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(02-28-2019 06:24 AM)Ranger1386c Wrote:  Im very curious to see who emerges on the Dline alongside Marino, at WR alongside Watkins,safety and Jack LB. backup QB also. Those are all mystery positions for us as fans, going into spring.

Any solid insight on who steps up at each of those positions?

We have multiple defensive fronts but at the Basic level we play one NT and one DT and a SDE in in a 3-3-5 front or one NT and two DT in a 3-3-5 on running downs.

We lost both Anthony Rush and his backups (Thagard and Zach Williams, who both played DT as well) but bring back Fish McWilliams who was the third string NT in theory, but got lots of playing time in the 4 games we could play him and keep his redshirt)

At NT this year it will be Fish, Tony Fair, and Tyrus Butler in some order with the latter two being taller and heavier than Fish McWilliams, but who we haven't seen play.

At DT we bring back Marino, who was hobbled by a high ankle sprain the last third of the season last year, but was dominant at times when healthy. We also bring back Antonio Moultre who played a lot in the 4 games we could play him without losing his redshirt We lost Thagard and Zac Williams. You can also list the loss of Garcia-Williams here because we played him as a rush DT at times in passing downs. We have some DT's who were here last year who didnt play in Mi'cario Stanley and Michael Fairbanks who should contribute in some capacity this year. We also signed two interior lineman that arent on campus yet in Kevin Penn and Jammal Abrams.

At DT this year we will play Marino and Antonio Moultre with Stanley and Fairbanks in the rotation. Beyond that I just dont know enough about the newcomers to know who will be ready to contribute this fall.

At SDE we lost just about everyone. There were very few snaps last year where we didnt have either Jamal Garcia-Williams or Stacy Keely on the field, and when they werent we played long time Blazer Kylen Binn as their backup and he is gone too. Between them thats 12.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss that we need to replace. Garcia-Williams was unblock-able at times and he knocked down 4 passes with those long arms of his as well, so his loss stings the most. We will be counting on newcomers to fill that loss of production.