Whatta ya think? Will we fill them all? (We sure NEED to--and with quality players, too, obviously.)
How do you think/feel we are doing so far?
I admit to being somewhat "lost in the process".
Given how things work now (and ESPECIALLY after the way so much of the PROMISE of our 2024 RECRUITING class ultimately evaporated), it certainly appears that everything now rests on the eventual quality of what turns out to be our "net GAIN" in the transfer portal.
In other words, we are more or less down to "grabbing at straws blowing by in a full-on gail".
I will await your analysis in a few weeks.
For the moment, I am not particularly flush with hope OR pride.
So far the transfers in are an upgrade, but these narratives can shift rather quickly. The average grade of the out-going transfers was 80 not counting the 4 players without any PFF grade. The average grade for the in-coming transfers is 88. It is hard to tell position-by-position how the upgrades are going because the new assistants are relabeling some of the positions. For example, in 2022 Patrick Toney loosely used the terms SAM , MIKE, and WILL for the strong-side linebacker, middle linebacker, and the weak-side linebacker, respectively and sometimes used either SAME or WILL as the JACK. In 2023 Austin Armstrong arbitrarily labeled two linebackers as LB and had a dedicated JACK. In 2024 it looks like the LB positions will change again, perhaps with a return of a true EDGE or a generic DL. In terms of scouting grade I would say these are definite upgrades even if they are not truly apples-to-oranges comparisons:
- Scooby Williams to Pup Howard = upgrade from 47 PFF to 88 PFF
- Princely Umanmielien to Joey Slackman = upgrade from 76 to 9 PFF
- Addition of a true EDGE George Gumbs = upgrade. Coach Austin Armstrong should get better production out of JACK, F, and B backers, regardless of how these get relabeled in the modified scheme.
- Jaydon Hill to Trikweze Bridges = upgrade from 63 PFF to 75 PFF
- Replacing graduating senior WR Ricky Pearsal with WR Chimere Dike = push. Dike has the advantage of being Graham Mertz's WR a couple years ago, so there is familiarity.
- Micah Mazzcua to Brendan Crenshaw-Dickson = upgrade from 79 PFF to 90 PFF, and an opportunity to shuffle the guards and tackles back to their correct positions.
EDIT: My roster count above was incorrect. We have room for 5 more transfers, not 10.
PLAYER | 2023 DEPTH | 2024 DEPTH | SCOUTING | PFF | CLASS | STATUS |
|---|
Scooby Williams | MIKE 1/ SAM 2 | N/A | 97 | 47 | 2021 | OUT |
Grayson “Pup” Howard | N/A | MIKE 1/ SAM 2 | 94 | 88 | 2020 | IN |
Joey Slackman | N/A | DL 1 | 92 | 90 | 2019 | IN |
Kamari Wilson | TBD | N/A | 90 | 56 | 2022 | OUT |
Trikweze Bridges | N/A | STAR 1 | 89 | 76 | 2019 | IN |
Chimere Dike | N/A | WR-Y 1 | 88 | 72 | 2020 | IN |
Jadarrius Perkins | TBD | N/A | 88 | 49 | 2021 | OUT |
Jalen Kimber | LCB 2 | N/A | 87 | 69 | 2022 | OUT |
George Gumbs | N/A | EDGE 1 | 85 | 61 | 2021 | IN |
Thai Chiakhiao-Bowman | WR-Y 2 | N/A | 85 | 56 | 2021 | OUT |
Micah Mazzccua | LG 1 | N/A | 83 | 79 | 2023 | OUT |
Chris McClellan | END 2 | N/A | 82 | 64 | 2022 | OUT |
Princely Umanmielen | JACK 1 | N/A | 82 | 76 | 2020 | OUT |
Trevor Etienne | RB 2 | N/A | 82 | 81 | 2022 | OUT |
Will Norman | TBD | N/A | 82 | 57 | 2023 | OUT |
Brandon Crenshaw-Dixon | N/A | RT 1 | 81 | 90 | 2019 | IN |
Caleb Douglas | WR-X 1 | N/A | 80 | 60 | 2022 | OUT |
Jaydon Hill | STAR 1 | N/A | 80 | 63 | 2019 | OUT |
Jalen Farmer | TBD | N/A | 79 | 62 | 2022 | OUT |
Miguel Mitchell | SS 1 | N/A | 79 | NR | 2022 | OUT |
Andrew Savaiinaea | TBD | N/A | 78 | NR | 2022 | OUT |
Jonathan Odom | LTE 1 | N/A | 76 | 48 | 2020 | OUT |
Max Brown | QB 2 | N/A | 76 | 37 | 2022 | OUT |
Richard Leonard | RG 1 | N/A | 76 | 65 | 2020 | OUT |
Adam Mihalek | K 1 | N/A | 70 | NR | 2021 | OUT |
Carlson Joseph | TBD | N/A | 70 | NR | 2021 | OUT |
Jordan Herman | TBD | N/A | 70 | NR | 2021 | OUT |
Keenan Landry | TBD | N/A | 70 | NR | 2021 | OUT |
