Camp is over; what have we learned?
For starters, there’s always the question of what anyone really learns in camp. Coaches themselves will tell you that they’re never quite sure about what they have until the games start getting played. They may know they’re strong in some areas and weak in others, but the big middle ground of unknown commodities remains up in the air until they take the field.
So we know that Max Browne is the starting quarterback, but we probably all assumed that. We know that Jester Weah and Quadree Henderson are the top receivers. We know that Chris Clark and Matt Flanagan will play a lot at tight end.
On defense, we know with a fair amount of certainty that Saleem Brightwell, Elijah Zeise and Seun Idowu will be the starting linebackers, at least until the fourth game of the season. We know that Avonte Maddox will be a starter for the fourth consecutive season. And we know that Dewayne Hendrix, when healthy, will be one of the top defensive ends. We can probably say the same about Keyshon Camp at one of the defensive tackle spots.
That’s what we know, or at least feel reasonably confident about. Beyond that…question marks, with varying degrees of concern attached.
There are the running backs, for instance. Qadree Ollison is probably the Week One starter, but Pat Narduzzi spoke highly of Darrin Hall prior to Wednesday’s practice and at least one of the freshmen, if not both, will see the field as well.
And the offensive line remains a big bowl of possibilities. We’ve talked about the versatility of the group quite a bit in camp, and that’s still an asset for the coaches. Brian O’Neill, Alex Officer and Jaryd Jones-Smith are fairly locked into starting jobs at left tackle, left guard and right tackle, respectively, but center and right guard have some interesting options.
The position battle between Connor Dintino and Jimmy Morrissey went throughout training camp and is probably still continuing; I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Morrissey getting the start against Youngstown State. Likewise for Brandon Hodges, who I think will start at right guard against Youngstown State. But Hodges could be replaced by returning starter Alex Bookser in Week Two, unless the coaches are so confident in Hodges’ play that they look for a different spot for Bookser (perhaps even on the bench?).
At defensive end, I suspect it will be Hendrix and Allen Edwards starting outside of the two guys Charlie Partridge mentioned last week: Camp and Shane Roy. But all of that will come with a healthy rotation.
At cornerback, I’m leaning toward the veteran Dane Jackson getting the nod to start opposite Maddox, but the young guys - especially Damarri Mathis - will plenty of snaps. And at safety, I’m really not sure.
So if I had to guess on a Week One depth chart, here’s what I think it will look like:
QB - Max Browne, Ben DiNucci
RB - Qadree Ollison, Darrin Hall
TE - Chris Clark OR Matt Flanagan
WR - Jester Weah, Ruben Flowers
WR - Quadree Henderson, Rafael Araujo-Lopes
LT - Brian O’Neill, Tony Pilato
LG - Alex Officer, Brandon Ford
C - Jimmy Morrissey OR Connor Dintino
RG - Brandon Hodges, Mike Herndon
RT - Jaryd Jones-Smith, Jerry Drake
DE - Dewayne Hendrix, Rashad Weaver
DT - Keyshon Camp, Amir Watts
DT - Shane Roy, Kam Carter
DE - Allen Edwards, James Folston
MLB - Saleem Brightwell, Chase Pine
Star - Seun Idowu, Jalen Williams
Money - Elijah Zeise, Brian Popp
CB - Avonte Maddox, Jason Pinnock
Boundary safety - Dennis Briggs, Phil Campbell
Field safety - Bricen Garner, Jazzee Stocker
CB - Dane Jackson, Damarri Mathis
That’s my guess. We’ll see how it looks when the two-deep is released on Monday. Feel free to share your guesses.
- I put this Narduzzi quote in another thread but I wanted to mention it here, too. I asked him what gives him confidence that the defense will be better in 2017.
“You know, you look at it - I see more guys making plays. I see the attitude is so much better. And again, if you look back - was it like that last year? I don’t know. But it just seems a little bit different. I see guys making plays on the ball. In the past, last year, guys were in position but didn’t make something happen. Our guys are playing a little bit different.
“I’ll just reference one of our ACC officials that comes out and works our practices every day. I didn’t ask for it; he just said, ‘Hey, that Maddox is different than he was last year.’ So for whatever that is - maybe you guys can find him somewhere; I’m not going to give you his name. But it was good to hear that from somebody else that watches every day.
“We’ll find out September 2nd. It doesn’t matter what you do in practice, it doesn’t matter what you did against Clemson or Youngstown two years ago; it’s what you do on September 2nd. That’s when you find out.”
Some interesting stuff in there, I thought. That refrain about players being in position but not making plays - that was repeated quite a bit last season and this spring when the coaches and players talked about what went wrong with the defense in 2016. That was their answer to why the unit was so bad against the pass. And it made sense: you watch the games and you can see the defenders in tight coverage with receivers but unable to make plays.
So for Narduzzi to go to that point when discussing the progress of the defense in camp - I thought that was relevant. And maybe even encouraging. Like he says, we’ll find out when they start playing games.
