The Sooners have officially released their depth chart for the game against Akron and there are some rather interesting things that are found on it. Here are some quick thoughts as the Sooners host the Zips this Saturday. Here is the depth chart:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Depth chart for Akron game announced. See it here first. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Sooners?src=hash">#Sooners</a> <a href="http://t.co/HdvZ5bXWFC">pic.twitter.com/HdvZ5bXWFC</a></p>— Oklahoma Football (@OU_Football) <a href="https://twitter.com/OU_Football/status/638507658039848960">September 1, 2015</a></blockquote>
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1. True Freshman Austin Seibert will be handling both field goals and punts. While its probably not the most interesting part of the depth chart, I felt that making note of this was very important. By handling the both the place kicking and punting, Seibert could in theory fill 2 scholarship slots with only 1 scholarship.
2. The left side of the offensive line is young and inexperienced. While I believe that both Orlando Brown and Jonathon Alvarez have all the potential in the world, they are still pretty green. The ability of both players to adapt to live college football action will go a long ways to determining the Sooners success this season.
3. Walk-on JUCO WR Jarvis Baxter will apparently be the 4th WR. I wonder if this is being done in part to light a fire under Michiah Quick, who in spite of oozing potential has not really made the impact that many expected of him coming out of high school.
4. Frank Shannon will not start. While this could have been expected after being out of football for an entire season, it's interesting to note none the less.
5. Where is Alex Ross on the depth chart at running back? We know that he is an incredible kickoff return man but he is absent from the running back depth chart.
6. Sterling Shepard will be handling punt return duties. Please don't get hurt this year.
7. It appears the Sooners base defense will feature 5 defensive backs. Hopefully in the pass happy Big 12, the Sooners will finally find a defensive alignment the makes sense. I do worry about a team that can line up and play smash mouth football against this base defense. Luckily for the Sooners the only team that could seemingly do this is Tennessee.
8. The Sooners only have 10 seniors in their two-deep. This is a young team.
9. Speaking of a young team, 6 true freshman are in the two deep.
10. I don't believe this depth chart is set in stone. In spite of what is being listed, I don't in anyway believe that Grant Bothun would play over Michiah Quick in a crunch time situation. Neither do I believe that Daniel Brooks would become the feature back should something happen to both Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon.
Saturday is coming!!