presented by the Dental Offices of Wendy Swantkowski, DDS
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
*** Every Tuesday during the offseason, we'll have this thread, updating the projected depth chart for the upcoming period or during the period in progress. It will alternate from offense to defense weekly, meaning that each side of the ball will be "updated" every two weeks. Since there are sure to be times when updates are not needed due to nothing having changed or no new info coming in, please think of this thread more as a place for depth chart discussion to live. In weeks where there are no updates, we can discuss changes we'd like to see, ideas we ponder when looking at the personnel and any other thoughts you may have. Of course, in some weeks there will be major changes based on events, circumstances, news and intel coming from out of the program. ***
Quite a few changes to the depth chart projection here for spring football defense 2.1, so let's just go ahead and list them out:
Ta'Quon Graham was moved from projected starter at SDE to projected "starter" (or at least the sort of '1a' option at the three-tech) based on comments from new DL coach Mark Hagen at his availability last month.
In his place, Marquez Bimage bumps up to projected starter following a breakout end to the 2019 season. Also added to the SDE depth chart is former TE Reese Leitao who Anwar Richardson reported last week would be switching to defense. While we don't have exact clarity on whether he'll be playing on the strong side or in the WDE/Jack role, I don't think it makes much sense to take two offensive skill player and move them to the Jack, which is clearly where WR/TE (?) Malcolm Epps will be worked now that Anwar has reported he'll be taking reps this spring as a "pass rusher." With how little Joseph Ossai should be coming off the field if healthy, and Byron Vaughns directly behind him, the need at the jack position doesn't seem to necessitate moving so many assets over to it.
Another takeaway from this update of the chart is simply that one player out of Ta'Quon Graham, Keondre Coburn and Moro Ojomo is going to be left without a starting chair when the music stops. Now, you'll always use a heavy rotation with the big boys in the middle to keep players fresh so I expect all to play solid roles, but I wouldn't bet against Ojomo and Coburn coming out of spring as the frontrunners to begin the fall period. That is no slight on Graham, but rather just an acceptance of the fact that he has been very off and on as a productive defender for Texas and, if we're being totally honest, the offs have outweighed the ons thus far. It's reasonable to hope that Graham's light can finally come on in the way that many hope based on his uber-appealing combo of size and raw athleticism because of the attacking, one-gap scheme that Hagen has said the front line will be switching to in Chris Ash's new 4-3 alignment.
Finally, with the injury to BJ Foster, we look to have a starting safety slot up for grabs to keep his seat warm this spring. This feels like an easy plug-and-play with the one player between Chris Brown and Josh Thompson.
When looking at the spring depth chart on defense as a whole, even despite key injuries to Adeoye and Foster -- and also realizing that key reinforcements will arrive this summer, it's starting to not look as shaky and lacking in depth as we originally envisioned.
The Absolute BEST in family and cosmetic dentistry for the Houston-Memorial Area
Now Accepting New Patients --- 281-293-9140
*** Every Tuesday during the offseason, we'll have this thread, updating the projected depth chart for the upcoming period or during the period in progress. It will alternate from offense to defense weekly, meaning that each side of the ball will be "updated" every two weeks. Since there are sure to be times when updates are not needed due to nothing having changed or no new info coming in, please think of this thread more as a place for depth chart discussion to live. In weeks where there are no updates, we can discuss changes we'd like to see, ideas we ponder when looking at the personnel and any other thoughts you may have. Of course, in some weeks there will be major changes based on events, circumstances, news and intel coming from out of the program. ***
Quite a few changes to the depth chart projection here for spring football defense 2.1, so let's just go ahead and list them out:
Ta'Quon Graham was moved from projected starter at SDE to projected "starter" (or at least the sort of '1a' option at the three-tech) based on comments from new DL coach Mark Hagen at his availability last month.
In his place, Marquez Bimage bumps up to projected starter following a breakout end to the 2019 season. Also added to the SDE depth chart is former TE Reese Leitao who Anwar Richardson reported last week would be switching to defense. While we don't have exact clarity on whether he'll be playing on the strong side or in the WDE/Jack role, I don't think it makes much sense to take two offensive skill player and move them to the Jack, which is clearly where WR/TE (?) Malcolm Epps will be worked now that Anwar has reported he'll be taking reps this spring as a "pass rusher." With how little Joseph Ossai should be coming off the field if healthy, and Byron Vaughns directly behind him, the need at the jack position doesn't seem to necessitate moving so many assets over to it.
Another takeaway from this update of the chart is simply that one player out of Ta'Quon Graham, Keondre Coburn and Moro Ojomo is going to be left without a starting chair when the music stops. Now, you'll always use a heavy rotation with the big boys in the middle to keep players fresh so I expect all to play solid roles, but I wouldn't bet against Ojomo and Coburn coming out of spring as the frontrunners to begin the fall period. That is no slight on Graham, but rather just an acceptance of the fact that he has been very off and on as a productive defender for Texas and, if we're being totally honest, the offs have outweighed the ons thus far. It's reasonable to hope that Graham's light can finally come on in the way that many hope based on his uber-appealing combo of size and raw athleticism because of the attacking, one-gap scheme that Hagen has said the front line will be switching to in Chris Ash's new 4-3 alignment.
Finally, with the injury to BJ Foster, we look to have a starting safety slot up for grabs to keep his seat warm this spring. This feels like an easy plug-and-play with the one player between Chris Brown and Josh Thompson.
When looking at the spring depth chart on defense as a whole, even despite key injuries to Adeoye and Foster -- and also realizing that key reinforcements will arrive this summer, it's starting to not look as shaky and lacking in depth as we originally envisioned.
Click Image to Enlarge
