FalconBlog--Triumphs and Trials in the BGSU Falcon Nation

Spring Football Is Here--Depth Chart released, Offense Review

The Falcons released their spring depth chart last week. Spring practice starts on Saturday.

There's actually a lot here to review, so I'm going to look at the offense first. However, there is one overriding theme....we are really, really young.

Let's look at the class distribution in the two deep only (both sides of the ball):

Seniors 10
Juniors 9
Soph. 13
Fr. 12

This is worth commenting on only in this respect. Falcon fans who are looking for an instant comeback to championship football from last year's 6-5 team are likely to be disappointed. I'm not saying they won't be OK, but a team this young, with this many players seeing action who never did before--its just unlikely we win our division.

If we do, by the way, we're in for a really sweet next three years, because this team loses almost no one to graduation.

Coach Brandon spent much of last year talking about the freshmen redshirting at the time, and saying that he was counting on them to resurrect the program. He also talked about a couple weak recruiting classes in the Urban transition period. I think a lot of us scoffed at that, but maybe we were hasty. I'm going to post on the veracity of the "lost recruiting class" another time.

In the meantime, suffice it to say this: he's putting his money where his mouth is. Redshirt freshmen are all over the first depth chart.

Now, let's look at the offense, starting at QB.

Of course, Anthony Turner is starting. Some believe that True Fr Anthony Glaud will end up in the mix when the season starts, but he's not here yet, so you can't tell. I've heard our coaches really like Freddie Barnes, and coach says there will be a competition this spring, but I expect AT to be the starter, even with this arrest problems.

Running Back

Dan Macon is back from his unconventional mid-career redshirt, and is backed up by Bobby Thomas and Chris Bullock. The first two have shown some ability and Bullock is highly regarded, but this trio has a long way to go to reach the production that Pope and Lane gave--and RB is vital to a spread offense, especially the runspread AT will run (as opposed to the throwspread that Omar ran).

WR

Again, major question marks at this position. There may be ability, but there are question marks. For example, our two deep has three WRs--Partridge, Parks and Ruiz, each of whom has shown ability, but hasn't had to play the Sharon/Sanders go-to roll. Plus, we often have five wides, and that means you're looking at guys who have missed shots in the past like Brandon Jones and Kenneth Brantley, or totally unproven players like Aaron Davis, Kollin Hancock and Rhett Magner. This position remains a concern...and more so due to the RB situation and the QB situation.

TE

Sean O'Drobinak is the starter, and I like him. We can make good use of him, he catches the ball and he gets open. His back up (Sheidler) is a total unknown, and Pete Winovich continues to move positions as he is back at TE--on the third string. The Jr. certainly has never looked as good as he did on signing day.

OLine

The Oline should be solid, and improved. On the left side, Jr. Drew Nystrom brings 304 pounds to AT's blind side, and Kory Lichtensteiger is an all-conference guard. John Lanning has promise at C, but its odd the Brandon Curtis was moved from NG to C if that was the case. On the right side, Derrick Markray (350 lbs) is at RG, and Kevin Huselman is a junior at RT. The line is strong and experienced all the way across. The next string is young, so we don't know what we have there, so hopefully we can remain healthy.

Simply put, there is no reason for the casual fan to think this team this year will have the high octane offense we have seen for the past five seasons. It might happen, but there is no reason to think it will. We're going to have to play better D than in the past, because we won't be able to just outscore people.