As promised, doubling up on posts this week so we can keep the roster discussion going.
We’re only 4 ½ ish weeks from fall camp guys! While there’s plenty of summer left I’m looking forward to seeing the Griz back out there and getting ready for the season. Looking at my topics left I’ll double-up one more week and then get back to just 1 post per week.
This week, one of our biggest unknowns going into the season, linebackers. This spring reporters, coaches, and fans alike were impressed with how the new linebackers “swarmed” to the ball. I have to say that it stood out to me, in years past we’d see Tripp/Coyle/JP on an island and expected to make individual stops. This group they charge ahead and smother ball carriers and it proved to be successful against a dinged up O-line and an RB corps that got incredibly depleted by the end of camp. Which leads to the question, did the LBs really excel in spring ball, or did they just take advantage of a Griz O-line that was down to just 1 expected starter and a running back corps that was basically down to a fullback that’s not on the team anymore and the 4th string running back.
The other intrigue with this group is its overall size and composition. Of the projected 2-deep only three of the 6 actually played as linebackers in high school and came to the Griz expecting to play as linebackers (Kose, Gamboa and Schye). Meanwihle Lebsock, Van Ackeren, & Strahm were all safeties in high school and came here initially pegged for safety. What has that created? Well first we saw Jeremiah Kose’s bold spring camp prediction that this group will be better in pass coverage than the last. That raised some eyebrows, but if you look at it objectively with the players backgrounds, and what we’ve seen in spring ball I think Kose is on to something. On the other hand, this group is much smaller and lighter than the guys we just saw graduate. How will that hold up with rush defense? Time will tell.
Starter – MLB Jeremiah Kose – While this board was going ape-crap over Schye (and rightfully so, he’s got an amazing future) they weren’t seeing what a near healthy Kose was doing in 7 on 7 in the daily practices. Last fall he also showed great range, power, and knowledge of what was expected of him. Kose is a tall and powerful presence in the middle. One 7 on 7 he had a great INT against JJ who may have been fooled by how quick Kose is in space. Also, based on his proclamations to the media, I’m going to guess he’s working to be a leader within the LB ranks as well. Health is the big issue, he came in having to redshirt due to a knee surgery, then in the UND game last year a funny landing and bad twist on his knee ended his season quickly. Freak injuries or not, if his knees aren’t 100% and can’t handle the brunt of a full season at MLB the Griz will have to rely heavily on rotating him and Schye.
Starter – OLB Kendrick Van Ackeren – KVA came to the Griz as a hopeful answer to much needed safety help in the winter/spring of 2013. However after having to fill in at OLB in the spring the coaches saw where he would excel, and moved him to OLB. He went on to become the Grizzlies Special Teams player of the year and saw time at OLB as well. If I had a guess I’d think Kendrick could be the early favorite to lead the team in tackles, he’s the most experienced of the group and many times we see backers that excel at special teams carry it over to when they start on defense. Kendrick is a hard hitter, I like that about him. Not sure if it’s by design or what but I didn’t ever see him getting after the QB much, he seems to get swallowed up a bit when blitzing. Pass coverage looks good, one of the backers that loves to get in on the group tackles. I’m less concerned about him and durability considering he’s got a year as a linebacker in Hawaii and a full year with the UM as a backup and special teamer.
Co-Starter – OLB Herbert Gamboa By no means has Gamboa locked up starting opposite of KVA, Lebsock is right there as well, but based on what this fan saw in spring ball I’d give the slight edge to Gamboa at this point. The positives on Gamboa is his pass coverage, his range, and his speed. We won’t see him getting beat 5 yards up the field on long-bomb TDs like we saw happen to JP in the EWU game… I don’t think. Gamboa brings very good pass coverage abilities to the linebacker corps. Run support seems to be a bit of an issue, I didn’t see much of a stand-out presence from him in spring ball. He was in on the group tackles a lot, but missed a few opportunities to make solo tackles and would get overwhelmed by O-linemen.
Co-Starter – OLB Connor Lebsock Fairly light for a linebacker at this point (205 pounds on the gogriz.com roster) Lebsock much like Gamboa shows good smarts in pass coverage but issues in run support at times. I’d bet this summer a big goal for Lebsock is to get his weight up, adding muscle and some size will really help. He’s done just about as much as Gamboa this spring as well. Unless one really separates from the other in fall camp we may see the defense use Gamboa in one series and Lebsock in the next. While they’re odd occurrences, injuries have been an issue for Lebsock, a real bad hamstring pull in 2011 forced him to red shirt, then in 2012 he only played 4 games and was lost for the season (ankle?). He played all of 2013 though and I expect is looking forward to being a healthy contributor.
