Decked
Heisman Trophy Winner
I would give that edge to Gifford actually. Newby just has more experience. Think Gifford will be on the field more on 3rd down for coverage purposes.
Depth Chart for Arkansas State
- Thread starter knapplc
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LumberJackSker
All-American
What happened to kieron Williams? What is it about him the coaches just dont like?
Stumpy1
All-American
Nope...Newby is more consistent then Gifford in pass coverage. Gifford will make some great plays and then totally whiffs on others. Both are going to play a lot no matter and will rotate regularly.
bugeater17
Starter
Haven't heard much about Eli Sullivan - which is odd him being a walk-on redshirted freshman. Seems like he'd be a good story that would have gotten some preseason pub
Eh, I agree with Decked that I don't think this is the case. Gifford is a former Safety. Newby .... has never appeared to be the quickest LB to me.
If anything, I would say it would be the exact opposite.
Decked
Heisman Trophy Winner
Cracking the three deep is neat, no doubt. However, consider that injuries to Domann and the move to CB by Tony Butler & Anderson probably cleared a nice spot for him.
Sam McKewon made sure to make a show of how many players on last year's initial depth chart were current or former walk-ons. Pretty sure his point was to play up his lack-of-talent drum beat. 21 out of 82 players listed fit that category, though there were 3 TEs, 3 FBs and 4 specialists so basically half were from positions that are frequently walk-ons (at least when you list 6 TEs on your depth chart).
This year there are 80 spots listed. 16 are former walk-ons. If they had listed the same number of TEs and FBs as they did last year, it would have been 18 or 19 out of 83.
Oddly enough, Sam didn't bother to make the same observation this year (that I've seen). Perhaps because it seemed to fit his narrative but is probably more like just the way things usually are.
This year there are 80 spots listed. 16 are former walk-ons. If they had listed the same number of TEs and FBs as they did last year, it would have been 18 or 19 out of 83.
Oddly enough, Sam didn't bother to make the same observation this year (that I've seen). Perhaps because it seemed to fit his narrative but is probably more like just the way things usually are.
Also, another thing I was curious to see is we're exactly at the half-way point (time-wise) for when guys showed up on campus. Fourth- and fifth-year guys were part of a full Pelini class. Third-year guys got here in the coaching transition. Obviously the new guys are Riley's recruits.
It's long been the story that Pelini's recruits were sub-par. I was curious to see how many of the newer guys were able to surpass the older recruits to get on the field. Here's my count based on the depth chart as released (13 offensive positions listed) going by when the recruit committed. Disregarding "-OR-"s.
Offensive Starters: 6 Pelini, 2 Riley, 1 Transfer (Riley), 4 Walk-ons
Offensive Backups: 4 Pelini, 6 Riley, 3 Walk-ons
Defensive Starters: 8 Pelini, 2 Riley, 1 Walk-ons
Defensive Backups: 4 Pelini, 6 Riley, 1 Walk-ons
It's long been the story that Pelini's recruits were sub-par. I was curious to see how many of the newer guys were able to surpass the older recruits to get on the field. Here's my count based on the depth chart as released (13 offensive positions listed) going by when the recruit committed. Disregarding "-OR-"s.
Offensive Starters: 6 Pelini, 2 Riley, 1 Transfer (Riley), 4 Walk-ons
Offensive Backups: 4 Pelini, 6 Riley, 3 Walk-ons
Defensive Starters: 8 Pelini, 2 Riley, 1 Walk-ons
Defensive Backups: 4 Pelini, 6 Riley, 1 Walk-ons
RedDenver
Heisman Trophy Winner
10 Pelini vs 9 Riley on offense and 12 Pelini vs 8 Riley on defense. Anybody know what the percentage of starters from 4th and 5th year guys is typically because I'd expect a lot more of them? And if you add the fact that there's only 10 seniors out of 67 players on the depth chart, then this seems like it supports the idea Pelini was a sub-par recruiter - at least in his last two classes.
And now that I think about it, you must be counting the transition players as Pelini's? Because only the seniors are full Pelini classes.
BigRedBuster
International Man of Mystery
The biggest knock on Palini's recruiting was the first few years. Most people who follow recruiting would say his recruiting picked up the last few years.
This ratio of Bo vs. Mike recruits doesn't surprise me.
This ratio of Bo vs. Mike recruits doesn't surprise me.
Eh, I guess people can see what they want to see. I don't know that it's really conclusive about anything. But I don't think there have been a lot of Riley's recruits that have jumped ahead of other guys which would indicate that the recruiting has been pretty similar between the two.
To rephrase the above numbers. by my count there are five Pelini recruits that are still here that aren't in the two-deep. Chris Jones (injured), Adam Taylor (injuries), Zach Darlington (injury/position switch), Kieron Williams (?) and Avery Anderson (RS Soph). So there's really two that have gotten completely passed by. The rest are right in the mix.
I don't think these number say anything either way about whether any recruiting is sub-standard or not. You'd have to do more of a comparison with other teams for that. I don't think there has been a significant change in the level of recruiting based on who is on campus right now, which is not what many would have said two years ago.
RedDenver
Heisman Trophy Winner
I agree that the evidence isn't conclusive, but I'd also add that it doesn't really suggest that the recruiting is approximately the same either. So I'm not sure it changes anything one way or the other about what was said two years ago.
One thing I'd say is that Pelini missed on recruiting the OL based on there only being 1 senior on the entire OL depth chart. Doesn't necessarily mean Riley's OL recruiting is any better yet though.