And now for something completely different...

walksalone

walksalone

Heisman Trophy Winner
I know the loss of Prince, Hagg, Gomes, and Thenarse are pretty big.

Are Osbourne and Cassidy going to be the cornerstones of the secondary? And who else do you expect to step up?

 
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Osborne will remain one of the safeties, but I think PJ Smith will step into the other spot. I'd look for Cassidy to be the peso back, with maybe Andrew Green stepping up into Gomes dime-back spot.

The other possibility with some of the bigger B1G teams is to move Lavonte David to the peso back, and having Sean Fisher and Will Compton hold down the linebacker spots. Then you can keep Cassidy back at one of the safety spots.

Ciante Evans will probably take Prince's spot.

The defense should still be pretty good. We need those guys in the secondary to play well, but I think just as important is to get good play from whoever replaces Pierre Allen. Otherwise, with Meredith, Steinkuhler, and hopefully Crick on the d-line, we should be very solid up front.

 
Hercules said:
Osborne will remain one of the safeties, but I think PJ Smith will step into the other spot. I'd look for Cassidy to be the peso back, with maybe Andrew Green stepping up into Gomes dime-back spot.

The other possibility with some of the bigger B1G teams is to move Lavonte David to the peso back, and having Sean Fisher and Will Compton hold down the linebacker spots. Then you can keep Cassidy back at one of the safety spots.

Ciante Evans will probably take Prince's spot.

The defense should still be pretty good. We need those guys in the secondary to play well, but I think just as important is to get good play from whoever replaces Pierre Allen. Otherwise, with Meredith, Steinkuhler, and hopefully Crick on the d-line, we should be very solid up front.
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I think ciante will more than likely take dennards spot and have him move to princes position. Or are the 2 interchangeable?

 
Hercules said:
Osborne will remain one of the safeties, but I think PJ Smith will step into the other spot. I'd look for Cassidy to be the peso back, with maybe Andrew Green stepping up into Gomes dime-back spot.

The other possibility with some of the bigger B1G teams is to move Lavonte David to the peso back, and having Sean Fisher and Will Compton hold down the linebacker spots. Then you can keep Cassidy back at one of the safety spots.

Ciante Evans will probably take Prince's spot.

The defense should still be pretty good. We need those guys in the secondary to play well, but I think just as important is to get good play from whoever replaces Pierre Allen. Otherwise, with Meredith, Steinkuhler, and hopefully Crick on the d-line, we should be very solid up front.
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I hadn't mentioned the front 7, because it seems we're pretty good to go up there. Outside of Pierre Allen, we're getting most everybody back. I just guess my biggest concerns were with the amount of talent we're losing in the secondary...

 
Apparently everything on defense is interchangeable, except for the DL.

But Fonzie probably gets the assignment of the #1 WR.

 
walksalone said:
Hercules said:
Osborne will remain one of the safeties, but I think PJ Smith will step into the other spot. I'd look for Cassidy to be the peso back, with maybe Andrew Green stepping up into Gomes dime-back spot.

The other possibility with some of the bigger B1G teams is to move Lavonte David to the peso back, and having Sean Fisher and Will Compton hold down the linebacker spots. Then you can keep Cassidy back at one of the safety spots.

Ciante Evans will probably take Prince's spot.

The defense should still be pretty good. We need those guys in the secondary to play well, but I think just as important is to get good play from whoever replaces Pierre Allen. Otherwise, with Meredith, Steinkuhler, and hopefully Crick on the d-line, we should be very solid up front.
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I hadn't mentioned the front 7, because it seems we're pretty good to go up there. Outside of Pierre Allen, we're getting most everybody back. I just guess my biggest concerns were with the amount of talent we're losing in the secondary...
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Yeah, I don't think we'll have the best secondary in the country anymore. But we might still have the best secondary in the conference. I was very impressed with Ciante Evans play this year, and liked how Osborne and Cassidy looked too. The toughest guys to replace I think are Hagg and Gomes, because of how versatile they are, but I'm not sure we'll need guys like that as badly in the Big 10... I think losing them would hurt more if we were staying in the Big 12.

