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The linebackers

Duff Man

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Provided we stay healthy, I am pleased where we sit on the DL entering the 2010 season. I can say the same thing about the secondary for the most part, provided we can find a solid nickel CB.

But am I wrong to be uneasy about the LBs? Sipili has been up and down during his career, Beatty plays a bit out of control for my liking, and we are going to be breaking in inexperienced guys to fill out the rest out of the depth chart for the most part. Lots of good buzz about Derrick Webb and Jon Major was a talent coming out of high school who spent much of last season regaining form after the ACL injury. Harrington will probably be expected to play early and often, but he is undersized.

Lots more questions than answers for a positional unit that has underperformed the last couple seasons IMO. Thoughts?
 
Good question. The LB's as a group have not been the playmakers we have seen in the past. We've been used to our LB's making more big plays, whether it's sacks, int's or being a grou[p that just flies to the ball and stuffs the run. Everyone in the big 12 seems to be throwing it all over the place so things have changed a bit. If sipili can have a solid year and beatty can become more consistent we should be okay. I think major and rippy take big steps this year. But the lack of quality depth is a concern.
 
I'm right with you, BB.

I have a lot of confidence in our defense being strong on the edges next year. Both corners, Beatty at OLB with Rippy and Ahles backing up, Herrod at one DE and Kasa/West at the other.

But up the middle is where we struggled last year and we need to to get things fixed.

At DT, there's reason to be optimistic that Pericak, Bonsu and Cunningham will be bigger and better next year after gaining experience and coming on strong at the end of this year.

At Safety, there's reason to be optimistic that Perkins will be better as a 2nd year starter and that Polk will show why coaches feel he'll be playing on Sundays.

Even though there's reason to be optimistic, we still need to see it out of those 2 position groups.

But ILB is where the biggest question marks are. Sipili, Major and Harrington certainly appear more athletic than the guys they're replacing on the depth chart Burton, Smart and Mohler. Early reports on Webb and Nobriga is that they are both big hitters (especially Webb), so we may get something from the RS-Freshmen too. But we lost a ton of experience and dependability at ILB and we're replacing it with potential. IMO, this is the single biggest question mark on our defense heading into the 2010 season.
 
All I know is that for the last several years the positions I thought would be strong weren't and the positions I thought would be weak, tended to be strong.
 
I was feeling pretty good about them, I really like Major and Rippy, but the coaches bringing in Harrington tells me that they felt there was a need for another guy. I have faith that Cabral will find 3-4 guys that can heavily contribute. Beatty and Rippy at the rush linebacker spot, Major/Sipili/Harrington/Webb/Nobriga/Ewing hopefully they can find 2 more guys out of that group and expect of them to be good players.

Sipili seems to always make headlines in the spring, but I didn't see much from him last season that really impressed me. Major had his moments last year, but seemed to get less playing time as the year went on, so maybe he was making some subtle mistakes? Webb has a few fans already, hopefully he doesn't follow in Sipili's footsteps. I'm curious to see what we get out of Harrington, Nobriga, and Ewing.
 
Even though there are questions about who will step up and contribute, Cabral has year in and year out made sure the LBs were a position of strength on this team, so while there's uncertainty I'm not terribly worried.
 
I agree about Beatty, hopefully he can stay under control when needed, we don't need anymore penalties than last year.

Personally I think we gain a lot of athleticisim with Major-Rippy-Webb-Harrington, we'll just hope that it can make up for a lack of experience.

If the DL takes the steps I think they will, then it will help take pressure off those guys.

Anybody have an educated guess at the two-deep?
 
Anybody have an educated guess at the two-deep?

CU's last depth chart from 2009 had the following:

Mike (Inside) Linebacker
1. Marcus Burton AND Michael Sipili
3. Bryan Stengel

Will (Inside) Linebacker
1. Jeff Smart
2 Shaun Mohler
3. Jon Major

Sam (Outside) Linebacker
1. B.J. Beatty
2. Tyler Ahles
3. Douglas Rippy

Sipili and Major move to the top at Mike and Will. Everyone returns at Sam.

