Dana Holgorsen’s offense officially arrives at OSU
by Brandon Chatmon
bchatmon@opubco.com
There are some very interesting tidbits amongst OSU’s pre-spring depth chart.
Plenty of position changes and lots of new faces.
Here’s a closer look, position by position. Let’s start with the offense:
Kendall Hunter in space, expect to see plenty of this in 2010.
Quarterback
No surprises here, Brandon Weeden sits atop the depth chart. Actually I take that back, one surprise: Weeden will wear No. 3 this season. First, he took Alex Cate’s backup job now he took his number.
With Alex Cate no longer around, Clint Chelf and spring enrollee Johnny Deaton are listed together as the backup. It will be interesting to see (or in our case with closed practices… hear) both Chelf and Deaton in action this spring.
Running back
Senior Kendall Hunter is your starter and will carry the load. The most interesting thing about the running back spot is sophomore Travis Miller being listed alongside freshman Jeremy Smith behind Hunter. Miller has great speed and is good in the open field. He should be one of the happiest guys about Dana Holgorsen’s new offense.
At the other running back spot, senior Bryant Ward is listed first team and redshirt freshman Dexter Pratt is second team. This will likely be the spot for short yardage situations or if OSU is looking to pound the ball to protect a lead.
Expect Hubert Anyiam to get plenty of opportunities in 2010.
Receiver
Four receivers, no tight ends. Dana Holgorsen’s offense is officially in Stillwater.
Junior Hubert Anyiam and sophomore Justin Blackmon appear to be listed as the outside receivers and redshirt sophomore Josh Cooper and sophomore Tracy Moore appear to be the slot receivers. It appears one slot receiver spot is for big, physical receivers and the other is for quick scatback types.
Senior Colton Chelf and sophomore Isaiah Anderson back up Anyiam and Blackmon. Redshirt freshman Charlie Moore and sophomore Justin Horton back up Cooper and Tracy Moore.
Offensive line
The big news here is redshirt sophomore Lane Taylor’s move to center. It’s seems like a great plan to move your most experienced lineman to a position where he can help get the other linemen situated. They have depth at the guard spot, so why not move Taylor to center?
Junior Jonathan Rush and senior Anthony Morgan are listed as the starters at guard though I wouldn’t be surprised if redshirt freshman Brandon Webb battles into the conversation for one of those spots.
At tackle, junior Levy Adcock and junior Nick Martinez are the starters. Adcock played in short yardage situations last season while Martinez was Russell Okung’s backup at the end of the year. Redshirt freshman Parker Graham is Martinez’s backup and I would expect him to work his way into the conversation to start at tackle at some point in 2010.
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Comments
This has to be a mistake. How is Colton Chelf (a walk-on?) ahead of Harrison who is so talented that they almost burned his redshirt last year?
After Okung, I believe Anthony Morgan was the best o-lineman we had last year. He totally blew the big guy from Georgia out and did great (in spite of the loss) against Houston.
Brandon! You might address from you vantage. What did happen to Anthony Morgan. He was a two time JUCO All-American. OSU was hopeless in short down situations last year. What happened to Morgan?
Chris, I don’t think Morgan brought the consistency the would have liked at the guard spot. I think it took him a while to get used to Big 12 football and by that time Lane Taylor had secured the starting spot. The opportunity to win a starting guard spot is wide open for Morgan, as it was last season to be honest, it’s just a matter of him seizing the opportunity.
Patrick and Mike, I’d be shocked if Harrison is not on the post spring two-deep. I think it’s one of those “pay-his-dues” type situations.
What happened to Michael Harrison? We’d been hearing good things about him, that he nearly came out of redshirt last season, and now he’s nowhere to be found.