A simplistic way of looking at next year's LB situation would be to say that we have three starters returning: Te'o, Calabreese/Fox, and Shembo/Spond. At Cat, we would have one somewhat experienced and uber-talented player=IWilliams. As transitions go, that's almost as good as a coach can wish for. To that we can add Niklas.
Looking at it a little more "idealistically" and future-oriented, one would consider the potential of Councell, Grace, and Moore. One also would consider that although there seems a great deal of OLB potential, our ILB function [except for Manti] is not quite where Diaco wants it. So, who steps up into the ILB mix?? There are to my thinking two scenarios:
1). Diaco goes with his as-yet-untried studs there and hopes one comes through --- preferably at least two. These guys are: Grace, Rabasa, Moore, Utupo. My intuition is that it is not going to be Moore or Utupo, as they probably would be doing more already if they were the answer. That leaves Grace or Rabasa to either takeover some WILL playing time or at least be groomed for the year after. Sounds a little risky to me.
2). that's why I think that the second scenario of stealing at least Shembo from the OLBs might be the way. If The Prince went into the middle, Spond, Councell, and Perkins could hold down the Dog, and Ishaq, Troy, and even Anthony Rabasa could hold down the Cat. [I believe that Okwara is going to grow into a road-grading D-Line monster even if his weight isn't what this board thinks it should be].
I am much more concerned in the slightly longer run what we do in the interior than on the edge. There seems to be stunning talent "out there", far outshining the talent level inside [bow to the exception of Manti].
