2012 starters

[RustShack]

You start the more talented guy. If you based starters on "play the you get one" we would just be starting freshman. Healthy Jantz >Barnett. Barnett has been in the system a year longer, that's why he knows the offense better at the moment.

[Tre4ISU]

You start the more talented guy. If you based starters on "play the you get one" we would just be starting freshman. Healthy Jantz >Barnett. Barnett has been in the system a year longer, that's why he knows the offense better at the moment.

If we ever base starters on that theory, I will have no idea where to start.

[Bipolarcy]

Here is my take:
QB- Sam Richardson may be a very good player, but I wouldn't know. I think it will be between Jantz and Barnett. Barnett MUST improve his arm strength. He already obviously has a good grasp of the zone read and he improves our running game. Jantz is more of the gunslinger that can throw the ball down the field, and still makes plays with his feet when healthy. We have seen the past two weeks how much an improved zone read helps our offense. Jantz must improve in that aspect to be the starter next season. Rohach, unless he suddenly becomes a first team all Big 12 QB, will redshirt.

RB- I really hope Shontrelle is back. White is good but Shontrelle is dynamic. We will have a lot of depth as this position this year, which is a good thing. If Shontrelle is healthy, he will be the starter. It will be interested to see where Nealy and Standard fit in the depth chart with Hollis and Woody. That's 6 guys at the position.

WR- Lenz will be a starter, this we know. West and Horne will work out of the slot. I hope either Bundrage or Daniels can be the guy, like Money this year, that can require a double team at times and make some big plays down the field. Gary and Young will play a lot. It'll be interesting to see if a true freshmen can see the field. Also, Lampkin or Ecby could surprise.

TE- To me, this will be our weakest postion on offense. Hammer is a good blocker and fills his niche well. He will play a lot obviously. Hopefully Brun can be a more dynamic pass catcher.

OL- Farniok, Tuftee, and Burris are returning starters and will be there. I think Bykowski will be the other tackle and Dika the other guard. Lichtenberg will be the backup tackle and Gannon the backup guard.

DE- Most interesting position. Hayes, being a JUCO, could be a stud or a bust. Hopefully he comes in and dominates but we'll see. Roosevelt Maggitt will be back and probably a starter. Irving and Scott will be playing a lot. Rony Nelson will also fill his niche as a pass rusher.

DT- We can write in McDonough right now. Next to him will be either Cleyon Laing or Pompey. Simon, Woods, and Jensen will also play a lot. Next year will be the most depth at DT that ISU has had since I've been a fan.

LB- Least interesting position. Knott and Klein will be all conference. Miller and George will also play a lot. Broomfield and Morgan will play the hybrid position.

Safety- I like what CW and Austin said in the podcast about Givens moving over to strong safety after he has played well lately. Jacques will have free safety wrapped up for the rest of his career. Jared Brackens will be the top backup at safety. Earl Brooks should be back after an injury and I wonder if we see Broomfield backing up at this position as well.

Corner- Reeves is a shoe-in. Arnaud likes Jansen Watson opposite him. Lynn and Thomas will probably be the two backing them up.

I'd agree with most of what you said. The lone slight disagreement is at CB, where the staff is actively recruiting a juco. They have offered 4 juco CBs and one of them, Kasseim Everett, is supposed to be visiting this weekend. Obviously, the staff is concerned about the CB position next year and you don't recruit jucos to sit on the bench. So I imagine they are looking at a juco to fill LJ's spot and give them a chance to slowly work the younger guys into the lineup.

[KaiserWilhelm]

Jansen has been lighting it up on the coverage team. Unless his coverage skills are terrible, I'd be shocked if he didn't get the first look at LJ's spot.

[Aclone]

Jansen has been lighting it up on the coverage team. Unless his coverage skills are terrible, I'd be shocked if he didn't get the first look at LJ's spot.

Just because he gets first look doesn't mean they won't happily take a good juco. With Matt Thomas and a couple of redshirts the only depth, the position would be a little thin--however much I like Lynn and Richardson.

[Clone5]

Anybody saying Jantz has shown more arm strength than Barnett is very wrong.

[cyhiphopp]

Adam Pavlenko looks absolutely fantastic on his film. I would say he could be better than Miller. Not definitive, but possible.

Pavlenko does look like he's going to be a good one, but unless he has gained some weight since he was measured for Rivals, he might not be big enough to play over Miller right away. At 6' 200, he's pretty small, no matter how quick he is. I would think a redshirt would be necessary.

If Miller does indeed get beat out by some of the imcoming recruits, I really hope he gets moved to DE. He's ahead of most of the 2011 recruits (besides Irving) in size already.

