I'm gonna swing, from the Chanticleer! DDS:CFB 2018

[BYU 14]

After wowing the college football world by turning around UMass and getting them bowl eligible for the first time since Walter Camp first made turtle neck sweaters a sports fashion statement, I was a hot commodity in College Football coaching circles. So where does the next step of my journey take me? The SEC or PAC 12? Replacing Urban Meyer at THE OSU? Nope, to the exciting Mecca of Conway, South Carolina to take the reins of the newest FBS cannon fodder. A school that first opened in 1954 as a junior college, and is now set to expand its footprint and walk with the big boys. As I step to the microphone, before the press can ask me any questions, I have one of my own. What the hell is a Chanticleer? After being told I was pronouncing it wrong, I was informed it was a “fierce and proud rooster.” Apparently a sense of humor is a foreign concept to some here, but on to the team.

There is some good, some bad and plenty of ugly on the horizon as I set my sights on making these fierce Roosters a force in the Sun Belt conference. So, let’s start with the good and that is our 2018 schedule. Why? Because 8 teams on it are from the Sun Belt conference. That also brings up the bad, because we will likely be hard pressed to win against that motley group. The other great news is the P5 team on our non-conference schedule are split, so we don't get sacrificed to Auburn until the final week of our season, though they may score 100 on us! Then there is recruiting. At UMass the only “big time” programs I had to compete against in my own back yard were Boston College (Who we beat one year) and Rutgers. Here I am smack dap in middle of ACC and SEC country and I don’t see myself winning any recruiting battles against other schools that end with Carolina in the name, let alone anybody else that may wander into my area looking for talent. It will be scraps and hidden gems if we want to build this team and at 43 prestige it ain’t going to be easy. Fortunately, we do have some talent to work with, arguable much more than I started with at UMass, but first, our opponents for the coming year.

Week	Opponent	Result
1	@North Texas Mean Green (0-0-0)
2	Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets (0-0-0)
3	@Penn State Nittany Lions (0-0-0)
4	@Louisiana Lafayette Ragin' Cajuns (0-0-0)
5	Georgia Southern Eagles (0-0-0)
6	Troy Trojans (0-0-0)
7	@Texas State Bobcats (0-0-0)
8	BYE
9	@Idaho Vandals (0-0-0)
10	Louisiana Monroe Warhawks (0-0-0)
11	Georgia State Panthers (0-0-0)
12	@Arkansas State Red Wolves (0-0-0)
13	@Auburn Tigers (0-0-0)

[BYU 14]

2018 Roster and position outlook (Starters in bold, redshirts in red)

Player	Pos	Year	Ovr
Marco Holmes	QB	Sr	70
James Orlando	QB	Sr	79
Jerry Stoll	QB	Sr	73

There is actually some talent here (our starter), but they are all seniors!!! Great roster management by my predecessor! I can’t afford to have four true freshman compete for the job next year so I will redshirt Stoll and hope James, who has a pretty good arm, is accurate and takes care of the ball, stays healthy

[BYU 14]

Player	Pos	Year	Ovr
Brent Bruce	RB	Sr	71
Juan Delaney	RB	Sr	78
Jerome Ingram	RB	So (RS)	70
Lloyd Pitre	RB	Sr	83
Billy Sapp	RB	Sr	75
Paul Morales	FB	Sr (RS)	80
Marc Thomas	FB	Jr (RS)	66

Someone’s organizational skills need some work as this group is super senior heavy, what the hell? I will redshirt Sapp out of necessity and will need to sign two RBs and two FBs! Lloyd Pitre is set for a big senior campaign and is the school record holder already in both career yards (4173) and season yards (1562). He is also averaging 6.7 per carry over his career, so he is a legit playmaker. Morales gets some credit for Pitre’s numbers as he is a load at FB.

[BYU 14]

Player	Pos	Year	Ovr
Gabriel Chandler	G	Fr (RS)	64
Charles Cherry	G	So (RS)	68
Robert Hankins	G	So (RS)	71
Dennis Kiefer	G	So	71
Bradley Mosby	G	Fr (RS)	72
Bob Hammonds	T	Sr	75
Walter Logue	T	Jr	72
Danial Martin	T	Jr (RS)	67
Daniel Mcguire	T	Fr (RS)	69
Michael Terry	T	Sr	70
Moses Elam	C	Fr (RS)	69
Andrea Gordon	C	Sr	74
Dan Lucas	C	Sr	90
Jon Martins	C	Fr (RS)	71
Larry Stamm	C	So	73

A solid group that features our best overall player in Dan Lucas who should get a chance to play on Sundays and is a stellar in both run and pass blocking. Tackle will need an upgrade in recruiting and I would like to land both a center and guard with long term potential as well. We will go as far as this unit takes us, though we are built to run a short passing game which will ease their burden in that phase of the game.

[BYU 14]

Player	Pos	Year	Ovr
Ralph Bates	WR	So	73
Donald Fong	WR	So	72
Shaun Milne	WR	Jr (RS)	71
Edward Schneider	WR	So	69
James Styles	WR	So	73
William Wood	WR	So (RS)	73
Fred Yates	WR	Jr (RS)	74
James Branson	TE	Jr	72
Johnnie Campbell	TE	Sr	73
Julio Jacobs	TE	Sr	73
Damien Nelson	TE	So (RS)	73
Alan Skelton	TE	So (RS)	75

Loaded with underclassmen at WR which is good, but we have to start planning for the fact that 5 sophomores will graduate together, so I will look for 1-2 more and redshirt Bates. There is no speed in this group, but Wood, Yates and Schneider all have superb hands. It will be a ball control passing attack for sure.

