 (0)
Dan Dyke (RS SR), Chris Morehouse (RS SR)
You don’t typically recruit punters, so hopefully we’ll find one amongst the walk-ons. Jordan may pull double duty kicking and punting.
In Conclusion, the only positions that I see where we may be hurt in the future by not bringing in more this year are guard, outside linebacker, middle linebacker, and free safety. The lack of depth at free safety could potentially be solved by moving Houston there. Perhaps some transfers and/or late signees will also help alleviate the lack of depth at these positions.
Goodness, this is getting to be the length of my 3056 lab reports, so I guess I’ll stop now. Let me know if there is anybody I overlooked or forgot about, or if there are any corrections. If you want to see the table I made with the future depth charts click here.
I posted this on the Hive as well, but thought I would post it over here to maybe get some more discussion.
A few people have been worried that our small class this year will affect our depth charts down the road, so I decided to look into it to see where we stand. I determined that we are in fine shape for 2002, as well as in 2003 except for a few positions.
Below is a breakdown of each position, a minimum of how many we would probably like to have on the depth chart in any given year (in my estimation), and how many we will have on the depth chart in upcoming seasons if we didn’t sign anybody (we obviously will sign people…this is just to get an idea of how many we need to recruit at each position). I think you probably want to be at least 3 deep at pretty much every position. My numbers are also loosely based on the numbers we have right now.
OFFENSE
QB (4) 2002 (4) 2003 (4) 2004 (2) 2005 (2)
A.J. Suggs (RS JR), Damarius Bilbo (RS FR), Andy Hall (JR), Dawan Landry (RS FR)
We didn’t sign any QBs this year, but should be pretty much set for the next few years. We’ll want to recruit about 2 quarterbacks over the next 2 seasons so that we will have adequate depth in 2004 and 2005. We weren’t hurt for the future by not getting any this year.
WR (8) 2002 (9) 2003 (7) 2004 (6) 2005 (4)
Kerry Watkins (RS SR), Will Glover (SR), Jonathan Smith (JR), Nate Curry (RS SO), Levon Thomas (SO), Mark Logan (RS SO), Rahshan Johnson (RS FR), Lekeldrick Bridges (FR), Xavier McGuire (FR)
WR is oozing with talent and depth at the moment. Next season we’ll probably sign one or two, but we have a number of young quality players that will be around for a while. We got 2 good ones in this year’s class, and should be fine in the future.
RB (6) 2002 (6) 2003 (5) 2004 (4) 2005 (3)
Sidney Ford (SR), Jermaine Hatch (RS JR), Jimmy Dixon (RS SO), Ajenavi Eziemefe (FR), Michael Sampson (FR), Eddy Lee Ivery Jr. (FR)
We lose one RB each year for the next 3 years, so as long as we get at least one each year we should be good to go. I don’t think we were hurt here by not bringing in more than the 3 we got.
FB (4) 2002 (3) 2003 (3) 2004 (2) 2005 (1)
Johnathan Jackson (RS SO), Brian Johnson (RS FR), Brian Camp (RS JR)
We didn’t sign any FBs this year, but we should be fine for the next few years. Jackson and Johnson will both be around for a while, so we just need to get one in the next two years to provide depth.
TE (5) 2002 (5) 2003 (3) 2004 (2) 2005 (1)
John Paul Foschi (JR), Will Heller (SR), Brian Lee (RS SR), Darius Williams (RS SO), George Cooper (FR)
We lose two after this season, so we will probably try to sign a couple next year. Bringing in Cooper certainly didn’t hurt us at TE, but it would have been good to sign one or two more. We’re fine numbers wise in 2002, but we need to sign a couple next year so that we’ll have enough depth in 2003.
T (6) 2002 (7) 2003 (6) 2004 (5) 2005 (2)
Nat Dorsey (SO), Jeremy Phillips (RS SO), John Bennett (RS JR), Kyle Wallace (SO), Garren Findlay (SR), Salih Besirevic (RS FR), Zeb McHargue (FR)
All of our tackles are young, and we have good depth (assuming Phillips and Bennett come back healthy). If Phillips and/or Bennett can’t come back from their injuries, we’ll be short on depth. If that is the case we definitely could have used a few more signees at tackle. We weren’t hurt here by only bringing in one tackle unless we have more problems with injuries or problems with people coming back from injury.
By the way, Salih is in my ethics class. For anyone that isn’t sure whether he will be playing on the line or at tight end next year, just trust me when I say he is going to play on the line.
