cal haladay

Previously: Quarterback, Running Back, Receivers, Offensive Line, Defensive Line

Five down, two to go on this year's The Enemy, Ranked. We've covered both lines and all the skill position players on offense, which means it's time to hit linebacker before concluding later this week with secondary. For linebackers in this piece, we will mostly be looking at two starters for each team, MIKE and WILL, only including SAM in the table for teams that actually use a SAM consistently, while others may have a player occupying that job quickly shouted out in the write-up. 

12. East Carolina 

Funny enough, the first team we cover in today's piece is one of the few where I'm listing a SLB in the chart, due to ECU's 3-3-5 defense. Sometimes one of those LBs is an EDGE (which were covered last time), sometimes it's a standard LB, hence the inclusion of a third column above. Like so many other spots on ECU's team, the depth chart is decimated after a wave of attrition following the 2022 season. The plan to plug the gaping holes on the LB depth chart is a mix of internal promotion of seldom used pieces, up-transfers from the FCS, and one down-transfer from the P5, and that reality is why the Pirates are taking up the rear of this piece. 

At the starting level, I tentatively have two internal promotions holding off the two FCS transfers, but I don't think it's conclusive. Treylor Jackson is the one returner who has played more than 100 snaps and that was still only 146 last season as the #4 LB on the depth chart. Mike Edwards III has mostly been used on special teams through his first two seasons in Greenville, so this will be his first substantial go of things if he is to win a starting job. The players pushing them from behind were two excellent FCS LBs, BJ Davis from South Carolina State and TyQuan King from North Carolina A&T. They were very good players at a lower level of football... how do they translate upwards? That SAM spot is held down by the down-transferring and excellently named RaRa Dillworth, who was a disaster at UNC but hopefully can find his footing at ECU. He was a blue chip prospect in 2021, so there is some hope at least, but he is yet another shaky piece on a depth chart entirely composed of unknown commodities. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: an actually solid positional group!]

Previously: MSU Offense

After bringing you the MSU offense yesterday, we return with the defensive side of the football. The Spartan defense has been much maligned after being brutalized for the first four weeks of power five competition, but they are coming off a much better showing versus Wisconsin.

The Film: Though Wisconsin is the worst P5 offense that MSU has played, they are also the only P5 offense MSU has played with their two stars from last season, S Xavier Henderson and DT Jacob Slade, healthy. That left me handcuffed and forced to pick the Badgers as the team to chart, even if their QB is broken and their offense is a pitiful husk of a dinosaur so bad it got the coach fired. Therefore, I will be resorting to using some clips from games against functional passing offenses to get to the bottom of MSU's pass defense, but the charting data applies to Wisconsin. 

Personnel: Click for big or here for PDF.

[IF YOU ARE AN MSU FAN, PLEASE CLICK HERE].

Michigan State has mixed in a lot of bodies on the defensive line because injuries have rocked this group. Transfer EDGE Khris Bogle went down with injury, as did pseudo-returning EDGE starter Jeff Pietrowski. Both may or may not be back this weekend against Michigan, following MSU's bye week. In their place, youngster Zion Young and the more veteran Brandon Wright have stepped in as the nominal starters, but they're both rotating in and out. Michael Fletcher is in the mix, as was Avery Dunn, before he, too, encountered injury. If Bogle and/or Pietrowski return, then you can toss them in the bucket. Jacoby Windmon, who we will return to at the LB position, was an EDGE earlier in the year before sliding to the second level against Wisconsin. 

DT is the strength of the defense for what feels like the 19th straight season, despite the absence of Jacob Slade. He's back from injury, having returned for his first P5 game against Wisconsin, and after another two weeks to rest up, Slade should be back to full strength. Slade was the Dangerman last year and I'm keeping him there this season. MSU's other DTs besides Slade are not horrible either. They sorely missed Slade, but they have a stable of solid players. Derrick Harmon is the starter and he impressed me against Wisconsin. Simeon Barrow ain't a bad player either. I'm less enthusiastic about Deshaun Mallory, Jalen Hunt, or Maverick Hansen this season, but the fact I can tell you about the 6th DT on the depth chart tells you the trust MSU's coaches have in this whole group to rotate them in. If Slade is 100%, I would expect less rotation against Michigan. 

