Took me awhile to find the time to analyze the depth chart....
Here are my surprises / questions:
Offense:
Alex Ross not in the RB 3-deep (as stated above) - My guess is that they already have 2 big backs ahead of him, so Daniel Brooks is more of a change of pace back than Alex.
Carson Meier at H-Back (as stated above) instead of TE as recruited
Michiah Quick slipping all of the way to 3rd at his position. Those with inside knowledge must know that he's in the dog house for something I assume, since I haven't read any big news about his slip.
Orlando Brown overtaking Farniok at the LT position. Brown came in as a really big boy, but there were huge concerns about him being "fat" and not dedicated to football which is why his recruiting ranking was low. I guess he's had a change of heart and started losing weight and working his butt off. I think he was 400 lbs at one point, so down to 340 is a huge leaning out.
Alvarez ahead of Danley at the LG position. There was a lot of noise and push from the coaches in recruiting Alvarez, but his recruiting ranking wasn't really high. Danley comes in as the #1 JuCo lineman, so I really thought it would take more time for Alvarez to develop. Him starting ahead of Danley speaks volumes about what our coaches saw in him that others didn't.
Erick Wren ahead of Alex Dalton at the backup C position. What happened to Alex Dalton as a C? He was one of our bigger lineman recruits. Erick wasn't even recruited out of HS and ended up in CC out in Arizona. He isn't even listed at the C position on the Sooners Roster, and doesn't even have a bio on SoonerSports.
Alex Dalton moved from C to RG. Is this just an ominous showing that we're really short at the G position that Alex had to move over from C? Maybe Cody Ford or Bobby Evans can come along quickly and start to assist at this position of weakness. I look for the 2016 recruiting class to bring in some more big time talent at the G position.
Dru Samia as backup RT. We all know about the Frison issue but what happened to Christian Daimler or Joseph Paul? I'm surprised to see a true freshman surpass these guys that weren't exactly lightly recruited.
Connor Knight still making the 3-deep at receiver. It's cool that he's making his way into the rotation, but ss anyone surprised that the 2 backups to 5'10" Sterling are 6'5" and 6'4"?
Defense:
Both Jordan Wade and Charles Walker (kinda) getting passed by Matt Romar and Matt Dimon. Wade and Walker seemed like the starters to be last year.
Dwayne Orso moving to DT. I thought Orso was a big get for the DE position. He's awfully tall for your typical DT.
Okoronkwo at DE. Here's a small DE. I assume they're using him to complement Striker or Bond from the other side during pass rushes.
Jordan Evans ahead of Frank Shannon at ILB. Actually after Dom's lackluster sophomore season, I thought Evans and Shannon would be the two ILBs. I have to think this is just carryover from the Shannon punishment.
What happened to Curtis Bolton? I thought Bolton was a huge recruiting get, some declaring him as the next Calmus or Lehman. Not seeing him on the ILB depth chart is surprising to me after a redshirt year.
We're still crazy young at safety, but we have nowhere to go except up. True freshmen at both backup positions, and I'm sure Prentice McKinney can't be far behind if any of those guys aren't ready.
Jordan Thomas better keep showing signs of greatness. PJ is probably hot on his heels. If he struggles at all, I wouldn't be surprised if PJ overtakes this starting position. If he's the real deal, we could end up with a couple of lockdown man-man coverage CBs. But that's just going to funnel the ball to the safeties, so I hope they're much improved this year or it's going to be another year of just getting slaughtered in the passing game.
