I’ve been saying for a while I really would love to see Waters (and Dunnnigan) heavily in the nickel competition. I think he’s gunna be a stud
I agree with your point we MUST rotate far more than we have previously. I think we have to also accept that we have to deal with the short term drop off in play by rotating more guys in to gain the long-term benefit of end of season results when it matter most.
For playoffs we want as many players with experience that we can trust as possible. That only happens if we give guys chances earlier in the season.
Season shapes up better for that too. We didn't blow anyone out early in the year and you have to roll with your main guys against ND and UF anyway. FAMU or BCU and those teams aren't good reps for anyone and don't do much for us in the grand scheme..
Stanford and CMU are games with some talent that come before the heart of the schedule and should provide those opportunities. Same can be said for Wake and that's a great chance against an actual good team to get those reps.. plus on the road.. but I'm terrified to discount that game. Good team and good staff on a Friday night at their place. Should be able to blow them out and rotate but could also see it going the Louisville 2025 direction if we're not totally locked in and start slow.
I'm not sure we had many guys even in the conversation for more reps that didn't get some solid exposure this year. Everyone healthy and at the right physical level got their chance and got decent reps. Bucket 1 - Toney. Moore, Pringle, Fitz played a lot and started games. Bucket 2 - Scroggins, Gilbert, Upshaw, Simpson - part of the rotation. Antione was coming off an ACL and got in on the rotation when he was fully ready to go and caught up.
The entire OL was developmental and didn't play. SJ got reps in different situations but not really at C or G. Marcelin got STs reps but idk that he's fully there physically. He doesn't look it.
The only ones I bring into question that I expected to be in the 2nd bucket getting 5-10 snaps per game and didn't were Wiley (LB is different sometimes and I get it, but reps should have been there), Schott (TE can be different too but mainly injured and being a homesick crybaby allegedly), Buchanan (OL was the strength of the team and the position is tough for an 18 year old kid), and Ewald (maybe some lingering injury/soft tissue stuff going on?)
I think the 2026 class ends up with 1-2 starters (Cantwell and maybe 1 more i really don't know who) and probably 10+ in the reps/rotation conversation (Mueller, Charles, Stancil, Wingo, Parris, Ervin, Dunnigan, Waters, Portis, Wyman, Jennings, Nagle, Edwards, Sparks, Woodrow)
The ones I think truly need a year are Bacon/Pickett/Spafford - coming off injuries, Congdon/LaFayette/Redding/Briggs - need to add size/strength to play their positions, and then Sainteus/Chukwurah/Campbell/Coleman/Mallory/Busch/Evans need a year to develop and/or are just logjammed at their position with limited effective reps available. Some of them are coming from lower levels of HS football (Sainteus, Chuk), enrolling later (Busch), or playing different roles than they played in HS (Campbell). The logjammed positions for those listed there are DT, RB, QB, and WR.
