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Early 2026 Depth Chart

Calinative said:
He was "huge" in critical times, because he's the one they put on the field. If they put Fletcher in those moments, I think it'd have pretty much done the same honestly. So the reality should maybe have been more having Fletcher for those scenarios and having had Pringle worked in more earlier in the game too... Plus If they got more Pringle involved I think he can be a real receiving threat. I think people have been overly critical on his pass blocking... But sure if you say in big moments you wouldn't have wanted to rely on him thats fine, but throught the game? especially 1st halves....

I think Lyle could certainly be a receiving option and likely a fine blocker. He's built quite well. And again those late moments where like we had Brown in because we were in clear pass situations... Wouldn't say Lyles run efficiency really would be a big negative.

But again my main point is I don't think Brown has a big ceiling, and we have 1 guy just plainly better in Fletcher, and 2 more who could probably deliver at least 90% of what he does in Lofton and Mallory already.... Lyle IF he can get to the ceiling or something close provides something much different. Either way I'd still think Pringle is RB2. This is a RB3 competition. Basically I don't see any way Brown should be more than RB3, wherease IF Lyle truly played to his potential I wouldn't be surprised to see him overtake for RB2.... which is Why I'd prefer to take the shot on him still.
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Brown vs Fletcher/Pringle is a different conversation than Brown vs Lyle.

I agree Fletcher/Pringle are more dynamic runners than Brown and should be higher on the depth chart. Brown is a very dependable but no flash RB. I agree there isn't much more ceiling to his game.

But running, receiving, blocking - Brown is better than Lyle. Lyle has more speed - but that's it. I'd take Brown over Lyle in any situation in any quarter.

Brown had 6 carries on the final drive vs ND. He had 5 runs on the final drive vs Ohio St. I think he was on the field ahead of Fletcher for receiving purposes, but he was also leaned on heavily as a runner in nut crunch time. He was also on the field to close all other our close games - Indiana, FSU, SMU. So when the coaches needed a closer - Brown was their guy a large majority of the time.

Louisville was the one game he didn't close. Lyle closed, and he fumbled his last carry 🤦‍♂️

Lyle is an ok RB. But the idea of Lyle's ceiling/what he can be has always been & will continue to be greater than the reality of what he's capable of doing.
 
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bshaw28 said:
Brown vs Fletcher/Pringle is a different conversation than Brown vs Lyle.

I agree Fletcher/Pringle are more dynamic runners than Brown and should be higher on the depth chart. Brown is a very dependable but no flash RB. I agree there isn't much more ceiling to his game.

But running, receiving, blocking - Brown is better than Lyle. Lyle has more speed - but that's it. I'd take Brown over Lyle in any situation in any quarter.

Brown had 6 carries on the final drive vs ND. He had 5 runs on the final drive vs Ohio St. I think he was on the field ahead of Fletcher for receiving purposes, but he was leaned on heaviiy as a runner in nut crunch time. He was also on the field to close all other our close games - Indiana, FSU, SMU. So when the coaches needed a closer - Brown was their guy a large majority of the time.

Louisville was the one game he didn't close. Lyle closed, and he fumbled his last carry 🤦‍♂️

Lyle is an ok RB. But the idea of Lyle's ceiling/what he can be has always been & will continue to be greater than the reality of what he's capable of doing.
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Excellent response. The coaches trusted Brown in the most critical moments of the season and he responded in a big way. To belittle that is ridiculous.

IMO Fletch, Pringle, and Brown will all contribute next year (assuming health). If Lyle wants to make it here, he's going to need to show the coaches he's as good or better than those guys. I'd love to see him do that, but it's a tall task.
 
