The Lions' Pride

Tight end Andrew Szczerba put in for a sixth year but was denied by the NCAA.

Defensive tackle Devon Still is not in pads for practice

Turf toe is the reason. He says he will still play.

Well, considering I don't trust our offensive coaches to draw plays for anyone besides Devon Smith, not sure how much that means. I'm fine with Haplea, though our depth behind him is shaky at best.

I didn't trust our offensive staff with anything either, but the point I was trying to make was that we don't really have many capable bodies there right now. I can't ever remember seeing Gilliam playing a down during a game, and the freshman need time to develop.

Maybe we'll run a bunch of 4 WR sets next year? Or 2 WRs, TE, RB, and an H-back or a FB? I guess we're really not that limited but if Haplea gets hurt we're screwed.

Regardless of how good/bad he was this year, I don't understand this. Didn't he lose two years because of being hurt???

He's better than a Jesse James or Brent Wilkerson right now. I can't remember the other TE recruits we're bringing in his year, but he's most likely better than anybody else will be next season.

Just because he wasn't very good doesn't mean he's not an improvement over what we'd have otherwise.

I would rather give reps to any other TE Szcerba didn't impress me at all..

There's a reason we shifted Cadogan to TE.

I doubt a coach would put a wean player on the field just to avoid playing a bad (but still better) senior.

Agreed, Wilkerson comes in to provide some emergency depth and I can't remember but there was talk of Jordan Kerner playing some tight end if needed.

I'll reserve believing he's better than any of the young TE's we have until I see them play. He didn't exactly show me anything to think he was any better than anyone. Maybe with Smith at LT next year we won't have to keep the TE in to block 90% of the time, which is probably part of the reason Szcerba didn't show much.

That's fair.

I'm hoping we use a lot less two TE sets next season, regardless of who the HC is. It's great when you have two capable TEs who can get leverage AND catch, but we didn't have that option last year, sadly. I feel like when we have a TE on the field we essentially take away a passing option, and give the defense less to think about. And with our offensive skill level that's crippling.