Spring Practice Preview: ACC

I started this series last year with a look at the state of the quarterback position at each Power Five conference school. This year I'm going to broaden the scope to take a look at the most pressing skill position battle at each of those schools, rather than just the quarterbacks.

For instance, the quarterback situation is so settled at some places that it wouldn't benefit anyone for me to simply reiterate what has already been established. Put another way, when I'm talking about Clemson, you probably want to know about something other than who is going to back up Trevor Lawrence.

The ACC has a bit of a public perception problem right now. Not as much as, say, the PAC-12, but it gets billed as a one-team league where everyone's playing for second behind Clemson. While that's not entirely wrong -- Clemson not winning the conference this coming year seems impossible -- the ACC has plenty of interesting teams for the 2019 season and each of them have unique position battles that'll heat up this spring. 

Boston College

Position of Interest: Wide Receiver

This is never going to be a pass-heavy offense, especially when the Eagles have the luxury of handing it to AJ Dillon as much as humanly possible. But BC does still need to go to the air from time to time to keep opposing defenses honest, and there are a lot of targets up for grabs with Jeff Smith and tight end Tommy Sweeney and their combined 32 percent target share no longer with the program. Kobay White remains WR1 for the Eagles, but who is next?

Ben Glines profiles as one possible answer. He's a receiver by trade but filled in ably at running back when Dillon was hampered by an ankle injury last season. Look for his role as a receiver to expand this season as he battles for a starting spot this spring. He caught 12 of 18 targets for 170 yards and four touchdowns last season.

CJ Lewis is interesting as well; he's a rising junior with great size at 6-foot-4 and 210 pounds. He was a quarterback in high school so he still has room to grow as a receiver and with him entering his third season at receiver, there's a chance we start to see his work pay off.

Noah Jordan-Williams is largely unproven with just three games to his credit in two years at Boston College, but the roster attrition suggests he'll at least get a shot to show what he's got this spring.

Clemson

Position of Interest: Backup running back and starting slot receiver

Travis Etienne is undoubtedly the Tigers' top running back, but Clemson is in position to pull its top-line starters often enough to where the No.2 back carries some fantasy value as well. Adam Choice has run out of eligibility, leaving sophomore Lyn-J Dixon and senior Tavien Feaster as the next guys up.

Feaster has come into his own over the last two years, averaging  6.25 and 5.6 YPC in 2017 and 2018, respectively. Ian Wharton of Bleacher Report adds that Feaster has explosive speed; he ran a 6.88 in the 60-meter dash at 5-foot-11 and 220 pounds at the Tiger Paw Invitational. He won't be a welcome sight for opposing defenses when Etienne comes off the field.

While Feaster is promising, I'd argue Dixon is the more intriguing back in fantasy and dynasty. Dixon led the team in yards per carry as a true freshman at 8.82 YPC. He was a four-star recruit coming out of high school and that seemed low based on the things Dixon put on film last season. Both Dixon and Feaster should see increased roles with Choice's 77 carries up for grabs and both should challenge for over 600 yards and over five touchdowns despite not being starters.

At receiver, it's no secret that Hunter Renfrow leaves a legendary career behind him after being an ace out of the slot for four years. It's also probably fair to say that Renfrow was the last remaining relic from a time where "Clemsoning" still had a negative connotation and the Tigers weren't quite at Juggernaut level. This is not to take anything away from Renfrow, and there are things he did on the field that are beyond the picture that athletic testing can paint. But the fact of the matter is that 14 percent of Clemson's targets (67 total) is up for grabs and available to a group of pass-catchers that are all blue-chip prospects.

Justyn Ross and Tee Higgins will hold things down on the outside while Amari Rodgers will hold down the WR3 spot. Rodgers safely projects to be the top slot option and can consistently move the chains for the Tigers, but his athleticism and shake combine to make him an explosive play maker from that spot. Derion Kendrick, a sophomore who was a five-star recruit in his own right, is another name to monitor as the offseason unfolds.

Duke

Position of Interest: Quarterback and Wide Receiver

Daniel Jones is off to the NFL after a successful run at the helm of Duke's offense over the last three seasons. The cupboard is fairly bare without Jones.