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LT Okunlola- LG Alofaituli- C Rodriguez- RG McCoy- RT Cantwell
 
This is how I could see the O-line turning out:

LT- Merriweather
LG- McCoy or Samson
Center- Bucannon
RG- McCoy or Samson
RT- Cantwell
 
JZCane0825 said:
LT - McCoy
LG - Buchanon
C - Rodriguez
RG - Samson
RT - Cantwell
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I just have a hard time penciling in Rodriguez at Center at the moment. We will see how he holds up in spring, but he has his hands full going against Moten and Scott. They unfortunately might abuse him
 
Calinative said:
My guess to an early depth chart would look like this on offense:
View attachment 355303
As far as role comparisons:
- CJ Daniels/Horton = Josh Moore, Cam Vaughn, Milan Parris
- Jacolby George = Cooper Barkate, Daylyn Upshaw .... Wingo may end up Z
- Sam Brown/ Marion = Vandrevius Jacobs, Tyran Evans

I do think next year it's probably Moore, Wingo, and Toney as the main starting 3.

Hopefully we use a lot more 4 WR personnel. Could see Moore/Vaughn Jacobs/Wingo outside with Toney and Barkate/Upshaw in the slot.
Should definitely be using more 2 RB personnel as well with On of Fletcher/Brown and one of Pringle/Lyle. Though I still don't really expect BOTH Lyle/Brown to be here post-spring...

I'll keep saying I view Okunlola as a better pure pass protector than McCoy, so I'd have him at OT. Cantwell imo is guaranteed a starter. Still think Cantwell and Samson/mcCoy could flip with Cantwell at LT. Rodriguez is almost certainly gunna start at Center. I think Buchanan+Meriweather are likely going to split reps similar to Okunlola/McCoy this past year. Meriweather just overall is likely to be the 6th Olineman and the guy that fills in as needed along the oline. I think if any injuries happen You'd want to leave Buchanan at RG.

View attachment 355300

Who we start at Nickel is probably THE most up for debate regarding the defense for next year. I'd guess Dunnigan and Portis are maybe looked at as the long term options there. Thornton has played a lot of Nickel at BC I'm pretty sure. And of Course when we Scott was out Fitzgerald played the most snaps in the Nickel. The Nickel snaps for this season were Scott 489, Fitzgerald 119, Jakobe Thomas 98, and Poyser 96, Xavier Lucas 66. We also know last year Damari was the guy that was supposed to mostly be the Nickel. And it's also possible that the staff wants to get Antione on the field more. So that could absolutely be used as the justification to maybe have Lucas/Damari more in the Nickel role this year... Especially since we are EXTREMELY limited depth at Safety. And ultimately the question SHOULD BE how do we get the best 5 DBs on the field as often as possible.... Someone like @Memnon better able to answer that given what the staff did this year and how the current roster is set to look.

At LB, This is what I'm hoping it's looking like. However I do think its more likely that ultimately they'd want Wiley as the Mike backing up Toure. Bonner seems like the most natural Will LB on the roster along with JJ Edwards... Well and Pruitt, but I'm convinced they will never play Pruitt at LB... So I think its more likely to be
Mike: Toure / Wiley / Chase Smith / Busch or Campbell
But I'm hopefully that Wiley is just too good to keep off the field so they have him start at Will....

At DLine I think we are incredibly loaded at DT this year. I would 100% have Blount primarily playing EDGE. We absolutely NEED him to fill in the Bain role along with Lowe. Scroggins will be good rotational depth there as well. I think Wilson is a nice Mesidor replacement.

But obviously I think we are going to have Lightfoot on the field a LOT more next year than this past year. He's absolutely earned it. When that happens I think Blount likely Slides inside. I think no matter what we will rotate at like 2-4x the rate we rotated this past season. The DT room looks awesome though imo. I have incredibly high expectation out of it this year.
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Jaboree Antoine is going to make the 2 deep imo. Small sample size on the game field but I really like what I saw.
 
Calinative said:
Hopefully we use a lot more 4 WR personnel. Could see Moore/Vaughn Jacobs/Wingo outside with Toney and Barkate/Upshaw in the slot.
Should definitely be using more 2 RB personnel as well with On of Fletcher/Brown and one of Pringle/Lyle. Though I still don't really expect BOTH Lyle/Brown to be here post-spring...
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How are they leaving? Rule change?
 
