2015 starting lineup prediction

[pkt77242]

So far I have three questions :

Who can predict anything on the defensive front, (except the fact that Day and Smith will start for sure!) with the flux with injuries, returners, etc?

Why is nobody mentioning Kaizer? He got pretty good reviews all season. If Golson leaves, (academically would ND let him in to grad school?), and Kelly wants to bust other teams ability to game plan, why wouldn't he play two quarterbacks?

Why do people think Drue Tranquil is too slow to play safety? (All season long Kelly made it clear that Tranquil had to be told what to do on every play, his big problem looked to me to be understanding the defense, not getting there! [From my perspective.])

Bogs I don't thin it is a question of speed for Drue as he seems plenty fast in a straight line. I do think that there is some question to whether he has the lateral quickness to play Safety but we haven't seen enough of him to make a decision either way IMO.

 

[koonja]

So looking only at the 2015 team, these are the guys I expect to add playing time to an already loaded 2015 Irish team:

Alize Jones
Tevon Coney
Jerry Tillery
CJ Sanders
Josh Barajas
Justin Yoon
Shawn Crawford
Josh Adams
Mkelti Williams.

That's a good shot in the arm for a team that is already returning ~20 starters, not to mention KVR, Ishaq, and potentially Daniels.

We hungry.

 

[Irish YJ]

So looking only at the 2015 team, these are the guys I expect to add playing time to an already loaded 2015 Irish team:

Alize Jones
Tevon Coney
Jerry Tillery
CJ Sanders
Josh Barajas
Justin Yoon
Shawn Crawford
Josh Adams
Mkelti Williams.

That's a good shot in the arm for a team that is already returning ~20 starters, not to mention KVR, Ishaq, and potentially Daniels.

We hungry.

Agree with most. I think they will do their best though to RS Tillery, Adams, and Williams. I think Prentice (if he sticks) gets PT first over Williams. I'd add Bilal to the list as well as Nico (ST).

 

[koonja]

Agree with most. I think they will do their best though to RS Tillery, Adams, and Williams. I think Prentice (if he sticks) gets PT first over Williams. I'd add Bilal to the list as well as Nico (ST).

Bilai/Coney/Barajas could all play or all potentially RS. Not saying all 3 will RS, but they're so close in talent that it's hard to say who'd be the first to burn it.

I personally think Tillery is in the 2-deep by the 2nd/3rd game if not Texas. I'd put a lot of v-chedder that he does not RS since he's on the DL, not OL.

 

[Irish YJ]

Bilai/Coney/Barajas could all play or all potentially RS. Not saying all 3 will RS, but they're so close in talent that it's hard to say who'd be the first to burn it.

I personally think Tillery is in the 2-deep by the 2nd/3rd game if not Texas. I'd put a lot of v-chedder that he does not RS since he's on the DL, not OL.

Absolutely agree on the first point. You could certainly be right on point 2, but hope not. He does have the EE advantage, but we have a lot of young folks that have been in the system and weight room now unlike years of the past. If he's clearly the of the top kids, I hope he's on the field, but that would speak to the talent level of others as much as anything.

 

[Irish Insanity]

So looking only at the 2015 team, these are the guys I expect to add playing time to an already loaded 2015 Irish team:

Alize Jones
Tevon Coney
Jerry Tillery
CJ Sanders
Josh Barajas
Justin Yoon
Shawn Crawford
Josh Adams
Mkelti Williams.

That's a good shot in the arm for a team that is already returning ~20 starters, not to mention KVR, Ishaq, and potentially Daniels.

We hungry.

We are talking about a Kelly team at ND. I don't expect any newcomers to get playing time unless there are no other options. It'll take at least a season and a half for them to 'get there'

 

[Irish YJ]

We are talking about a Kelly team at ND. I don't expect any newcomers to get playing time unless there are no other options. It'll take at least a season and a half for them to 'get there'

I agree to an extent, but some of these folks will get some time. With our RB depth, I can see CJ or Amir taking some snaps at RB. With that in mind, I do see Sanders getting a chance. Aliz'e may be too talented to keep off the field as a receiving TE. Somebody will get some PT at S with our current depth issues there. I can see one of the LBs making a case for 2 deep. Yoon will be a stud from day one.

