Athlon has Destiny Vaeao and Jamal Morrow! Interesting they have Vaeao. More D, do they see?
http://athlonsports.com/college-football/pac-12-wild-card-players-2015
http://athlonsports.com/college-football/pac-12-wild-card-players-2015
Wild Card Players for 2015
- Thread starter Coug95man2
- Start date
JC transfers Jeremiah Mitchell, Shalom Luani, Treshon Broughton, Aaron Porter, and Kirkland Parker, and rs-frosh Hercules Mata'afa on defense, and Daniel Lilenthal, Keith Harrington and Barry Ware on offense. WR Calvin Green's move to the outside could be interesting.
I would of like of seen Green bulk-up a little more and played running back. I'm going with Leniu as an important run stopper against team like Stanford and Ivan McClennan as a breakout player. Pelluer may be the team's best tackler.
I should have included Chandler Leniu on my list. No bold predictions here, but I wouldn't be surprised to see true frosh Logan Tago see the field. Hunter Dale and Deion Singleton might also get PT.
I think Luani and Lewis- if Luani can produce as billed, you've fixed a gaping hole from last year.
Yaki, I seem to recall that Leach said that Singleton will be red-shirted this year. Not really that familiar with him other than he is reportedly physically gifted but with academic issues. Whether Leach plans to sit him for a year so he can get his academic feet firmly beneath him or perhaps he feels a year of practice under the new DC/DB coach would do him some good, that I don't know. Anyway I don't think that we can expect to see Singleton contributing in the coming season. At least not unless the staff feels the need to burn his red-shirt.
Just considering the returners from last year and not the JC recruits, my choices for "wild card players" on D would be Ekuale and Pippins. I don't see Destiny as a "wild card". I think that we pretty well know what we have in him.
If you look at Ekuale from his freshman year to now, the transformation is tremendous. While it's too bad Vaeao wasn't redshirted, he also is physically superior from what he was a year ago (think of Don Sasa who really didn't stand out all that much until that 1994 season but blew up his senior year). Combined, the two could be a factor. We just need them to at least be decent and respectable this year. And Paulo is a senior who definitely showed flashes a year ago.
Keith Harrington could turn out to be a lot of fun to watch. Wear people down with Wicks and then turn Harrington loose in the fourth to run around the grass while the defenders are wheezing and grabbing their pants. And I didn't know that Green had moved outside. That kid has wheels. Put him and Robert Lewis on the same side at the same time and see how much cushion they're given after a while.
I expect Coates and Leniu and Porter to see plenty of time behind Pelluer and Allison, and I also hope to see those three and the JC defensive backs making an impact in kick coverage. Lordy do we need all the help we can get in that area.
As a redshirt frosh with a great low center of gravity, Tapa can only get better. Mata'afa is definitely intriguing. I noticed he played inside during the spring game. Of course, playing inside against the O-line's wide splits actually placed him farther from the center than what he'd face against most o-lines, so I'm thinking it was just an alignment for that particular situation. He's too underweight to play a traditional d-tackle spot, but he can really fly around.
