Offense
QB – Vick '11, Spraque (walkon '12), Windham '12, Leffingwell (walkon) '13
RB – Patterson '12, Edmond '12, Brown '13, Irons '14, Walker '14
WR – Cochran '10, Murray, Rodriguez '12, Cope '13
WR - S. Smith '12, Dixon (walkon '11), Wyatt '13
WR - L. Smith '11, Reid '12, Sawyer (walkon '11), C. Brown '13
TE – Mangen '13, Morgan '13, Henry '12
LT – McQueen '11, Haser '11, Murdock '13
LG – Lucas '11, Everhart (walkon) '11, Welter '11
C – Powell '11, Smith '10
RG – Wood '13, Gibbons '12
RT – Watson '12, Curtis '11

Defense
DE – Basham '13, Sayles '13, Smart '13
NG – Crutcher '11, Tautaki '13, Porter '13, Aloese '13
DT – McCleod '13, Purdum '11, T. Davis '11
DE – Laseak '12, K. Smith (transfer) '12
WLB – Johnson '11, Schany '12, Poling '13
MLB – Russell '11, B. Brown '12
SLB – Atwell '10, Grady '10, Wm Johnson '12
CB – Bass '11, Brown '13
CB – Wells '11, Stewart '13
SS – Kristoff '10, Macer '11, Alexander '13
FS – Ingol '10, Toran Davis '12, Quallen '13
Nickel – Carpenter '10, Scipio (walkon '12), D. Jones (walkon '11)

Punter – Bonnstetter '14, Venham '11
K – Yazdani (walkon) '11, Amicone (walkon) '12

Next, let's look at who from each year has already used up their eligibility, or is gone or was a no-show:Eligibility Used Up or Contributed but gone for health reasons
2010 – Prior, Om Leftwich, Oct. Leftwich, Dietz
2011 – Knight, Denton, Blankenship, Roback
2012 – Branz, Waters

No Shows or Gone for non-health reasons
2010 – Ashley, Morales, Kozak, Tarrant, Snyder, Jones, Stefanski
2011 – Fisher, Hammonds, Bell, Spivey
2012 – Wells, Clark, Roberts, Murray
2013 - Leavitt

Still on Roster, but Not on Chart
2011 – Price, Bennett (may be gone)
2012 – Tanner (may be gone for health reasons)
2013 - Leavitt (just enrolled)

Now, let's look at this in a table form (Total includes no shows, and walkons that made the chart)
      Gone but             2d   Lower   Tot on     Total   Pct of class
    Contributed  Strters String String  Chart    In Class    Contrib
2010     4         5       2      0       7         18         61%
2011     4        11       7      4      22         32         81%
2012     2         4      10      4      18         25         80%
2013     0         4       5     12      21         22         95%

First, note that only 61% of the players from the 2010 class ever contributed, far lower than any of the other classes. It was not only a small class, yes, it was a bad class. Next, note that of the players on the depth chart, there are only 7 from 2010, while there are 22 from 2011, 18 from 2012, and 22 from 2013. Because the 2010 class was both weak and small, the other players absolutely are playing earlier than they otherwise would have. 

Last year the effect was this - had their been few injuries, the impact would have been fairly minimal, but when there were injuries, the result was that when Seniors got hurt, there were no Juniors behind them to replace them, so that meant that a lot of Freshmen and Sophomore ended up playing, and not all of them were really ready. This year those players will come back with experience, and should be improved. They also, having been under fire, know they need to get a lot bigger, stronger, faster, and better conditioned, so presumably they are working their tails off in winter conditioning that is going on now. (That, right there, is the key to how much they improve by this fall.)

This fall the team will be younger than normal, but the players will have a bit more experience than usual for their age. Depending on winter conditioning, they may be big and strong enough this fall to get the job done. Still, starting 8 underclassmen is a very young team, and we can expect to see some issues cause by it.

Fortunately the recruiting classes of 2011-2012 were pretty good, and a lot higher percentage of those classes have contributed, and the class of 2013 is even better. In 2015-2016 the depth charts should be dominated by experienced upperclassmen, and those veteran teams should be very good.

Thus, yes, it was a bad class. The effect was to hurt 2012 somewhat, and 2013 a lot, and 2014 will also be hurt somewhat, too, but in 2014-15 the effect will reverse, and the teams will be better than they otherwise would have been because they will have more experience from having played earlier.

Last Edited: 1/26/2014 6:45:36 PM by L.C.

Last Edited: 1/27/2014 2:16:52 PM by Bobcat Grad 86