Spring football starts in a week — all of the practices are open to the public and most of them start at 3:30 p.m. — and we're rolling out our spring preview series starting today. We'll pick topics, like position battles to watch and potential breakout players, and then see how wrong we turn out to be.
Figured with the start coming, I'd try to do my own projected two-deep for Day 1. And, man, it's hard. There almost seem to not even be literal bodies at some positions to fill out the two-deep. (At least with scholarship guys.) So I'm probably going to be way wrong on some of these. But we'll do our best once practices actually start to chart the actual two-deep and report on that at various times throughout the spring.
I tried not to double-up players, like having Shane Evans be the backup center, as well as a starting guard, but there's a high likelihood that could be the case at some spots. And I also literally couldn't think of any other LBs than four of them.
Best guess, taking into consideration we haven't spoken with anyone on Purdue's coaching staff since the bowl game, so there's a possibility guys are out with offseason surgeries:
LT … Swingler/Stickford
LG … Evans/Mendez
C … Barron/Beach
RG … McCann/Yacoobi
RT … Stickford/Smart
QB … Sipe/Plummer
RB … Jones/Knox
TE … Herdman/Hopkins
WR … Sparks/Anderson
WR ... Zico/Burgess
WR… Anthrop/Wright
DE … Turner/Fakasiieiki
DL … Neal/Ellis
DL … Watts/Criddle
DE … Higgins/Reviere
LB … Bailey/Barnes
LB … Jones/Barnes
LB … Larry/Bailey
CB … Major/Cason
CB … Mackey/Hardy
S … J. Thieneman/B. Thieneman
S … Mosley/Smiley
I seriously have no idea who else will be linebackers this spring other than the four obvious guys with Dawson, Chelf and Simmons gone. Will there be a shocker like T.J. Jallow playing in the box? I'm not even sure how many other safeties could move down — C.J. Parker would have, probably, but he's not coming back either. So that how deal will be interesting.
Thoughts on it all?
Figured with the start coming, I'd try to do my own projected two-deep for Day 1. And, man, it's hard. There almost seem to not even be literal bodies at some positions to fill out the two-deep. (At least with scholarship guys.) So I'm probably going to be way wrong on some of these. But we'll do our best once practices actually start to chart the actual two-deep and report on that at various times throughout the spring.
I tried not to double-up players, like having Shane Evans be the backup center, as well as a starting guard, but there's a high likelihood that could be the case at some spots. And I also literally couldn't think of any other LBs than four of them.
Best guess, taking into consideration we haven't spoken with anyone on Purdue's coaching staff since the bowl game, so there's a possibility guys are out with offseason surgeries:
LT … Swingler/Stickford
LG … Evans/Mendez
C … Barron/Beach
RG … McCann/Yacoobi
RT … Stickford/Smart
QB … Sipe/Plummer
RB … Jones/Knox
TE … Herdman/Hopkins
WR … Sparks/Anderson
WR ... Zico/Burgess
WR… Anthrop/Wright
DE … Turner/Fakasiieiki
DL … Neal/Ellis
DL … Watts/Criddle
DE … Higgins/Reviere
LB … Bailey/Barnes
LB … Jones/Barnes
LB … Larry/Bailey
CB … Major/Cason
CB … Mackey/Hardy
S … J. Thieneman/B. Thieneman
S … Mosley/Smiley
I seriously have no idea who else will be linebackers this spring other than the four obvious guys with Dawson, Chelf and Simmons gone. Will there be a shocker like T.J. Jallow playing in the box? I'm not even sure how many other safeties could move down — C.J. Parker would have, probably, but he's not coming back either. So that how deal will be interesting.
Thoughts on it all?
