The Spring previews begin: DE

Rivals has started their Spring position preview and I guess that mean's its about time I start mind and I might as well start where they did, defensive end. Definitely not our strongest position last year my personal football philosophy is that pressure comes number for any great defense. If you go back to our ridiculous defenses (namely 06, 07, 08) you'll notice something. Of the three 06 was only "pretty good" but we had Albright, Raji, Brace, Larkin. 07 had Albright beasting as a pass rusher and then 08 saw the rise of Raji. This does not take away from Silva, Dunbar, Tribble, Toal Herzlich or any of the other guys, its just my opinion that especially with our Big Ten style of recruitment we better be getting power out of our lines because its not likely we'll burn anyone with speed. So on to this year.

Your sure-fire starter: Alex Albright
I always thought he played strong side but apparently he always lines up wherever there appears to be the least protection (read, where the TE isn't). Rivals suggested that teams focused on blocking him but I feel like injuries played more of a role in his less than stellar season(1 sack?). He had been producing a lot of pressure early in the season even though he was still somewhat hobbled and we had Christian Ponder confused and afraid of Albright during the first half of the FSU game (the same FSU which is supposed to have the most ridiculous OL imaginable this year, something which I take offense to we all know BC always has the best line). Then Albright gets hurt, we lose pressure and we almost lose the game.

Your likely starters: Max Holloway and Brad Newman
Unless one of the younger guys has a great spring (always likely) I think these are the names you'll be seeing more of. The depth chart will read Newman first but the reality is that these two will be in and out of the game constantly. From scrimmages Holloway seems to be something of a phenom but there seems to be concern that his size might make him a liability in run coverage. Newman meanwhile is not exactly a flashy guy but the coaches love him because he knows his job and he does his job. Period.


The Best of the Rest:
Ifeanyi Momah
I've known about Momah's workout at the DE position for awhile now but the people I heard it from told me to keep it quiet so I didn't say much but now Rivals seems to be reporting it as well. I don't particularly like the idea of Momah as a DE, he had a TE body but ended up at receiver even though he really had TE speed as well. With Jarvis gone I really wanted to see the long-armed 6-6 Momah come back but this is meant more for WR not DE. The fact is that since Momah came back from the knee injury he's worked out @ DE and he is big and athletic, I just question his power. Maybe I'm being too negative though, so for a more exciting spin try this: Momah might be a receiver now but he was recruited by most teams as a TE so he must have some hidden power and Jagz/Logan must have felt he had some speed so maybe his blend of power and athleticism is just what we need @ DE.

Dan Williams
Rivals is reporting he moved to DE, I have it on good authority that hes been there for a while. To be honest I think this is more a move to develop depth since we haven't been all that successful at recruiting DE (come to think of it the Momah stunt might be along the same lines considering the wealth developing at receiver).

Kasim Edebali
A true dark horse, really nothing known about his playing ability but he's the only other guy who was actually recruited to play DE. Even though he was supposedly something of an athletic freak coming in he apparently spent the whole Redshirt year in the gym and is only familiarizing himself with the playbook now so there might be some work-ethic issues. He is however my choice as a dark horse candidate, especially since no one else seems to be giving him any love.