Spring Bal Preview - Position by Postion - DBs

Jerry the Jacket said:
Here is what I have for depth in the secondary:

Corners

Sweeting
Young
Golden
Dennis
Milton
Carlson

Young and Sweeting should maintain their starting roles. It looked like Golden and Dennis were beginning to see more playing time in the later part of the year and hopefully one of them will emerge as a great nickel player if Jemea has issues doing that. Milton is the wild card here and I hope he is as good as touted.

Safeties

Johnson
Thomas
Holton
Richardson
Noble
Smith
Mann
White (Freshman)

Laskey is moving back to play B Back for spring training although I'm not sure he will stay there long term. I personally see him playing LB at some future date.

Holton is having issues recovering from his achilles tear. I think he developed an infection that prolonged his recovery and limited his rehab. He may or may not be able to partipate in spring practice. So for now I would see Johnson and Thomas as the starters with Holton pushing for playing time come the fall. I am hoping Noble is as good as the rumors indicate and he will be in the mix as well. Smith just seems to be a guy looking for a spot so who knows how he will play in all of this. Maybe DJ White will be off the chain and make an impact next year but that is a rarity so you can not have that as a realistic expectation. Richardson seems to be a non factor as he heads into his Junior year still not seeing much playing time.

I think we are good in the secondary but we need to raise our level of play. We still give up the third and long pass way too much. Really need to focus on technique and assignment this spring.

Go Jackets!
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Carlson and Dennis are safeties while Noble worked as a CB last year.
 
gtrower said:
The more I think about it the more I think we can't RS Thomas. You don't leave that kind of speed on the bench. I don't care if we bring him in 2/3 times per game for the wildcat or called QB keepers off of "option" plays. He'll be our biggest homerun threat and you don't leave that on the bench for a season.

The only way I see Smith getting reps at QB is if we decide Days gets passed by Washington/Lee and we decide he's too good to not see the field at another position. Then we might keep Smith as an emergency option assuming we don't want Thomas running the full package.

This is all of course my assumptions/predictions and it could very well all be wrong. And apologies to the OP for hijacking the DBs thread to talk about QBs. I'll stick to DBs now.
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Well I think it directly affects the DBs re Smith. If Thomas plays well enough in practice not to RS there is no chance Smith plays at QB next season. Smith was a heavy VT recruit at CB right? Seems to me he'd have a pretty good chance at some PT if we switch him in the spring.

As an aside, I think the only way we don't RS Thomas is if we put him in at AB on some plays.
 
It was my understanding that Demon was playing QB because of our depth issues. Both he and the staff felt he was a db long term.
With Andrews and JT coming in, it would probably be smart to move him this spring.
 
TiftonJacket said:
Jerry good post. A couple of questions though. Richardson will be a R-Jr this year and my view like yours is that he has seen very little of the field in three years. I would think his role is ST or way down the depth chart. The guys seems to have the size to play at this position.

Secondly, are you referring to Chris Milton? He is listed as an ABack so is this is move going into spring.

The other guy you listed, Carlson, I assume is Coray Carlson. I see he is a walk-on. Can somebody provide some insight as to how good this kid is. No bashing on being a walk-on but I have never heard his name.
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Richardson does play some special teams and he looks pretty good in practice. I'm not really sure why he has not emerged and maybe he will. It is my understanding that Milton has moved to defense but he certainly was a good offensive player in high school and if things don't work out for him on defense, I'm sure he would get a look at A Back. I just don't see him beating out Orwin or Zenon, Hill, Bostic, Godhigh, Snoody at the spot.

Carlson is a walk on that has been in the program a couple of years. I don't think he will be a factor other than at practice. He went to Lassiter High School and walked on in 2010.

Go Jackets!
 
GTBandit22 said:
It was my understanding that Demon was playing QB because of our depth issues. Both he and the staff felt he was a db long term.
With Andrews and JT coming in, it would probably be smart to move him this spring.
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Why would he play QB because of depth issues? We knew at the time we had at least three other QBs last year and this year (Vad, Days, and TW). Not to mention Sims had more experience at QB and could be our emergency QB if we had to have a fourth. Plus we probably had a good idea we were going to bring in more QB recruits this year, so the only real depth concern was last year.

