with the linebacker position being a little thin, wouldn't there be a couple of our def. lineman that could transition to linebacker?

sugarmo2 said:

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with the linebacker position being a little thin, wouldn't there be a couple of our def. lineman that could transition to linebacker?

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Jimbo is going to have to get really creative with next years roster. This thin heading into spring before the season starts in general is a treacherous position to be in in the sport of football.

Nobody can play LB.

Jimbo will have Durkin hold all of our linebackers out of Spring practice to prevent injuries and avoid having to go to our few backups.

Fanatic15...Drs2B! said:

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Jimbo will have Durkin hold all of our linebackers out of Spring practice to prevent injuries and avoid having to go to our few backups.

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Risky but at this point he's not leaving himself with a lot of great looking options as it pertains to depth.

i would think at some point you might look at rolling down a bigger safety. that's what they used to do back in the 80s. jacoby mathews maybe? it's hard to find linebackers these days but i might go in that direction instead of looking at defense lineman. plus a safety can play the pass.

Aren't we going the PWO route with LB and WR?

Enai White made the move from the DL to LB last year in fall camp.

Daymion Sanford could probably make the move to a formal LB in the 2023 class as well based off his size. Maybe Rylan Kennedy too.

Aggieair said:

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Enai White made the move from the DL to LB last year in fall camp.

Daymion Sanford could probably make the move to a formal LB in the 2023 class as well based off his size. Maybe Rylan Kennedy too.

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He didn't move to LB he cross trained with the LB. We did it to transition from 4-2-5 to 3-3-5 without subbing. Unfortunately our worst defense was in our 4-2-5 (at least early on)

jja79 said:

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Aren't we going the PWO route with LB and WR?

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I think some of the walk on's will get some of the open scholarships.

GrandStand93 said:

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It feels like we've been thin at linebacker for decades.

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Root cause - 7 on 7

QB's, WR's, DB's lots to go around. LB's not so much.

vander54 said:

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Aggieair said:

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Enai White made the move from the DL to LB last year in fall camp.

Daymion Sanford could probably make the move to a formal LB in the 2023 class as well based off his size. Maybe Rylan Kennedy too.

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He didn't move to LB he cross trained with the LB. We did it to transition from 4-2-5 to 3-3-5 without subbing. Unfortunately our worst defense was in our 4-2-5 (at least early on)

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I think he will end up at LB this Fall. Would be a good move

TheCurl84 said:

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vander54 said:

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Aggieair said:

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Enai White made the move from the DL to LB last year in fall camp.

Daymion Sanford could probably make the move to a formal LB in the 2023 class as well based off his size. Maybe Rylan Kennedy too.

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He didn't move to LB he cross trained with the LB. We did it to transition from 4-2-5 to 3-3-5 without subbing. Unfortunately our worst defense was in our 4-2-5 (at least early on)

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I think he will end up at LB this Fall. Would be a good move

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Why do you think that?

whatthehey78 said:

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GrandStand93 said:

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It feels like we've been thin at linebacker for decades.

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Root cause - 7 on 7

QB's, WR's, DB's lots to go around. LB's not so much.

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Yet, it's not a position the top 4 schools in the SEC have problems with….is it too much to ask to get a top 50 linebacker in the country?

vander54 said:

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TheCurl84 said:

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vander54 said:

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Aggieair said:

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Enai White made the move from the DL to LB last year in fall camp.

Daymion Sanford could probably make the move to a formal LB in the 2023 class as well based off his size. Maybe Rylan Kennedy too.

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He didn't move to LB he cross trained with the LB. We did it to transition from 4-2-5 to 3-3-5 without subbing. Unfortunately our worst defense was in our 4-2-5 (at least early on)

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I think he will end up at LB this Fall. Would be a good move

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Why do you think that?

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They were preparing him for the move last season. It's a position of need. He has the right measurables. It's a shorter path for him to see the field. And I think he will be very good. Especially as a blitzing LB.

Does that make them better?

TheCurl84 said:

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vander54 said:

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TheCurl84 said:

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vander54 said:

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Aggieair said:

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Enai White made the move from the DL to LB last year in fall camp.

Daymion Sanford could probably make the move to a formal LB in the 2023 class as well based off his size. Maybe Rylan Kennedy too.

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He didn't move to LB he cross trained with the LB. We did it to transition from 4-2-5 to 3-3-5 without subbing. Unfortunately our worst defense was in our 4-2-5 (at least early on)

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I think he will end up at LB this Fall. Would be a good move

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Why do you think that?

