Your First Harbaugh Depth Chart Comment Count

Brian

Via a Utah beat writer. I put it in a table. Returning starters are bolded.

Offense

Position First Second Third
QB Jake Rudock OR
Shane Morris
Alex Malzone OR
Wilton Speight
 
RB De'Veon Smith Derrick Green OR
Ty Isaac
Karan Higdon OR
Ross Taylor-Douglas
FB Joe Kerridge Sione Houma OR
Henry Poggi
 
TE Jake Butt Khalid Hill OR
AJ Williams
Ian Bunting
WR Amara Darboh OR
Drake Harris
Mo Ways  
WR Jehu Chesson OR
Grant Perry
Brian Cole  
LT Mason Cole Logan Tuley-Tillman  
LG Ben Braden David Dawson  
C Graham Glasgow Patrick Kugler Ben Pliska
RG Kyle Kalis Juwan Bushell-Beatty  
RT Eric Magnuson Blake Bars  

Defense

Position First Second Third
DE Willie Henry Taco Charlton  
NT Ryan Glasgow Maurice Hurst  
DT Chris Wormley OR
Matt Godin
   
BUCK Mario Ojemudia Royce Jenkins-Stone Lawrence Marshall
ILB Desmond Morgan Ben Gedeon Mike McCray
ILB Joe Bolden James Ross  
OLB James Ross Allen Gant  
CB Jourdan Lewis Jeremy Clark  
CB Channing Stribling Brandon Watson  
FS Jarrod Wilson Delano Hill  
SS Jabrill Peppers Dymonte Thomas OR
Wayne Lyons
 

Special Teams

Position First Second Third
K Kenny Allen OR
Kyle Seychel
   
P Kenny Allen OR
Blake O'Neill
   
LS Scott Sypniewski Andrew Robinson  
H Blake O'Neill OR
Jake Rudock
   
KO Kenny Allen OR
Kyle Seychel
   
KR Jehu Chesson OR
Jabrill Peppers
Grant Perry  
PR Jehu Chesson OR
Jabrill Peppers
Grant Perry  

Quick react

Uh, what? Part one. Willie Henry, strongside end, with Wormley back at DT. On the one hand, Henry has a lot of grrr arrgh pass rush upside. On the other, I thought he was better suited on the interior than Wormley for the reasons I posted today.

Uh, what? Part two. Channing Stribling is listed as the starter opposite Jourdan Lewis. This is odd for a number of reasons. One: Stribling didn't get a call last year even when Gary Nova was going off on Blake Countess. Two: we have heard nothing about him in about a year. Three: they moved Jeremy Clark to corner, and the assumption was that maybe that was not so much a good sign for Stribling.

If this is real, and all depth charts have to be looked at somewhat skeptically, I'm actually rather happy. Stribling looked about as good as Lewis as a freshman before evaporating.

Okay dot gif. The OR at QB. On the other hand, Smith had enough of the starting RB job that they didn't give him one at one of the most OR-tastic spots on the roster.

Poggi at FB. Weird. 266, reputed to be an inline blocking TE. Expected Hill and Poggi to be flipped. Good that Hill's done enough this fall to catch Harbaugh's eye.

No Drake Johnson. Still recovering from injury.

Grant Perry realness check. Good sign for his jitter and reliability that he's an option on returns.

The sweetest or. OR Drake Harris. I want to believe.

Ross an ILB backup and OLB starter. An indication that he will get snaps in the nickel.

Comments

Mr. Yost

August 31st, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^

But you all know depth charts are near and dear to my heart. I was on ALL frickin day waiting on this release. And of course they put it out when I finally try to be productive with my day...

Now that this is out, a "few" thoughts of course...

QB: Jake Rudock is the starter, Harbaugh just has no incentive to say it publically.

*That said, I've heard that there are talks to have packages for Morris to use his speed...a little Kaepernick to Rudock's Alex Smith. Only problem is Morris isn't Kaepernick and it would be "situational at best, and likely as a runner." 

RB: Not surprising, people have reported Smith for weeks now. The shocker to me is that there is no "OR"...that says a lot about Smith, IMO. Good for him. Always over looked by the two 5* guys.

FB: Poggi is playing H-Back, think Aaron Shea. I wonder if he's just here because there is no H-Back...similar to not having SLOT as a position.

TE: Not surprise here to me...I've heard conflicting reports on Bunting, but I personally wasn't buying it. The big thing here is Butt. He's the first receiving option by all accounts. I expect him to have a MONSTER year. Record breaking type year.

WR: No SLOT listed to no shocker...but what the F happened with Dukes, Jones, and those guys?? Jeez.

OL: This has been the line for the past 3-4 weeks. Love no "ORs" and these guys have cohesion as units. That said, everything points to Dawson being the first guy off the bench with Bars coming on strong as of late.

------------------------------------------------------------------

DL: Call me confused as well on the Henry/Wormley deal, but like I said...maybe Henry is Alan Branch 2.0? 

LB: Love the depth and experience...we have four REALLY good LBs. I expect to see them all flying around with no dropoff. 

CB: This makes sense...and if Stribling beat out Lyons, Clark and Watson...that may be saying something. However, I still wish like hell we had Countess. He and Mone make this defense SCARY good. Good to see Lewis listed after skipping the scrimmage.

FS: Wilson over Hill with no "OR"...some were calling Hill the 2nd best player on the defense (never bought that), but he's not chopped liver. Interesting that there's no OR and Wilson flat out won the starting job.

