As always, the red box represents a year of eligibility and the black box represents a redshirt year available.

Quarterbacks

With only three scholarship quarterbacks on the roster, things I think are better, but still a bit tricky. No one can get hurt /furiously rubs rabbit’s foot/. I expect Shimonek to be the guy in 2017 and I don’t expect the offense to fall off of any cliffs. He’ll be fine. His teammates and coaches absolutely love him. This team is going to rally around him. Mark it.

With Carter, the team has provided itself with an incredible bridge between Martin and Shimonek. His signing was vital. He’ll have a lot to learn, but that’s one thing that I think we can say comfortably, which is that Kingsbury can coach up quarterbacks. I’m not worried at all about his progression.

And I’ll write the same thing about Martin. I think he’ll stick at quarterback, or at least I hope he does, because I think it will be incredibly interesting to see what Martin does as a quarterback and how Kingsbury takes advantage of his ability.

The big question mark is Jett Duffey, who is suspended for the spring and summer semester (again, to remind everyone, this was university imposed) and Kingsbury has said that he expects Duffey to be back in the fall. I don’t have a clue, but I’m not counting on his return. If I’m wrong then great, but this is probably a situation where it is better for both parties to cut their ties.

Running Backs

This is a group that needs to make significant strides.

The funny thing is that for me personally, I really want Justin Stockton to work out and that hasn’t happened. I normally don’t cheer for players like that, but I really want him to be able to figure it out, but he just hasn’t. It’s partly what he is and I wonder how big of an effect Jabbar Juluke will have on him.

And I may be crazy, but I think Felton and Nisby get the significant carries this next year in 2017 with Stockton being a third down specialist. Felton has the best vision and the best wiggle of the bunch and he’s got to figure out how to stay healthy. I’ve gone back and forth on Nisby and there’s part of me that things there is no way that a 23 year old California JUCO running back is going to light a fire under this group, but he he’s got something in the limited carries he had in California.

I actually see Ward, not necessarily taking a step back, but he needs to get bigger and IF Felton and Nisby can play, I think they’ll play in front of Ward this year.

This will need to be a position group that has to be addressed this year, I’d be fine with two running backs in the 2018 cycle.