Nate Bauer said it pretty well when he called out the next man up statement replacing PJ, because there is no simple replacement for PJ. We have no other player close to him, so the kicks off a whole other set of changes that make the DL line significantly weaker. TFrank went through the list of players who have played and a few who have not. I once thought that Fred Hansard was going to be the guy, but not much of a factor. Ellies is apparently playing hurt, and the biggest remaining player Cole Brevard has not played a down in any game - maybe just a recruiting miss. the next man up plan does not seem to deliver.
I lower level college and high school you see some teams resort to best available player......meaning you look at the entire roster in a more creative way. PSU many times in the past moved players around with OL switching to DL and vice versa. are there moves we could make around the front 7 that would allow us to withstand the power running we saw and will probably see again now. maybe a guy like Tarburton who was a LB can move back as he might stand up to the run better? are there big guys on the OL who have def experience who could move to the DL (ala CJ Thorpe) to get more power?
I lower level college and high school you see some teams resort to best available player......meaning you look at the entire roster in a more creative way. PSU many times in the past moved players around with OL switching to DL and vice versa. are there moves we could make around the front 7 that would allow us to withstand the power running we saw and will probably see again now. maybe a guy like Tarburton who was a LB can move back as he might stand up to the run better? are there big guys on the OL who have def experience who could move to the DL (ala CJ Thorpe) to get more power?
