Linebacker Situation

Here at Linebacker U in 2010 we play a 4-3, which means we start three linebackers. We have the Fritz (weak), the Mike (middle), and the Sam (strong).

Week One against Youngstown State saw Bani Gbadyu (15) and Gerald Hodges (6) split time at the Fritz, Chris Colasanti (48) start and be backed up by Mike Yancich (33) at the Mike, and Nate Stupar (34) and Michael Mauti (42) split time at the Sam.

The gameplan for Alabama was for Hodges to be our Fritz and have three players split time evenly between the remaining two positions with Colasanti and Mauti seeing time at the Mike and Stupar and Mauti seeing time at the Sam. Hodges went down on the opening kickoff which resulted in Gbadyu playing the entire game at the Fritz with the remaining plan for the other two positions staying in tact.

This won't work moving forward considering at this point, a healthy Hodges is the best linebacker on the squad and Gbadyu may not even be in the top five. Mauti is still not even close to his old self after suffering an ACL a little over a year ago. Stupar would be better suited as a stand-up DE. Colasanti probably won't lose his starting spot.

We have two true freshman linebackers on the squad as well in Mike Hull and Khairi Fortt. Fortt enrolled early and Hull did not. Hull is a little undersized and prior to Hodges' injury was going to take a redshirt this season. Unless another linebacker goes down I don't see Hull playing in 2010. Fortt wasn't going to redshirt regardless and now presumably steps into Hodges' roll as Gbadyu's competition at the Fritz. I can see Gbadyu starting the next two games and Fortt getting the start at Iowa. The real question is how long will Hodges be out for? And if he's out for most of the remainder of the season will he take a redshirt? I'll keep you up to date on the linebacker situation at Linebacker U as it should be both interesting and exciting.