The LB level sees the return of Cal Haladay, an old-fashioned LB who eschews gloves for his dirt-stained knuckles. Haladay was a starter last season as RS Fr but has concerningly taken a step backwards. He's still a bit of an issue in coverage but the run defense that he was pretty strong at last season has regressed. Next to him is the aforementioned UNLV transfer Windmon, who started the season on a tear as an EDGE against such teams as WMU and Akron but cooled off some against P5 competition before shifting to LB. I thought he was alright against Wisconsin; PFF still loves Windmon, but we opted against the star given the position switch and everything else. Aaron Brule is the SAM that they used against a beefy team like Wisconsin, a Mississippi State transfer who also has a nose for pass-rushing. If anyone needs relief it will come in the form of Old Friend/New Enemy Ben VanSumeren, who got some run as a starter before they moved Windmon to LB, which was perhaps done to get BVS off the field. 

At corner, welp. There is still a parade of transfers and that is not a good thing. Georgia transfer Ameer Speed (our name of the week winner) has not solved the problem that existed last season and none of the returners have gotten better. Charles Brantley was mostly a reserve last season but has gotten a promotion to starter thanks to the demotion of Florida transfer Chester Kimbrough, who was disappeared after an abhorrent effort against Washington. He resurfaced for six snaps against OSU but has otherwise been missing in B1G play. Alabama transfer Ronald Williams, last year's #1 corner, is also still around but has been riding the pine, rotating in occasionally. D2 transfer Kendell Brooks from North Greenville University has also gotten in the rotation and he, like everyone else here, can't cover anybody. Brantley and Speed are the every-down starters. 

When they play in a 4-2-5, the nickel/HSP appears to be Tr Fr Dillon Tatum, who ascended to a regular job for the first time this season with 34 snaps against Wisconsin. Brooks has suited up at the safety level as well, and they can play any of the two normal safeties here too. The season-ending injury to Darius Snow seriously derailed the plans for this position. The main starters are FS Xavier Henderson and Angelo Grose, both of whom are (surprise!) better against the run than in coverage. Henderson was a star of this defense last year and retains his star as a result, having missed significant time with injury. Grose has not been good but avoided the cyan, with problems in coverage as the main issue. Jaden Mangham got time in Henderson's absence, while Tate Hallock is also listed on the depth chart in the two-deep here. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Too many open receivers that Wisconsin refused to throw to]

Previously: Quarterback, Running Backs, Receivers, Offensive Line, Defensive Line 

We have just two pieces to go in 2022's edition of The Enemy series. This piece covers linebackers, which this year we will use to only refer to true LBs. We included EDGE OLBs in our last piece on the defensive line, so they are out of the picture for this, and I am classifying nickel-shaped spacebackers as DBs. As a result, only a few teams here will have more than two starting LBs, but I may mention who the SAM is for teams that shift between a true 4-3 and 4-2-5.  

12. Hawaii 

The Rainbow Warriors start at the bottom for the second straight defensive article, and that's in spite of having a returning starter at one of the two positions. Penei Pavihi is the returner and the leader of this group, someone who graded out extremely poorly in the PFF numbers, and he's joined by Isaiah Tufaga, a rotational piece from last season who is sliding in for the departing Darius Muasau. Tufaga didn't fare much better to PFF's data when he got on the field and both players have major athletic limitations. The depth is thin, as you'd expect for a team with as much turnover as Hawaii has endured... Logan Taylor redshirted last season and Noah Kema arrives as a JUCO guy. A pretty brutal situation. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: Less depressing LB situations]