Spring Preview: Linebackers

gtstinger776

gtstinger776

Ramblin' Wreck
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565
We have a lot of interesting athletes across DE, LB, and S that are about the same size (6'2-6'4, 215-230 LBs) and have shown flashes of ability. People that come to mind: S (Carpenter, Thomas, Oliver, Allen - ND transfer), LB (Thomas, Jackson, Knight, Evans), DE (Bennett, Henderson, Domineck). Some of these guys have been more consistent than others (Thomas, Carpenter). But, many most have been through 2-3 defenses since coming to GT.

The question is: among this group of players, who is going to step-up and play consistently? Who will make good run-fits, efficient angles to the ball, cover TEs/WRs. David Curry is a fine 2-down LB, but we need help in coverage.
 

takethepoints

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6,148
Jerry the Jacket said:
I think the Jordan-Swilling / Howard experiment is just that. Both are great athletes but not great football players. It doesn't hurt to take a look at them at a new position. Maybe one will strike gold. If not I would look for one or both to transfer or continue to be just an occasional type player. Howard is a good special teams player so that might end up being his home.
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Since the only RB with more then 20 carries who averaged better ypc then Howard last year was Mason, I'm not sure where this "not great football player" stuff is coming from. I thought he should have always been the first off the bench when Mason needed a blow, but the coaches used Griffin instead. I can see that; it's the typical "we recruited him; we've got to use him" stuff you see in coaching transitions and it made sense to get Griffin some game experience. But no matter what happened in practice and no matter what the potential involved was, Howard was our second best RB when it counted: in the games.

But I think he'll do ok at LB, if it comes to that. Somebody asked Paul why he recruited him and he replied, "He was a wrecking ball in high school." That can work both ways. I agree that this is an experiment, however. I just hope that if it doesn't work out soon enough the coaches will put both players back where they were.
 
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bos

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1,054
Curry brings good leadership and experience to the team as he will be entering his 6th year in 2020. However, the guy is slow to react and gets eaten up by blockers constantly. He will make a play here and there, but if you solely focus on him it can be painful to watch at times. Good part of that is also poor Dline play, but he also just doesn't have the instincts needed. I thought he was much more explosive his RS freshman year before he got too big. I believe he will be a guy that will stick around the program after graduation and eventually get into coaching.

I think the depth here is pretty good considering Tech only plays two. There are 4 guys with tons of experience that will be rotated in and out and that doesn't even count the 4 freshman that may see the field. I like this group overall.
 
Technut1990

Technut1990

Ramblin' Wreck
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YJMD said:
It's a thin group that not many are super high on. But the coaching staff feels more confident, and we haven't seen quite the same recruiting emphasis on LBs that we have for the lines. Part of this is playing a base nickel and having more hybrid safety/LB types not included in this analysis.

But my hope is what the article points out about DL play being accurate, and we're better off at LB than it appears. Some of the issues noted were also depth in zone coverage, although I wonder if some of that was attempting to compensate for vulnerabilities on draws, scrambles, RPOs, etc. The DL figures to be significantly improved, so I'm excited to see what's up there.

BJS is moving to RB. He was a high prospect there out of HS, but the position is loaded. Sadly I see high transfer potential, especially coming off foot injury. He does have a RS year to burn if needed. He had the most trouble with positioning of the LBs and maybe just isn't instinctual there the way you need.

Hopefully Knight can break out. Awesome athleticism. If the DL really is significantly better, he'll have a chance to show it off even more.

Howard is interesting to me. He seemingly is the odd man out at RB, but he's got the experience and complete skill set that I'd really miss him on 3rd down and as the guy to step up after injury. Probably could move back over to RB easily enough if needed.

Freshmen I'm not sure. None had jumped out to me as being ready to play at this level, but some people mature a lot by game time, especially physically.
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Good problem to have as a team, terrible for one of the individual players.

If we have so many RBs that one guy is buried at the position and the guy moving to that position won’t have time to develop anything meaningful it speaks to our strengths. Yet individually I’d be pumped if I were Howard ( he just increased his pro ball appeal ) and look at it as a bad thing if I were Swilling ( he won’t see the field with the studs we have there).
 
Technut1990

Technut1990

Ramblin' Wreck
Messages
960
I will say this, we have a high energy guy in the LB group that I would be moving rather then Swilling, if he can’t start taking the correct angles and stop over running plays. That high energy guy plays out of control a lot.
 
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