I could be wrong but I thought we told him we'd give him a fair shake at QB and that separated us from VT.
 
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gtrower said:
Young/Sweeting should be one of the best CB tandems in the conference this year. Johnson is Junior this year (you said had a bad freshman season - that was his TR-SO season last year) and I imagine will start. Thomas/Holton will probably fight for the last spot, but I bet both will get a lot of PT. I expect Golden and Noble to be the 6th/7th guys. DBs as a whole should be the strength of our defense this year.

I was under the impression that Demond Smith was already a DB - he isn't going to crack into a QB depth chart including Washinton, Lee, Days, Thomas, and Andrews.

I'm also curios to see how Milton does. He was very highly regarded out of HS.
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I thought Jamea Thomas played better corner last year than did Young. If things stay the same, I would expect Thomas to start at CB and Young at S.
 
It will be a MAJOR deviation if Young/Sweet at CBs and Johnson /JT are not starting. If someone breaks in this group,then he is super.-I hope
 
TiftonJacket said:
Hopefully, the coaching staff will move Thomas to strong safety which I think is a great fit for a guy that loves contact and is probably one of the best tacklers on the team. Thomas had a number of issues in one on one coverage and his height makes him an offensive coordinators dream. So I would like to see him move to a more natural position SS.
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Enjoyed this post.

I thought Thomas showed himself to be very good in one-on-one coverage. He made plays all night against the best WR in the nation from Clemson. He was always tested on an island on the deep ball, and he came through time after time. Of all the times I remember him making the play, I do remember him getting beat one time - it was the game winning pass for Utah in the bowl game. He had just successfully defended the same pass on the play before, and then didn't make the play. But, overall, I thought he was very good in coverage for us.

Also, Sweeting and Thomas were used as the outside corners, and Young was moved to the Nickel position against more than 2 WR's.

I hope we get to see the Fred Holton we were excited about as a freshman. With our recruiting, for a guy that we hit on to have a derailed career is a double whammy for us.
 
Jacket59 said:
Enjoyed this post.

I thought Thomas showed himself to be very good in one-on-one coverage. He made plays all night against the best WR in the nation from Clemson. He was always tested on an island on the deep ball, and he came through time after time. Of all the times I remember him making the play, I do remember him getting beat one time - it was the game winning pass for Utah in the bowl game. He had just successfully defended the same pass on the play before, and then didn't make the play. But, overall, I thought he was very good in coverage for us.

Also, Sweeting and Thomas were used as the outside corners, and Young was moved to the Nickel position against more than 2 WR's.

I hope we get to see the Fred Holton we were excited about as a freshman. With our recruiting, for a guy that we hit on to have a derailed career is a double whammy for us.
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He was horrid in almost every game following Clemson in one-on-one situations. Completely inexplicable to me.
 
Yeah I thought Jemea was very inconsistent throughout the year. He has the ability but he has to work on being consistent with good technique on every play. The other guys need to do the same. We give up way too much in the passing game due to poor coverage and not playing the ball correctly in the air. Some of this is on Charles Kelly as the coach. He needs to up his game.

Go Jackets!
 
Jerry the Jacket said:
Yeah I thought Jemea was very inconsistent throughout the year. He has the ability but he has to work on being consistent with good technique on every play. The other guys need to do the same. We give up way too much in the passing game due to poor coverage and not playing the ball correctly in the air. Some of this is on Charles Kelly as the coach. He needs to up his game.

Go Jackets!
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Jerry, any news on Julian?
 
AE 87 said:
Well, first of all, I was trying to caveat my opinion by saying, "I expect," rather than saying simply "our LB and DL crews will be markedly better."

Secondly, I meant my expression to be primarily the package of LB and DL especially with respect to the passing game rather than the DL alone or in all respects.

I think that even with the departure of Sylvester and possibly Burnett, our LB will be able to contribute much more to pass defense. While Rambo was a beast in stopping the run, I don't think we got the pass-rush or pass-coverage out of him that we really needed. I think Hunt-Days and McNair will be able to really contribute in this regard. I also expect Menocal and others will be able to rotate in with Watts and Attouchu to provide a bit more continuity there as well.

