Also curious to see how Allison looks, this Spring could be huge for him, if he's ever gonna be the starter he better kill it this Spring & carry momentum into the Fall.
I was just talking about this with a buddy of mine. I'm really curious to see how Allison plays this Spring. I told my friend that if Allison doesn't take the reins now, he never will.
In terms of player development, I expect it to be similar to the way it was under Davis. In other words I expect noticable positive improvement from one year to the next. We have not had that here in a very long time. Specifically, I expect the OL to make a significant leap this year. I also expect the DL to dominant and to resemble some of the best DLs we have had here. Chad Thomas and Joe Jackson should have AA type seasons and the interior of McIntosh, Norton and Willis should also take a significant step forward in their development. The depth here is outstanding.
I expect the Bermuda Triangle 2.0 to make a huge jump going into their sophomore year after all of the experience they accrued last year and how well they all played. The depth should also be much improved with Owens having another offseason to recover from his injury and the continued maturity of Smith and Perry. It will be interesting to see if Jamie Gordonier is anywhere close to coming back in the Fall. This front 7 could be the best in the nation.
In the secondary I expect a huge jump from Malek Young at CB as he came on very strong toward the end of last year. I also think we are going to see a breakout type year from Jaquan Johnson as he will have a much bigger role going into his Junior year. Hopefully we see the light come on for either Mike Jackson or Redwine as that would give us that much more flexibility with coverages. Also if we can get solid contributions from Jeff James, Romeo Finley and Robert Knowles we will be that much better. I feel very good about our CB situation with Young, Dean, Delaney and Bandy but it is our situation at safety that holds the key here. If we can find another dependable safety to pair with JJ and get generally solid to good play from the position, it will be the difference between our defense being very good and being elite.
Switching gears back to offense I believe we will see Mark Walton really put it all together and make his name as a highly productive player rushing, receiving and blocking. Homer should also take the next step as his role will undoubtedly expand going into his sophomore season. At TE I expect Chris Herndon to take full advantage of Njoku's absence and have his breakout type year. I also expect Michael Irving Jr to make his name known and complement Herndon to form a very effective and productive TE duo. The wildcard here is obviously Jovani Haskins. If he can stay focused and out of Richt's doghouse he has the ability to make UM's TE corps the deepest in the ACC despite their youth and inexperience.
At WR I expect Ahmon Richards to explode but that is somewhat contingent on the QB situation. Even with that said, Richards should make himself into a household name this year. Barring injury I expect Braxton Berrios to have a good solid productive year unless he is completely passed up by true freshmen Thomas and Harley. To me the wildcard here is Lawrence Cager. Cager showed as a true freshman that he can play at this level and be productive. He displayed the ability to be an effective possession receiver. If Cager is fully recovered from the torn ACL he suffered last Spring he could play a crucial role in the red zone in addition to being a good safety valve for our next QB especially on 3rd down. Dionte Mullins is another interesting piece of the puzzle. Mullins was a highly recruited WR but due to qualifying late he spend all of last year learning the playbook. It will be very interesting to see how far along he is this spring and how he will fit in to the offense. As is the quartet of Richards, Berrios, Cager and Mullins has the collective ability to be extremely productive. What makes me even more comfortable with this group is the fact that the three freshmen Harley, Thomas and Dallas are polished enough to be able to contribute immediately. Dallas may end up playing safety or CB but we'll see.
Finally at QB what we have this Spring is a 4 man battle between Rosier, Sherriffs, Allison and Weldon with Perry not arriving until May. This position battle will determine our season and frankly I haven't the slightest clue as to who has the upper hand. Like I stated before, I believe that if Jack Allison ever wants to be the starting quarterback at UM he must make his move NOW. Rosier has the most experience obviously but the question with him is his passing accuracy. Weldon has many tools but he is just a true freshman. Shireffs is an accurate passer with a high football IQ but does he have the requesite athleticism to run the RPO based offense Richt wants? Jack Allison has a cannon and is a decent athlete but does he have the consistency and command of the offense needed? It seriously wouldn't surprise me if none of the above succeeded in separating themselves from the pack and Nkosi Perry comes in May and takes the job. We will see. The positional battles this Spring will be fascinating to watch.
Sorry for the insanely long post. I just got going and couldn't seem to stop.