3 spring practices in the books for the Spiders so far. Obviously position battles are just getting underway so we’re nowhere near seeing those decided, however seeing who’s involved for each spot has been interesting early on.

Position Battles

Quarterback | The one we all care about and the one we’ve heard the most about so far. Russ has said this is an open competition, and has even said bringing in a transfer after spring isn’t out of the question. My money still fully sits with Kyle Wickersham, however if Huesman is truly evaluating all options then true freshman Camden Coleman HAS to at least be in the mix. The early enrollee has shown great arm talent in his first week with the Spiders, and while I’m not trying to predict a true freshman QB winning the job after just three practices I think it would be wrong to say he isn’t worthy of being in this discussion. Barring a summer transfer I don’t think it’s out of the picture to see Coleman competing for a two-deep spot this August.

I’m starting to realize how difficult this will be to evaluate, as the running abilities of Wickersham aren’t factored in while he’s got the red jersey on. Neither of Coleman/Jackson Hardy/Ashten Snelsire run the way Wickersham does so that will be something he’ll have the leg up on the entire time. Again – this may be a wide open battle, it may not be. No matter where it truly stands I’ve got #16 winning this, but the QB room as a whole may be deeper than we thought.

Cornerback | Well I had a 50/50 shot at getting this right and I still missed. Stefan Black has be playing the field corner position with Rankin Jr. staying in the boundary (I had that flipped in my last post). Unlikely these two aren’t your starting corners in September. Chance Graves also remains in the boundary, while Hayes & Stocker continue to work at field corner. Still very interested in how the #3 corner spots plays out, although we likely won’t see how the nickel package unfolds during the spring.

Linebacker | Looks like it will be Jared Joseph & Prince Ekwughalu battling to take over Xavier Marshall’s spot. Really liked what I saw from Prince at Colgate, and Jared did a nice job filling in when Xavier was out last year. No bad options here for the Spiders.

Donovan Hoilette and Zach Chambers have been working at middle linebacker, with Wayne Galloway backing up Tristan Wheeler. Donovan had a really nice season in a substitute roll, and played extremely well against Sacramento St. once Phil O’Connor went down. Chambers has made big strides as a R-Fr so no matter who gets the start it’s clear that we’ve got young talent across the board here.

Other notes

Gavin Lamp won’t participate this spring but he’s been quite active on the sidelines. Seems like he’ll be full go come August.

Savon Smith looks to be out for the spring as well, so we’ve seen different options at punt returner, as well as a lot more of Dante Black/Fonnae Webb at running back. Still no concerns with this group.

Sean Clarke has looked nice at TE early on. Still unsure where this groups fits into this new offense but it seems we’ve got options alongside Deveney.

Next Post

Can’t imagine much will change between now and spring game but I’ll likely do an update in roughly two weeks. I’ll then do a post-spring recap overviewing where we stand heading into the summer months.