Backup – MLB Tucker Schye Like I said, this guy got a lot of buzz on egriz and rightfully so. As a middle linebacker he’s already got the size at 6-4 and listed at 225 (I’d bet nearly 235 now). He’s a physical player and forced a ton of fumbles in practice and in the scrimmages. His weak spot was pass coverage, and I was told by another that there’s still some work to be done with having the playbook down and recognizing some shifts and identifying them to the rest of the defense. That will improve in time. Schye is like a madman when blitzing and finding the a-gap in the O-line and absolutely blowing up the running back. As a redshirt freshman he looks like what I saw out of Brock Coyle and Caleb McSurdy when they were juniors on the team. Look for tons of time out of Tucker, esp when we play more rush-oriented teams.
Backup – OLB Connor Strahm Of the converted HS safeties I think Strahm still needs the most work to get comfortable as an outside linebacker. He’s a bigger guy and with more conditioning and work he’s going to make a great outside linebacker that will be durable in run-support but skilled in pass coverage as well. He looked to be a good blitzer from what I saw. This guy was the Orgeon player of the year as I recall, I think he’ll soon find himself on the field a lot. 2014 might be more of a special teams year for him, but he’ll rotate in behind KVA as well.
Depth – LB Keenan Watt Not sure if Watt will turn out to be a middle linebacker or move to the outside. He looked like a walk-on linebacker in spring camp for sure. Some good plays followed by some not so good ones. Lots of yelling from the coaches and encouragement from his teammates. Watt’s best bet for time this year will be on special teams.
Depth – OLB Zach Vis – A converted WR, Vis got some good mentions for adapting to playing as LB from the coaches. A full year at this position will help him get more comfortable as a linebacker. I liked how quick he is but having to adapt to playing defense and breaking through blocks and getting to running backs is what he’ll need time at.
-------------
I’ve seen the Griz get through a season with 6 linebackers but it’s tough to rely on that, injuries happen and we’ve got a few guys with a history of injury. I’m thinking of all the positions on defense, this might be a spot where an incoming freshman might get a chance to make a contribution. We’ve got a few LB’s in this class as well, Josh Buss, Alex Thomas, Shayne Cochran, Dylan Stenseth, Tyler Richtmeyer, and Milan Mirrero. (Buss, Thomas, and Cochran were announced on NLI day while the rest were announced as formally accepting admission to the UM) Thomas would be my guess to get a shot. Thomas is converting from DE but has a good resume as a difference maker on special teams and was rumored to get some interest as a preferred walk-on at Boise and Missouri.
EDIT: updated that Gamboa played OLB in high school, but he did come here to play as a safety at first.
We’re only 4 ½ ish weeks from fall camp guys! While there’s plenty of summer left I’m looking forward to seeing the Griz back out there and getting ready for the season. Looking at my topics left I’ll double-up one more week and then get back to just 1 post per week.
This week, one of our biggest unknowns going into the season, linebackers. This spring reporters, coaches, and fans alike were impressed with how the new linebackers “swarmed” to the ball. I have to say that it stood out to me, in years past we’d see Tripp/Coyle/JP on an island and expected to make individual stops. This group they charge ahead and smother ball carriers and it proved to be successful against a dinged up O-line and an RB corps that got incredibly depleted by the end of camp. Which leads to the question, did the LBs really excel in spring ball, or did they just take advantage of a Griz O-line that was down to just 1 expected starter and a running back corps that was basically down to a fullback that’s not on the team anymore and the 4th string running back.
The other intrigue with this group is its overall size and composition. Of the projected 2-deep only three of the 6 actually played as linebackers in high school and came to the Griz expecting to play as linebackers (Kose, Gamboa and Schye). Meanwihle Lebsock, Van Ackeren, & Strahm were all safeties in high school and came here initially pegged for safety. What has that created? Well first we saw Jeremiah Kose’s bold spring camp prediction that this group will be better in pass coverage than the last. That raised some eyebrows, but if you look at it objectively with the players backgrounds, and what we’ve seen in spring ball I think Kose is on to something. On the other hand, this group is much smaller and lighter than the guys we just saw graduate. How will that hold up with rush defense? Time will tell.
Starter – MLB Jeremiah Kose – While this board was going ape-crap over Schye (and rightfully so, he’s got an amazing future) they weren’t seeing what a near healthy Kose was doing in 7 on 7 in the daily practices. Last fall he also showed great range, power, and knowledge of what was expected of him. Kose is a tall and powerful presence in the middle. One 7 on 7 he had a great INT against JJ who may have been fooled by how quick Kose is in space. Also, based on his proclamations to the media, I’m going to guess he’s working to be a leader within the LB ranks as well. Health is the big issue, he came in having to redshirt due to a knee surgery, then in the UND game last year a funny landing and bad twist on his knee ended his season quickly. Freak injuries or not, if his knees aren’t 100% and can’t handle the brunt of a full season at MLB the Griz will have to rely heavily on rotating him and Schye.
