Baylor Depth Charts vs. Oklahoma

The last time we looked at this, nearly 3 full months ago, we had more than a few questions about how things would shake out headed into the first game of the season. Now, 7 games later, the depth chart is relatively stable. Baylor has, to date, avoided major injuries so far this season and managed to keep everyone fresh by basically laying waste to every opponent save one and pulling our starters at halftime or close to it.

The charts below are taken from the latest info on BaylorBears.com (links opens in a .pdf).

Almost nothing has changed from the pre-season to now with Baylor's offense. Troy Baker is back and playing well, but the coaching staff hasn't seen fit to replace Kelvin Palmer with him on the starting OL simply because everything else is working so well. If you move Palmer back to center, then you push Huber somewhere else, perhaps to right guard. That doesn't work because Desmine Hilliard has really come on in his sophomore year and looks like a mainstay at the position going forward.

One change from then to now is something I consider myself cosmetic: the latest charts don't include the "UB" position, costing Rashodrick Linwood and Devin Chafin, both redshirt freshmen, spots on the list. It doesn't really matter; both play in relief of Glasco and Lache whenever possible.

On the whole, the starting offense has been remarkably consistent through the season, despite the fact that the labels given above don't translate exactly to what we've been asking them to do. Tevin Reese, for example, lines up on the outside nearly as much as he does the inside now, making the nominal title of "inside receiver" a bit of a misnomer. It should just say "balla."

This is where we've seen some movement, especially inside on the defensive line. The injury to Trevor Clemons-Valdez gave the coaching staff sufficient reason to burn Byron Bonds' redshirt in order to have an extra body alongside Blackshear, Masumbuko, and Billings. He responded by earning himself considerable playing time ever since, even after TCV returned. Now Baylor has 5 rotation players at the two spots, two of whom are true freshmen! That's a great situation to be in for the future.

Behind and beside them, once again Baylor has managed to avoid major injury through heavy rotation, as with the defensive ends, and pulling starters early, as with the linebackers. The secondary remains largely untested so far, although they have played extremely well against the run.

I've said it before and I'll say it again-- you simply cannot overrate how amazing it is for the future of this defense that so many backups and potential future impact players are getting so much playing time now in real games. Where we lose our starting defensive ends going into next year, we'll replace them with two players in Oakman and Palmer who will both have considerable experience. At defensive tackle, the position at which Baylor has had the hardest time recruiting in years past, we lose nothing. Two of our three linebackers will have to be replaced by high-upside players getting their feet wet this year, as will 3 of the 4 members in our secondary. Thankfully, we won't have to rely on a single player at any position who hasn't already gotten significant time. How many teams can really say that?