Rockne's Roundtable

Well, at least they get a chance to get their feet wet against Navy, (a running attack).

Im going to start doing that too for emphasis. MERLIN

I still feel it is 60-40 at best NEal winds up on Offense this year. Tell him to play CB and next Spring we'll move him back to Off when Riddick/Wood/Eifert part. The help needed is in the secondary.

And I look for Colly to leapfrog Motta in the starting lineup by week 3 or 4. That OR Slaughter moves to CB and CC plays next to Motta. Simply put, the BJ-LW at CB and ZM-JS at safety will not hold up very long.

Well, at Safety we have:
Dan McCarthy* 5y
Jamoris Slaughter* 5y
Zeke Motta - SR
Chris Salvi (walk-on)
Austin Collinsworth -JR
Cam McDaniel - SO
Eilar Hardy - SO*
Chris Badger - FR* (2010)
And freshmen:
Nicky Baratti
C.J. Prosise
John Turner
Elijah Shumate

So, plenty of talent, just short of experience.

Whereas for CB we have:
Bennett Jackson - JR
Lo Wood - JR
Josh Atkinson - SO
Jalen Brown - SO*
Matthias Farley - SO*
(* = redshirted)

Not too many bodies, and also lacking in experience.

This will be tricky this year. Certainly our achilles heel, at least on Defense. Maybe for the entire team.
Hope more kids step up like Collinsworth. We need it.

The reason for all the safeties is because they are making it a 3-3-5 defensive back field. They are short on experience so they are just going to put a lot of "talent"(bodies) on the field to make up for the lack of experience and with Slaughter and Motta big enough to play the "star" postion to back up the LB's and LM

definitely gives it a personal touch. You should start, IMO. I'm going to give you a DV, just because. First time I've ever given you one. Just want to see what it feels like. Keep posting I enjoy them!

I was happy tp hear Coach Diaco mention Joe Schmidt's name toward the end of the interview. Joe was a preferred walk on last year. I have a vested interest in Joe. He and his parents are members of my parish and I have been hoping (and praying) that he gets some playing time and excels on the field.