Quentin Harris has been the program for awhile as a rising senior but has just 81 career passing attempts to his name. 2018 was the first year he had with truly significant run and the results were mixed. Harris went 34-for-68 for 437 yards (6.4 YPA) but he threw seven touchdowns against just one pick and his rushing production (46 rushes, 195 yards, 5 TD) was promising. He'll have redshirt sophomore Chris Katrenick and redshirt freshman Gunnar Holmberg as his main competition this spring, but there is a sense that this is Harris' job to lose. The question is what can he do as the full time starter and how much help can he expect to get from a green receiving corps.

Duke is replacing its top four targets from 2018 who made up a total of 68 percent of the Blue Devils' total targets. Aaron Young, who opted to remain with the program rather than transfer, should have the inside track on being the top target in the offense, but the depth behind him is mostly untested. Jake Bobo caught 10 passes in 2018 and Scott Bracey was a highly rated recruit who has yet to accomplish much through two years with the program. The Blue Devils have a pair of early enrollee receivers in Eli Pancol and Darrell Harding who will be worth monitoring this spring.

Florida State

Position of Interest: Everything

We're looking at a program that's gone from one of college football's true blue bloods to being one that's teetering on the brink of disaster. Well, it might already be in disaster territory depending on your view of last season.

With Deondre Francois' tumultuous time in Tallahassee now a thing of the past, Florida State seemed to be a perfect destination on the graduate transfer market. Heck, even a quarterback recruit who could get on campus early may have had a shot at beating out James Blackman. Unfortunately, no such luck and now Florida State enters the spring with Blackman as the lone scholarship quarterback on the roster that is also eligible for 2019.

Blackman has plenty of starting experience dating back to 2017 when he took over for an injured Francois for essentially the entire season. He has some limitations, though, and is very slight for his 6-foot-5 frame, checking in at 181 pounds. With how poorly Florida State's offensive line performed last season, it's fair to worry about its ability to keep Blackman upright for a full season.

Per Tashan Reed of The Athletic, transfers Jordan Travis and Wyatt Rector both have waivers for immediate eligibility still pending, so it's difficult to count on either being viable challengers in 2019.

Running back is fairly set at starter with Cam Akers entering his junior season, but the depth behind him is questionable. Jacques Patrick and Amir Rasul are both gone and Khalan Laborn is set to be limited as he works his way back from a dislocated kneecap suffered in September. The 'Noles did not bring in any running backs in the 2019 recruiting class, so sophomore Anthony Grant could get an extended look this spring as well.

At receiver, the 'Noles are replacing leading receiver Nyqwan Murray, but there is some returning talent in this group. Tamorrion Terry showed major promise as a freshman in 2018 with 35 catches on 76 targets for 744 yards and eight scores, and I wouldn't get too worked up about the catch rate considering . Keith Gavin and D.J. Matthews are also in the fold but have mostly underperformed based on expectations.

Georgia Tech

Position of Interest: System Transition

We're in uncharted territory here. Paul Johnson's option offense helped navigate the recruiting barriers over the last decade, and now it's up to former Temple coach Geoff Collins to usher in a new era.

Collins is tasked with evaluating players who were recruited into Johnson's system and seeing what kind of lemonade he can squeeze out of it. It won't be an easy transition with the current roster morphing into a pro-style system.

The roles and expectations at every skill spot are now fundamentally different. Quarterbacks who throw and  B-backs that now become halfbacks without fullbacks clearing the way. And, by God, receivers who catch passes. This is all pretty disorienting. And frankly, it's going to be a process that takes more than one season to start producing results.

With all the unknowns and potential moving parts, the depth chart is set to go a massive overhaul between March 26 and the spring game on April 20. Stay tuned.

Louisville

Position of Interest: Quarterback

Louisville is starting over after the Bobby Petrino era ended with an emphatic thud. The faces around the quarterback room remain the same, but new coach Scott Satterfield brings fresh eyes and a new system into the fold.

