We've Got Depth This Year

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Livingat45north

Livingat45north

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For a long time, every year I've thought "we'll be okay as long as ____ doesn't get injured". Some years it's been an entire position, like anyone on the OLine. And other years it's been one or two key people where there was a big drop off between the starter and the "next man up". Heading into this year, I'm thinkin' we've finally got nice depth at every position. Feels nice :cool:
 

We’re getting there. I’d argue we don’t have good depth yet on the o-line, LB and safety. Maybe DT as well with the loss of Smith and Silver.
 

You really don't know until the backup plays..... I duno man.
 

Livingat45north said:
For a long time, every year I've thought "we'll be okay as long as ____ doesn't get injured". Some years it's been an entire position, like anyone on the OLine. And other years it's been one or two key people where there was a big drop off between the starter and the "next man up". Heading into this year, I'm thinkin' we've finally got nice depth at every position. Feels nice :cool:
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There are still a lot of unknowns on the roster, but I do agree that it feels like we have a lot more depth then we have had for quite a while at many of the key positions.

This might be the deepest I can ever remember us being at QB, WR, and RB all at the same time.
 

Livingat45north said:
For a long time, every year I've thought "we'll be okay as long as ____ doesn't get injured". Some years it's been an entire position, like anyone on the OLine. And other years it's been one or two key people where there was a big drop off between the starter and the "next man up". Heading into this year, I'm thinkin' we've finally got nice depth at every position. Feels nice :cool:
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Football is a war of attrition. You need a full 2 deep, 44 guys that are equal in talent and skill.

I have never seen anything close to that here at mn until now. We dont have experience at all positions but we dont have glaring holes or players with severe deficits coming back.
 


Thomasthetank said:
Football is a war of attrition. You need a full 2 deep, 44 guys that are equal in talent and skill.

I have never seen anything close to that here at mn until now. We dont have experience at all positions but we dont have glaring holes or players with severe deficits coming back.
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No team has a 2-deep, 44 guys, equal in skill. Even the best schools have guys that are better than their backups, which is why they start. We have more depth but what you're saying they need doesn't exist anywhere in the country.
 

We have virtually no depth at Safety. Overall, the team is continuing to get better and deeper tho. Should be a great year!


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Spoofin said:
We have virtually no depth at Safety. Overall, the team is continuing to get better and deeper tho. Should be a great year!


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I’d say with Owens and Howden backing up Sapp and Windfield, we are fine. After that, it is a question mark.


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Depth is good. I hope Minnesota doesn't find out the hard way though. That's all I have to say about that.
 



UpAndUnder43 said:
No team has a 2-deep, 44 guys, equal in skill. Even the best schools have guys that are better than their backups, which is why they start. We have more depth but what you're saying they need doesn't exist anywhere in the country.
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Ok. I'm not saying they're the exact same but just to have the ability to plug a guy in for an injured starter and have that guy be capable of doing the job.

For example, if one of our starting WR gets hurt, we can plug DD in, no problems. We have 4-5 capable CBs. We have 2 QBs who are of reasonable competency and skill. We have 3 RBS who can rotate. We have 4 DTs who are of level playing ability. We wouldn't lose a lot if an LB went down....get what I'm trying to say?

Usually we have a glaring hole somewhere and had to hope that some walkon could do the job bwcuaee we had no one else.
 

die hard gopher said:
I’d say with Owens and Howden backing up Sapp and Windfield, we are fine. After that, it is a question mark.


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There are always bodies. I view depth as whether we know someone can play and be effective if there are injuries. Last year we had depth at LB - when Cashman went out vs Wisky, we didn't miss a beat with an experienced Julian Huff coming in to replace him.

Sapp has never played a single snap at safety despite limited depth last year. Winfield is coming off multiple injuries - will he be ready? Owens has yet to play or practice football at the D-1 level.
 


While the o-line may have scholarship bodies behind the starting 5, they are young and totally untested. If Schuelter was our 6th (and for most of the year 5th) best offensive lineman last year, I think it's hard to say we wouldn't experience a massive drop off in production if anyone goes down. That's my biggest concern going into next year.
 



John Galt said:
There are always bodies. I view depth as whether we know someone can play and be effective if there are injuries. Last year we had depth at LB - when Cashman went out vs Wisky, we didn't miss a beat with an experienced Julian Huff coming in to replace him.

Sapp has never played a single snap at safety despite limited depth last year. Winfield is coming off multiple injuries - will he be ready? Owens has yet to play or practice football at the D-1 level.
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Yes but with those four, it feels like more than just bodies. With LB, I would say our depth is mostly just bodies with Rush, Oliver and Sori-Marin. At O-line, aside from Schlueter, it's just bodies. At safety, I feel better as Howden started 5 games and will be backing up one of our best players when healthy. Owens was a fist team JC All American and many inside the program think Sapp will start at SS indicating he would be better than those two. Again, after them, it gets murky but I think we are fine with those guys as are top 4.
 

