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2019 Deacon Football Preview Thread

Some articles simply cannot be written until summer practice happens. I think we are going to see 1 or 2 guys in the 2-deep who haven't played a minute of practice yet. Incoming frosh. There are 3 spots in our linebacker 2-deep that are essentially wide open.
 
Well, if you'd like to take something I wrote 3 weeks before the Birmingham Bowl and dictate coverage, I guess it's a free country.

But I'd hope that throughout the spring, when I wrote 18 byline stories and only 2 or 3 were solely focused on the QBs, I proved that I'm well aware that there's a lot more to the story than whether Jamie Newman or Sam Hartman starts against Utah State.

But maybe that's just me.

👍 Good deal. Keep it going please. I really believe the Deacs are fortunate right now and deserve as much coverage as possible. More than anything it’s mostly the casual reader that inflates the QB battles in the water cooler talk. The W-SJ covers Deacs better than any.
 
DT should be competitive too. Someone needs to step up out of Bothroyd, Francis, or the true freshmen.

Worry about opponents trying to bludgeon WF with inside runs.

DT talent-level and depth are the biggest question-marks on the team, and the ability to stay stout upfront is critically important for WF's success next year. Have confidence in all other areas of the defense, but with Zeke Rodney and Willie Yabary now gone, WF only has one DT with any record of significant playing time, Suliman Kamara, and he had 14 tackles in 10 games. Clawson has talked about moving a DE to DT or playing a frosh to add depth, but is position that requires size and power; not an easy place to transition. Feel good about the rest of the position groups, but DT is a huge question mark until the current group demonstrates that they can stand up.
 
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Worry about opponents trying to bludgeon WF with inside run.

DT talent-level and depth are the biggest question-marks on the team, and the ability to stay stout upfront is critically important for WF's success next year. Have confidence in all other areas of the defense, but with Zeke Rodney and Willie Yabary now gone, WF only has one DT with any record of significant playing time, Suliman Kamara, and he had 14 tackles in 10 games. Clawson has talked about moving a DE to DT or playing a frosh to add depth, but is position that requires size and power; not an easy place to transition. Feel good about the rest of the position groups, but DT is a huge question mark until the current group demonstrates that they can stand up.

No doubt depth is a concern. But Tyler Williams is really a DT that was playing DE and will be back inside. Kamara was credited with 28 tackles in 13 games looking at the Wake stats (unassisted was lower so that might be what you're siting-most of the DL have a high percentage of assisted tackles due to the line of scrimmage scrum). Bergan has a year under his belt playing over 200 snaps in the regular season and is pretty stout at 295 only standing 6 ft. 1 and believe they said coming in out of high school that he was already stronger than anyone on our DL at the time.

We have 3 solid DT's but definitely could use Fox and wonder if we still won't sneak a last minute grad transfer in here. I also think we'll see Basham slide down to DT in some situations with Mike Allen in there. Clawson said the DE and DT have very similar skills in their D and that's why Yarbury also would line up at DE and it was easy for Tyler Williams to play both DE and DT.
 
Utah State preview: https://www.orlandosentinel.com/spo...0190611-6xqmmhp5xzespbcr6nos2qwiaa-story.html. The scale of their offensive personnel losses is pretty staggering

What that writeup doesn't do is disuss any of the likely replacements for the departed offensive players. So it isn't very helpful.

For instance, Wake has Zach Tim replacing Ryan Anderson at center. Zach is certainly a step down from Ryan in experience, buthas played a bunch of snaps. He isn't totally inexperienced. Plus he has had several years of practices.

Would have been useful if the Utah State write-up had some similar comments about the guys expected to step in and start
 
The one thing that stuck out to me was that their returning running back had nearly 900 yards and 13 touchdowns last year. If they can effectively restock their offensive line, they will still have a dangerous offense.
 
Especially while we are figuring out our interior DL situation.
 
The one thing that stuck out to me was that their returning running back had nearly 900 yards and 13 touchdowns last year. If they can effectively restock their offensive line, they will still have a dangerous offense.

That was with a stacked OL. The LT, LG, C, and RG had started 25/25 games and the RT 23/23 games. That chemistry will not be replaced by the first game with a new coach and new scheme. They do have 2 OL coming back with several starts in their background. It was interesting that they brought in a few JUCOs and transfers but none were OL.

The majority of the talent coming back is on D and special team. They are good as indicated by this preseason all conference story:

Utah State football had 12 players named to the Athlon Sports 2019 preseason all-Mountain West teams, it was announced Monday by the publication. The Aggies had four players recognized on offense, five players on defense and three specialists.

Overall, Utah State had seven first-team honorees to lead the conference. Boise State, Fresno State and San Diego State all tied for second with four first-team selections.

Senior all-purpose player Gerold Bright, senior defensive end Tipa Galeai, senior cornerback DJ Williams, junior quarterback Jordan Love, junior punt return Jordan Nathan, junior kickoff returner Savon Scarver and junior linebacker David Woodward were all named to the preseason all-Mountain West first team, while senior placekicker Dominik Eberle and sophomore offensive lineman Alfred Edwards were both named to the second team. Aggies named to the preseason third team include senior defensive tackle Christopher 'Unga and Nathan as an all-purpose offensive player, while senior defensive tackle Fua Leilua was tabbed to the Athlon Sports Preseason all-Mountain West fourth team.
 
Two kick returners and an all purpose player makes that a little deceiving.
 
Two kick returners and an all purpose player makes that a little deceiving.

But the QB, RB and LB sound like they could play for most college teams. Key will be for Wake's D-line to beat the newly formed O-line to keep the QB on the run and the RB bottled up. The USU O-line will be big but may not be together early. Boogie gonna need to boogie into their backfield a bunch.
 
Worry about opponents trying to bludgeon WF with inside runs.

DT talent-level and depth are the biggest question-marks on the team, and the ability to stay stout upfront is critically important for WF's success next year. Have confidence in all other areas of the defense, but with Zeke Rodney and Willie Yabary now gone, WF only has one DT with any record of significant playing time, Suliman Kamara, and he had 14 tackles in 10 games. Clawson has talked about moving a DE to DT or playing a frosh to add depth, but is position that requires size and power; not an easy place to transition. Feel good about the rest of the position groups, but DT is a huge question mark until the current group demonstrates that they can stand up.

I would take runs up the middle over giving up deep passes like last year.
 
FWIW, Phil Steele rated Clemson's 63-3 win at WF the best performance by any team in the 2018 season, taking into account quality of opponent and the fact that it was on the road. The rating does not take into account that WF's defense was depleted, including the Deacs missing 7 of its top 8 LBs. Clemson ran for 471 yards, had 3 100 yard rushers (none had more than 10 carries!), and Lawrence completed 80% of his passes for 2 more TDs. Clemson's D held WF to 250 yards, no TDs and WF completed only 25% of its passes.
 
Dave Clawson is a credit to WFU and has forgotten more football than I'll ever know

I hope this year, especially if depth is an issue defensively, he is a bit more judicious with the high tempo which in my opinion contributed to our defensive depth issues last year
 
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