Texas Tech Football Things: Post-Spring Depth Chart Discussion

LAJ’s Don Williams has the post-spring depth chart. Don also has quotes from head coach Kliff Kingsbury and defensive coordinator David Gibbs. So go click on over.

No surprise at the outside receivers where it is Derrick Willies, Quan Shorts and Antoine Wesley at the X-receiver and Dylan Cantrell and T.J. Vasher at the Y-receiver. This is probably how things started and how they’ll go into the season.
Same thing for the inside guys except for the fact that Cameron Batson has supplanted Jonathan Giles at the H-receiver position with De’Quan Bowman running third team. At the Y-receiver spot, KeKe Coutee, Zach Austin and Tony Brown round out that group. Ridiculous depth inside.
Want to know how unhappy Kingsbury was with the offensive line? Madison Akamnonu, who didn’t really see a snap this spring is your starting right guard over Jacob Hines and anyone else that they were running out there. I’m totally fine with that. I think the thought was that if Aaron Cochran committed to Texas Tech that woudl just slide some folks down. The left side consists of Travis Bruffy, Zach Adams and Giovanni Pancotti at left tackle and Madison Akamnonu, Jacob Hines and Dawson Deaton at left guard.
Paul Stawarz is the starting center and Tony Morales is behind him. Dawson is supposed to be working at center as well, so that gives you some long-term depth.
Freshman Jack Anderson is your starting right guard and Bailey Smith or Jack Reichel is backing him up. Terence Steele then Will Farrar are your starting right tackles. It’s pretty amazing how young this line actually is across the board.
At the all important quarterback position it is Nic Shimonek, Payne Sullins, McLane Carter and Xavier Martin. Carter apparently needs spend some time in the film room studying and I would then expect him to pass Sullins. He’s got a bigger arm and more potential, but he has to figure out the playbook.
At running back, I’m a bit surprised because it seemed that the best running back all spring was DeMarcus Felton, but he’s running third team behind Justin Stockton and then Da’Leon Ward. Caleb Woodward is the 4th team back. I just keep thinking that these guys just have to be significantly better.
The defensive ends are pretty much what we started with. At the left side, it is Eli Howard, Talor Nunez, Nelson Mbanasor, Noah Jones and freshman walk-on Tyler Carr. This is progress for me as all of these guys are pretty much at 260+. Howard seemed to have the best spring and I can’t say that I remember Mbanasor very much and Jones didn’t get much playing time this spring. At the right side is Kolin Hill, then Lonzell Gilmore and then Kaleb Hill. Gilmore made a significant impact this spring and if he keeps making plays, he’ll move up.
At defensive tackle, Mychealong Thomas is your starter with Zach Barnes and Houson Miller backing him up. Barnes is 6-3/255 and he’s pretty much a pass-rush specialist in that if it is a passing down, he’ll come in standing up and try to wreak havoc. At noseguard, Broderick Washington, Jose Wallace and Nick McCann fill out that group and to be honest, I seem to recall numerous instances where it was a pretty decent rotatino of Washington, Wallace, McCann and Thomas all getting snaps at defensive tackle and noseguard.
There are only two linebacker spots: middle linebacker and weakside linebacker. I think this is a pretty strong group overall. At middle linebacker is Jordyn Brooks, D’Vonta Hinton, Christian Taylor and Johnathan Picone. At weakside linebacker is Dakota Allen, Brayden Stringer, Tony Jones and Jamile Johnson. How about Brooks and Allen, not seeing snaps all spring as first team and Allen not even on the team yet?
The cornerback is D.J. Polite Bray and Jaylon Lane at one cornerback spot with Desmon Smith and Octavious Morgan at the other cornerback spot. That’s significant upgrades in my opinion. Smith is solid and if Bray plays as well as he’s played thus far, that’s great.
At left safety is Jah’Shawn Johnson, Justus Parker, Payton Hendrix and then Kevin Moore. At the right safety is Kisean Allen, Vaughnte Dorsey and Demarcus Fields (he’s been out all spring with another injury). I thought Parker was a difference maker this spring as was Dorsey. This position group is better just as a result of some added depth.
I don’t know if this signals a change to a 4-2-5, but the official listing is a nickel back as the 11th player on defense headed by Douglas Coleman, then Justus Parker, Kisean Allen and Willie Sykes. I love Coleman because he’s not a cornerback, he’s not a safety, but he can cover some guys and he’s just good at football. Parker is in the same mold, but not as fleet of foot, although he’ll lay some hits.
The special team guys consists of Clayton Hatfield and Michael Barden at place kicker with the roles reversed for kickoffs. Dominic Panazzolo is the starting punter with Barden as the back-up and Kyle Heffron and Noah Hess the deep snappers.
Generally speaking, I think this is a pretty decent group. In retrospect, you don’t appreciate how bad things are at teh time, but I think there’s some legitimate players on defense.
If Akamnonu can come back and be halfway decent, then I think the line looks much better in the summer. Bruffy still lacks some power and strength, but maybe pairing him with Akamonu is going to look different in the fall. The line could change quite a bit if Akamnonu is good to go, which by all accounts, he should be.
All in for 8.