Starter – OLB Kendrick Van Ackeren – KVA came to the Griz as a hopeful answer to much needed safety help in the winter/spring of 2013. However after having to fill in at OLB in the spring the coaches saw where he would excel, and moved him to OLB. He went on to become the Grizzlies Special Teams player of the year and saw time at OLB as well. If I had a guess I’d think Kendrick could be the early favorite to lead the team in tackles, he’s the most experienced of the group and many times we see backers that excel at special teams carry it over to when they start on defense. Kendrick is a hard hitter, I like that about him. Not sure if it’s by design or what but I didn’t ever see him getting after the QB much, he seems to get swallowed up a bit when blitzing. Pass coverage looks good, one of the backers that loves to get in on the group tackles. I’m less concerned about him and durability considering he’s got a year as a linebacker in Hawaii and a full year with the UM as a backup and special teamer.
Co-Starter – OLB Herbert Gamboa By no means has Gamboa locked up starting opposite of KVA, Lebsock is right there as well, but based on what this fan saw in spring ball I’d give the slight edge to Gamboa at this point. The positives on Gamboa is his pass coverage, his range, and his speed. We won’t see him getting beat 5 yards up the field on long-bomb TDs like we saw happen to JP in the EWU game… I don’t think. Gamboa brings very good pass coverage abilities to the linebacker corps. Run support seems to be a bit of an issue, I didn’t see much of a stand-out presence from him in spring ball. He was in on the group tackles a lot, but missed a few opportunities to make solo tackles and would get overwhelmed by O-linemen.
Co-Starter – OLB Connor Lebsock Fairly light for a linebacker at this point (205 pounds on the gogriz.com roster) Lebsock much like Gamboa shows good smarts in pass coverage but issues in run support at times. I’d bet this summer a big goal for Lebsock is to get his weight up, adding muscle and some size will really help. He’s done just about as much as Gamboa this spring as well. Unless one really separates from the other in fall camp we may see the defense use Gamboa in one series and Lebsock in the next. While they’re odd occurrences, injuries have been an issue for Lebsock, a real bad hamstring pull in 2011 forced him to red shirt, then in 2012 he only played 4 games and was lost for the season (ankle?). He played all of 2013 though and I expect is looking forward to being a healthy contributor.
Backup – MLB Tucker Schye Like I said, this guy got a lot of buzz on egriz and rightfully so. As a middle linebacker he’s already got the size at 6-4 and listed at 225 (I’d bet nearly 235 now). He’s a physical player and forced a ton of fumbles in practice and in the scrimmages. His weak spot was pass coverage, and I was told by another that there’s still some work to be done with having the playbook down and recognizing some shifts and identifying them to the rest of the defense. That will improve in time. Schye is like a madman when blitzing and finding the a-gap in the O-line and absolutely blowing up the running back. As a redshirt freshman he looks like what I saw out of Brock Coyle and Caleb McSurdy when they were juniors on the team. Look for tons of time out of Tucker, esp when we play more rush-oriented teams.
Backup – OLB Connor Strahm Of the converted HS safeties I think Strahm still needs the most work to get comfortable as an outside linebacker. He’s a bigger guy and with more conditioning and work he’s going to make a great outside linebacker that will be durable in run-support but skilled in pass coverage as well. He looked to be a good blitzer from what I saw. This guy was the Orgeon player of the year as I recall, I think he’ll soon find himself on the field a lot. 2014 might be more of a special teams year for him, but he’ll rotate in behind KVA as well.
Depth – LB Keenan Watt Not sure if Watt will turn out to be a middle linebacker or move to the outside. He looked like a walk-on linebacker in spring camp for sure. Some good plays followed by some not so good ones. Lots of yelling from the coaches and encouragement from his teammates. Watt’s best bet for time this year will be on special teams.
Depth – OLB Zach Vis – A converted WR, Vis got some good mentions for adapting to playing as LB from the coaches. A full year at this position will help him get more comfortable as a linebacker. I liked how quick he is but having to adapt to playing defense and breaking through blocks and getting to running backs is what he’ll need time at.
-------------
I’ve seen the Griz get through a season with 6 linebackers but it’s tough to rely on that, injuries happen and we’ve got a few guys with a history of injury. I’m thinking of all the positions on defense, this might be a spot where an incoming freshman might get a chance to make a contribution. We’ve got a few LB’s in this class as well, Josh Buss, Alex Thomas, Shayne Cochran, Dylan Stenseth, Tyler Richtmeyer, and Milan Mirrero. (Buss, Thomas, and Cochran were announced on NLI day while the rest were announced as formally accepting admission to the UM) Thomas would be my guess to get a shot. Thomas is converting from DE but has a good resume as a difference maker on special teams and was rumored to get some interest as a preferred walk-on at Boise and Missouri.
EDIT: updated that Gamboa played OLB in high school, but he did come here to play as a safety at first.
