Well, well. Before I could try to predict Lehigh's two-deep on the year, the game notes for the Villanova game came out and beat me to the punch.Interestingly, the "injury report" has been removed from the game notes, so it's hard to figure out who might be starting due to injury and who isn't. But without any further ado, it's time to print out the starting two-deep and to show how the starting lineup was different than mine (the differences are highlighted)
QB: Sedale Threatt (Sr.), Chris Bokosky (So.)
RB: Josh Pastore (Jr.), Kwesi Kankam (Fr.)
FB: Adam Watson (Jr.), John Piascik (Sr.)
LT: Jimmy Kehs (Sr.), Frank Giacalone (So.)
LG: Chris Tiefenthal (Jr.),Ricky Clerge-Appolon (Fr.)
C: John Reese (Sr.), Ben Harden (So.)
RG: Ben Caffery (Sr.), William Rackley (Fr.)
RT: Kevin Bayani (Jr.), Alex Kuziel (Jr.)
TE: Joe Sutherland (Sr.), Troy Healion (Jr.)
WR1: Sekou Yansane (Jr.), Pete Donchez (Sr.)
WR2: Mike Fitzgerald (Jr.), Nick Johnson (Jr.)
DT: Kyle Adams (Jr.), Paul Bode (Jr.)
NT: B.J. Benning (So.), Joe Dancho (So.)
DT: Brian Jackson (Jr.), Jon Warren (Jr.)
LOLB: Matt Cohen (So.), Tobi Showunmi (So.)
LILB: Tim Diamond (Jr.), Travis Stinson (Sr.)
RILB: Rashaun Gasaway (Sr.), Bradley Thomas (Jr.)
ROLB: Heath Brickner (So.), Justin Weaver (Sr.)
CB: Brannan Thomas (Sr.), Julian Ahye (Sr.)
FS: Ernest Moore (Sr.), Brendan VanAckeren (Jr.)
SS: Daynin Blake (Sr.), Quadir Carter (Jr.)
CB: Aaron Gilliard (Sr.), Laquan Gasaway (Sr.)
KR: Brannan Thomas (Sr.), John Kennedy (Fr.)
PR: Brannan Thomas (Sr.)
P/K: Jason Leo (Jr.), Tom Randazza (Fr.)
You'll just have to trust me that this is who I picked. I'm real happy I managed to pick the starting four on the linebacking unit, which was excruciatingly hard. This leads to my "five observations" on the two-deep for Satruday and my initial thoughts:
- Our linebacking unit seems talented and deep - these seem like awfully tough choices for these four positions since there's a lot of good players to choose from. I'm wondering if coach Coen will rotate a bunch of linebackers in the game to keep them fresh, which (if true) is very good news for sophomore LB Tobi Showunmi, senior LB Travis Stinson, senior LB Justin Weaver and junior LB Bradley Thomas. (Not to mention the guys just off that chart as well, like senior LB Rusty Campion and sophomore LB Al Pierce (who I had picked in my two-deep).
- There is an incredible amount of freshmen on this two-deep. Count 'em: seven on the list if you count special teams players like RS John Kennedy, P/K Tom Randazza, LS Brad Walter and holder J.B. Clark. I have never seen so many freshmen on a Lehigh opening roster.
- Is junior RB Matt McGowan hurt? I was very surprised to see freshman RB Kwesi Kankam on the opening-day depth chart since I thought that either McGowan or senior RB Richard Forman would be available. As it turns out, we may get to see exactly how good this freshman is sooner rather than later.
- I was glad to see senior OL Ben Caffery make the final starting "O" line, with coach Coen going with senior OL Jimmy Kehs and junior OL Kevin Bayani as bookend tackles. This looks like it's one of the beefiest Lehigh "O" lines I've seen. Have we ever had a pair of 300 lb bookends before?
- Two switches in places in the depth chart that I had reversed were interesting: senior SS Daynin Blake won the starting job over junior SS Quadir Carter, and senior TE Joe Sutherland won out over junior TE Troy Healion. It looks like coach Coen took senior experience and leadership when the race was close.
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