re: DJ Welter at MLB ***Good Friday update w/ link***

quote:

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Jordan Allen

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Is not starting right now and if he was, it's at a position where LSU is thin and there would be an assumption that once all the studs arrived in the fall, things might change. Heck, I think some might be assuming that now. He's the third DE, but can easily end up the No. 5 if he doesn't kick some butt in August.

I don't remember the reaction to Steltz, but he had a study rise through the ranks, didn't he?

I'll just say this:

1. LSU has not been prone to having a desire to have a "token" white guy out there. If their best 11 are all black, there has been no hesitation to roll with that.

2. MLB is a position that's a little different from the two outside positions because it requires so much play calling and positioning on top of being a more physical position. Sheppard was a technician and didn't start full time until his fourth season. Minter was a third and fourth-year player who was also a smart technician when he was the starter. It seems to me that, outside of Lamar Louis and Feist (who's playing DE), the rest of the young LBs are more natural OLBs because they are all on the light side and Welter has an advantage of years in Chief's scheme.

3. If he's so terrible, why was there little hesitation to giving him snaps in the bowl game? Minter would play beginning to end in the regular season unless games got out of hand. In the bowl, he got to rest in what was eventually a 1-point game. Didn't it seem like, at that point, there was more trust in Welter than anybody else?

My guess is he is the starter for TCU, but depending on how he does, that could change by the heart of the SEC schedule as some of the young LBs, in their second year in the defense, get more comfortable with it. Chief doesn't want somebody at the position who isn't ready mentally to handle the responsibilities. Once some of these young players are ready, then Welter's really going to have to step his game up to maintain.

But again, it says something that Sheppard and Minter were in their fourth and third seasons, respectively, before they became the starters.