I watched the Gates play a few times last year, but can't say I'm close to being an expert on their roster. I know one of the big things to look for is they lost basically their entire OL. With only a month or so remaining, going to be posting about our matchups a lot more and watching all of their games. In the first game I watched, I noticed there were 4 OL from last year's unit who are now gone. Here are the dudes who'll supposedly comprise their new OL unit:
Stone Forsythe - Former 3 star in class of 2016, RS Junior, has some starts sprinkled in over his career, but all at RT.
Brett Heggie - Former 3 star in class of 2016, RS Junior, some starts under his belt from 2017, has been injured on and off for last couple years, did get game action in most of their games last year
Nick Buchanan - Former 3 star in class of 2015, RS Senior, the lone returning starter (12 games) from last year's unit, former 3 star, not the biggest dude you'll see lined up at center.
Noah Banks - Dude's a transfer from Iowa Western College, RS Senior. *** This is apparently Chris Bleich. Banks has a medical issue and may not be cleared. Bleich is also a former 3 star.
Jean Delance or Richard Gouraige - Both former 4 stars. Delance is from class of 2016; Gouraige is from class of 2018. Delance is a former transfer from Texas, played in a handful of games last year. Gouraige took a redshirt last year.
Good chance I missed something since I only now began checking out the matchup with this disgusting program. Nonetheless, this matchup with our DL and blitz packages likely is the #1 or #2 key determinant for 08/24.
On the surface, it's a plus matchup for us because we get Garvin against a dude who's mostly played RT and has minimal career starts on one side, and Hill/Rousseau/Patchan against whoever they choose to settle in to their RT spot. Inside, one thing I'm afraid of early in the season would be big, mauling OL like Wiscy going up against Bethel, Ford, Nesta and company. Luckily for us in this game, I wouldn't necessarily call label their OL as "big and mauling." I'm sure we're likely gonna get hit with some misdirection and hope Blake Baker can clean up some of it, but if you're as excited for 08/24 as I am, this is a key matchup to dig in on.
If you know more or can add to info about 08/24 matchup(s), please post here...