Spring Watch List - Army Offense
This is the second article in a three-part series identifying things that GoBlackKnights.com will be watching for in spring practice. We got some help from offensive coordinator Brent Davis in identifying key issues and answers for the offense.
State of the Offense: Last year’s team dropped to 12th in Rushing Offense with a disappointing 244 yards per game and finished second from the bottom in passing yardage with an average of 94 yards per game. The combined total of rushing and passing was 300 yards less than in 2014 dropping Army to 103d in Total Offense. That was reflected in the drop from 24.9 to 22.1 points per game making Army 109th in Scoring Offense.
Their Third Down Conversion Rate was a respectable .441 (25th in the FBS), but 9 of 22 fourth down conversion attempts ranked them103d, and no doubt contributed to a 123d ranking in first downs. On a positive note, quarterbacks Ahmad Bradshaw and Chris Carter combined to give the team a very respectable 146.99 in Team Passing Efficiency, ranking 25th in that category and providing a glimmer of hope for those fans who have been waiting for an improved passing game. Needless to say, we hope to see significant improvement in the offense overall this season.
What We Already Know
With the defense, we enter spring practice with few questions about who will be starting, but with a lot of questions about who will provide depth. We have the opposite situation with the offense. The Black Knights are two deep or more at several key positions, but we are still wondering who will be the starters in the fall at most offensive positions.
The only player we are reasonably certain to be a starter on offense this season is senior Edgar Poe, who was voted Most Valuable Player for his terrific season at wide receiver last year. We expect a lot of competition for the remaining positions on offense.
What We Will Be Watching For
THE OFFENSIVE LINE
The composition and performance of the #1 unit on the offensive line will be of particular interest to us as it is the unit that needs to remain stable and work more effectively for the offense to be successful. Fortunately, Army has 7 offensive linemen with starting experience returning, which should provide an experienced starting five along with enough backup to provide some depth. Davis provided us with an early perspective.
We noticed that Justin Gilbert’s name is missing from the roster; so we asked Brent Davis about that. Gilbert is not around this spring but is expected back in the fall and will no doubt start somewhere on the OL, but according to Davis “Where Gilbert ends up will depend on how the following players develop this spring, which is a nice luxury for the staff to have.”
Center is the position on the OL least likely to change once the starter is identified and coaches generally avoid substituting at that position. Matt Hugenberg missed only one snap last year and that was due to an equipment failure. junior Bryce Holland will compete with his classmate Josh Boylan for the starting spot, although we know that many fans have already penciled in Holland at the top of the depth chart. Holland started two games at guard as a plebe, but was recruited as a 3-star prospect at center. Boylan has appeared in 3 games in his career and finished last season listed as the backup to Hugenberg.
Tackles: junior Brett Toth (2 career starts) is a leading candidate to start at one of the tackle spots, and sophomore Rick Kurz (8 starts) is a good bet at the other tackle, but Davis acknowledged that Kurz is recovering from a minor injury and may not be available at the start of spring practice; so we’ll be watching to see who fills in for him. Gilbert started 12 games at RT as a sophomore and is very capable of playing either tackle spot when he returns in the fall.
Guards: Senior Colby Enegren (3 starts) and junior Mike Houghton (10 starts) are the most likely starters at the two guard positions, while Victor Nieves (6 starts) will provide stiff competition at either position, and Gilbert can play either guard spot as well.
The roster lists an additional 9 sophomores, 1 junior, and 1 senior who will be competing for spots on the O-line depth chart this spring.
Competition For Tight End & Second Wide Receiver
Edgar Poe is the only receiver returning who has any career starts and any career receptions, leaving competition wide open at Tight End and the second wide receiver spot.