 
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Hercules said:
Yeah, I don't think we'll have the best secondary in the country anymore. But we might still have the best secondary in the conference. I was very impressed with Ciante Evans play this year, and liked how Osborne and Cassidy looked too. The toughest guys to replace I think are Hagg and Gomes, because of how versatile they are, but I'm not sure we'll need guys like that as badly in the Big 10... I think losing them would hurt more if we were staying in the Big 12.
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I don't think we'll need the best secondary in the nation as much as we have relied on it this past year. You look at schools like Wisconsin, Iowa. This is more of a pound the rock type of conference.

 
Fortunately Marvin is our best position-coach. Plus we'll have Stafford, Cooper, and Jackson joining the mix. I think we'll hold-up well-enough.

The front-7 should obviously be improved provided Crick doesn't jump.

I'll be interested to see what happens with our d-staffing.

 
Monty Python references class up any thread.

I think we're set on defense. The front seven will be a strength, and DEEEEEP on the D Line, which will be necessary in a more pound-the-rock conference. I think we'll do just fine with our LBs filling gaps, and I expect David to break his record of 150 tackles next year.

The secondary doesn't concern me in the least, either. Sanders is probably the best coach on the team after Bo, and he has plenty of talent to work with. It's been covered above quite well, but guys like Dennard, Evans, Osborne, Smith, Cassidy, Green, yadda yadda yadda, we're going to be OK.

 
knapplc said:
Monty Python references class up any thread.

I think we're set on defense. The front seven will be a strength, and DEEEEEP on the D Line, which will be necessary in a more pound-the-rock conference. I think we'll do just fine with our LBs filling gaps, and I expect David to break his record of 150 tackles next year.

The secondary doesn't concern me in the least, either. Sanders is probably the best coach on the team after Bo, and he has plenty of talent to work with. It's been covered above quite well, but guys like Dennard, Evans, Osborne, Smith, Cassidy, Green, yadda yadda yadda, we're going to be OK.
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I know where you're coming from. The front 7 is good to go, but we're going from a spread offense conference to a pound the rock offensive conference. I'm just hoping that transition is a smooth one. The secondary is going to have to change up how they are to be utilized.

 
One guy who is going to step up is Cam Meredith. He quietly had a tremendous year this year. Didn't get a lot of recognition. He is going to be the next great Blackshirt DE. I think Thaddeus Randle and Chase Rome are both gonna be beasts in the middle. Our d-line should be better next year even though we lose a couple of guys.

 
Not only that, but I anticipate needing to tack on some muscle mass, while maintaining speed. I believe (although I do not know) that we are, overall, a faster team than most in the Big 10. Ohio State comes to mind immediately as a team as fast, if not faster, than the Huskers and there may be others. Speed will be a major factor moving forward in the Big 10, but you MUST pair that with strength, or teams like Iowa and Wiscy will simply bowl you over.

The great news is that we have fantastic depth on the D Line, where run-stopping begins. My prediction for our two-deep goes like this:

Meredith - Steinkuhler - Crick - Ankrah

Ankrah - Moore - Randle - Martin

After that, we have yet another string of guys:

Tobi Okuyemi, Walker Ashburn and Jake Cotton on the D Line, and Chase Rome may quite possible supplant one of the guys in my two-deep up there. The coaches are very high on him. I'm spacing on our D Line commits coming in right now, but I expect every single 2011 signee to redshirt. It'd be nearly impossible for anyone coming in as a true freshman to fight their way into a two-deep spot with these guys ahead of them.

 
It is a “put up or shut up” year for Will Compton and any other LB not named LaVonte David. We have been blown so much smoke the past few off-seasons about these guys only to have them not deliver. Hopefully whoever comes in and replaces Ekeler finally gets these guys to play to their “potential”.

 
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