SPEGOPHER said:
While the o-line may have scholarship bodies behind the starting 5, they are young and totally untested. If Schuelter was our 6th (and for most of the year 5th) best offensive lineman last year, I think it's hard to say we wouldn't experience a massive drop off in production if anyone goes down. That's my biggest concern going into next year.
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I think our O-line will be good and has depth. There will be talented guys with some experience on the bench. Been a long time since that was the case.
 

John Galt said:
There are always bodies. I view depth as whether we know someone can play and be effective if there are injuries. Last year we had depth at LB - when Cashman went out vs Wisky, we didn't miss a beat with an experienced Julian Huff coming in to replace him.

Sapp has never played a single snap at safety despite limited depth last year. Winfield is coming off multiple injuries - will he be ready? Owens has yet to play or practice football at the D-1 level.
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Fans don't know what our depth is like at S, but based on how the staff recruited the position, they really like our depth. I don't think there are any depth questions on the defense. I think OL is still a little thin with the transfers. I really like JMSchmitz, and I think we're comfortably 7 deep, but the drop off from the starters will probably be steep if we lose more than 1-2.
 

Livingat45north said:
For a long time, every year I've thought "we'll be okay as long as ____ doesn't get injured". Some years it's been an entire position, like anyone on the OLine. And other years it's been one or two key people where there was a big drop off between the starter and the "next man up". Heading into this year, I'm thinkin' we've finally got nice depth at every position. Feels nice :cool:
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Like you I personally believe that our depth will be better than what we've had in the past. Is it where we want to be? No. However I feel much better about it as Livingat45north states.
 

I like the depth at WR, CB, and RB.
I hope this thread doesn’t get revived in October.
 

die hard gopher said:
I’d say with Owens and Howden <b>backing up Sapp </b>and Windfield, we are fine. After that, it is a question mark.


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What has you so jazzed about Sapp? His sophomore highlights from HS?


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Spoofin said:
What has you so jazzed about Sapp? His sophomore highlights from HS?


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Staff is jazzed about him. Issue has always been knee health. With good training staff, after a year with no setbacks, hope is that he can make a run.
 

Spoofin said:
What has you so jazzed about Sapp? His sophomore highlights from HS?


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*Freshman highlights from HS

He missed his sophomore season.


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die hard gopher said:
Yes but with those four, it feels like more than just bodies. With LB, I would say our depth is mostly just bodies with Rush, Oliver and Sori-Marin. At O-line, aside from Schlueter, it's just bodies. At safety, I feel better as Howden started 5 games and will be backing up one of our best players when healthy. Owens was a fist team JC All American and many inside the program think Sapp will start at SS indicating he would be better than those two. Again, after them, it gets murky but I think we are fine with those guys as are top 4.
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It's weird that you threw Rush in there, given that he has shown more quality play and potential as a Gopher than any other player in your post.
 

PitinoFan said:
*Freshman highlights from HS

He missed his sophomore season.
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Lmao. This little exchange on Sapp is the essence of recruiting talk! If we're being honest here, the main reasons Sapp's been a cross between Bigfoot and Chuck Norris for Gopher fans for years are because his dad played for the Vikings and he once had a really high internet rating from someone.

I hope he does well like everyone else, but we don't really know jack about him.
 

Spoofin said:
What has you so jazzed about Sapp? His sophomore highlights from HS?


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People like Burns seem to think he has the inside track to the starting SS spot.


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fmlizard said:
Lmao. This little exchange on Sapp is the essence of recruiting talk! If we're being honest here, the main reasons Sapp's been a cross between Bigfoot and Chuck Norris for Gopher fans for years are because his dad played for the Vikings and he once had a really high internet rating from someone.

I hope he does well like everyone else, but we don't really know jack about him.
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Didn't he play in nearly every game for us this past season?
 

As someone else noted, starters start for a reason - they're the best players at their position. Sure, you may have situations where two players are very close in ability, and you wind up with 1A and 1B at a particular position. but, for the most part, there is going to be some level of drop-off from starter to backup.

the real question is how much of a drop-off.

That, IMHO, is the real meaning of "Depth." If the difference from starter to backup is from a grade of 100 to 90 or 80, you're in good shape. what you don't want is a difference of 100 to 60 or 50. That is where the Gophers have been the last couple of years at certain positions - where if the starter goes out, you're throwing someone in there who really doesn't deserve to be a D1 starter.

so, when you talk about depth, it doesn't mean the backup is the equal of the starter. it just means the backup can hold their own without a major drop-off in performance.
 


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