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2024 Projected Starters

K

Kadeezy

Active member
While there may be another wave of entrants into the Transfer Portal with the Early Signing Period concluding and teams/players know what's still out there, it's comforting to see so many key players returning (hopefully) in 2024.

I like to mock this up for fun, and for a super early, early outlook...

This is still a top 15 team IMO. Not a lot of turnover on the roster, or coaching staff. Will another year of stability get this squad back into seed territory? I'm sure an underclassman will sneak on to the starting offense/defense somewhere... But, this is shaping up to be Jr/Sr- heavy team...

PROJECTED OFFENSE

LT – Garza (Sr.)
LG – Slater (Sr.)
C – Mejia (Jr.)
RG – Riley (Jr.)
RT – Meek (Jr.)
TE – Kuntz (Jr.)
WR – Gandy (Jr.)
WR – Gipson (Sr.)
WR – Grover (Sr.)
RB – Tau-Tolliver (Jr.)
QB – Bennett (Sr.)

PROJECTED DEFENSE

DE – Fashola (Sr.)
DT – Williams (Jr.)
DT – Brosseau (Jr.)
DE – Lynch (Jr.)
LB – Feo (Jr.)
LB – Hernandez (Fr.) - not sure on injury return
CB – Vedder (Jr.)
CB – Rose (Fr.)
SS – Davis Smith (Jr.)
FS – Broussard (Jr.)
NB - Pollard (Jr.)
 
It seems like LB is the biggest weakness/question mark. I don’t believe Hernandez is an LB. Hope #32 Jackson and or #39 Houston are ready to step up. Also, hopefully get a transfer or two, ideally this guy who was 1st all wac last year

https://x.com/wleota21/status/1740872451356336319?s=46
 
Kadeezy said:
While there may be another wave of entrants into the Transfer Portal with the Early Signing Period concluding and teams/players know what's still out there, it's comforting to see so many key players returning (hopefully) in 2024.

I like to mock this up for fun, and for a super early, early outlook...

This is still a top 15 team IMO. Not a lot of turnover on the roster, or coaching staff. Will another year of stability get this squad back into seed territory? I'm sure an underclassman will sneak on to the starting offense/defense somewhere... But, this is shaping up to be Jr/Sr- heavy team...

PROJECTED OFFENSE

LT – Garza (Sr.)
LG – Slater (Sr.)
C – Mejia (Jr.)
RG – Riley (Jr.)
RT – Meek (Jr.)
TE – Kuntz (Jr.)
WR – Gandy (Jr.)
WR – Gipson (Sr.)
WR – Grover (Sr.)
RB – Tau-Tolliver (Jr.)
QB – Bennett (Sr.)

PROJECTED DEFENSE

DE – Fashola (Sr.)
DT – Williams (Jr.)
DT – Brosseau (Jr.)
DE – Lynch (Jr.)
LB – Feo (Jr.)
LB – Hernandez (Fr.) - not sure on injury return
CB – Vedder (Jr.)
CB – Rose (Fr.)
SS – Davis Smith (Jr.)
FS – Broussard (Jr.)
NB - Pollard (Jr.)
Click to expand...

I think Moleni is the starting RB --

I think the NB will be a battle between Pollard (such a rough injury year for him) and Malini Ti'a -- Ti'a flies around the field and makes plays. Coach Thompson is still the NB coach, and for him to have NB listed as his position on signing day means they have the exact idea where he fits on this club.

Yebrell Emerson (incoming JC who has size that the staff is very high on) will really push Gavin for the Strong Safety job.

LB is a mess -- For the spring Houston (Derek not DJ) is certainly at one spot. I think Mitchell Wolfe is at the other. (Riley has been in the DL room as a rush end --- don't see that changing Kadeezy, healthy or not). We have no early graduate freshman for the spring, but I think they'll be in the mix for fall camp. I don't know of any LB portal opportunities for us, but often those are more likely to land in your lap than anything else. Coach Tupi is a good one, and maybe he can bring his start pupil Will Leota over with him. Sadly, that's only one of the two spots.

