UNC releases the depth chart for week one
UNC 2009 Football
For today my small post about the game between The Citadel and North Carolina is about the depth chart which has come out on the official site of UNC Athletics. I am definitely not going to go over each and every slot, mostly because I have no right (as I have not seen them practice) to do so, but also because it would be a dragged out thing that would probably bore everyone. Instead I am going to look at a couple of the positions and make some remarks about each of them, not from a technical point, but just if I am surprised or not.
First thing that has to jump to mind is the fact that on the offensive line you have one freshman starting and two frosh as back ups. In what is probably the most essential group for the offense this two deep shows just how fragile that core of players is for the upcoming season. An injury or two and head coach Butch Davis could be starting a line that would have no seniors on it. Let’s hope this group has gelled well under their coaching staff and will show us that they can player together from the get go. More than anything else, this is the one thing that is going to trouble me for the next 12 games, because it just takes one freak movement, one foot stepped on, one anything, and someone can go down. I am going to hope that does not happen (and all Tar Heel fans should do the same)!
Scrolling down I see that (no surprise here) T.J. Yates is the starting quarterback for the game (and the season for that matter). However coach Davis has not really assigned a two or three to the other QBs on the team. After the Miami game last season I think that is the smartest move for coach Davis, so that no one gets to thinking that they will be the “man” in charge if Yates went down. In the end, if there was to be a switch at the QB position I would say that Paulus would be the one getting the snaps first, that would make you think what if SU and UNC met up in a bowl game. But then you come back to reality as Yates is going to be fine and SU won’t win more than 4 games this season.
Lastly for the offense, which returns seven from last year’s squad, the focus has to be on the wide outs. While I know I been preaching they don’t have much experience, just one on the “two deep” is a freshman, and the rest are two juniors and a sophomore. This to me means maybe not a lot of action, but certainly a lot of work done under the current coaching staff, which in turns means I think that they won’t be as bad as a lot of people would imagine. And the reason why I said the number of returners is because if all stays status quo head coach Butch Davis will have eight returning from this starting line up and twenty from the two deep.
On the defensive side of the ball the one mystery to me, and I think to a lot of people, is the back four. Which corners will become the starters for the season is the key to whether the UNC defense is has good as they can be. And while that is an essential to the team’s good results, the one thing I can not wait to see is how good is Donte Paige-Moss. On the defensive side, if the line up stays as is, the Heels will only lose one starter for 2010, from a team that is bringing back nine from last year. That to me means one thing and one thing only, in the end it pays to play them early and let them learn on the gridiron.
Check the two deep yourselves and see what you think of it, or you can also check Tar Heel Fan‘s blog about it, and see his reaction to it. All in all, with the players we have I am still very confident that 8 and 4 is a reachable goal! In less than a week we will see the beginning of it all.
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