Monday 2-Deep - Now that Spring is Over

While we were focused on Lacrosse, Tennis and Softball, NU Football put out the 2007 Preseason Depth Chart and most "interesting" are the "ORs" -- you know positions where there are two guys listed with the word "OR" between them...

There were lots of questions about who would move up this spring

Some things were a given - on defense, Deante Battle and Sherrick McManis at corner, Adam Kadela at middle linebacker, Corey Wootton at defensive end, John Gill and Adam Hahn at DT, Brendan Smith and Reggie McPherson at safety.

Over on Offense, you really didn't expect redshirt freshmen to knock off the starters on the line, or Tyrell Sutton to lose his #1 position. The Wide Receiver shuffle continued with the seemingly interchangeable 1's and 2's moving around a bit, but the changes were the backups on the offensive line, but lets not get ahead of ourselves...

Changes to the 2 Deep

On Offense, Ramon Diaz is now listed as Right Tackle Kurt Mattes backup. Keegan Grant is backing up Joel Belding at RG. Diaz had been the #2 RG, Grant had been the backup center on the Spring 2-deep.

On the right side, the only change was Mike Boyle, moving from the left to the right in the backup role.

Trevor Rees' legal issues led to the first big "or" as Left Guard Adam Crum is also listed as the other center.

Among wide receivers, the Andrew Brewer, Ross Lane, Eric Peterman, Rasheed Ward tandem stayed the same, but among the backups, Jeff Yarbrough moved from the H to the Y WR slot swapping with Carl Fisher. Tonjua Jones moved up to Ross Lane's backup at the Z slot and Kim Thompson continued his hold on the X WR. 

Walk-on Kevin Mitchell earned a backup spot at the Y WR, he's also one of the two kick holders.

On Defense, its a matter of moving people around.

Players who have moved up a bid are the guys involved in the "or" spots on the chart, but first, Corey Wootton is now the strong side DE, backed by Kevin Mims. Mark Koehn and David Ngene are one of those "or" pair over on the Will side.

At linebacker, a couple of significant "or's" Chris Jeske is playing well enough to challenge Malcolm Arrington's role as starter Adam Kadela's backup. The same at Will, where Nate Williams moved over from the middle and is working towards being Mike Dinard's back on the weak side.

At Sam OLB, starter Eddie Simpson is now listed as one of the "or" guys, with Prince Kwateng challenging.

The last two players on the "or" list are Brendan Smith and Brad Phillips - both going at winning the starting strong safety role.

Special Teams One last interesting development is the emergence of WR Kevin Mitchell as a holder the place kickers. NU usually uses a punter or QB.  Kyle Daley, the other holder is a backup punter for the Wildcats

Other changes include Omar Conteh and Brandon Roberson as kick returners, and Andrew Brewer listed as #2 punt returner.

Final Analysis

We always look at the off season 2 deeps with a grain of salt. Many times the coaches use them to motivate players and this year it appears in some cases that Coach Fitz and his assistants are doing just that.

If I had to pick one of the weak side DEs, I predict that both Koehn and Ngene will share the position.

The shuffling of backup WRs could represent individual abilities, but how many teams list two former QBs [Brewer and Peterman] as starters as receivers. You do have to consider that a Brewer or Peterman throw to one of the other WR's off a reverse has to now be in the NU playbook.

All told, the surprises are in who moved up and who moved around. Once the freshmen get into Evanston, then in camp, we'll see move shuffling as Coach Fitz continues the NU policy of playing the best 11 athletes.

Here is the full 2007 Preseason Depth Chart as listed on NUSports.com

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