 

[Wingman Ray]

Gonna throw a curveball here. Due to LB recruiting success and lack of quality DTs, ND goes back to the 3-4 hybrid

QB-Zaire
RB-Folston/Bryant
WR-Daniels
WR-Fuller
WR-Brown
TE-Smythe/Jones (splitout)
LT-Stanley
LG-Martin
OC-Hegarty
RG-Elmer???
RT-McGlinchey

DE-Rochell/Trumbetti
NT-Jones
DE-Day
OLB-Smith
ILB-Barajas
MLB-Schmidt
OLB-Morgan
CB-Russell
SS-Shumate
FS-Redfield
CB-Luke

 

[kmoose]

Gonna throw a curveball here. Due to LB recruiting success and lack of quality DTs, ND goes back to the 3-4 hybrid

QB-Zaire
RB-Folston/Bryant
WR-Daniels
WR-Fuller
WR-Brown
TE-Smythe/Jones (splitout)
LT-Stanley
LG-Martin
OC-Hegarty
RG-Elmer???
RT-McGlinchey

DE-Rochell/Trumbetti
NT-Jones
DE-Day
OLB-Smith
ILB-Barajas
MLB-Schmidt
OLB-Morgan
CB-Russell
SS-Shumate
FS-Redfield
CB-Luke

Another guy sleeping on Greer Martini....

 

[Wingman Ray]

Another guy sleeping on Greer Martini....

Im not dissing Martini. I just dont think he has the athleticism of the others. Maybe on the run heavy teams like Navy yes but spread teams, no

 

[ulukinatme]

I'd rather not go back to a 3-4, tbh. If we faced a lot of Pro style offenses, maybe, but the Spread is what everybody runs now, even USC has changed their ways. The bigger issue is we face a lot of mobile QBs, and the 3-4 isn't great at defending mobile QBs since your DE's aren't keeping contain in many cases. Not that we did a great job containing in a 4-3 all the time...

I should make a point to say that yes, the 3-4 can be used against the Spread, and the nice part about it is the fact it gets more quick bodies on the field by substituting a DT for an LB, however we really don't have the personnel to run a 3-4. We're probably okay in the LB department now, but how many DTs do we have that can play NT and consistently eat 2 blockers up? Jones comes to mind if he's healthy, but he's not healthy right now.

 

[koonja]

I'd rather not go back to a 3-4, tbh. If we faced a lot of Pro style offenses, maybe, but the Spread is what everybody runs now, even USC has changed their ways. The bigger issue is we face a lot of mobile QBs, and the 3-4 isn't great at defending mobile QBs since your DE's aren't keeping contain in many cases. Not that we did a great job containing in a 4-3 all the time...

Same. I don't want our LBs to get fat and slow again.

 

[kmoose]

Im not dissing Martini. I just dont think he has the athleticism of the others. Maybe on the run heavy teams like Navy yes but spread teams, no

I don't care about his athleticism, considering every time I saw him play, he was always around the ball. Sometimes great instincts overcome great athleticism.

 

[wizards8507]

Same. I don't want our LBs to get fat and slow again.

Do you mean like in 2012 when we put four 250 lbers out there and had one of the best defenses in the country?

 

[koonja]

Do you mean like in 2012 when we put four 250 lbers out there and had the best defense in the country?

Alabama had the best defense in the country by a country mile.

And yeah, I do not like our recent history of 3-4 LBs. Councell, Fox, Carlo, basically everyone outside of Teo lacked strong athleticism IMO.

 

[Whiskeyjack]

Alabama had the best defense in the country by a country mile.

And yeah, I do not like our recent history of 3-4 LBs. Councell, Fox, Carlo, basically everyone outside of Teo lacked strong athleticism IMO.

Councell was extremely athletic coming out high school, but injuries have derailed his career. Darlo Calabrox didn't have sideline-to-sideline speed, but they were perfectly adequate 3-4 ILBs. I think the bigger issue with Diaco's 3-4 was our OLBs. Both the ROLB and the DOLB are supposed to be able to drop and rush the passer inter-changeably, but Shembo was an unmitigated disaster in coverage, and we had a very hard time getting production out our "Dog" LBs. Spond was the only DOLB (prior to Jaylon) who performed consistently (which had a lot to do with our success in 2012), but even he wasn't much of a pass-rushing threat.

 

[Irishman77]

My 4 cents...

QB-Zaire
RB-Folston/Bryant
WR-Fuller
WR-Brown
TE-Smythe
WR-C.J.
LT-Stanley
LG-Nelson
OC-Martin
RG-Hegarty
RT-McGlinchey

DE-Trumbetti/Williams
DT-Rochell/Jones
DT-Day/Cage
DE-Ishaq/Hill
OLB-Smith
MLB-Schmidt/Grace
OLB-J.O./Morgan
CB-Russell
SS-Shumate
FS-Redfield
CB-Luke