I'll play a wild hand at this. Five guys return for fifth years.
A). Braxton Cave --- far and away the most essential of the 5th years unless Dayne not only takes charge of the offense but does so in AA quality style.Cave anchors our line and we will need him to stabilize things as we lose our right side.
B). Dayne Crist --- if he finishes as the starting QB, does not get seriously injured, and actually WANTS to play another year. He could, afterall, roll the dice on the NFL rather than risking a career damaging injury.
C). Jamoris Slaughter --- normally I wouldn't go here, as I think that he has yet to prove what he can do, but losing Harrison, Gary, and Robert, we're going to need both the remaining battle-tested vets to support the novice corners.
D). KLM --- with Lynch, Kona, Stephon et al, I'd normally say, well, maybe not to a 5th year, but my guts tell me that we're going to see near All-American play out of KLM this year. He has both the athleticism and the attitude for that.
E). Sean Cwynar --- still VERY important for us. He and Big Lou give us the rock-in-the-middle that Diaco requires. Cwynar is very good. All NTs have a tough time getting noticed, but his trench time has been solid, and we have no one else we can be sure of.
Any of those other guys would have to bloom. I say no to McCarthy because we must get time for the rookies and right now he's in the way. I regretfully say no to Golic for the same reason, plus the scholarship numbers noose is really tight. Worst, I regretfully say no to Hafis, because he has proved that he is a warrior in the D-line, and I'd like to honor that, particularly because he has actually played well. I just hope that if some of our guys want a fifth year and we can't fit them in, they can find a willing program like Steve Paskorz did with WVU. That would ease my conscience a little.
