Ryan on BG and musical chairs

Ryan has some updates on the Falcons, and the peg to the story is the "musical chairs" we seem to play every spring. This drives some Falcon fans to absolute distraction. I think they look at the depth chart and they see certain things lining up, and then they don't work out and people get moved and it looks unsettled. Plus, it looks like we have holes in our recruiting, especially at LB.

Just to say this. We have had some success with this approach. We have moved guys from position to position effectively. Not every time, but we have had some success with it. So, I'm inclined to watch for the results. I thought moving O'Drob to DT was crazy, but it seems like he did OK.

There's another issue, and that's size. We're moving Jacob Hardwick, a good DE, inside to DT, where he is certainly undersized by most standards. Here's what Ryan wrote about the state of the O-line:

Yesterday's practice was Hardwick's' third at defensive tackle where he moved in a couple feet from the end. Hardwick, a junior, is paired on the inside with Michael Ream, who began the spring on the second-team. Angelo Magnone has replaced Hardwick at end, meaning Diyral Briggs is the lone starting defensive lineman whose role hasn't changed in some capacity over the last month.

And on the key question of size, Coach Brandon says this:

"People will say we're small and undersized, but for our league we're not - and that's who we have to beat," Brandon said. "Early on [in non conference] people are going to look at us and say, whoa, we don't match up. And we probably don't. But for one afternoon we'll be fired up and ready to play."

I agree 100%. This is a year where we should win the MAC. No doubt. We are as good as anyone in our conference, and it has been too long since we won a MAC title. Let's make this the year. So, I could care less about Minnesota, Pitt, Wyoming and Boise. Let's beat Toledo and NIU and Miami and OU and the other MAC teams on our slate, and go to Ford Field and bring home the MAC Championship.

Finally, the article notes that Willie Geter has passed Anthony Turner on the depth chart. There have been smoke signals coming out on this throughout spring practice, and Geter is a really talented player, so I'm not surprised. Turner really bailed us out last year when we were having trouble moving the ball, but it sounded like he was having a bad spring.

A couple thoughts. Geter is little, and I worry about his durability. Depth is really important at the position, which we have. And, I hope we don't forget the slash-like threat we get with Turner in the game...even if he has to step into the slot once in a while. Just seems to me like when we line up with him in the slot, then he drops into the backfield before the snap, we're giving the defense a lot to contend with.

Spring game is tomorrow. Sadly, I won't be there due to youth baseball conflicts, but I'll be watching the reports carefully and chronicle them here.