No matter how bad the program was, we always tended to have great LBs... It's weird going into a year where our biggest question mark is at that spot. We also have an abundance at Safety ---- might see some guys switch rooms for the spring and start eating a couple extra meals a day.
 
I'm sure Kadeezy did this based on the offensive and defensive schemes we ran this year. My preferences don't fit this (I like a fullback on offense and a third linebacker on defense), but I recognize that these different personnel packages are more and more in vogue. We've had some success with them (and some "not success"). Sting's comments for next year could be key in how well we do, particularly on defense.

Thank you for the input, guys. This discussion sounds good.
 
Even though the portal closed today and we were relatively unscathed (so far), there is another 15 day period that beings on May 1st.

Interesting discussion on the projected starters.

Offense seems pretty set. I agree with sting that a healthy Moleni would be the favorite to start at RB. He looked to be the tougher runner between the tackles compared to ETT. ETT will see plenty of playing time and I'd like to see Coach Fresques get the ball to him in space. Also Riley got beat pretty bad at RG against the better defensive fronts, wouldn't be surprised to something happen there. Then there will always be eyes on the backups QBs given KB's lack of durability.

Defense will see a lot of players stepping into starting roles. I know Williams, Brosseau, and Knott saw a lot of time in the DL interior, but we have to get bigger inside if we want to stiffen up the run defense and compete at the top of the BSC. There is some size on the roster that redshirted last season, I wonder if any of them will get looks. The battle at LB will be interesting to see how it plays out. I think Jackson will be a favorite to compete for a starting spot. No idea on the secondary, aside form Broussard and Pollard, none of the returners really stood out to me. Hard to get exited about the returners in the secondary given how sketchy their play was throughout this season.
 
Super Hornet 2.0 said:
I'm sure Kadeezy did this based on the offensive and defensive schemes we ran this year. My preferences don't fit this (I like a fullback on offense and a third linebacker on defense), but I recognize that these different personnel packages are more and more in vogue. We've had some success with them (and some "not success"). Sting's comments for next year could be key in how well we do, particularly on defense.

Thank you for the input, guys. This discussion sounds good.
Click to expand...

The fullback room is loaded this year so there will be a lot of competition for FB1/2.
 
SDHornet said:
Defense will see a lot of players stepping into starting roles. I know Williams, Brosseau, and Knott saw a lot of time in the DL interior, but we have to get bigger inside if we want to stiffen up the run defense and compete at the top of the BSC. There is some size on the roster that redshirted last season, I wonder if any of them will get looks. The battle at LB will be interesting to see how it plays out. I think Jackson will be a favorite to compete for a starting spot. No idea on the secondary, aside form Broussard and Pollard, none of the returners really stood out to me. Hard to get exited about the returners in the secondary given how sketchy their play was throughout this season.
Click to expand...

I think the defensive concept this season was to have the whole d-line focus on pass rush because Bailey and Mather were true run stoppers, and we were more likely to blitz with a Safety or NB than with either of them (their sacks mostly came from coverage sacks/qb scrambles with they were in spy). I would anticipate that Paulson redshirted the big boys because we will go with more of a true pair of defensive tackles next year without anyone proven at stopping the run at the LB position. The guys playing DT last year were in the 240-250 range. The dudes we have in the wings are more 270-280. I think this is a solid point SD.
 
Thanks for great points all! For some reason, I thought Hernandez played some ILB as true frosh. Rush end makes more sense.

Every time I look at the roster, I see tons of size and talent that didn’t see the field last year. Does anyone know how Onterrio Smith Jr. fared during his RS season?

We need to see some talent emerge at WR, DL, LB and DB. Kuntz is going to be fun to watch as the primary TE. And, I totally overlooked Nakian Jackson who was a reliable 3rd/4th MLB option most of the year as a RS FR.
 
Craig Haley likes what we bring back….

https://theanalyst.com/na/2024/01/never-too-early-outlook-for-2024-fcs-season-sdsu-seeing-bison-in-rear-view-mirror/
 
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