Last year's team was heavily laced with seniors in starting positions, with 7 seniors starting on defense and 5 starting on offense. The post spring depth chart suggests that this year there will be only 2 senior starters on defense and between 3 and 6 on offense depending on how you count them as well as who wins the starting roles at quarterback and fullback
Altimala and Carnegie are the two probable senior starters on defense, but McLean is challenging Altimalala at NT; which would leave only one senior on the defense when he's in the game. Fortunately those two seniors are joined by 3 juniors who were regular starters last year, Timpf, King, and Jenkins along with sophomores Voit and England who had significant playing time. Moss has started for two years but at a different position and is still learning how to play safety; so we can't think of him as a veteran.
At this point it would appear that the team will have 3 senior starters on the offensive line led by Gilbert and Hugenberg who were regular starters either last year or the year before along with Hennesey, who started 6 games. Kelvin White is the probable starter at TE and he played all 12 games with 3 starts; and Deandre Bell is a likely starter at one of the WR slots with only 5 games last season; but they will share playing time; so only one of them is likely to be on the field at one time. Giachinta will vie with Kemper for the starting role and Schurr will be competing with Bradshaw at quarterback. Depending on who is playing quarterback and fullback and whether the TE or 2 WRs are in the game, there could be as few as 3 seniors on offense.
Quite a change from last season.
Altimala and Carnegie are the two probable senior starters on defense, but McLean is challenging Altimalala at NT; which would leave only one senior on the defense when he's in the game. Fortunately those two seniors are joined by 3 juniors who were regular starters last year, Timpf, King, and Jenkins along with sophomores Voit and England who had significant playing time. Moss has started for two years but at a different position and is still learning how to play safety; so we can't think of him as a veteran.
At this point it would appear that the team will have 3 senior starters on the offensive line led by Gilbert and Hugenberg who were regular starters either last year or the year before along with Hennesey, who started 6 games. Kelvin White is the probable starter at TE and he played all 12 games with 3 starts; and Deandre Bell is a likely starter at one of the WR slots with only 5 games last season; but they will share playing time; so only one of them is likely to be on the field at one time. Giachinta will vie with Kemper for the starting role and Schurr will be competing with Bradshaw at quarterback. Depending on who is playing quarterback and fullback and whether the TE or 2 WRs are in the game, there could be as few as 3 seniors on offense.
Quite a change from last season.