But, to finally get to your question, I thought Dieke, Crenshaw and Cummings showed flashes of great play this past season. If Cross moves to NT, as I've heard rumored, then I think he and Barnes will rotate well while the three of them will rotate well at DE. I'm also hopeful for Shawn Green and Jimmie Kitchen. However, I really think that Rod Chungong was undervalued and think that he will be making a contribution by the end of the season.
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I expect Menocal to step to the fore.
http://youtu.be/iywaBOMvYLI
 
Cheese, I have not heard anything on Julian. I was at the NSD morning down at the Edge and Coach was asked about Julian. He started to answer then he said I need to let Julian be the one to inform everyone of where things stand when he is ready to do that. I got a sense that he might have been injured to the point he may have to take some time off to heal. I know he could take a redshirt year if he needs several months but of course if it is a paralysis potential situation then we probably have seen the last of JB. I hope not. He is the heart and soul of our defense and will be hard to replace.

Go Jackets!
 
Legal Jacket said:
Why would he play QB because of depth issues? We knew at the time we had at least three other QBs last year and this year (Vad, Days, and TW). Not to mention Sims had more experience at QB and could be our emergency QB if we had to have a fourth. Plus we probably had a good idea we were going to bring in more QB recruits this year, so the only real depth concern was last year.

I could be wrong but I thought we told him we'd give him a fair shake at QB and that separated us from VT.
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Just going by what I read on rivals last signing day. He said WTTE "I'm starting off at QB, but the staff and I feel my future is at DB". Usually it's the other way around, but he took one for the team.
I think he was more emergency in case of injury. Maybe the staff wanted to keep Vad's redshirt on at any cost.
 
Surprised to not see Fred Holton mentioned? He likely could have been starting last year by midseason if not injured.

Rod Sweeting and Louis Young will start at CB unless they decide to move Young to safety and start Jemea Thomas at CB.

Jemea Thomas and Isaiah Johnson will start at safety with heavy pressure coming from Fred Holton to take time from Johnson. As I said above, if Young moves to safety then Thomas moves to CB.

Your nickel defense will be Sweeting, Young, Thomas, Johnson, and Holton. If you are looking for the 6th DB is will likely be Domonique Noble...but Jamal Golden will make his case for a spot also. Noble and Golden are hte likely successors to Sweeting and Young.

btw...Demond Smith has been working out at DB all year...primarily as a CB. Phenomenal athlete. Also...Zach Laskey is moving to BB this spring..definitely. Corey Dennis will remain at safety.
 
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I don't know if I can take another IJ rushing into the play on the wrong angle to find himself behind the ball carrier. I hope Fred is healed up and ready to go by fall.
 
Many posts state that the we should be strong and DB next year.
I may be only remembering the plays we got burned on, but the secondary did not make a good impression on me last year.
I was watching the VT game last week and saw Sweeting and some others messing up time and time again.
 
Jorge said:
Many posts state that the we should be strong and DB next year.
I may be only remembering the plays we got burned on, but the secondary did not make a good impression on me last year.
I was watching the VT game last week and saw Sweeting and some others messing up time and time again.
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They will be strong compared to the rest of the defense we'll be trotting out there...
 
hiveredtech said:
Surprised to not see Fred Holton mentioned? He likely could have been starting last year by midseason if not injured.

Rod Sweeting and Louis Young will start at CB unless they decide to move Young to safety and start Jemea Thomas at CB.

Jemea Thomas and Isaiah Johnson will start at safety with heavy pressure coming from Fred Holton to take time from Johnson. As I said above, if Young moves to safety then Thomas moves to CB.

Your nickel defense will be Sweeting, Young, Thomas, Johnson, and Holton. If you are looking for the 6th DB is will likely be Domonique Noble...but Jamal Golden will make his case for a spot also. Noble and Golden are hte likely successors to Sweeting and Young.

btw...Demond Smith has been working out at DB all year...primarily as a CB. Phenomenal athlete. Also...Zach Laskey is moving to BB this spring..definitely. Corey Dennis will remain at safety.
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Good post. Fixed one thing for you. Good to hear that about Demond.
 
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