The Front Line of Perplexity

Gamble's ready to be cut loose. The safeties are as thick as thieves. The turnovers have nowhere to go but up. Of course, there are still plenty of questions with our brand new 3-4. The biggest of which is the 3.

Dobbs Miracle in Lexington. He's the
leader of the pack.

Fletcher Page says the defensive line is a quandary. At the center of the quandary is the nose. Coach Garner surprised us somewhat earlier this week by putting Bean ahead of Kwame. I say somewhat because every snap is up for grabs under Coach Grantham; the days of seniority trumping talent are gone...like a freight train.

I would hazard a guess that most of us are less concerned about who starts than the level of separation between starter and backups. But Page gives a great rundown of the personnel in the mix as well as separating what we know and what we're still waiting to find out.

Demarcus Dobbs is the leader of this segment. For some reason, and I’m guilty of this too, Dobbs gets lost in the shuffle at times. But talking to coaches on the record, and also to sources behind the scenes, Dobbs has had a solid fall camp. 

DeAngelo Tyson is probably the most talented player of the segment. At a minimum, Tyson is the most versatile of the group. I’ve heard the argument that he is not big enough to play the nose, and not fast enough to play the end. I don’t buy it. Tyson is going to play all three spots on this line, and should enjoy a great season.

With any luck we'll have some more answers as we drive home from Columbia. Regardless of Garner's intention behind publicizing the potential starting three, I hope it has the desired effect. Because those 3 up front are being counted on to to anchor the 4 behind them.