[MizzouRah]

How in the world does CC have OVR players in the 80's and 90's?

What do players OVR ratings look like for teams like Bama and Clemson? I'm already a little concerned about this game seeing your players ratings.

Am I missing something here?

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by MizzouRah

How in the world does CC have OVR players in the 80's and 90's?

What do players OVR ratings look like for teams like Bama and Clemson? I'm already a little concerned about this game seeing your players ratings.

Am I missing something here?

I am a little concerned there as well and that is definitely an anomaly and I am concerned that it may have something to do with the fact them and UAB were added in a patch. Especially since they are all 1 star recruits. I am reporting it on the DDS board and decided to see how the games play out. I will lose a lot of seniors and I don't think I will be replacing them with like recruits. As a side note other teams look about right for their prestige level.

Edit: While Brooks looks at this I did a reboot, started in 2014 and fast simmed 4 years to get to 2018 so all the higher rated players would be cycled out, so I will update the roster and schedule later. Numbers are much more in line now that the original roster has turned over.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

I am a little concerned there as well and that is definitely an anomaly and I am concerned that it may have something to do with the fact them and UAB were added in a patch. Especially since they are all 1 star recruits. I am reporting it on the DDS board and decided to see how the games play out. I will lose a lot of seniors and I don't think I will be replacing them with like recruits. As a side note other teams look about right for their prestige level.

Edit: While Brooks looks at this I did a reboot, started in 2014 and fast simmed 4 years to get to 2018 so all the higher rated players would be cycled out, so I will update the roster and schedule later. Numbers are much more in line now that the original roster has turned over.

Yeah I figured it might be due to the patch that added them.

That was one heck of a roster you had!

You should have played that first season out to see how far you would have gone!!

[QuikSand]

I'll be following too. Got the game demo, but I think I'd get more "feel" from a write-up.

[BYU 14]

Okay, previous posts are all updated, so on we go.

Player	Pos	Year	Ovr
Peter Chapman	DT	Jr	72
Philip Latimer	DT	So (RS)	67
Anthony Schneider	DT	Jr	74
Randy Williamson	DT	Fr (RS)	73
Carl Young	DT	Jr (RS)	74
Zachary Babin	DE	So	70
Richard Christensen	DE	Fr (RS)	65
Terry Staggs	DE	Jr	70

This is an area of weakness, especially at DE where I have no clue how you let yourself get to 3 scholarship players. I will look to pick up a walk on there to get through the season, but DE will be a position I hit hard in recruiting. Babin will likely be out best pass rusher and Schneider the best run stopper and is also our strongest player in the unit. I worry about getting blown off the ball with this unit and injuries are something we cannot afford here.

[BYU 14]

Player	Pos	Year	Ovr
Jeffrey Centeno	LB	Fr (RS)	68
Joseph Suggs	LB	Fr (RS)	72
Bradley Koehler	LB	Fr	55
Justin Melton	LB	Fr	74
Kyle Weddle	LB	Fr	60
Alan Pitt	LB	Fr	60

Talk about a clusterfuck of recruiting by the prior regime, 6 freshmen here and half are walk-ons. We are going to get absolutely pillaged on defense if any of the starters go down and another area I will need to hit hard in recruiting so I can hopefully cut a couple of the non-scholarship players. Centeno is super fast, but is weak and not proficient at tackling, leaving Melton as our best player in this group.

[BYU 14]

Player	Pos	Year	Ovr
Robert Kline	CB	So	71
Richard Pulliam	CB	So (RS)	75
Wayne Sander	CB	So (RS)	72
Sean Stanfield	CB	Jr (RS)	72
Michael Manns	FS	Sr	69
Carlos Jones	FS	Jr	70
Paul Marshall	FS	Sr	70
Jeffrey Bickford	SS	Sr	73
James Crane	SS	Sr	72
Anthony Dickson	SS	Jr	77
Harvey Latham	SS	Fr (RS)	83
Steve Simon	SS	Fr (RS)	71

Harvey Latham is a stud and will anchor this unit for the next 4 years which is a comforting thought, but again the past regime did a poor job at spacing and I had to move Carlos Jones from SS to FS because we lose the other two next season. Latham will have to be super human on the back end because our corners our starters at CB do not have top end speed. Ironically, Wayne Sander does have world class speed (90) but horrible agility and may be the worst tackler I have ever seen. So unless his man runs a go every play he will be a liability at the back of the defense.

[BYU 14]

Player	Pos	Year	Ovr
Michael Head	K	Jr	81
Herbert Jorgenson	K	Sr	74
Jason Mckenzie	K	So (RS)	78
Sean Hall	P	So	76

Nobody cares about kickers. Sean Hall better have a strong leg though, I have a feeling he will be suing it a lot! On to the season!

[BYU 14]

Before we start the season some housecleaning items.
First, meet my staff

OC – James Stapleton is 51 years old and runs a hybrid west coast offense. He is average in the X’s and O’s department and not much better as a recruiter. I will be looking to upgrade here at some point.

DC – 64 year old Morris Hobson runs a 4-3, he is conservative as a coach and has a volatile personality. He can coach his ass off (5 stars as a defensive coach) but is mediocre in most every other area.
I also pick up some late signees that give us some depth in a couple of areas.

Timothy Hickman (74) and Virgil McDermott (73) are 2 star receivers that will both push for some PT this season. Andrew Holloman (72) and Christopher Reichert (69) are 2 star linebackers, while we add another kicker in 2 star John Jones (76) with this last addition I will move Jason McKenzie to punter. Finally I add a 1 star LB in 6'2 216 pound Joseph Bird, who I move to DE and he immediately starts to garner attention, to the point he will probably start. Remember the name, it could be a great story in the making.