honestly a tad surprised by a few things. Surprised that Nate Richie and Phillips are not listed as starters, or even an OR designation… I think that may change as camp progresses. Also, huge surprise, Blake Kuithe is going to get serious playing time finally, and he is listed as the main backup… ahead of freshman stud Van Fillinger. While we are on the subject of Kuithe, Brant is listed as an OR with Cole Fotheringham? Because blocking???
Little surprised also that Olaseni hasn’t really panned out at all. He was absolutely atrocious last year, so not that surprised, but based on his hype level, and our general O-line crappiness last year, you’d think he would have come in and destroyed the competition. Oh well, we have a TON of young o-line talent.
I’m mostly just surprised at the depth on this team. We have seemingly very little at linebacker, but a metric crapton of depth basically everywhere else. We’ve got three QBs all of whom are good enough to start at the D1 level right now. TJ green is a heck of a RB, and he’s not listed on the two deep. You want receivers? Enis, Thompson, Nacua, Covey, Vele, Dixon, Smith… Are you kidding me? I would be thrilled as a QB to throw to any of those guys. Tight end??? Like I said above, Kuithe was far and away our most valuable offensive weapon outside of Moss last year, and he’s listed as an OR right now.
Remember those stud 4* defensive ends we signed? Yeah, not starting, and that’s a good thing. We have enough talent on the defensive line that we could have the 3 best defensive lines in the state if we split our guys in three teams.
Our linebacking unit is better than most think IMO. I think lloyd will be our best defensive player this year, all pac12 lock IMO. I think Sewell and/or Mata’afa will do a great job alongside him as well.
Our DBs are all new-ish but I think they will do great.
As a side note, what is going on with Scalley’s suspension? I don’t recall if he will be missing any games or not?
To me, this depth chart signals to the guys who’ve been in the program that they have the respect of having had the reps of knowing the scheme, they’re getting the opportunity to hang onto their positions, especially in the secondary.
But the best guys will get the lion’s share of the snaps. That’s how it’s always been.
Any newcomer who thinks they can waltz in and be a day one starter - ain’t happening. It’s gotta be earned, you have to prove you’re better than a guy who’s also athletic, who’s been in the program and knows the schemes.
Since everyone keeps their eligibility, if the talented freshmen rise up & become starters, we’ll probably have some open scholies as upper classmen decide to transfer.
I see nothing but upside in this once-a-century kind of situation. Kind of a throw-away season, a great big asterisk, and our young talent gets high quality reps with no eligibility lost.
That will become apparent next year when we play in Provo.
Not to hijack this thread, but…
Can you imagine the whining coming out of Provo if the pandemic had happened during one of their years to have the home game? They would be going to the legislature to have them move the following year’s game back to Provo.
That’s exactly what would happen. The Governor and legislature would step in to get it changed.
You guys are right - the Yners are that desperate, they would do that.
They’ll try everything imaginable to try and stop the streak.
But the grim reality - for them - is there’s a talent differential, and with such a really young team, this year may have been their best chance to stop the bleeding.
Next year will be back-to-back humiliations… at their place, in front of their own fans, with plenty of Ute fans present, to rub it in.
10 is coming.
I posted this somewhere, but the last three years LaTech has recruited better than BYU.
The difference between BYU and Utah is huge. If you added the gap between BYU and Utah to Utah, Utah would have talent equal to USC and be more talented than Oregon.
It’s a big difference.
Also surprised not to see Tyler Wegis on there
It lists Covey as a JR, I thought he played in few enough games last year to redshirt so he would be a soph?
2015 played
2016 mission
2017 mission
2018 played
2019 red shirt(played in 4 or less games)
2020 Junior year
And 2020 won’t count toward eligibility, right?
Correct. Covey can play in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
It won’t count after it’s over but while it’s happening it will be called his Junior year. Makes perfect sense.
What are the odds he sticks around that long? He will have graduated and at some point, you have to move on with your life.
If he wants to coach playing an extra year won’t hurt him… but I don’t have a clue what his plans are
I do believe that he’s already doing post grad work
Honestly…I dunno. I don’t think he needs the money. I’m not sure he has a realistic long term NFL career (like a 15 year career). If he wants to be drafted, he needs to show he can stay healthy. So I’d guess he is here this year and next and if he doesn’t get hurt he leaves for the NFL. If he does get hurt, he probably has to decide how badly he wants that NFL dream. If it’s bad, he comes back for 2022, if not he becomes a GA and starts that part of his life.
Hell, if he wants to coach, he probably plays in 2022 just because he knows it might be his last shot at playing.
Wow, 2015 was Covey’s first year at the U. I have to imagine he must be approaching the average age of byu-p players at this point.
We’ve never had more depth at long-snapper, 36 starts between Noah Rodriguez-Trammell and Keegan Markgraf, who is a Patrick Mannelly Award candidate.
Not buying depth at WR. Our WRs have lived up to expectations 2 of the last 15 seasons, 2004 and 2008. Both seasons the pre-season consensus was that our starters were solid but the depth was questionable…yeah because the starters had clear separation. All the other seasons we’ve had “6-packs”, alleged groups of 6,7, even 8 WRs who were all capable…nah, not buying it. I hope the TE is the primary target this year.
If our corners again excel this season, I don’t know how Shah doesn’t get drafted into the NFL as well.