USF Making Some Tweaks

Michael Lanaris has taken over the middle linebacker spot with Barrington moving to strong side linebacker.

As Adam Adkins has noted, the offensive line for the Bulls seems to be shifting just a bit more as they make their final preparations for Notre Dame (8 days and counting children!)

Chaz Hine, the veteran starting guard, has moved over to center and has been taking plenty of snaps, while Kevin McCaskill continues to take snaps at guard. Both players are move around and gives Holtz more options on the line. This also allows Danous Estenor and Jeremiah Warren to get snaps at guard as well with Hine moving to center. The Bulls had issues last year in their 2nd team offensive line and making sure players are versatile will be key late in the season. Quinterrius Eatmon and Mark Popek continue to work at tackle and it would seem those two spots are locked in, for now.

The Bulls also have shifted the linebackers around (V5 and Adkins noted this earlier). Sam Barrington has moved to strong side linebacker, allowing Michael Lanaris to move to middle linebacker, Lattimore remaining at weakside.

I tend to like this move. It gives the Bulls a very experienced linebacking group on the field. Barrington is a great tackler and can drop back into coverage, while Lanaris is a physical run stopper and having him in the middle is a great move. Jeuen, Cliett, Weatherspoon, and others will help provide the depth needed.

One final note, the Bulls are having a full scrimmage today, running about 100 plays as they prepare for ND. After the game, they will have Saturday off and then prepare for game week starting on Sunday. There are talks that a depth chart (we are all waiting for it) could be released (per the interwebs talk). It would make sense for the coaches to use the full scrimmage to evaluate the team one last time before putting the final depth chart together, but we are not sure yet if they will do this. Once more news comes from the scrimmage, we will have you covered.

Go Bulls.