Presser and Depth Chart

It's game week and BG has run off its first presser.  Coach had a few interesting things to say, don't get used to it.

Ha.  I kid.

• First, he said that you can't recruit to your system anymore.  BG has changed the offense and defense to adapt to personnel and he gave the coaches credit for helping to make the adjustments.  We will do some things completely different.
• He also credited Coach Nosal for doing a good job on the offensive line, which is "better."  I'll look at the published depth chart in a minute, but the new guys we brought in are not on the top line.
• The team knows who the QB is, but we aren't announcing it publicly. There's no advantage to it.
• He did concede that we could have gone to the portal year 3, which he stridently opposed at the time.
• Liberty would be a top-flight MAC team and we will need to play our best football.
• We were banged up early...getting healthy.  He mentioned the Oline as being banged up specifically.

Now, to the depth chart.  One caveat is that we have sometimes listed injured players in the #1 slot even if we don't expect them to play.  Based on our normal approach, I would consider this the way the lineup would shake out right now, under the best circumstances.

I was most interested in the OLine.  Here are the starters, LT-RT.

Stewart, Fatukasi, Padgett, Warner and Wollschlager.

Each of these guys was with us last year.  Stewart and Fatukasi split time at LT, and now Fatukasi has moved to LG to replace Jalen Grant.  Alex Padgett, who played sparingly last year and the year before--and not as a center--was BG's top run blocker when he did play, according to PFF.  Warner and Wollschlager are both right back where they were last year.

Behind them are:

Pabst, Zimmerly, Burns or Deyo, Dunbar II, and Bethea.

Pabst was a DL who changed positions.  Zimmerly is from Perrysburg. Jake Burns transferred two years ago from UC and Deyo transferred this year from Iowa State.  Dunbar II played all over the line for 126 snaps last year and transferred two years ago from Jackson State.  Bethea transferred this year from Arizona State.

Of the 11 players on our OLine depth chart, three of them came to BG originally.

WRs are Ibrahim and Hillaire, backed up by Osborne and Tillman, from Grand Valley.  Stewart, Patterson and Keith are RBs, with Bench and Fannin at TE.

Of the 23 players on the two-deep, 9 started at BG.

On the defense, BG lists 12 positions and 29 players, 9 of them transfers.  None of this year's transfers are listed as starting and some are not even on the two-deep.  Note, also that in today's defensive world, these positions are all more hybrid than they ever were before and alignments can use widely varying numbers of linemen and backs.

Overall, I would say that the defense has guys who have played and played decently but lacks a bunch of standout players. If standouts emerge from the pack, the defense has a shot to be decent.

A few highlights.

• Davon Ferguson is listed as nickel back.  With that, I suspect BG plays a 3-3-5 as its base.  If Ferguson stays healthy, it will be huge for BG and he is probably our best defensive player.  That's a key element to BG competing.
• The d-backfield is experienced.  
• Ali Saad, a transfer from Minnesota, is listed as or-starter at DE after not playing much in the past.
• Demetrius Hardamon moved from d-line to RLB.  He was a solid pass rusher last year and will be tested this year to get pressure without Karl Brooks drawing attention away.
• Joseph Sipp, Jr, is also listed as starting WLB and has not played much.

At special teams, Sir is back punting and the Kicking is Anaya OR Sauder.  That last element is worrisome.