2016 v. 2017 RU Starters vs. Washington

[RUChoppin]

Looking back at the starters for last year's game at Washington and the differences going into tomorrow.

Offense:
QB Chris Laviano (now Kyle Bolin)
RB Justin Goodwin (now Gus Edwards)
TE Nick Arciadiacono (now Jerome Washington)
WR Carlton Agudosi or John Tsimis (now Bo Melton or Everett Wormley)
WR Andre Patton (now Damon Mitchell or Dacoven Bailey)
WR Janarion Grant
LT Tariq Cole
LG Dorian Miller
C Derrick Nelson (now Jonah Jackson)
RG Chris Muller (now Marcus Applefield)
RT J.J. Denman (now Kamaal Seymour)

OC: Drew Mehringer (now Jerry Kill)

Only three offensive players from last year's starting roster are listed as starters this year. Also considering the change from Mehringer to Kill, this will be an entirely new look for Washington's defense - as if they were playing an entirely different team this year.

Defense:
DE Quanzell Lambert (now Kevin Wilkins)
NT Sebastian Joseph
DT Darius Hamilton (now John Bateky)
DE Julian Pinnix-Odrick (now Kemoko Turay)
WLB Trevor Morris
MLB Deonte Roberts
SLB Greg Jones (now Ross Douglas)
CB Isaiah Wharton
FS Saquan Hampton
SS Anthony Cioffi (now Kiy Hester)
CB Blessuan Austin

DC: Jay Niemann

Bringing back 6 of 11 starters from last year's starting roster. Only 1 returning starter on the DLine, but 5 of the back 7 starters are back.

Edit: To swap Seymour/Applefield to their correct positions on the line, and to add the OC change.

 

[RU#1fan]

Add in much improved Punter and Kick Off kicker

 

[RUChoppin]

You're right, I forgot to include Special Teams.

K - David Bonagura (now Andrew Harte for FG and Justin Davidowicz for KO)
P - Michael Cintron (now Ryan Anderson)
LS - Alan Lucy (now Bill Taylor)
R - Janarion Grant

Ash had also mentioned in one of his pressers that 10 of 11 guys on the special team unit were different than last year. Seems like there were wholesale changes there over the offseason and spring/summer camps.

Very little overlap from 2016 to 2017 in 2 of 3 phases of the game.

 

[kapyoche]

So the big question is: Will the outcome be any different?

 

[jellyman]

Looking back at the starters for last year's game at Washington and the differences going into tomorrow.

Offense:
QB Chris Laviano (now Kyle Bolin)
RB Justin Goodwin (now Gus Edwards)
TE Nick Arciadiacono (now Jerome Washington)
WR Carlton Agudosi or John Tsimis (now Bo Melton or Everett Wormley)
WR Andre Patton (now Damon Mitchell or Dacoven Bailey)
WR Janarion Grant
LT Tariq Cole
LG Dorian Miller
C Derrick Nelson (now Jonah Jackson)
RG Chris Muller (now Kamaal Seymour)
RT J.J. Denman (now Marcus Applefield)

Only three offensive players from last year's starting roster are listed as starters this year. Also considering the change from Mehringer to Kill, this will be an entirely new look for Washington's defense - as if they were playing an entirely different team this year.

Defense:
DE Quanzell Lambert (now Kevin Wilkins)
NT Sebastian Joseph
DT Darius Hamilton (now John Bateky)
DE Julian Pinnix-Odrick (now Kemoko Turay)
WLB Trevor Morris
MLB Deonte Roberts
SLB Greg Jones (now Ross Douglas)
CB Isaiah Wharton
FS Saquan Hampton
SS Anthony Cioffi (now Kiy Hester)
CB Blessuan Austin

DC: Jay Niemann

Bringing back 6 of 11 starters from last year's starting roster. Only 1 returning starter on the DLine, but 5 of the back 7 starters are back.

Good post.

I would argue that most of these changes will be positive changes.

Offense:

Clear Upgrades Likely: QB, RB (hated Goodwin as starting RB), TE, One WR position (Melton or Wormley over Agudosi or Tsimis), RT (though you have Applefield and Seymour switched - Seymour is the RT ... Denman was awful - and Seymour last year was poor - will surely be better this year).

Possible Upgrades: One WR position (Mitchell over Patton - not sure about Mitchell yet, but Patton was rarely good)

Push or Probably Downgrades: RG (though I thought Muller had a rather poor year)

Clear Downgrade: C

Defense:

Clear Upgrades Possible (which include improvements by returning players): One DE (Wilkins over Lambert), NT (year of improvement), MLB, WLB, FS (a healthy Hampton), SS (Cioffi was awful - despite maybe making the NFL), 1 CB (Austin a year better)

Possible Upgrades: DT (Bateky over a never-fully-recovered Hamilton), One CB (Wharton a year better - and his back-up maybe even passing him)

Push or Possible Downgrades: One DE (is Turay really healthy, and a more complete mental player? If so, maybe an upgrade ... but JPO was RU's best front 7 player last year)

Clear Downgrades: SLB (not convinced about Ross-Douglas at all)

Special Teams:

Clear Upgrade: Punter

Push: FG (who knows whether we get improvement there), Kickoff (same as FG), Returner (Grant being here hopefully means more of the same).