G (6) 2002 (5) 2003 (3) 2004 (2) 2005 (1)
Raymond Roberts-Blake (SR), Leon Robinson (RS SO), Clay Hartley (RS JR), Brad Honeycutt (RS FR), Tim Brown (RS SR)
Our two starters should be solid, but after that I’m not sure. Perhaps Reilly will stay at guard instead of moving to Center. We might be short on the depth department. I wish we had signed a couple more guard prospects. We definitely need to sign a few next year. I think this is one area where our small numbers (zero) brought in this year could hurt us.
C (3) 2002 (4) 2003 (3) 2004 (2) 2005 (2)
Hugh Reilly (RS JR), Gavin Tarquinio (RS FR), Andy Tidwell-Neal (RS FR), Beau Cleland (SR)
I’m just assuming that Reilly gets moved to center since we don’t have another obvious choice as starter. If Reilly does move to center then we will be fine next year, and should be fine in 2003 assuming we bring in one or 2 in next year’s class.
DEFENSE
DE (6) 2002 (6) 2003 (5) 2004 (4) 2005 (2)
Greg Gathers (SR), Tony Hargrove (SO), Hobie Holiday (JR), Chirod Williams (RS SO), Travis Parker (RS FR), Michael Matthews (FR)
We have lots of talent, and good depth. As long as we sign a couple next year we will be fine.
DT (8) 2002 (10) 2003 (7) 2004 (6) 2005 (5)
Alfred Malone (RS SO), Gary Johnson (SR), Fred Wright (SR), Reggie Koon (JR), Casey Loesch (RS SR), Omar Billy (RS FR), Eric Henderson (RS FR), LeRon Lee (RS FR), Terron Pullen (FR), Brad Brezina (FR)
Where did all these defensive tackles come from? Are they all actually going to play DT, or are some of them going to play DE? Looking at the number of players we will have here, I think we’ll be fine. We lose 3 after this year, so we do need to sign a few next season.
OLB (6) 2002 (7) 2003 (6) 2004 (2) 2005 (2)
Recardo Wimbush (SR), Ather Brown (RS JR), Keyaron Fox (JR), Anthony Lawston (RS JR), Sterling Green (JR), E.J. Kuale (RS FR), Gerris Bowers-Wilkinson (RS FR)
Outside linebacker is one area that I think we may be hurt by not signing any. We lose Wimbush after this year, and lose four after 2003. We certainly need to sign a bunch next year.
MLB (3) 2002 (3) 2003 (2) 2004 (1) 2005 (0)
Daryl Smith (JR), Tabugbo Anyansi (SO), Matthew Etheridge (RS SR)
The same thing goes for the mike backer position. We don’t have a lot of depth, so we need to get a few signed on next year.
CB (6) 2002 (7) 2003 (5) 2004 (3) 2005 (3)
Marvious Hester (RS SR), Albert Poree (RS JR), Jonathan Cox (JR), Reuben Houston (RS FR), Dennis Davis (RS FR), I-Perfection Harris (FR), Kelley Rhino (SR)
We’ve got good depth for this year, as well as for 2003. We only lose Hester and Rhino after this season, and then lose 2 more after 2003. We’ll be fine as long as we sign a couple next year.
SS (3) 2002 (3) 2003 (2) 2004 (1) 2005 (1)
Cory Collins (SR), Tony Hollings (JR), Chris Reis (FR)
Strong safety is ok on depth for right now. We’ll need to bring in one more next year.
FS (3) 2002 (2) 2003 (1) 2004 (1) 2005 (0)
Jeremy Muyres (SR), James Butler (SO)
Free safety is a position that we could have used one of in this class. We definitely need to sign a couple next year since we lose Muyres. Maybe Reuben Houston could be moved here.
SPECIAL TEAMS
K (2) 2002 (3) 2003 (1) 2004 (1) 2005 (1)
Luke Manget (SR), Dan Burnett (SR), David Jordan (FR)
We signed one of the best in the country. We’re fine.
P (2) 2002 (2) 2003 (0) 2004 (0) 2005 (0)
Dan Dyke (RS SR), Chris Morehouse (RS SR)
You don’t typically recruit punters, so hopefully we’ll find one amongst the walk-ons. Jordan may pull double duty kicking and punting.
In Conclusion, the only positions that I see where we may be hurt in the future by not bringing in more this year are guard, outside linebacker, middle linebacker, and free safety. The lack of depth at free safety could potentially be solved by moving Houston there. Perhaps some transfers and/or late signees will also help alleviate the lack of depth at these positions.
Goodness, this is getting to be the length of my 3056 lab reports, so I guess I’ll stop now. Let me know if there is anybody I overlooked or forgot about, or if there are any corrections. If you want to see the table I made with the future depth charts click here.