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2015 Football Spring Practice Thread (Spring Game 4/11/15 at 3:00pm)

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Deac94

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I am going to jump the gun and start a thread in advance of the start of spring practice on Tuesday. If you are thinking that spring practice is starting earlier this year, you are correct. Here is an ESPN blog post on the reasons behind the trend in moving up spring practice (includes a quote from Coach Clawson) http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/80274/more-acc-teams-open-spring-in-february

We should be hearing some news on position changes, injuries and transfers between now and Tuesday. I will get it started with a few position changes:

Steve Donatell has moved from Rover to TE
Josh Okonye has moved from S to CB

Obviously a lot of eyes this spring will be on Wolford/Hinton, the overall O-line play and the CB position, but here are some less obvious questions will also be answered when spring practice starts:

1. Who will be the starting slot receiver? With E.J. Scott graduated and John Armstrong (possibly?) moving to defense, this position seems WIDE open.
2. Is Rashawn Shaw going to be 1st team at defensive end with Ziggy Allen and Desmond Floyd both gone? If so, who will be his backup?
3. With Steve Donatell switching to offense, who will back up 5th year senior Hunter Williams at Rover?
4. Who will start out at 1st team left guard? Is this where they will start Justin Herron? Where will Phil Haynes line up this spring?
5. Which receiver position will redshirt freshman Cortez Lewis play?
6. Where will redshirt freshman Zack Wary line up? I have heard everything from Rover to LB to the “drop” DE.

Here is a look at what the spring depth chart might look like:

QB: Wolford / Hinton
RB: Wortham / Robinson
X-WR: Jo. Williams / ??
S-WR: Crump / ??
SLOT: ?? / ??
TE: Serigne / Pike
LT: Smith / ??
LG: ??
C: Terry / ??
RG: Harris / ??
RT: Intemann / ??

DE: Dunn / Ejiofor
NT: Harris / Lewinson
DT: Banks / Rodney
DE: Shaw? / ??
LB: Chubb / Ja. Williams
LB: Lee / Dawson
ROVER: H. Williams / ??
CB: TBD
CB: TBD
S: Janvion / Glenn
S: Brown / Kemp
 
The #theawakening draft lists Haynes as a tackle.
 
I would think you could pencil in Watson and the double last named transfer dude from Rutgers at the CB position. Clawson said they would be starting right now if we had to play a game.
 
Great opportunity for Steve Donatell at TE. With Serigne and Pike as our only viable options, Steve with get his chance to see the field often. I forgot about Wary. His HS video had him playing a rover type. He could be the back-up to Hunter.
 
The front 7 looks to be as a strong as WF has had since the 2008-2008 run. If (and this a big if) can get solid play from its corners, the defense could be very good. Think Thomas Brown will be a star a safety.
 
With Bowman's Archibald's signficant ankle injury making a redshirt year very likely, Donatelli's move to TE seems to indicate that (1) that DC and Elko feel pretty good about backup LB's in the freshman/redshirt freshman classes and (2) DC is serious about his previous statements regarding more 2 TE offensive sets and that Serigne and Pike do not provide sufficient depth over the course of a season to do so now that Zach Gordon is no longer playing.
 
I watched that Awakening Draft video and was shocked by how jacked Phil Haynes was. Physically he does not at all look like a freshman.
 
loyal2afault said:
With Bowman's Archibald's signficant ankle injury making a redshirt year very likely, Donatelli's move to TE seems to indicate that (1) that DC and Elko feel pretty good about backup LB's in the freshman/redshirt freshman classes and (2) DC is serious about his previous statements regarding more 2 TE offensive sets and that Serigne and Pike do not provide sufficient depth over the course of a season to do so now that Zach Gordon is no longer playing.
Click to expand...

Good points.
 
Would be nice if the official site put up a roster of those players on the team for the spring practice session - including early enrollees, and transfer in guys.

And leave the 2014 roster as a roster of those who participated in games during 2014 season. Looks dumb to have players on the participation roster for the 2014 season games who are not on the team roster for 2014.
 
THE AWAKENING DRAFT

I was having a conversation this week about “The aWAKEning” competition with someone that knows a lot more about the football program that I do. He was making the case that while the competition wasn’t about football talent it did measure a lot of the things that make players successful in the program, especially in the long run. As others have already noted, to be successful in the competition measures equal parts: 1) strength, 2) speed, 3) grades and 4) intangibles such as competitive desire and determination as well as avoiding disciplinary issues.