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They were preparing him for the move last season. It's a position of need. He has the right measurables. It's a shorter path for him to see the field. And I think he will be very good. Especially as a blitzing LB.

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Again they weren't prepping him. They were cross training him along with 2 others to do the same thing.

You have stars so you should have seen the practice reports on this. Unless you didn't have them last fall.

I guess I don't see the difference. Why cross train him if they have no intention of playing him in that position? When they were doing that they thought they'd have Ant Hill as part of the LB group in '23. I predict they will have a need for him in that role, and the fact he's been cross trained means he will be more able to make such a move.

sugarmo2 said:

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with the linebacker position being a little thin, wouldn't there be a couple of our def. lineman that could transition to linebacker?

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In a 3-4, sure. In a 4 down alignment, you'd prefer to have a big safety spin down, especially if you're in nickel most of the time. You need athleticism and speed to run with a wideout or tailback, a converted defensive lineman isn't going to do that, no matter how fast they are, they don't have the hip agility or else they'd be playing DB.

The only time it makes sense to move a D lineman to linebacker is if that lineman is light and going to be more of a dedicated pass rusher who can use the alignment to create favorable matchups.

TheTruthsLastHope said:

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Fanatic15...Drs2B! said:

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Jimbo will have Durkin hold all of our linebackers out of Spring practice to prevent injuries and avoid having to go to our few backups.

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Risky but at this point he's not leaving himself with a lot of great looking options as it pertains to depth.

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As it stands now, if we sustain even 1 injury at LB we are fooked

vander54 said:

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We have 6 LB so it's not a number issue. We have 3 LB with some level of experience. The issue is we could upgrade our talent at LB but we have good numbers and I like 5 of the 6 but 1 of those isn't starter quality, 1 played special teams last year, and the other 2 are Freshmen.

Adding an experience LB that can at the very least challenge for a starting role would be huge

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2 of the 6, as of today, are freshmen that aren't physically ready to contribute yet (Sanford, Johnson) and another is a freshman that hasn't played a down of college football, while another gnashed but has very limited experience

We have 2 starters that are good/decent but not all sec caliber

My guess is, if necessary we will see the rice P-walk-on hit the field before we see Sanford or Johnson get in

Let's stop getting hung up on a position. I would be happy if we just field a top ranked defense. We seemed to be trending in the right direction until we crashed last year under Durkin.

NyAggie said:

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vander54 said:

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We have 6 LB so it's not a number issue. We have 3 LB with some level of experience. The issue is we could upgrade our talent at LB but we have good numbers and I like 5 of the 6 but 1 of those isn't starter quality, 1 played special teams last year, and the other 2 are Freshmen.

Adding an experience LB that can at the very least challenge for a starting role would be huge

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2 of the 6, as of today, are freshmen that aren't physically ready to contribute yet (Sanford, Johnson) and another is a freshman that hasn't played a down of college football, while another gnashed but has very limited experience

We have 2 starters that are good/decent but not all sec caliber

My guess is, if necessary we will see the rice P-walk-on hit the field before we see Sanford or Johnson get in

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Basically exactly what I was saying. 2 of the 3 freshmen should play at some point in their career but they are freshmen.

jja79 said:

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Does that make them better?

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Not all but at this juncture we're simply not going to get quality players who should be D1 to field an 85 man scholarship roster. Football way too violent of a sport with much attrition. It's a shot in the dark but Jimbo may be coaching for his career as P5 HC next year.

One piece of good news is that the transfer from Rice is better than y'all realize.

Bronco6G said:

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whatthehey78 said:

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GrandStand93 said:

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It feels like we've been thin at linebacker for decades.

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Root cause - 7 on 7

QB's, WR's, DB's lots to go around. LB's not so much.

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Yet, it's not a position the top 4 schools in the SEC have problems with….is it too much to ask to get a top 50 linebacker in the country?

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With 7 on 7 and after the top 4 get theirs...there aren't that many talented ones to go around. It has become an unpopular position. The 'glory' is in playing QB, WR and after that, the lesser talented WR's become DB's.

Teacher_Ag said:

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One piece of good news is that the transfer from Rice is better than y'all realize.

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I hope so, but staff never really mentions him whenever they talk about depth at the LB position

I think he will prove himself.

sugarmo2 said:

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with the linebacker position being a little thin, wouldn't there be a couple of our def. lineman that could transition to linebacker?

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I have to imagine it's a very hard transition to make

We played a 3-2-6 about half the time with Richardson playing lb. my guess is we will keep playing a bunch of DB's instead of traditional linebackers.

Don't we need a coordinator that's gonna use them first?