Wednesday links

August 29, 2007

By Drew Champlin

UPDATE - Here is today’s story from me on how Troy is confident against big-name opponents now.

In other news…

...From the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, passing is a priority, a Razorbacks report has Arkansas with a new backup quarterback, and Monk’s still hurting.

From the Morning News of NW Arkansas, another story on Casey Dick.

If you miss my writing style, check out the prep feature on a Slocomb running back who made his grades.

Power poll: Troy positions

August 28, 2007

By Drew Champlin

This week’s power poll rating the Troy positions. NOTE - depth figures into this, which is why quarterback isn’t No. 1.

1 - DEFENSIVE LINE: Like I’ve said, two defensive ends started 13 games on a championship team last year and lost their spots to youngsters. It’s different if two defensive ends from a 3-9 team lose their spots. Brandon Lang is very good already, Cameron Sheffield has that potential and apparently is showing it if he moved past Shawn Todd. Remember, Todd and Kenny Mainor are pretty good in their own right. Chris Bradwell and Marcus Pittman have shown enough to move into starting spots inside, with Steve McClendon, Dion Gales, Akeem Brown, Maurice Coleman behind them.

2 - DEFENSIVE BACKS: Three starters return in Elbert Mack, Leodis McKelvin and Tavares Williams. Terence Moore is physical and played a lot last year. Sherrod Martin, the fifth defensive back, started two years. Derick Pendergrass has played some. Trevor Ford was talented enough to be signed by Florida State. Chris Bowens showed flashes in action last year as a true freshman. Courtland Fuller is, at worst, a pretty good special teams player.

3 - WIDE RECEIVERS: Another unit with a lot of experience back. You know what you’ll get out of Gary Banks and that’s a season with numbers worthy of being a first-team All Sun Belt selection. Andrew Davis and Mykeal Terry played a lot last year and really turned it on late in the year. Austin Silvoy was the biggest surprise of fall camp. Jerrel Jernigan is a freshman with game-breaking skills. Cornelius Williams and Patrick Cherry saw spot duty last year. Zack Marcum would run through the goal posts if coaches asked him to. Watch out for tight end Travis Boyd in some situations, he earned a scholarship and jumped to the top of the depth chart there. It’s a position that won’t be used much, but will be used some.

4 - QUARTERBACK: How important Omar Haugabook is to this team is why quarterbacks is this high, because Tanner Jones and Jamie Hampton haven’t taken a college snap, and Jonathan Chandler is redshirting.

5 - LINEBACKER: Another good unit - Marcus Richardson has been on the field most of his career and Boris Lee became a young star as a true freshman. The thing that impresses me most about Lee is that he makes plays - he covers well and he gets interception. From talking to defensive coordinator Jeremy Rowell before last year’s Nebraska game - before Lee really hit the field, “He’s just a good football player,“ is what Rowell said about Lee. Josh Maxwell is a veteran who has waited his turn to start as a senior. Romanique Lewis is a fifth-year senior that is good enough when healthy. Bear Woods earned a scholarship in the summer. Four newcomers are talented, though JUCO transfer David McDowell is the only one that might be needed. Lennie Richardson, Donnell Golden and Xavier Lamb should redshirt.

6 - SPECIAL TEAMS: Greg Whibbs is a solid kickoff man and has distance on field goals, but needs to improve 11-of-20 FGs last year to a little bit higher percentage. The only other proven commodity is Leodis McKelvin as a return man. Adrian Vera at punter is inexperienced and the snapper and holder are new.

7 - RUNNING BACK - Kenny Cattouse got better as last year went on. Sean Dawkins has been through the wars, but he’s still coming off ACL surgery. After that, it’s very grim. DuJuan Harris, a true freshman, has speed but isn’t as good without the ball. No one else has stepped up or has played.

8 - OFFENSIVE LINE - Hey, it was called the weak unit last year and proved to be the most consistent. Chris Jamison and Dion Small at the tackles. The inside is where the most worry is. At practice this week, Danny Franks will try to hold off Steven Adams at C, Will Chambliss is battling true freshman walk-on Tyler Clark at LG and Wes Potter is trying to take the RG job away from Steven Merkel. Jamison is the only returning starter. Tyrell Curtis could figure into the mix somewhere and right now he’s a backup at LT.

Interested to hear your thoughts.

Tuesday links

By Drew Champlin

Thanks to Barry McKnight and John Longshore of AM-970 in Montgomery for starting my day off right. I woke up earlier than normal and made a couple of errands after my guest appearance.

Meanwhile, here are some links of interest.

First off, from my end, here’s today’s story focusing on stopping Darren McFadden, Brandon Lang’s hearing it, some injury notes and a depth chart move.

In Fayetteville, Chris Bahn wrote on Omar Haugabook, and also of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Tom Murphy gives us the Arkansas Razorbacks report.

From the Northwest Arkansas Times, Nate Allen writes on how the Hogs have moved on since defensive end Marcus Harrison’s arrest and suspension.

Ryan Malashock of the Morning News of NW Arkansas also wrote on Omar Haugabook.

Alex Abrams of the Morning News writes on Harrison’s arrest, plus some notes on tight end Ben Cleveland’s injury.

Some notes from Monday

August 27, 2007

By Drew Champlin

***Austin Silvoy has jumped into the No. 1 position at the Y receiver. The redshirt freshman had a great fall camp. Cornelius Williams, the projected starter, is now third behind Silvoy and Josh Allen. Offensive coordinator Tony Franklin attributed that to Silvoy’s strength and play-making ability and Williams has been struggling with “dead (tired) legs,“ which is bad if you’re not a speedster.

***Sophomore Cameron Sheffield is listed ahead of senior and returning starter Shawn Todd at right defensive end. Todd lost a lot of weight in the summer at air force boot camp and has gained some back, but Sheffield’s a player. You’ll hear a lot out of him and Brandon Lang this fall. Lang is listed ahead of Kenny Mainor at left defensive ends. So basically, you’ve got two defensive ends that started 13 games each last year for a Sun Belt championship team who got beaten out by younger players. In reality, it’s not a bad thing because Mainor and Todd are still good.

***Franklin isn’t satisfied with the offensive line performance, at least not right now. The only guaranteed starters are Chris Jamison at LT and Dion Small at RT. Will Chambliss will likely be at LG, but a true freshman walk-on named Tyler Clark is giving him a run for his money. Danny Franks has struggled lately at C and he’ll battle Steven Adams this week. Steven Merkel has been dinged up a little bit at RG, and Wes Potter, a JUCO transfer, is giving him a run for his money.

Franklin’s happy with Dion Small. He thinks Wes Potter will be a good player, but he’s still got to lose 30 pounds (already lost 20) to be able to play every down. He’s also high on Tyrell Curtis, another JUCO transfer, but Curtis needs reps. Curtis is backing up Chris Jamison at LT and it’s feasible to think he could eventually start there and move Jamison back to a guard. Windham Rotunda, another JUCO transfer, has struggled and is down the line.

***The only injuries of significance are DT Maurice Coleman (knee) and DT Steve McClendon (chest). McClendon should play Saturday if he’s cleared. Coleman’s out for a couple more weeks. There’s about 15 guys listed on the Troy notes who dealt with something this fall camp, but most of them aren’t key contributors, won’t play at all, or just simply don’t have serious injuries.

Team flies out at 2 p.m. from Dothan Regional Airport Friday.

On the radio again

By Drew Champlin

If you’re up at 8:35 a.m. Tuesday morning, I’ll be on AM 740 out of Montgomery talking Troy with Barry “Touchdown Men of Troy” McKnight and John Longshore.