It's anybody's guess at this point whether this team will be top half or bottom half of the league in '05. The areas that give most Ags fits are the offensive line and linebackers. There've been nice strides over the last 2 recruiting classes, but those question marks remain unanswered. Here's how the Ags'll probably look in '05 -- remember, this is all guestimation at best:
[B]Offense[B]
OL: Penn (Sr. 6'3 313 LT) or Thompson (6'5 313 So. LT), Cin (6'4 318 Sr. LG) or Crookston (6'6 321 So.), DeLadurantey (6'3 314 Jr. C), Schlimgen (6'2 283 Sr. RG) or Gunstream (6'2 298 Sr. RG) and Jorgensen (6'5 325 So. RT) or Reese (6'8 337 So. RT). Big, but are they fish or sharks against WAC competition?
TE/FB: Stephens (6'4 245 Jr. TE) and McNutt (6'6 250 Sr. TE), Tavake (5'11 270 Sr. FB) or Bohm (6'2 255 So. FB). Stephens has very soft hands and is quick. Tavake was a featured back in JC last fall, earning all-league. Bohm is more an H-Back type. McNutt can't catch diddly, but blocks well. This group is solid and will give some folks in the WAC fits.
QB: Leon Jackson III (6'1 190 So. QB) is the phenom out of Long Beach Poly. Best arm and scrambler on the team as true frosh last year whilst redshirting. And he's a winner. Kid is scary. We'll see how he does in relief this fall while earning his chops.
RB: Manny Marc (5'10 185 Sr.) is the scatback, national JUCO offensive POY out of Hudson Valley last fall, whilst Marc Crawford (6'1 208 Sr.) is the power/speed guy out of Coll. of Canyons. Both are supposed to be quite fast. They aren't on campus yet. Surely one of them will work out. The Ags picked up 2 Utah RBs this fall, one a sub 11.00 100 man at 6'3 215 (Herbert) who prepped just 30 miles from Logan, and second a 6'0 185 Tongan two-way player (Poloa) who also was pt. guard on a fair HS MBB team. We'll see whether either one pans out. We've had good Utah RBs in the past, but it's been a while since any of them worked out in Logan.
WR: Pennyman (5'9 163 Jr.) played as true frosh because of injuries last fall -- looks promising, Richards (5'10 191 So.) is an Oregon bounceback, Lovelace (5'10 168 Sr.) is a JC speedster already on campus for spring ball, and so is McNeal (5'8 185 Sr.), but he had grades trouble and won't be here till summercamp. Most intriguing is a prop from Venice HS, all-everything James Lewis (6'0 185 RS Fr.).
[B]Defense[B]
DL: DeQuillettes (6'3 285 Sr.), Gates (6'4 250 Sr.) and Fano (6'0 250 Sr.) will have the experience, while probable RS Fr. Mike Jones (6'2 310) out of Houston is the future stud (he may get his redshirt taken off this fall) along with 4-star prop Brian Soi (6'4 290 Fr.) who went the prep school route + prop 48 to get eligible. The latter looks like a young Howie Long. A real Sunday-type player. This should be a very strong group.
LB: Chick (6'4 245 Sr.) and Fredrick (6'3 235 Sr.) will be 4-year starters on the outside, with Chick up from a DE position after the switch to 3-4 last fall. Chick is a Big12 type player (per Nebraska's coaching staff, who've seen him twice). In the middle is anybody's guess, but they're quite high on Bevan Howard out of Arizona (6'1 230 RS Fr. or So.) plus Johnstun (6'3 225 Sr.) who's a local and a pleasant surprise.
DB: Washington (5'11 195 Jr.) is a local phenom who made all-frosh-American last year at FS, while Lindsay (5'11 182 Jr.) is a hothead, but very talented and good in run support at SS. At corners there are six to eight excellent players right now, both returning, JC, redshirt, and true frosh who will compete. The DBs are the strength of USU's defense, and the defense went from 111th in D-1A in '02 to 45th in D-1A in '03. Watch 'em. If they can get some help at the LB spot, USU could well lead the WAC in pass and overall D in '05.
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