[Bipolarcy]

Anybody saying Jantz has shown more arm strength than Barnett is very wrong.

Ummm, no they're not. It's pretty obvious. That off-balance throw to the sidelines when he was being rushed should be proof enough. He barely got it out of bounds. Jantz would have put it in the seats, even off-balance.

[CYKOFAN]

Stormin- Agree 100% on Jantz. It can't be easy going from the star qb to a back-up, and he's helping our team by handling it with class and being there for Barnett and the team with a good attitude. With a healed foot he's still a talented qb that has won games for us and will likely be called on again to help us win games in the future.

[clonefanpaul]

Anybody saying Jantz has shown more arm strength than Barnett is very wrong.

Serious? Jantz had some accuracy issues that were related to his form and injury, but he could SLING it. Not only in pure distance but with speed of the ball. When Jantz sets up those throws are bullets.
A good example of Barnett attempting to chuck the ball was the play action pass to Jenz in the last game. Great play, but its a good thing that Lenz was so open because that ball floated for a while. Barnett makes great reads in the run game and does a better job in finding the RB to dump the ball of to, but Jantz overall has the better throwing arm.

[nhclone]

Did you mean Miles?

Schyler Miles - Yahoo! Sports

I assumed that's who he was talking about. Didn't notice the spelling.

didn't find him n rivals database. profile link?

Aclone linked it in his post.

[nhclone]

Anybody saying Jantz has shown more arm strength than Barnett is very wrong.

Based on what? His arm strength was very good when he was fully healthy. Barnett has executed the zone-read better and make better decisions, or at least forced fewer throws, but Jantz has the better arm. Barnett actually wasn't as great at the zone read as I assumed in the Tech game. He made a couple of bad reads which could've/would've/should've gone for big yards. Still runs it better than Jantz though, at least at this point.

[clonedude]

First off, I could not care less who has the strongest arm. Guys like Ryan Leaf and Jamarcus Russell had cannons for arms. Guys like Tom Brady, Joe Montana, and even Peyton Manning didn't. So who really cares?

We cannot afford to play Jantz if he's going to be a turnover machine... period. I agree, the kid is a great athlete and has a strong arm, but we cannot play a guy that turns the ball over as much as he does. If he can't figure out how to take care of the ball, then he won't play, and shouldn't play IMO. His injured ankle has NOTHING to do with his turnovers. He was turning it over like crazy before he got injured. And he was a VERY inaccurate passer BEFORE his injury too.

So for QB, I wouldn't be surprised next year if it comes down to Barnett or Richardson for the starter. Obviously Barnett will be the guy going into spring, but Richardson might just prove himself to be better.... we'll see?

RB: We should be loaded... even if Shontrelle can't come back, which hopefully he will.

WR: We really can't be much worse. It will be nice to see what Lenz, West, Bundrage, Horne, and maybe JQ Daniels can bring to the table. I sure hope Jennert is done for. Don't want to see him back. Does Young have another year? He might do well.

TE: Hopefully Brun can take over this spot, but if he was that good, he'd probably be on the field this year, right?

OL: Some good young talent I think. Will be hard to replace KO and Hicks, but I think we'll be ok. Anybody know anything about guys like Loth, Graham, etc? I thought Graham was going to be a stud, and maybe he still will be for us?

DT: I think we'll be pretty solid with McDonough, Laing, Woods, Pompey, Simon, Jensen, etc.

DE: Should be ok with Maggitt, Nelson, Scott, Irving, plus JUCO coming in.

LB: I think it will be Knott, Klein, and either Miller/George. No way that Pavlenko comes in as a true freshman and beats out Miller and George.... NO WAY.

CB: Reeves and Watson... unless we get a JUCO stud. I do like our young guys here though. Lynn will be a player someday IMO.

S: Washington and Givens probably. BUT... don't be surprised if Brackens starts. He is going to be REALLY GOOD IMO.

K: Who knows? If we can't find anyone better than we have now... then I think we should just never attempt FG's or extra points anymore.

[RustShack]

Hopefully we get a kicker. I'm pretty interested in Richardson and Lynn both at CB, as for the guy who says the Juco has to start.. I feel like most of the time we get a Juco they don't start? But yeah it will probably be Watson there. What about TE? I'm assuming Howard will be eligible to return next year right? Or could Richardson step up? It would be nice if Culkin could come in and win the job, but thats unlikely for any freshman.

[MaxPower57]

Anybody know if Anthony Young is redshirting? I know he's had some injury problems, and has a RS year available. Not sure if I've seen him out there this year, could help at CB next year.