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We’ll start with the big guys up front, the offensive line that Cody Campbell said he would fix. Before we get to that, a quick note is that I’ve tried to keep track during the spring about what players were at what positions. If a player has a position next to their name, that means it was mentioned and for those where it is just the generic OL, then I didn’t see where they were mentioned for a position. And this list also include incoming freshmen. The red shade are the transfers into the program and the yellow shade are the most recent transfers out of the program.
At center I think things are pretty well set with Wilson the likely starter. Cash Cleveland, the recent transfer from Colorado, can probably swing between center and guard, but have him listed at guard for now as there’s no way that he’s a tackle (most likely). I think that Shaw was battling Sciury for the left guard spot so it was a bit of a surprise to see him transfer. I could actually see Cleveland slipping into that left guard back-up spot. At left tackle you have Sampson pretty well locked in and then Ponton and Sill as the backups. McGuire mentioned during the spring that Sill is adding some serious weight, which by the time he is a junior he should be ready to make a significant impact. Ponton is probably still a year away. At right guard, I think Zambrano is the guy who will get the call, but Carter obviously has come back for a reason. Hendrix is probably working his way up the depth chart and not quite ready. At right tackle, I think this is Jados’ spot with Davis as the back-up. I haven’t seen anything for me to think otherwise.
By my count, there are likely 3 starters who were transfers, Sampson, Zambrano, and Jados, and this group of transfers really is a group that’s a bridge between the players who are probably not quite ready for primetime and a group that is seasoned and ready. My hope is that they see what it takes to be really good and get to that point. Of this group, there are:
- 6 seniors with 3 of them likely being starters.
- 3 juniors, one of them being Sampson who might declare after this year.
- 2 sophomores, one of them being Cleveland who just transferred into the program.
- 6 redshirt freshmen with none of them likely to start.
- 6 true freshmen.
One last thing is the group of 12 redshirt and true freshmen should completely re-stock the cupboard so that the program isn’t in this position again where it is incredibly top-heavy and the staff essentially had to go out there and get some transfers to get past this year. There is just 1 offensive lineman committed in the 2026 class.
Can you imagine this program without transfers in? How good would the line be and how good would this team be without these transfers? And technically, it is all hypothetical at this point.
