With impressive postseason runs in the books for the winter sports, football—by default—now bumps back to the front burner. When the Irish return to practice on Wednesday, they’ll kickstart their final ten practices of spring, leading into the Blue-Gold game on Saturday, April 16.
We’ve gotten clues about a new-look team that’ll certainly have a new set of stars emerging. Today’s mailbag gets into some of the position battles that have caught your eye, and also asks about a proper calibration of expectations for the 2016 Irish football team. (Like that’s possible.)
indyirish91: Keith, with the amount of talent moving on from the Irish this year, either to the NFL or graduation, what do you think is a realistic goal for the 2016 team to define the season as a success?
I think the goal remains the same: The Playoffs. And I think it’s a realistic goal—maybe even more so than you might think.
No doubt the talent loss is sizable, especially All-American performers like Jaylon Smith, Will Fuller, Ronnie Stanley and Sheldon Day. But while a ton of experience departs, a rock-solid nucleus remains.
Perhaps more exciting (at least to me) is the new wave of athletes that’ll find the field for the first time. With Brian Kelly entering his seventh season in South Bend (say that five times), a new generation of talent is coming through the pipeline. Not to go too Sports Guy on you, but this feels a little bit like Coach Taylor and the East Dillon squad. Part of the excitement for me is that we’re watching players recruited by this staff after the machine was already rolling. And we get to watch a new wave of guys build on the efforts of the last.
Yes, I know about the defense. I’m not ignoring it. And obviously, staying healthy is important. But if I were to give you three reasons why I think it’s realistic to set the bar this high, I’ll go with:
A) Quarterback Depth and skill talent. (Two guys who can play “championship football” behind center and some talented skill players on both sides of the ball.)
B) Power in the trenches (I like the defensive line a lot, even without a true pass rusher.)
C) The Schedule (only three true road games, more manageable than it looks).
andy44teg: Let’s just say that Folston is 100% by fall camp. How do you think BK splits up the carries between Folston & Adams and yet keeps Dexter from transferring?
If—and it’s a big if—Tarean Folston is healthy and confident, I expect him to lead the team in carries. If that’s a bold statement, I’m fine with that.
There’s a reason Folston was the starter even with C.J. Prosise and Josh Adams on the depth chart, and I feel like Folston would’ve had a monster season in 2015 if his knee didn’t end his year three carries in.
Three running backs is pretty much the bare minimum for a depth chart, and I don’t get the feeling that Dexter Williams is going anywhere. Not when you consider that Folston is a senior and Williams is either going to get a handful of carries a game in South Bend, or none sitting out a transfer season.
What’ll be interesting to me is how these backs separate themselves. Adams is only going to get better. Williams has home-run speed as well. And Folston may be an elite back with the only trait he doesn’t possess is long-game speed.
With a group of brawlers on the offensive line and the strength of this roster two mobile quarterbacks and some very good running backs, there’ll be plenty of carries for everybody. But if Folston plays with the kind of immediacy I expect and fights his way back to the front of the line, he’ll be rewarded.
irishguy55: Keith do you you see Tristan Hoge starting at Centre and Alex Bars playing Tackle or Guard?
It looks like Sam Mustipher is the center. Brian Kelly has been fairly stedfast about Mustiper’s role on this line and it’s clear that he’s done enough to separate himself from the pack. Right now, Tristen Hoge is part of a four-man battle for two jobs. The others are seniors Colin McGovern and Hunter Bivin with junior Alex Bars also in the mix.
Without Bars at full strength, it’s hard to know how this will truly shake out. McGovern had done some good things in the first four practices before sitting out the final session before Easter with a concussion. Bivin seems to be earning trust from this staff, a true candidate at tackle when most thought he was just a depth-chart filler for Bars last year.
It’s hard to say exactly how this group ends up. If you like veterans, you might want to go with McGovern and Bivin. If you think going young and talented is the right angle, you could play Hoge and Bars, with Bars truly being the wildcard because I think the staff thinks he can play guard or tackle, and haven’t quite decided what’s best for him.
There’s no urgency to have this decided during spring practice. But the fact that Mustipher seems good enough to lock down the job at center is the headline.
irishsoccerfirst: Any chance Tillery moves to offensive tackle?
Nope.
The staff believes he’s got the chance to be an elite talent at defensive tackle. That seems more valuable than rebooting his career as an offensive lineman.
cfarri84: Which positions do you think will be sorted out before the end of the spring? Which ones do you expect to remain open heading into the fall?
I really don’t think any position will be sorted before the end of spring. Sure, there’ll be a pretty differentiated pecking order at some places. But from top to bottom, I’m not sure you can say any jobs will be locked in.
Here’s a quick rundown:
QB: Dream on.
RB: Covered it above, but this will go well into fall camp.
WR: With the emergence of Corey Homes and Equanimeous St. Brown, the staff will be mixing and matching around Torii Hunter all year.
OL: Covered it above
TE: Durham Smythe and Alizé Jones will both certainly play, but so will Nic Weishar and designated blocker Jacob Matuska.
DL: The starting four seems to be in place. But after that, who knows.
LB: Nobody is healthy yet. And even if they were, I think this goes into fall.
DB: An early-enrollee freshman (Devin Studstill) is mixing it up with a senior (Max Redfield). And that’s precisely how Kelly, VanGorder and Todd Lyght want it.
Wait, I take it back. Punter and Kicker are locked in. Another year of Tyler Newsome and Justin Yoon seems more than likely. After that? We’ve got five-plus months to figure it out.