For starters, there’s always the question of what anyone really learns in camp. Coaches themselves will tell you that they’re never quite sure about what they have until the games start getting played. They may know they’re strong in some areas and weak in others, but the big middle ground of unknown commodities remains up in the air until they take the field.
So we know that Max Browne is the starting quarterback, but we probably all assumed that. We know that Jester Weah and Quadree Henderson are the top receivers. We know that Chris Clark and Matt Flanagan will play a lot at tight end.
On defense, we know with a fair amount of certainty that Saleem Brightwell, Elijah Zeise and Seun Idowu will be the starting linebackers, at least until the fourth game of the season. We know that Avonte Maddox will be a starter for the fourth consecutive season. And we know that Dewayne Hendrix, when healthy, will be one of the top defensive ends. We can probably say the same about Keyshon Camp at one of the defensive tackle spots.
That’s what we know, or at least feel reasonably confident about. Beyond that…question marks, with varying degrees of concern attached.
There are the running backs, for instance. Qadree Ollison is probably the Week One starter, but Pat Narduzzi spoke highly of Darrin Hall prior to Wednesday’s practice and at least one of the freshmen, if not both, will see the field as well.
And the offensive line remains a big bowl of possibilities. We’ve talked about the versatility of the group quite a bit in camp, and that’s still an asset for the coaches. Brian O’Neill, Alex Officer and Jaryd Jones-Smith are fairly locked into starting jobs at left tackle, left guard and right tackle, respectively, but center and right guard have some interesting options.
The position battle between Connor Dintino and Jimmy Morrissey went throughout training camp and is probably still continuing; I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of Morrissey getting the start against Youngstown State. Likewise for Brandon Hodges, who I think will start at right guard against Youngstown State. But Hodges could be replaced by returning starter Alex Bookser in Week Two, unless the coaches are so confident in Hodges’ play that they look for a different spot for Bookser (perhaps even on the bench?).
At defensive end, I suspect it will be Hendrix and Allen Edwards starting outside of the two guys Charlie Partridge mentioned last week: Camp and Shane Roy. But all of that will come with a healthy rotation.
At cornerback, I’m leaning toward the veteran Dane Jackson getting the nod to start opposite Maddox, but the young guys - especially Damarri Mathis - will plenty of snaps. And at safety, I’m really not sure.
So if I had to guess on a Week One depth chart, here’s what I think it will look like:
QB - Max Browne, Ben DiNucci
RB - Qadree Ollison, Darrin Hall
TE - Chris Clark OR Matt Flanagan
WR - Jester Weah, Ruben Flowers
WR - Quadree Henderson, Rafael Araujo-Lopes
LT - Brian O’Neill, Tony Pilato
LG - Alex Officer, Brandon Ford
C - Jimmy Morrissey OR Connor Dintino
RG - Brandon Hodges, Mike Herndon
RT - Jaryd Jones-Smith, Jerry Drake
DE - Dewayne Hendrix, Rashad Weaver
DT - Keyshon Camp, Amir Watts
DT - Shane Roy, Kam Carter
DE - Allen Edwards, James Folston
MLB - Saleem Brightwell, Chase Pine
Star - Seun Idowu, Jalen Williams
Money - Elijah Zeise, Brian Popp
CB - Avonte Maddox, Jason Pinnock
Boundary safety - Dennis Briggs, Phil Campbell
Field safety - Bricen Garner, Jazzee Stocker
CB - Dane Jackson, Damarri Mathis
That’s my guess. We’ll see how it looks when the two-deep is released on Monday. Feel free to share your guesses.
- I put this Narduzzi quote in another thread but I wanted to mention it here, too. I asked him what gives him confidence that the defense will be better in 2017.
“You know, you look at it - I see more guys making plays. I see the attitude is so much better. And again, if you look back - was it like that last year? I don’t know. But it just seems a little bit different. I see guys making plays on the ball. In the past, last year, guys were in position but didn’t make something happen. Our guys are playing a little bit different.
“I’ll just reference one of our ACC officials that comes out and works our practices every day. I didn’t ask for it; he just said, ‘Hey, that Maddox is different than he was last year.’ So for whatever that is - maybe you guys can find him somewhere; I’m not going to give you his name. But it was good to hear that from somebody else that watches every day.
“We’ll find out September 2nd. It doesn’t matter what you do in practice, it doesn’t matter what you did against Clemson or Youngstown two years ago; it’s what you do on September 2nd. That’s when you find out.”
Some interesting stuff in there, I thought. That refrain about players being in position but not making plays - that was repeated quite a bit last season and this spring when the coaches and players talked about what went wrong with the defense in 2016. That was their answer to why the unit was so bad against the pass. And it made sense: you watch the games and you can see the defenders in tight coverage with receivers but unable to make plays.
So for Narduzzi to go to that point when discussing the progress of the defense in camp - I thought that was relevant. And maybe even encouraging. Like he says, we’ll find out when they start playing games.
