With a whole new scheme and a group of mostly transfers, how do things shake out?
For a Purdue team with an entirely new staff having to fill a huge portion of a departing roster, certain positions are kind of up in the air going into summer practice.
Linebackers are a particularly hard group to judge given that it appears all Mike and Will linebackers will be transfers. Heck, one of those transfers committed after the Spring Showcase from early-mid April.
With a depth chart so hard to predict, I’ll simply have to pick a few guys in the multiple 4-2-5 defense to be instituted during the upcoming season.
First: Mike linebackers:
Mani Powell is a transfer from UNLV via Arkansas. Such is to say he’s very familiar with playing under the Boilers’ new head coach Barry Odom. He appeared in most of his games at Arkansas primarily in a special teams role but broke out at UNLV. In his junior season under Odom, Powell appeared in all 14 games, of which he started seven. The rising senior recorded 59 tackles, nine of which were tackles for loss, 3.5 sacks, and a quarterback hurry.
Given experience, Powell will more than likely lead this group. Behind him will be another transfer, Carson Dean. The redshirt sophomore transfer from Arkansas appeared as a third-string linebacker for the Razorbacks in two games last year.
Another option is non-transfer Winston Berglund, a redshirt sophomore from Carmel. Berglund quietly had a very productive first few appearances as a Boilermaker before suffering a season-ending injury against Wisconsin. Prior to his injury, Berglund recorded nine tackles, including a sack. Against Nebraska, he recorded five tackles and his first career sack. In that ill-fated Wisconsin game, he recorded three tackles including a TFL before exiting the game.
Now, the Will linebackers:
Like I said, transfers galore! Especially with ties to Arkansas and UNLV!
Arkansas transfer Alex Sanford, Jr. played very limited time as a reserve linebacker but was an absolute monster on special teams. He had 199 snaps under his belt on ST. However, I’m flipping the script: I expect Sanford to be the second-in-line here.
UNLV transfer Charles Correa balled out as a true freshman at his hometown university. He played in all 14 games for the Runnin’ Rebels, seeing 203 snaps and tallying 16 total tackles. He’s got tons of experience already, but he may be outmatched by another rising sophomore transfer from a lower level of college football.
Tennessee State transfer Ellis Sanders put up crazy numbers for the Tigers of Ohio Valley Conference-Big South Alliance.
Sanders recorded 86 tackles, including 15.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. Of everyone on the Tigers’ defense last season, the true freshman played the second-most snaps. He’s certainly got the biggest numbers of the in-transfers, but we shall see how he adapts to the competition in a P5 conference. Yes, I’m still gonna consider the PAC as still existing.
So there you have it. A bunch of huge question marks, but a lot of guys who have played under Barry Odom. That’s worth something.
The depth chart is going to be difficult to predict until midway through summer practices, but if I had to guess now:
Mike: Powell, Berglund (if ready to go), Dean.
Will: Correa, Sanders and Sanford essentially splitting LB2 snaps.