It's clear to me that everyone thinks that UNH Football is going to have a down year with the losses of players like Corey Graham, David Ball, Tucker Peterson and Aaron Graham. However, I think that's a myth. Their best player, Ricky Santos, returns, and there's still a boatload of talent with which to work with. I'm going to start at the wide receiver position, the 'Cats will lose two of their top three performers from the 2006 season. My contention is, while the loss of Ball will be big, his production will be made up my a more balanced offense (i.e. handoffs to Kackert and Simpson), the continued maturation of the starting quarterback, and the development of some younger talents.
Leading the pack of experienced players currently left is Keith Levan. As a sophomore in 2005, he was kind of a combination RB/WR, being used on a lot of reverses, options and handoffs. In 2006, however, he really emerged in the slot, partially because of the continued health concerns of Mike Boyle. He is far from the most sure-handed player in the world (he had a memorable fumble in the 2005 playoffs against UNI and a memorable drop in the 2006 home game against UMass). However, he really stepped up his game and soared in the playoffs against Hampton, and caught a total of 70 passes for 672 yards. It's not the Y/C you'd like to see from your potential #1 WR (slightly under 10 for those English Majors out there, like myself), but he should see even more action next season, and is likely to be the focal point of the receiving core with Ball and Brown gone. I like him to catch almost as many balls as Ball did this season, though I don't think he'll be a vacuum on deep balls like Ball was. The offense is going to have to be more measured and drawn out to make use of Levan (and Boyle and O'Brien for that matter) and his speed. At 5'11, he's got plenty of size to be a #1 guy.
It's also pertinent to mention Mike Boyle, who is likely to be the starter opposite of Levan next season. He only played in four games because of a wealth of injuries, but in those four games he caught 16 balls for almost 200 yards. If he's healthy, he'll certainly be effective. He's another small, speedy guy, so he's not a guy you can lob the ball to (5'8, 165), but he'll be great for screens, long passes and stuff over the middle. I like him and think he'll be as effective as Levan was last season as a complement to Ball.
Aaron Brown was kind of overrated last season. He started most of the games and shifted Levan to the slot, but I think that was for positional purposes only. Levan was the clear #2. This season, I see the slot guy as Matt O'Brien, but he's clearly #3 on the depth chart. A converted RB, he's a tough little guy (he is generously listed at 5'7) who has very sure hands. He's going to lineup almost everywhere, and he'll be a really solid, reliable guy for Santos. We saw later in the season during comeback attempts that Ricky really liked using Matt as an outlet. I like him to grow even more this season, and catch more than the 14 balls he had last season.
That's about it for WR's with experience, as Matt Henry and Evan Loring also graduate. There's a number of other WR's on the roster who might make for decent depth guys in JE Fredrickson (I suspect he takes over Loring's role, as he seemed to play a lot with Loring on special teams last year), Chris Chandler, Devon Dozier and Dave Hayes, but the guy who should make a contribution next year is Travis Negron. Apparently the coaching staff really likes him, and I expect him to see quite a bit of time. I think he'll be the guy who comes in when we try and stretch the field and go four wide. There's also been some talk about Ronnie Strand and Kamel Mohammed, a couple lanky guys listed at TE who might be able to use their height valuably in the passing game. Lastly, UNH picked up a pretty good recruit in Kevon Mason who might be able to come in and contribute right away. I think this is a position they might look for a transfer to add some depth, as there are really only three even reasonably experienced players at the position, and two have legitimate questions about either durability or positional knowledge. However, I think the talent is there to make up for the losses of Ball, Henry, Loring and Brown.
I'll talk about what I think about the running game (the other factor in lessening the losses of Ball and Brown) in my next post.
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