The Cardinal Countdown: 44 Days Until Kickoff

#44 Dorian Jones

Class: RS Freshman

Ht/Wt: 6-0/230

Position: Linebacker

Hometown: Plantation, FL

Twitter: @newera22_

Thoughts: With the depth in the middle at linebacker last year I figured Dorian may not get significant reps but I thought he was good enough to see the field even as a freshman. I was correct in that analysis as he made his debut against Miami…and then tore his ACL.

The unfortunate string of luck for Dorian may have resulted in him saving a season of eligibility as he works his way back to 100%. Obviously, Etheridge and CJ are gonna hold down the starting spots in the middle as their talent and experience are tough to beat, but Jones, along with Monty Montgomery, Robert Hicks, and others will fight for that second spot on the depth chart this fall. You’ll see in the clip below that Coach Brown was planning on using Dorian at the ‘Mike’ when recruiting him and the summer depth chart shows that’s still the case (3^rd string mike). He can cover ground pretty well and has shown he can deliver pain in the open field. I think Dorian sees reps in 5-6 games this season and fights hard for that starting Mike spot in 2021 with Hicks.

Sweet Tweet:

I’d like to enter into evidence Exhibit 305 in the case ‘Recruiting Be Crazy’. This is a tweet on September of 2017 where Renato Brown committed to The University of Miami. Fellow Miami-area player Dorian Jones retweeted this at that time. Jones would later go on to commit to Indiana University....and then approximately two years later both are on campus, now playing for Louisville.

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#44 Francis Sherman

Class: RS Freshman

Ht/Wt: 6-3/237

Position: Tight End

Hometown: Bay Village, OH

Twitter: @Francis2Sherman

Thoughts: If you read my post back on Day 47 (Desmond Daniels) I spoke about the staff pulling in a kid who had some experience on both sides of the ball but they wanted him in the position opposite of where most other schools that were after him wanted him to play. Well, Mr. Sherman falls in a similar category as well. Sherman played both defensive end and tight end in high school, but the Cards are looking to use him almost exclusively at the tight end spot. I like pulling over guys who played defense to line up at tight end because they aren’t afraid of the physicality and don’t come from a spot of looking to ‘get their numbers up’ on offense.

Now, hopefully a season into the new offense and 66 days into this years countdown you understand that “tight end” is a fairly generic term and a guy like Marshon is going to be asked to do many things that Ean Pfeifer will not be, and vice versa, but both are a ‘tight end’ by name. A player like Sherman will likely fall towards the Y position or more traditional TE you see on the line if I was guessing, but he’s the smallest tight end on the roster at 237lb (really took ‘lighten up, Francis’ to heart) so he could probably do either. I think Francis will see the majority of his reps on the practice field in 2020 but could work his way into a special team’s role (which he also played in high school) before getting a shot in future seasons.

Sweet Tweet:

This is from last season but in case you are living in a bubble and you missed the cover athlete for 2020…yeah, you should be buying it this year as well.