So having this in the back of my mind, I noticed that I could make out the draft board in the background of the Youtube video, and low and behold some of the names that I had heard were players whose stock was on the rise seemed to be at or near the top of the draft board. So I figured why not have some fun and assume that the draft results mean SOMETHING and take a look at the results by position.

A couple of additional notes. For the strength and speed drills you compete against your peers (bigs versus bigs, skill guys versus skill guys etc). The seniors serve as captains and therefore weren’t in the draft pool. It looks like they were paired with a position coach for making the picks. I definitely think the picks were made in an effort to put together the best team possible.

Here is what I found (results are the round they were picked in)

Quarterbacks:
Wolford (2nd round)
Hinton (4th)
Commentary: Both the QBs picked in the first 4 rounds. Nice! I wonder who they compete against in the strength and speed drills through. Regardless, I am saying “STOCK UP”.

Running Backs:
Wortham (6th)
Henderson (7th)
Robinson (8th)
Commentary: Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!
(Just kidding of course, I do think Wortham will flourish here in a supporting role and continue his rise as a fan favorite).

Wide Receiver:
Crump (captain)
Lewis (2nd)
J. Williams (4th)
Hines (6th)
Howard (7th)
Tyree Harris (9th)
Commentary: This validates the good things that I have been hearing about Cortez Lewis. Mark him as a player to watch this spring. All I can say on Tyree Harris falling to the 9th round is “ugh”. Perhaps it is silly to weight this at all, but I’m lowering my own expectations.

Tight Ends:
Serigne (1st)
O’Neil (4th)
Donatell (7th)
Pike (8th)
Commentary: I’ve heard that Cam Serigne gets it done in the classroom as well as on the field. Interesting that Brendan O’Neil was drafted ahead of Donatell and Pike. I’ve read enough posts on this board about O’Neil though that I’m not going to get too excited.

Offensive Line
Intemann (captain)
Haynes (1st)
Smith (2nd)
Herron (5th)
Osterhage (6th)
Anderson (6th)
Harris (7th)
Terry (7th)
Hayworth (7th)
Suggs (8th)
Luedeke (10th)
Chambers (11th)
Commentary: Phil Haynes going 1st round (4th overall) has already been discussed. How about Will Smith in the 2nd round? Has the light come on for that guy?? Would be great news if he was solid for us this year. After that, Herron in the 5th round, two redshirt freshmen in the 6th and a lot of “Damn you LOBO!”. In defense of the OLs, if they are competing against the DLs then I’m sure all of the D-lineman get drafted first.

Defensive Ends
Dunn (2nd)
Stewart (3rd)
Ejiofor (4th)
Shaw (4th)
Lamot (5th)
Commentary: How about late Clawson pickup Chris Stewart going in the 3rd round? He was actually picked before Rashawn Shaw.

Defensive Tackles
Lewinson (1st)
Yarbary (2nd)
Rodney (9th)
Commentary: How about late Clawson pickup Willie Yarbary in the 2nd round? But what’s up with Zeek Rodney falling to the 9th round? I don’t know why I couldn’t find Tylor Harris or Josh Banks on the list. Probably just not on the draft spreadsheet for some reason.

Linebackers
H. Williams (captain)
Chubb (captain)
Lee (1st)
Dawson (2nd)
Wary (3rd)
J. Williams (6th)
Matthews (7th)
Thomas-Jackson (8th)
McNeil (8th)
Commentary: Marquel Lee in the 1st round (of course). I think that Zack Wary is a player to watch. I mentioned that earlier in the thread. When is it going to be time to take Grant Dawson seriously? Maybe right now?

Defensive Backs
Janvion (captain)
Brown (1st)
Okonye (1st)
Kemp (3rd)
Glenn (3rd)
Watson (4th)
Latter (5th)
D. Davis (5th)
Gross-Armiento (6th)
Dillon (9th)
Lawrence (9th)
Commentary: Everyone loves Thomas Brown. Josh Okonye also in the 1st round. I kind of hate that he is playing CB out of necessity this year if the staff really thinks safety is his best position. I saw on Twitter that he was added to the Wall of Honor for having one of the highest GPAs on the team last semester. A nice showing for the 2 redshirt freshmen (Cameron Glenn and Demetrius Kemp).
 
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Thanks again 94 for the work you do. Love reading your posts.
 
My take-- being drafted high probably doesn't necessarily mean the player is a stud on the football field BUT I see no way that being drafted super low can be not seen as a bad thing. If a guy isn't respected by his peers for his work on the field and in the classroom that is probably a sign.
 
KJ Brent (transfer from South Carolina) will likely be a WR starter. Potential to catch a good number of passes.
 
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