Satterfield said that the competition between Jawon Pass and Malik Cunningham is "wide open" and it will "be wide open as [Louisville heads] into the fall," per Gentry Estes of the Courier-Journal. Pass and Cunningham are very different quarterbacks and both had their flaws on display in 2018 as neither could seize control of the starting job. Cunningham's calling card is his mobility; he had 79 rushing attempts and turned that into 497 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. But he is still somewhat raw in other facets. Pass is billed as the superior passer but he completed just 54.0 percent of his passes over 300 attempts and his 8:12 TD:INT ratio was flat out terrible. Satterfield got the most out of his quarterbacks during his time at Appalachian State, so there's reason to believe that Pass or Cunningham can reach another level under him.

Louisville won't have a spring game to fuel much speculation as to who enters the summer with a leg up in this competition, so this will be anyone's job up through August.

Miami (FL)

Position of Interest:  Running back

I know, I know. Quarterback is also up there, but until Ohio State transfer Tate Martell's eligibility status is confirmed one way or the other, this looks like it's N'Kosi Perry's job. Let's instead look at a backfield that is tasked with replacing Travis Homer and his 164 carries for 985 yards.

As you might expect, Miami isn't exactly hurting for options to replace Homer, however. DeeJay Dallas quietly put together an excellent 2018, taking 109 carries for 617 yards (5.66 YPC) and a team-high six touchdowns. He's a sturdy option at 220 pounds and even though he's built like a power back, he can do some things in the passing game as well (10 catches for 85 yards on 11 targets).

Dallas seems to be the favorite for the lead job, but Lorenzo Lingard is a player who cannot be forgotten. The former five-star recruit had his freshman season cut short by an October knee injury that required surgery, so any participation from him this spring will be a bonus. Look for him to enter the mix in a big way once he's 100 percent healthy.

Sophomore Cam'Ron Davis is another name who is seemingly flying under the radar. He was the No.7 all-purpose back in the 2018 recruiting class, per 247 Sports. Davis (5-10, 190) should be a nice complement to Dallas and should have the chance to leave a strong impression on the coaching staff this spring if Lingard is limited.

North Carolina

Position of Interest: Quarterback

Of North Carolina's top passers over the last two years, one of them is a graduate assistant at Arkansas State and the other is trying his hand at linebacker for the Tar Heels. That leaves us with very little hard evidence to go on with the quarterbacks on hand in Chapel Hill this spring.

Cade Fortin and Jace Ruder both played as freshmen in 2018 but not enough to burn a redshirt. Joining them this spring is blue-chip recruit Sam Howell, who is already on campus after flipping to UNC from Florida State in December. I mentioned in my Signing Day article that Howell had a chance to win the job as a freshman and the developments with Nathan Elliott and Chazz Surratt only strengthen my position on that front.

Spring practice just got underway in Chapel Hill and the new coaching staff is unlikely to rush a decision on three freshmen with a total of four games worth of experience between them. Fortin has the most experience (32-for-64, 388 yards, 1:1 TD:INT) but it's not enough to declare him the favorite going into spring ball.

North Carolina State

Position of Interest: Quarterback

Ryan Finley had a strong three-year run at the helm of the Wolfpack offense, but coach Dave Doeren will be tasked with breaking in a new signal caller for this year.

The competition looks as though it'll boil down to four main competitors between redshirt sophomore Matthew McKay, redshirt freshman Devin Leary, Florida State/JUCO transfer Bailey Hockman, and freshman enrollee Ty Evans. McKay is the only one to attempt a pass, going 7-for-8 for 87 yards in mop-up duty for Ryan Finley last season. He enters the spring as my pick to ultimately win the job but this looks to be another competition that won't be decided until the summer.

Pittsburgh

Position of Interest: Running back

The Panthers lost of of the nation's top running back duos in Qadree Ollison and Darrin Hall, who combined for 2,357 yards and 21 touchdowns on the ground last year and made up 60 percent of the team's total rushing attempts. No other Pittsburgh running back had more than 32 carries. Junior A.J. Davis was the recipient of that work, but he managed just 4.2 YPC . I know, small sample and all.

