Lackluster Roster With A Few Bright Spots - OBinKC's Dynasty

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Lackluster Roster With A Few Bright Spots

Posted on September 5, 2019 at 09:56 AM.

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Coach�s Log:

This 2018 Vandals football team is the worst rated team in the country. It will be a challenge in this first year to compete, but not impossible. Let�s break down the talent position by position.

Quarterback

True senior Mason Petrino (68 OVR) leads this offense with a decent amount of experience. He has 90 awareness and 71 speed which will be beneficial to create plays on the fly. Because it will be tough to hold up to pressure from our mostly superior competition this year. It�s still early to know if his passing prowess will be up to par.

Running Back

We have a true freshman that arrived with 93 speed, 98 acceleration, and 98 agility. His name is Nick Romano and his dazzling raw talent had me try him out for the starting role in spring camp. But his inexperience proved to be too much and I�ve decided to redshirt him. One thing is for sure, though. He looks like the future. So with that, senior Dylan Thigpen will be the starter and junior Roshaun Johnson will be the backup. These guys aren�t very fast runners with 79 and 81 speed respectively, but they have the experience and agility to hopefully make plays. Logan Kendall is the lone Fullback, but we run a spread offense. He will mainly be a substitute if we lose too many tight ends.

Receiving Corps

We have nine wide receivers and three tight ends, so there is a lot of depth and every freshman at these positions will be redshirted. Senior Jeff Cotton (73 OVR, 78 SPD) is the number one guy on this squad. He�s a 6�2� 203 pound possession receiver with a lot of awareness, so that�s the good news. The bad news is that it doesn�t get any better than that. Sophomore Cutrell Haywood (72 OVR, 85 SPD) is 6�0� 203 pounds and will join Cotton as the two guys we�re counting on to make this offense tick. Senior Jante Boston (62 OVR, 92 SPD) looks to be a serviceable slot guy with his speed. Let�s hope he can catch the ball when we need it. And finally at tight end, we�re counting on sophomore Connor Whitney (65 OVR, 72 SPD) to be that receiving threat in the middle. He was having trouble catching in traffic when we ran our spring practices, so we may be running a lot of 10 personnel sets this year.

Offensive Line

Rather than address every position on the line, I�m just going to give a collective description as this group averages a mid 60s rating. And that�s only because of the one bright spot, senior right guard Noah Johnson (77 OVR). This is what I mean about Petrino needing to be ready to run at a moment�s notice. I have already begun on the recruiting trail looking for linemen for this program�s future.

Defensive Line

I want to build a 3-4 defense here because I have seen success from this set in both stopping the run as well as providing good pass coverage. But we�re just not there yet. We�re built for a 4-3 defense and I�ll need to utilize our pass rushing defensive ends, senior Cameron Towndsend (69 OVR) and junior Dylan Beeler (60 OVR), as well as having both of our strong defensive tackles Vei Tomasi (69 OVR) and R. Crawford (62 OVR), both juniors, on the field.

Linebackers

This is another lackluster corps with a couple of guys we�ll be counting on. Juniors Christian Ellis (73 OVR, 81 SPD) and Charles Akanno (70 OVR, 67 SPD) are the only linebackers rated above 70, so it will be quite a task mixing and matching the right personnel on this defensive front to have success.

Defensive Backs

Look for senior cornerback Lloyd Hightower (71 OVR, 80 SPD) and junior free safety Jalen Hoover (77 OVR, 79 SPD) to be the leaders in the backfield. There�s not a lot of speed there, so I will consider playing a lot of cover 2 zone. But we�ll see how it goes.

Special Teams

It looks like Thigpen will handle return duties. And our punter, junior Cade Coffey (79 OVR) will handle both kicking and punting duties.

Overall Team

The system I want to install here is predicated on speed, and there aren�t many players on this team that will facilitate that. So there will probably be a lot of turnover in the future. I will figure out a way to utilize what I have for this season and hopefully not be embarrassed on the field.