SS: :-)

...okay, I'm done. What's for dinner tonight?

CoverZero

August 31st, 2015 at 5:46 PM ^

Pretty good.  Lyons switched to safety.  I really like the safety depth and the back end of the D is about as solid as its been in many, many years.

DrMantisToboggan

August 31st, 2015 at 5:49 PM ^

Camp Rumorz for a while were that Strib and Clark were both playing really well and battling for the other corner spot. If our 2nd and 3rd corners are both 6'1"+ and beat out a solid, if unspectacular senior from Stanford...it'll make Mo Hurst's coach say yay.

Gustavo Fring

August 31st, 2015 at 5:52 PM ^

Hoping he surpasses him at some point...the addition of a 6'7" pass-catcher adds much more value than a blocking tight end who is only sort of good at blocking in multiple TE sets

Brady Elliott

August 31st, 2015 at 5:53 PM ^

Excited to see Channing. He's got the wingspan and height to make some plays other guys wouldn't. I thought he was playing a lot in the student practice. If he's starting over a relatively experienced Lyons, that's a good sign.

AZBlue

August 31st, 2015 at 6:59 PM ^

the seeming lack of equivalent depth (talent or experience) at CB as compared with Jehu and WR, particularly if Jourdan wasn't head and shoulders one of the top 2 options for returns.

 

Peppers = Peppers and rules do not apply

Brick in The Wave

August 31st, 2015 at 5:56 PM ^

Take depth charts for what they are worth... At least this year I am not questioning the coaching behind these decisions. I am totally confident the best players will play. Didn't believe that last year

dragonchild

August 31st, 2015 at 6:57 PM ^

Drake Johnson should've ended it.  He was clearly the best RB last season and didn't get serious burn time until the coaches churned through everyone in front of him.

If he was merely a late season bloomer I'd be like OK, but it took a broken bone to discover him.  Hoke and Jackson had no idea what they were doing.

Bez

August 31st, 2015 at 7:48 PM ^

You seem to be forgetting 2013. Before Johnson got hurt in the first game, he was expected to get a significant number of carries that season.  So many people on this board were up in arms that the coaches didn't know what they were doing, playing a three star over DERRICK GREEN(!).

I think he got lost in the shuffle at the beginning of the year, last year, because he was working his way back from injury?  No one really knows because of the resistance to talk about injuries...but I think your post is a lot of revisionist history on what the last staff thought of Drake Johnson.

Reader71

August 31st, 2015 at 8:52 PM ^

Yeah, he missed a portion of camp. If you aren't an established player, missing camp is a death knell. The other guys, by virtue of going through the grind, earned snaps in his absence.

And for all the consternation, our backs weren't terrible, they were just inconsistent and tended to make the mistakes young players do. They were sophomores.

evenyoubrutus

August 31st, 2015 at 5:57 PM ^

I wonder if Harbaugh sees his blocky/catchy guys' listed positions as a purely arbitrary figure.  Guys are gonna block, and they're gonna catch passes, whether from three yards off the line or wherever.

Jack Be Nimble

August 31st, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^

I think you're correct about the blocky/catchy guys. I also think the same thing might be happening on defense on the defensive line.  Based on everything we've heard (Willie Henry playing End and Tackle, Mo Hurst playing End and Tackle, Chris Wormley playing End and Tackle), it seems that Durkin's defense, like Mattison's 4-3 Under, doesn't make much of a distinction at all between 5-tech and 3-tech. I think Durkin's ideal defensive line is three 300-pound guys and then one 260-pound edge rusher. We know who those big guys are. Wormley, Henry, and Glasgow.  The order that they are in is almost beside the point.

I don't think the traditional Defensive End/Defensive Tackle dichotomy is meaningful at all here.  The 5-tech (also called the SDE) is a 300-pound guy taking on double teams and the 3-tech (one of the DT's) is basically the same.  I assume that all the big guys on defense (save maybe Glasgow) will essentially play both. 

Wolverine Devotee

August 31st, 2015 at 5:58 PM ^

The Willie Henry thing caught me off guard along with Channing Stribling.

Wayne Lyons? Where are you?

WorldwideTJRob

August 31st, 2015 at 6:11 PM ^

I always had hope that Stribling would put it all together. He always seemed to be in great position to make plays on the ball as a freshman but always seemed to mis-time his jumps or reacted to slow when the ball was near. 2 years later if he has gained better awareness and refined his technique, I think he will be a pleasant surprise for this secondary. He has that Richard Sherman body type(Not saying he is at that skill level yet) that will be a plus going against big WR.




Sent from MGoBlog HD for iPhone & iPad

Steves_Wolverines

August 31st, 2015 at 5:59 PM ^

Those special teams tho...

Poor Baxter having to work a miracle trying to fix those special teams. 

Makes me nervous considering how close of a game Utah will be. 

Field position will be huge, and let's hope it doesn't come down to a make/miss field goal.

 

stephenrjking

August 31st, 2015 at 10:30 PM ^

Didn't I see somewhere that Michigan was observed spending more time on special teams than that observer had seen from any team, or something like that?

I got the impression that ST was a point of emphasis. Unfortunately, practice reps can't fix mediocre kicking, but I expect execution in all other areas to be solid.

I think the OR category for returner has more to do with having multiple solid but so far not game-breaking talents that are all expected to see action, rather than any worrisome levels of incompetence.

Let's hope guys can kick.