After observing his team's performance in its final scrimmage on Saturday, Steve Kragthorpe has decided to shake up the U of L depth chart with just over a week before the season opener against Murray State.
There are multiple surprises in the present product, but none bigger than junior Maurice Mitchell getting the start over Peanut Whitehead at defensive end. Earlier this summer Adrian Grady told the C-J to expect big things from Mo in 2007, and Grady won't often say things he doesn't mean.
The second most likely area for U of L fans to pull a double take is at safety where Richard Raglin and Deon Palmer have moved ahead Lattarius Thomas and Jon Russell, and Brandon Heath is nowhere to be found. Palmer and Russell are both seniors, but Jon has seen the field a great deal more than Deon the past two seasons, and while Raglin does have the reputation for being a big-hitter, Thomas is the only returning starter from last year's secondary, and was the first freshman to ever start for Bobby Petrino.
The only other big surprise was on offense where Trent Guy has unseated JaJuan Spillman as the number three receiver. I still can't see Guy as a consistently viable option down the field or over the middle, but his value as far as jet sweeps or fake dives goes can't be understated.
Other items of not include Anthony Allen being listed as the starting tailback with Sergio Spencer at No. 2, Woodny Turenne officially holding down one of the starting corner positions, and Corey Goettsche overtaking Todd Flannery for the punting duties.
Again, we still have nine days until game day so while this is all pretty interesting, certainly none of it is set in stone. And even if this is the way the lineup looks on Aug. 30, players rotate in and out so much that who starts can almost be completely arbitrary. I was watching the Rutgers game on ESPN U yesterday, and was surprised to see the likes of Bobby Buchanan and Willie E. Williams in the game during the Scarlet Knights' last drive. It just proves that being two deep at each position is every bit as crucial as having a solid starting 11.