When asked about replacing Kelvin White at tight-end, Coach Davis had this response. “Kelvin played a lot of football for us the last two years and did a lot of different things - very versatile, so he’s going to be tough to replace,” he said. White only started half the games last season but he appeared in every game and was in on about 60% of the snaps. He was the designated Hail Mary quarterback, played with two special teams units, and he sometimes lined up as a slotback or wide receiver rather than the normal alignment for a tight end; so we can’t expect anyone to replace him completely. His successor may be used less as a receiver and more as a 6th blocker up front. Sophomore Quinton Parker is the only TE with any game experience, which makes him the leading candidate, but he will have competition from classmates Zach Saum who earned his letter as a short snapper, and Joe Corless whose name some of our readers might recognize from our recent article on S&C testing as having the best time in the Pro-Agility test for TEs, LBs and FBs. Corless will be competing to make his career debut this year. We’ll be interested both in the competition as well as how the new TE is employed in the spring game.
DeAndre Bell was overshadowed by Poe at WR last season, but his 7 receptions for 166 yards was good for third on the receivers list. Junior Jeff Ejekam appeared in 7 games with about 25 snaps, making him the lead contender to succeed Bell. Sophomore Jalen Sharp is another WR that Davis will be looking at this spring. “They are two different guys, where Jalen is really a faster guy who can stretch the field and not as big as some of our other receivers, but very skilled in the passing game,” shared Davis. “Jeff is a bigger guy with some experience.” Davis also said that he expects sophomores Christian Poe and Luke Peterman to see a lot of playing time this spring as well.
Which Of The Returning Slotbacks Will Be Starters?
Unfortunately that question is not likely to be answered this spring. Davis informed us that “A lot of guys are not going to be available this spring, so that’s going to have to play itself out when we get everybody back there healthy. This is mostly due to injuries and off-season surgeries.” We may see some new guys competing for places on the depth chart.
We also asked Davis if the staff was considering moving John Trainor back to WR. “We definitely know that we can do that, but we feel like he’s got some skill-sets as a slot as well and we need to keep him at slot,” Davis responded. Unfortunately, Trainor is one of those guys who won’t be available this spring.
An interesting insight that Davis offered was that “After we get everybody healthy, we can actually play with three slotbacks in the game at one time, although we certainly can’t do that this spring. But, eventually I think that is something that we can do with one of them lining up out wide and the other two in the backfield in some sort of configuration.” I guess we’ll have to wait until fall to see that wrinkle.
Who Will Be The Top fullback?
We asked Davis if Drue Harris was the likely starter at the B-Back, and his response was, “I don’t know if you can say that, and we have the same situation at fullback where we may not have everyone available in the spring to compete,” declared the offensive coordinator. “So, that’s probably going to have to play itself out going into the fall. It will be a time and opportunity for some guys that you may not have seen yet to step up and do some things.”
Production from the fullback is an area that we believe needs improvement; so we’ll be keeping a close eye on who gets the carries and how well they perform.
Who Will Start At Quarterback?
We left this burning issue until last to hold our readers attention to the end, but some fans are not going to be happy with the answer.
Davis agreed with our position that Ahmad Bradshaw and Chris Carter are coming into spring about even in the competition for the starting quarterback job, but unlike many fans, Davis appears in no hurry to identify one of them as “The Starter”. He repeated a comment he made in a recent GBK article on that subject: “We need both of those guys playing for us, and they are really neck and neck.” As for whether we can expect an answer soon, Davis remarked “We’ve seen really good things out of both of them, so there’s really no way to tell who is No. 1 right now. I don’t know who will be taking the first snap of spring and it really won’t have anything to do with what we think, and it is an ongoing competition….There’s no No. 1 right now.”
Sorry to disappoint all you fans who are looking for closure on that topic, but we at GBK believe that having two good quarterbacks competing for the starting job is a good thing, and we expect the competition will continue well into the fall. In the meantime, we can turn our thoughts to watching both of them perform and see more of what each brings to the table.
GoBlackKnights.com will continue our spring update throughout, so keep it right here for the most comprehensive Army football coverage.
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