Some new positions per twitter.

Ross Douglass moved from DB to RB

Wyatt Shallman playing H-back & RB.

Keith Heitzman to TE

my guess is shallman lines up at HB more than RB. I saw the deal about douglas moving to RB. He was the scout team RB last year so I'm assuming it's a position that he's shown potential at.

Also Funchess WILL be used primarily as a WR this year.

Heitzman to TE

Ross and Jenkins-Stone to SAM

My guess is Heitzman will be a tackle with an eligible number.

fishgoblue22 wrote:

My guess is Heitzman will be a tackle with an eligible number.

That's a pretty fair guess. 6-3/280 is hardly your prototypical tight-end. He'll catch maybe a
handful of passes, but mainly serve as a sixth OL man.

What sounded good about it to me was two-fold:
(1) KH's willingness to adapt, and make the switch, shows his character;
(2) It will allow Hoke to, as he says he will, leave Funchess outside at WR were he belongs.

Is Butt expected to be back by the start of the season?

MgoBlue wrote:

Is Butt expected to be back by the start of the season?

I pulled this quote out of the middle of a larger article.


This would be a good time to remind you that Hoke told the gathered folks at the Detroit Athletic Club that Jake Butt would be back by game three; even if that's a weirdly specific prediction this far out given Jake Ryan's recovery timeine that would be about right.

No way do I think he is back by game three.

Also, I'll bet Heitzman doesn't catch 4 passes this year. Probably less than 10 for his career.

But Hoke Said So!!!!! lmao

yes hoke is saying game three for Butt to be back which, if you look at it, is nearly the exact same recovery time than JR had last year (in length of days to recover). Not saying it can be done. JR was the exception and not the rule but remember, we were never really told the extent of the tear so if it wasn't that bad then I can see Butt being ready early. Also didn't JB tear and MCL and not the ACL like JR did. I don't know much about it but isn't that injury considered to be easier to recover from?

Besides the ND game I really don't see a need for Butt before the PSU game (week 7) so I doubt we even see him until then.

So do we have another pass catching TE if Funchess is staying at wr?

MgoBlue wrote:

So do we have another pass catching TE if Funchess is staying at wr?

currently... no

the hope is that Heitzman will develop into one. If not then I think they will rely heavily on Bunting because for all the hype that Jake had and proved he was worth last year, Bunting is just as, if not more hyped coming out of HS. He's basically Jake butt 2.0.

The interesting thing is that it sounds like Nuss is planning on using the H backs a lot more a la Aaron Shea in the late nineties and wyatt shallman is perfect for that type of play. If successful, that could take a lot of pressure off of the TEs and the Oline all at once while still keeping the D guessing and "gasp" help to improve the run game.

I think the biggest thing that the offense needs to overcome is not finding a HB or a TE to produce like Jake did when he was in the game but they need to find a way to make sure that when certain players get in the game that the D doesn't automatically know that a certain play is coming (i.e. AJ Williams always being in to block a run).

What ever happened to Khalid Hill? Wasn't that his name out of Detroit somewhere?

Forgot about Bunting. That should help. Thanks for the info guys.

joe wrote:

What ever happened to Khalid Hill? Wasn't that his name out of Detroit somewhere?

Khalid Hill is very much in the mix for the TE spot. I believe he redshirted last year so basically another guy with zero experience.

If I remember correctly he was a real early commit but only attained 3 stars. But I think he played TE in High School so not a lot of ***** available for TEs.

I haven't heard anything about him though.