DeWalt should be out of eligibility, but with all the rule changes, who knows? If that’s the case, it leaves White, Thomas, Newsome, K. Johnson, plus the incoming freshmen. We carried six cornerbacks last year, so I’d expect another addition or two.
According to PFF, he played in all 12 games and started two. He was targeted 31 times, giving up roughly 61% completion and over 420 yards. That’s not good. For comparison, Reed was targeted 40 times, allowed about 57%, but gave up only 205 yards.
Newsome clearly has the physical ability. I’m hoping the rest of his game can get cleaned up and he produces at a higher level for us.
That’s too bad about Newell. Although, by the end of the season Cravaack was clearly the better player. Whether that was due to Newell not being 100% or something else, I’m not sure. This staff hasn’t had issues landing productive tight ends, so I’m not overly concerned.
I’m not surprised to see Witherspoon looking elsewhere. He was a tweener with upside, but hadn’t put on enough weight to consistently play tight end and was a bit slow to be a true receiver. He also dropped a few easy balls in the spring game.
I like the players we’ve landed so far — the two WRs, two OL, and the LB. The linebacker really brings it when coming downhill. Linebacker is another position where we’ve been solid year over year since Tibesar’s arrival.
Looks like Myers went the JUCO route out of high school before landing at ODU, while Hilburn will be coming straight from JUCO. Both receivers were very productive at that level, albeit as two different types of players. Hilburn looks like a guy who could step right in on both kickoff and punt return. If Brookhart can get similar production out of them as they had in JUCO, then these two commitments should be excellent additions.
The plan with this staff has always been to sign 12–15 freshmen each class. This year it’s been slightly smaller so far, though we may still sign a few more.
Like Captain alluded to, most immediate impact players are going to come from either the portal or JUCO. Although to this point, our JUCO signees have mostly been depth pieces, outside of a few guys.