Coming into last season, the depth chart was pretty locked. No matter how hard Paul Millard tried, he wasn’t going to take the starting spot away from Geno Smith. Tavon Austin and Stedman Bailey were locks at the receiver position. An injury forced Andrew Buie into the starting tailback spot. This season? Oh my how the tides have turned.
Going into 2013, this team is an offensive mystery. Everyone is wondering how Dana Holgorsen will replace Smith, Austin, and Bailey. Well, everyone except for Holgorsen and the coaching staff, that is. There is depth and competition at every single spot on this offense at the start of camp. No one is locked into place, and that could be the way it is all season. But to the offensive coaches, the competition is what will fuel this team to greatness.
“I don’t call it a problem, I call it a good thing,” running backs coach JaJuan Seider said of the competition.
Seider currently has at least four, maybe five, potential starters at his disposal and he loves it.
“The good thing is, the way we play the offense, it allows us to get two, three backs on the field at the same time.”
The same rings true for the wide receivers. Two of the most talked about wideouts on the team are newcomers Kevin White and Mario Alford. White came in the spring, and Alford has just recently joined the team. No one knows what these two will do at the Division I level, but the coaches are expecting big things from both of them. With that, receivers coach Lonnie Galloway says no one is safely into position on the depth chart.
“That’s the best thing about what’s going on right now – everybody is competing for a position. No one has a position,” Galloway said, “We have guys that go first or second, but they know they have to show up everyday and compete.”
Galloway personally expects big things from White and Alford both but says each player will need to step up and prove their worth.
“At the end of that day, there are guys out there competing for jobs.”
There are even question marks at offensive line. The biggest thing going into the season, though, is their conditioning. New offensive line coach Ron Crook isn’t worried about that, though.
“They move well, and they’ve got more quickness to them and more agility, so our strength staff did a great job with them all summer,” Crook said.
Coaches have also made a point to mention that the offensive line is maturing and becoming a tightly knit group.
Overall, offensive coordinator Shannon Dawson isn’t looking to change the offense, but to build around the personnel that they have at their finger tips.
“The offense does not change,” Dawson said, “The thing that changes is the makeup of the team. If you have a lot of running backs that are capable then you want to get them the ball in every way possible and as much as possible. We are just trying to get the ball to the best players.”
Competition can sometimes hurt a team and cause egos to grow, but this group of players are all embracing it and working towards the future. The coaches are instilling it into their heads, and the players are buying in. At the end of the day, competition is driving this team forward.
Dawson summed it perfectly.
“The whole level of competition has picked up, and you can tell it just in the air. If you take a day off you will fall.”
