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Lincoln Richard is playing OLB. Also don't forget Spencer Hollie at DE.

Nick Reed #97 has been playing tight end, much to my surprise, a lot the last game against Tulsa. Nick Reed was recruited as a 4.7 40 speed NT. Did he also play TE in High School ?

He only blocks

Do we move all of our nose tackle prospects to offensive skill positions?

East Coast Mustang wrote:Do we move all of our nose tackle prospects to offensive skill positions?

Wondering the same thing, East. Hard to fathom the strongest man on the team not being on the field more than he was, unless he just wasn't good on the D line.

westexSMU wrote:Nick Reed #97 has been playing tight end, much to my surprise, a lot the last game against Tulsa. Nick Reed was recruited as a 4.7 40 speed NT. Did he also play TE in High School ?

Couldn't figure out who they were running out there at TE. Why did he not have a name plate?

Are we sure that was reed and not using the #97 out of convenience. Didn't look like reed and I thought he was injured

I was told the TE we've successfully used on the goaline in 4 different games since midseason was that big freshman OLM from Big 10 Country-Chauncey Briggs? Correct? Sometimes Ponyfans is right-its probably a good thing the coaches read ponyfans so they can take advantage of our collective genuis

RGV Pony wrote:Are we sure that was reed and not using the #97 out of convenience. Didn't look like reed and I thought he was injured

Reed is injured. I don't think it was Reed even though it was his number.

Crazy that there is a guy playing in the last game of the season and no one knows who he is.

No we've used the TE in 4 recent games and scored in the redzone in 4 different games. I always forget to start a thread on June's TE goaline offense. I think in one game we used a 2 TE formation

Yeah, but who was 97 and why did he not have a name on his jersey ? I am not very observant, so fill me in.

I'll play .

WRs (desperately need for several kids to develop here-and I very worried about Receiver)
I think DJ will replace DJ and we will upgrade both outside receiver positions. Stewart over Thompson and Dieter over HOlman. Sims and Guinyard provide depth at the slot along with LaGasse.

Tackle:
Myers looks the part, Reich was hyped last year, pre-injury. Regardless of who starts, it will be a true tackle, not a guard (Collins), and we will be in better shape than this year.

Guard:
One of the redshirts is Rice, who almost started this year. I think probably he and Hughes are the favorites, but there are others in the mix as well. It looked like we are starting to sniff around at JUCO's here as well, so the answer might not be on campus yet. McJunkin played hard but really was out of position this year. Free we will replace with Rice and by spring, that will be an upgrade. I think this is a wash at worst.

Center
Laecki will be better with another year under his belt. He was awful the first half of the Tulane game, but made improvements after that. This position will be upgraded.

QB
Preston improved drastically during the fall practices, and Burchum really shows a lot of skill. I think the QB position is going to be a great position to watch in the spring, and by Fall we are loaded; even if GG chokes next year, we will have the players to replace him.

RB
I actually think we are loaded at RB. Wimbley and Niemchi looked great in the fall. Line looks just like his brother. Williams is a great change of pace. Even if Shead doesn't come through, I think we look really good.

DE
Zach Wood
Beau Barnes
Jarrett Spencer
Cameron Smith
Christian Holloway-I never heard anything definitive on his status-think I went on vacation
Ellie Nabushosi
Robert Sands DE or LB?
Lincoln Richards DE or LB?
I don't know where Sands or Richards are going to play. McCleneghan was a backup this year as well, so he is in the mix. Spencer hasn't practiced that much, very injury prone I think so far. Smith showed promise before he got hurt. Holloway is on the roster, no idea how he is doing academically. Mason raved this preseason about us being 3 deep, so I guess we will find out. Right now the top four are Woods, Barnes, McCleneghan, and Smith, with Spencer and Holloway being the mystery men that could make a run. Woods still seems undersized; this is the position that concerns me the most.

NT
Wright is going to be a player, and Riley-Ayers looked decent in his time out on the field. Reed would be solid third team. I think we will be fine here. If they were freaked out, they would have moved Wembley back a while ago. If they move him back for the spring, it tells you they are concerned, but until they do that I think we are okay.

LBs (could be a lot of switching between Inside and Outside so I'll group-should be very interesting)
Sanders, Pope, Rambo, Yenga is a really strong group. They say Yenga is actually a better player than his brother was. Depth is Henderson, Seals, Richards, Neroes, Longoria, all of whom look really really athletic in practice and will push for the starting spots. No mention of Bordano even. We are still loaded here, regardless of the graduates. JGD had a great final day, but was anyone else surprised to hear his low number of tackles for a loss?

CBs
Acker and JR start, Montes, H Richardson backup, Parks moves to the nickel corner where he was supposed to be this year. Hubert and Poston are third string. We are deeper at corner since the death penalty. HR and Montes are both going to be good, much better than Parks on the outside or Robinson this year. Parks is excellent as a nickel corner.

Safety
No idea about Smith, but Scott starts and Randolph will battle it out against Haness for the other starting spot. Randolph has a ton of talent, he is the guy with the most upside. AJ got hurt early in fall, it will be interesting to see where he is in the spring. Gray was always supposed to be a backup saftey, he was moved out of position because of the corner injuries. We won't be prefect, but will be upgraded next season.

what about special teams projections- kicker and punter?

Don't think Rashad Wimbley has a future at NG. He is listed at 6'0".