Complete Mystery: Coverage Units

 

[madchuck]

Offense looks to be better. Defense looks similar. Hopefully, the returning starters are better. Moreover, I thought our defense was just on the field too much last year and got gassed. Hopefully not having the worst offense in the country will make the defense better.

 

[scarletbergen]

This was a really interesting post.

Last years offense was.....not good! We may take a little time to gel, but we will be better!

 

[RU1977]

You have DC listed, but not OC. OC is a very important change....

 

[RUChoppin]

You have DC listed, but not OC. OC is a very important change....

Weird. I had written out the OC change. Must have accidentally deleted it somehow.

 

[Scoutnmayo]

I saw it. It's there now, under RT

OC: Drew Mehringer (now Jerry Kill)

Great post BTW.

 

[beaced]

Looking back at the starters for last year's game at Washington and the differences going into tomorrow.

Offense:
QB Chris Laviano (now Kyle Bolin)
RB Justin Goodwin (now Gus Edwards)
TE Nick Arciadiacono (now Jerome Washington)
WR Carlton Agudosi or John Tsimis (now Bo Melton or Everett Wormley)
WR Andre Patton (now Damon Mitchell or Dacoven Bailey)
WR Janarion Grant
LT Tariq Cole
LG Dorian Miller
C Derrick Nelson (now Jonah Jackson)
RG Chris Muller (now Marcus Applefield)
RT J.J. Denman (now Kamaal Seymour)

OC: Drew Mehringer (now Jerry Kill)

Only three offensive players from last year's starting roster are listed as starters this year. Also considering the change from Mehringer to Kill, this will be an entirely new look for Washington's defense - as if they were playing an entirely different team this year.

Defense:
DE Quanzell Lambert (now Kevin Wilkins)
NT Sebastian Joseph
DT Darius Hamilton (now John Bateky)
DE Julian Pinnix-Odrick (now Kemoko Turay)
WLB Trevor Morris
MLB Deonte Roberts
SLB Greg Jones (now Ross Douglas)
CB Isaiah Wharton
FS Saquan Hampton
SS Anthony Cioffi (now Kiy Hester)
CB Blessuan Austin

DC: Jay Niemann

Bringing back 6 of 11 starters from last year's starting roster. Only 1 returning starter on the DLine, but 5 of the back 7 starters are back.

Edit: To swap Seymour/Applefield to their correct positions on the line, and to add the OC change.

Where there are changes that have been made ,they are IMO mostly for the better.As far as the DC is concerned,this year will confirm or deny that a change should be made.

 

[RUChoppin]

Good post.

I would argue that most of these changes will be positive changes.

Offense:

Clear Upgrades Likely: QB, RB (hated Goodwin as starting RB), TE, One WR position (Melton or Wormley over Agudosi or Tsimis), RT (though you have Applefield and Seymour switched - Seymour is the RT ... Denman was awful - and Seymour last year was poor - will surely be better this year).

Possible Upgrades: One WR position (Mitchell over Patton - not sure about Mitchell yet, but Patton was rarely good)

Push or Probably Downgrades: RG (though I thought Muller had a rather poor year)

Clear Downgrade: C

Defense:

Clear Upgrades Possible (which include improvements by returning players): One DE (Wilkins over Lambert), NT (year of improvement), MLB, WLB, FS (a healthy Hampton), SS (Cioffi was awful - despite maybe making the NFL), 1 CB (Austin a year better)

Possible Upgrades: DT (Bateky over a never-fully-recovered Hamilton), One CB (Wharton a year better - and his back-up maybe even passing him)

Push or Possible Downgrades: One DE (is Turay really healthy, and a more complete mental player? If so, maybe an upgrade ... but JPO was RU's best front 7 player last year)

Clear Downgrades: SLB (not convinced about Ross-Douglas at all)

Special Teams:

Clear Upgrade: Punter

Push: FG (who knows whether we get improvement there), Kickoff (same as FG), Returner (Grant being here hopefully means more of the same).

Complete Mystery: Coverage Units

I don't know if it's a "clear downgrade" at center, at this point. I've heard a lot of positives about Jackson out of camp so far, he was the #2 center last year, and he played in all 12 games last year (mostly on specials). At this point, I'd put him in the "push or possible downgrades" department.