Webb is about 6'0" and 220 lbs while Nobriga is about 6'2" and 235 lbs. Since Webb's smaller and a bit faster, I believe he projects more on the weak side at Will, competing with Major. Nobriga is a Mike (unless he becomes a DE like Hartigan did). Harrington, imo, plays either Mike or Will depending on where we need him. But watching his video, he seems more suited to Will.

Edit: Too bad about Katoa, huh? Be nice to have him at Mike this year.
 
CU's last depth chart from 2009 had the following:

Mike (Inside) Linebacker
1. Marcus Burton AND Michael Sipili
3. Bryan Stengel

Will (Inside) Linebacker
1. Jeff Smart
2 Shaun Mohler
3. Jon Major

Sam (Outside) Linebacker
1. B.J. Beatty
2. Tyler Ahles
3. Douglas Rippy

Sipili and Major move to the top at Mike and Will. Everyone returns at Sam.

Webb is about 6'0" and 220 lbs while Nobriga is about 6'2" and 235 lbs. Since Webb's smaller and a bit faster, I believe he projects more on the weak side at Will, competing with Major. Nobriga is a Mike (unless he becomes a DE like Hartigan did). Harrington, imo, plays either Mike or Will depending on where we need him. But watching his video, he seems more suited to Will.

Edit: Too bad about Katoa, huh? Be nice to have him at Mike this year.

Nice. :thumbsup:

Ewing might push for that #2 Will spot as well.

#2 Mike is going to be a good spot to watch. Any thought if Rippy can play there?
 
Nice. :thumbsup:

Ewing might push for that #2 Will spot as well.

#2 Mike is going to be a good spot to watch. Any thought if Rippy can play there?

Good point on Ewing. Especially in pass coverage situations.

It would be asking a lot of Rippy, I think, to have to quarterback the defense from the Mike spot. That's a lot of reads and also knowing how everyone else should be lining up. I think his place is on the outside where he can pin his ears back and go much of the time. He's definitely got the size for it, though, if it could work.

One guy who I didn't mention is Brandon Gouin. A walk on, but he was on scholarship at Air Force before deciding to transfer to CU. 2* prospect out of high school (Rivals & Scout) who ran a 4.73 40 at a Scout combine. Intelligent, good athlete and now a veteran as a junior. He was also our #4 Sam last year but lost out on playing time because of a high ankle sprain that kept him out last spring. He's probably #2 on the SAM depth chart entering spring practices and he could be another Jeff Smart for us (only bigger and faster).
 
Doug Rippy is going to blow up this year.

Based on what?


I think the LB's have been pretty mediocre since Dizon left.. We just have a bunch of guys that don't make a lot of plays behind the line of scrimmage or big hits.. I'd be surprised if there's a whole lot of improvement next year..
 
Provided we stay healthy, I am pleased where we sit on the DL entering the 2010 season. I can say the same thing about the secondary for the most part, provided we can find a solid nickel CB.

But am I wrong to be uneasy about the LBs? Sipili has been up and down during his career, Beatty plays a bit out of control for my liking, and we are going to be breaking in inexperienced guys to fill out the rest out of the depth chart for the most part. Lots of good buzz about Derrick Webb and Jon Major was a talent coming out of high school who spent much of last season regaining form after the ACL injury. Harrington will probably be expected to play early and often, but he is undersized.

Lots more questions than answers for a positional unit that has underperformed the last couple seasons IMO. Thoughts?
Beatty's out of control play is what I like about him. When he's on the field he's going at 110%. Ultra high intensity! I love it and you can see other players picking up on it when he's out there. Maybe I'm biased because he went to my high school but give me more of the Ginger Fury any day. We need more guys on D playing with his kind of fire IMHO. Stop thinking an play ball!

Sipilli seemed to start the year really slow. Literally. All I recall from him for the first half of the season is the play he got burned on at Toledo and the RB running away from him like Sip was on a casual jog. He seemed to play much better the second half of the season with a couple of inspired performances in the last 2-3 games. If he can start the season in shape and come out fast he could be huge for us on D.
 
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