Welcome to the Hardcore Husky Forums. Folks who are well-known in Cyberland and not that dumb.
Thoughts on 2015 LBs
whatshouldicareabout
Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 12,949 
When looking ahead to 2015, there's been a lot of discourse on the OL and DL, and rightfully so. Those two position groups are losing 4 starters each, including 2nd stringers who contributed in 2014. However, the LB group for 2015 will be the same as the secondary for 2014: 1 starter returning and virtually no depth at the position group. Even though we're only losing 2 players (Shaq and Timu), LB might be our weakest position group in terms of combined talent and experience.
Players who are returning in 2015 who have experience at LB are:
Feeney (SR) . . 60 tackles, 4.5 TFL, 1 sack, 2 INT, 1 FR
Littleton (SR) . 37 tackles, 3.5 TFL, 1 sack, 1 FR
Lawyer (SR) . . 20 tackles, 1.0 TFL
Bierria (SO) . . 35 tackles, 3.0 TFL, 1 sack
Victor, Constantine, and O'Brien mainly played on special teams last year, so I excluded them from the list since this is players with experience playing at LB.
Yup, that's it. 4 players with LB experience. Based on the above list, it looks like LB will be the thinnest position group of 2015. And unless all three of the aforementioned special teamers step up in the spring and secure starting or 2nd-string status, we'll be seeing Lewis or some of the true freshman on the field this fall, not unlike our secondary in 2014 which played 5 freshman (which is why we loaded up on LB in this recruiting class).
Because of the inexperience here, and at the DL, and all the underclassman in the secondary, Feeney and/or Littleton will need to be the leader of the defense next year. We only have 5 seniors on defense, and the only one that was a starter last year was Feeney (although Littleton started at RUSH under Sark before moving to OLB with Petersen). Even though Feeney and Littleton are both seniors with starting experience, they'll be two of the most important players to watch this spring because they need to step into a leadership role if we hope to have a decent defense next year. And if we hope to have a decent defense in 2016 and beyond, we need to see something more out of Bierria and the other SO LBs.
Players who are returning in 2015 who have experience at LB are:
Feeney (SR) . . 60 tackles, 4.5 TFL, 1 sack, 2 INT, 1 FR
Littleton (SR) . 37 tackles, 3.5 TFL, 1 sack, 1 FR
Lawyer (SR) . . 20 tackles, 1.0 TFL
Bierria (SO) . . 35 tackles, 3.0 TFL, 1 sack
Victor, Constantine, and O'Brien mainly played on special teams last year, so I excluded them from the list since this is players with experience playing at LB.
Yup, that's it. 4 players with LB experience. Based on the above list, it looks like LB will be the thinnest position group of 2015. And unless all three of the aforementioned special teamers step up in the spring and secure starting or 2nd-string status, we'll be seeing Lewis or some of the true freshman on the field this fall, not unlike our secondary in 2014 which played 5 freshman (which is why we loaded up on LB in this recruiting class).
Because of the inexperience here, and at the DL, and all the underclassman in the secondary, Feeney and/or Littleton will need to be the leader of the defense next year. We only have 5 seniors on defense, and the only one that was a starter last year was Feeney (although Littleton started at RUSH under Sark before moving to OLB with Petersen). Even though Feeney and Littleton are both seniors with starting experience, they'll be two of the most important players to watch this spring because they need to step into a leadership role if we hope to have a decent defense next year. And if we hope to have a decent defense in 2016 and beyond, we need to see something more out of Bierria and the other SO LBs.
Comments
My bigger concern of the 2 is the DL. Qualls & Mathis played meaningful time last year and did pretty well. And there was some talent in the Frosh class and they are hopefully ready for the 2 deep. Turpin & Finau have to improve or they'll get passed up, as they have not shown anything to date. Going 2 deep with quality on the DL is muy importante.
At LB, losing Timu is addition by subtraction. Losing Shaq is certainly going to hurt. Littleton has shown he can play, and if a couple from the group of Bierria, Lawyer, Victor and O'Brien step up, it may not be that big of a dropoff.
Concern #1 - QB
Concern #2 - OL
Concern #3 - DL
Concern #4 - Most everything else
UW will be young and thin at a lot of position groups in 2015. But LB isn't one of them.
I don't think anyone could make the argument that Lawyer and/or Victor is going to be better than Timu. Yeah, those are 2014's stats only. I should have labeled that table better, but those are the career numbers for Bierria (duh) and pretty much the same for Lawyer (38 tackles total in 4 years at UW).
Anybody that was in the addition by subtraction camp re Keith Price last year should have learned their lesson on this
KP1 was a record setting QB at UW. Anyone who thought he wasn't going to be missed deserves the rusty cheese grater treatment.
Also, I'm as big of a Sacramento homer there is, but Shaq as a LB is overrated. He had a far greater impact on the offensive side of the ball. His career would be defined differently if he played RB all along.
A better OL would have helped, but he was an average Pac 12 QB. Good passer rating, but he was also 7th in QBR his senior year and one good game in three years against a good opponent. We can play the hypothetical what ifs when it comes to the OL and Sark, but his play at UW was about league average.
Kim and Hugh Millen's unwarranted bashing of Price to prop up Sark and Locker has inflated his worth imo.
Both are somewhere between average and above average PAC players at their positions ...
Neither are guys that will be NFL players ...
Neither are guys that are going to be central players on PAC caliber championship teams ...
Price COULD QB a team to a PAC championship, but the surrounding cast would have needed to be fairly dominant ...
Likewise, Timu could be part of a PAC caliber winning defense ... but he needed guys like Shelton, Kikaha, Shaq, etc around him where he became more of an ancillary player.
I agree that Price was the best since Picket. That doesn't mean he was a really good QB. He wasn't. He put up stats in the pass happy era and threw a killer bubble screen.
QB is the one position on the field where the difference between average and below average can make or break your season and I think with Keith Price we win another 2-3 games and the 2014 season looks completely different.