The Upside Of Having a Young Team

Submitted by BlueTimesTwo on

While it is painful to watch our young team, and especially our very young defense, go through major growing pains, there is an upside.  While we will return the vast majority of our offense and the bulk of our defense, many of our senior-laden Big Ten opponents will have major holes to fill next year.  Here are some of  the losses, as far as I can tell:

Michigan:

Schilling, Mouton, Rogers, Ezeh, Banks Saggese, Webb.  Mouton looks to be the biggest loss, while Schilling and Webb have also been solid.

OSU (starters):

Boren, Sanzenbacher, Saine, Chekwa, Heyward, Homan, Rolle, Hines, Torrence (Posey might also leave early).

Iowa (starters):

Stanzi, Johnson-Koulianos, Reisner, Clayborn, Klug, Ballard, Hunter, Johnson, Greenwood

Wisconsin (starters):

Gilreath, Carimi, Tolzien

MSU (starters):

Dell, Gantt, Jones, Neely, Rucker

Big Boutros

October 17th, 2010 at 2:07 AM ^

tru dat. MICH is going to return 18 starters or summat for the next two years. when has that ever happened? and yeah, next year's big ten looks ripe for the MICHing

also, not that it bears repeating, but as long as this season is still active, thank gravy for the bye week

tenerson

October 17th, 2010 at 2:14 AM ^

will struggle next year. They could lose their entire front four. At best, Binns stays and they return their worst (obviously relative) Dlineman.

jmblue

October 17th, 2010 at 2:30 AM ^

MSU currently starts five seniors on each side of the ball - 1 WR, 1 TE and 3 OL on offense, 1 DL, 2 LB and 2 DBs on defense.  Keshawn Martin might possibly be a candidate to go pro as well.   

mi93

October 17th, 2010 at 2:53 AM ^

I think you will be hard pressed to find another top tier program that played three straight years without an upperclassman at the most important position on the field – let alone four different first time starters.  Given what we know about the level of talent on this team, do you think it could be argued Rodriguez is in the midst of one of the most challenging turn around projects in the modern era at a top tier program?

blueheron

October 17th, 2010 at 8:50 AM ^

"Schilling, Mouton, Rogers, Ezeh, Banks Saggese, Webb."

It's worth noting that there aren't many NFL draft picks in there.  The recent three-year period ('09 - '11) will likely go down as the worst in modern history (UM NFL drafts).

But, go ahead and blame RichRod for the lack of upperclass players if you want.  You'll have plenty of company.