According to Brian Batko of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Davis is essentially the last man standing this spring. Pitt's running back recruits won't be in the fold until fall camp and Mychale Salahuddin is still rehabbing from injury. With that, the stage is set Davis' to lock down the starting role, at least heading into the summer.

Syracuse

Position of interest: Receiver

Syracuse actually had a great succession plan at quarterback so the expectation is that there will be a smooth transition at that spot in the post-Eric Dungey era with Tommy DeVito taking over. His supporting cast at receiver is another question, especially with Jamal Custis off to the NFL and 2018 fantasy bust of the year Devin C. Butler going to another program.

Three of last year's starters are back, including Sean Riley, Taj Harris, and Nykeim Johnson, but Syracuse goes four-wide as its base. Syracuse's pre-spring depth chart has Cameron Jordan and Sharod Johnson vying for the open starting spot. Both Jordan and Johnson play outside receiver but have vastly different frames. Jordan (6-3, 214) has an almost identical frame to Jamal Custis while Johnson (5-11. 180) is a bit more reliant on speed and quickness. Either way, it'll be worth monitoring who comes out on top between this pairing as locking down a starting spot in Dino Babers' offense leads to fantasy utility more often than not.

Virginia

Position of Interest: Running Back

1,000-yard rusher Jordan Ellis accounted for 46 percent of the team's rushing yards in 2018 while returning quarterback Bryce Perkins made up 41 percent of that share. That means the likes of PK Kier and Lamont Atkins have big shoes to fill in 2019.

Kier got more work than Atkins with 26 rushes but only posted 80 yards on those attempts. Again, it's an insignificant sample so you can't draw hard-line conclusions from it. Atkins' four carries for 33 yards is similarly insignificant, so we're working from a blank canvas this spring. Virginia doesn't begin spring practice until March 26 and its spring game isn't until April 27, so it will be awhile before the news cycle heats up in Charlottesville.

Virginia Tech

Position of Interest: Depth

Virginia Tech returns its starting quarterback (Ryan Willis) along with its leading receiver (Damon Hazelton) and an experienced running back in Deshawn McClease. The issue here comes from filling in the cracks. For whatever reason, Virginia Tech experienced one of the more visible mass exoduses this offseason via transfer.

Former starting quarterback Josh Jackson joined former starting receiver Sean Savoy at Maryland and three other receivers, including starter Eric Kumah, are heading elsewhere in all likelihood. While no single player that left Virginia Tech is a major loss, the sheer volume of contributors leaving the program does add up.

Depth is often talked about in the abstract, something that is always being improved upon whenever a coach is asked about it. But Virginia Tech represents a real test case of how a program responds to this level of depth chart attrition.

At running back, Jalen Holston is the main healthy option behind McClease given that Terius Wheatley is out for spring with an undisclosed injury.

At receiver, Tre Turner will need to deliver on the promise he showed as a freshman as he steps into the No.2 role alongside Damon Hazelton while Hezekiah Grimsley and Phil Patterson.

Above all else, Virginia Tech has a very thin margin for error now with all the roster attrition. It's not to say that other teams can't get decimated by injury. That happens. But when legitimate contributors across several positions are gone all of the sudden, the injury bug can be catastrophic.  It's a tightrope walk in Blacksburg.

Wake Forest

Position of Interest: Quarterback

In between the stretches where he looked like a true freshman, Sam Hartman showed three-year starter upside for the Demon Deacons. A season-ending injury allowed Jamie Newman to make his own case as he delivered a bowl victory and put up strong numbers in the process (28.0 or more fantasy points in three of his four starts). Wake Forest is now faced with making a difficult and delicate decision in a landscape where transfers are more prevalent than ever.

This is not to say I think either Hartman or Newman would transfer if they lost out on the starting job. But it'd be a Head In The Sand move to not acknowledge the possibility given that the winner would likely have the job beyond this season, and using one's eligibility while riding the bench seems to be going out of style in a big way.

Thus, Wake Forest's quarterback battle has major implications for the program beyond 2019. It starts this spring between Hartman and Newman and it would not be surprising for it to last right up until kickoff of the season opener.