First Look At The Offense

Recent remarks by head coach Sammy McCorkle several days into camp about the Big Green's 2024 defensive personnel (edited for clarity and in places for brevity):

HANOVER (Sept. 3) – Offensive line-wise this is probably our most experienced group, our most mature group. … Across the board you’ve got Delby Lemieux and Kyle Brown. Plus Nick Marinaro (has been) a little a little injured but he'll be back pretty soon. Also Tristan (Holmbeck) and Konstantin Spörk. All those guys have playing experience.

We also have Max Wentz, Vasean Washington and Cayman Duncan. We’ve got Will Prince, Cisco (Cabellero), Michael Betsy, Cam Davenport, Godson (Adjoku) and Roland (Waguespack). All those guys have done a phenomenal job and I feel like when it comes to experience and depth we're pretty solid there.

Talking to (offensive line coach Keith) Clark, you want to have seven guys ready to play on game day. I feel like, and he feels confident that we potentially could have, eight or maybe nine guys ready for playing time. And that's going to be critical for us.

We talk about identity all the time. We want to be a team that runs that ball. We want to be able to control that line of scrimmage. We want to be able to knock guys off the football. Ad that group of linemen right there? showed it last year, and they're definitely in position to do that again this year.

At the tight end position we graduated two guys who moved on, with Jace Henry and Nic Sani. But we feel like we've got some good, athletic guys. We’ve got guys that will bloody your nose a little bit at the line of scrimmage, but at the same time we can flex them out and they can be mismatches for DBs. That's how talented they are.

You’ve got Sean Ward. You’ve got Chris Corbo and Alex Geraci. Tay Williams is having a great preseason. Sean Harmon is doing the same thing. We moved James Morrison from offensive line to the tight end position. And we've got Gergely Hudák and Kristian Strong, two young guys who we're excited about. We feel like the future looks bright for those guys going forward.

At the running back position we feel like this is probably the deepest we've ever been. We’ve got guys who can run between the tackles, but also guys that we can put out in space where they could probably break some ankles. We’ve got some running backs that we can move if we need to. Move into a different position and get them out in space where they can make things happen.

We've got Q Jones coming back. We’ve got  DJ Crowther and Desmond Jackson. And two guys who are sophomores, Colin O’Garro and Chris Roper. They had great springs. You can see the maturity in them develop and grow.

Then there's CB, Christian Benson. Rght now if you had a guy you had to pick who's having the brightest preseason that's CB. He’s done a phenomenal job. He's just a guy who knows exactly what to do. He’s very coachable.

And then our new guy Dylan Elder coming from Georgia. He’s going to have an impact right away. He’s going to be dangerous. … He’s been doing a phenomenal job and is very coachable as well.

At quarterback, having Jackson Proctor back is huge. He’s a guy who's had two years of experience. He’s really, really taking over the leadership role and the captain role. At the same time he hasn't put any added extra pressure on himself. That's something we talk about. Hey, you don't have to do anything different. Keep doing what you're doing and let's polish that up. He’s been a great leader for us offensively and you could just sense that our offense, when he takes charge back there, is confident and ready to roll.

(Soph quarterbacks) Woods Ray and Grayson Saunier have made big changes from last year to the spring. Both guys are much, much more confident. Much, much better leaders. I’m super-excited about those two guys battling out to see who the number two guy is.

And then Noah Trigueros and Kyle Meier, two young (quarterbacks) coming in. Obviously their heads are swimming. That's probably the hardest position coming in as a freshman. But I tell you they're doing a phenomenal job and that's the one thing we've always had here. Our older guys do a great job in mentoring our young guys.

At wide receiver across the board we've got a number of guys that can be a huge threat. The biggest thing obviously is our guys are healthy. We’ve got a couple little muscle pulls here and there but overall across the board our wide receivers are probably the healthiest they have been in this program for a long time. Hats off to (trainer) Ben Schuler and (strength and conditioning coach) Spencer Brown for preparing them. (New receivers coach) Dan Hebert  does a phenomenal job being aware of reps in individual practice stuff, and understanding when to push the guys and when to pull back.

Paxton Scott is one of the top receivers in the Ivy League and we're super excited he's back. We’ve got Jackson Gerard, we've got  Painter Richards-Baker back. We’ve got Dan Haughton back. Grayson O’Bara’s back.

Sophomores Nick Lemon and Ian Scott also return. Jackson Namian is a guy who has had a great preseason for us. Johnny Nelson has had a good preseason. Remington Gall, who was injured last year, is a guy that has experience playing for us. He’s back full go, so it's great seeing him out there as well.

Our new receivers James Elliot, Jordan Leslie and Ky’Dric Fisher are guys that can run. We talked about that. We want more speed, more speed, more speed. Well, those three guys bring us more speed. And we’ve got Luke (Rives), who brings a lot of speed from Texas.

We’re very excited about all those wide receivers who are going to give us not only depth but  any one of those guys can be the guy you want to go to in a game situation.