With how well Fletcher blocks and Pringle seeming to be a capable pass catcher a way to get the young backs playing time would be to line up in 21P or 20P and motion Pringle into the slot hopefully creating a mismatch. Could even line up in 22P with Gilbert and Mueller as the Y's and then, before the offense getting set, move to 11P with Mueller, his athleticism and size makes me 100% believe he can play on the perimeter.....imagine him blocking on bubble screens, and Pringle moving to a trips nub formation with whatever WR they have on the field in that situation. You'll catch the defense in a lot of less than ideal, from their perspective, personnel groupings.
 
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Too lazy to look through the whole thread… any freshman other than maybe cantwell might get a lot of pt
 
sstcane said:
I saw on the roster that Jackson Carver is up to 6'6 250, Luka Gilbert 6'7 255 a Gavin Mueller 6'5 255. At least one of these guys can step up and give better snaps than what we got from Bauman last year.

Carver was always a long term project - he was injured this season, but hopefully is ready for spring. Gilbert was highly ranked as a recruit and was more known for blocking because of his size, but there were practice reports saying his receiving was better than expected. Mueller's highlights are insane, not sure about the competition but he has the best combination of size/speed/athleticism.

I'll go out on a limb and say this group performs better than last season.
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Id bet both are way better blockers than bauman, probably why we didn’t look for a te and brought in a receiving threat
 
ST26 said:
This is how I could see the O-line turning out:

LT- Merriweather
LG- McCoy or Samson
Center- Bucannon
RG- McCoy or Samson
RT- Cantwell
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If not this year i can see buchanon being the center his last two years here
 
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Tinman64 said:
Too lazy to look through the whole thread… any freshman other than maybe cantwell might get a lot of pt
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alot?

I mean anyone can earn it on Greentree, but I would guess the best chances to get into upper part of 2 deep would be Mueller

Next most likely imo as of now (most probably need an injury):
Wingo
Stancil
Portis — Safety/Nickle type
Dunnigan — Safety/Nickle types
Ervin
 
skeeter said:
alot?

I mean anyone can earn it on Greentree, but I would guess the best chances to get into upper part of 2 deep would be Mueller

Next most likely imo as of now (most probably need an injury):
Wingo
Stancil
Portis — Safety/Nickle type
Dunnigan — Safety/Nickle types
Ervin
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Ty
 
Depth chart predictions:

QB- Mensah, Nickel, Judd
RB- Fletch, Pringle, Brown
Wr X- Jacobs, Moore, Wingo
Slot- Mali, Upshaw, Spafford
Wr Z- Barkate, Vaughn, Parris
TE- Lofton, Gilbert, Mueller, Carver
LT- Meriweather, Congdon
LG- Samson, Minaya, Ervin
C- Ryan Rod, SJ
RG- McCoy, Buchanon, Pickett
RT- Cantwell, Wilkerson
WDE- Lightfoot, Lowe, Pickett, Lafayette
SDE- Wilson, Blount, Scroggins, McConathey, Charles
DT1's: Moten, Scott
DT2's: Carter, Blount
DT3's: Davis, Newton, Stancil
LB1's: Toure, Bonner
LB2's: Wiley, Pruitt
Nickel: Thornton, Mack, Ewald
CB- OJ, O'Connor, Waters
CB- Lucas, Damari, Jaboree
FS- Bryce, Hussey
SS- Poyser, Day
P- Joyce
K- Weinberg
 
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skeeter said:
Yes possibly

As I already said…WITH A RULE CHANGE

And also, the two players you referenced aren't graduates
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How do you know neither will be graduating? Secondly what exactly do you think the NCAA would be able to do to prevent a player transferring without a portal window? They quite literally already approved doing so with Lucas. And if they tried to take away eligibility, court would award an injunction immediately without question.
 
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