We did it everybody, we avoided losing to a team synonymous with current futility in the sport. That shouldn't be overlooked, even if it was not a great advertisement for the excitement of college football.

So, without further ado here's your weekly redshirt tracker now that we're just over 50% through the Cougar football season.

OFFENSE/SPECIAL TEAMS:

Redshirt Announced: WR Keith Corbin (Sr.), QB D’Eriq King (Sr.), OG/C Braylon Jones (Sr.)

Redshirt Eligible: RB Terrell Brown (Fr.), RB Mulbah Car (Sr.), QB Logan Holgorsen (Fr.), QB Clayton Tune (Soph.), OT Dixie Wooten III (Soph.)

Not Redshirt Eligible: TE Bo Alexander (Sr.), OG Max Banes (RS-Fr.), OG/OT Dennis Bardwell (Jr.), OG Jordan Boatman (Soph.), WR Tre’von Bradley (Soph.), RB Patrick Carr (Sr.), TE Shane Creamer (Soph.), TE Parker Eichenberger (Soph.), C Jack Freeman (RS-Fr.), OT Josh Jones (Sr.), WR Courtney Lark (Sr.), WR Terry Mark (Sr.), WR Cole McGowan (Jr.), WR Ja’Kori Morgan (RS-Fr.), OG Keenan Murphy (Jr.), OG Gio Pancotti (Jr.), RB Kyle Porter (Jr.), K Kyle Ramsey (Fr.), P Dane Roy (Sr.), WR Jeremy Singleton (Soph.), WR Bryson Smith (Soph.), RB Chandler Smith (Jr.), WR Marquez Stevenson (Jr.), TE Christian Trahan (Soph.), RB Kelan Walker (RS-Fr.), LS Nick Wildberger (Sr.), OT Jarrid Williams (Sr.), K Dalton Witherspoon (Jr.)

The list of offensive players that are redshirt eligible and not already declared to be done for the season is starting to dwindle.

Last Saturday’s starter at quarterback: Logan Holgorsen, is at the 4-game limit for still being redshirt eligible in the current season. As I said in last week’s redshirt watch, it seems impossible to preserve the redshirt of both the younger Holgorsen and fellow QB Clayton Tune.

That is unless the staff is seriously considering starting walk-on Ike Ogbogu or high school QB turned college WR Bryson Smith in at least 3 of the 5 games. To be clear, I don’t think the staff will do this and I expect either Tune or Holgorsen will redshirt. It sounds likely that Tune will start against SMU on Thursday, which would be his 3rd game played with 4 games on the scheduled after SMU.

Barring an injury crisis at running back, I expect we’ll see both Mulbah Car and Terrell ‘Smoke’ Brown remain at or under 4 games played in 2019 and redshirt. The interesting thing with Car and Brown is which games Dana Holgorsen and the offensive staff choose to play the pair. Car last saw action in a heartbreaking loss at Tulane where he played quite well, and Brown’s lone game action came 2 weeks ago against Cincy. Considering Patrick Carr seems highly likely to be out for the SMU game and the nature of the game itself, I wouldn’t be surprised if Car played.

In the trenches, Dixie Wooten III has started the last 2 games at right tackle. While Wooten is still technically redshirt eligible, I can’t imagine this staff wants to run out their 3rd string right tackle for a stretch of games that includes 3 of the AAC’s best teams. As a side note, lost in the myriad of other things that have gone wrong in 2019 is the fact that the Coogs lost 2 senior returning starters (Braylon Jones, Jarrid Williams) to season ending injuries and another to whatever you’d classify Justin Murphy’s exit from the program as.\

There are 8 seniors with offensive or special teams listed positions that will be playing their last season in 2019: Dane Roy, Nick Wildberger, Bo Alexander, Josh Jones, Jarrid Williams, Terry Mark, Courtney Lark, and Patrick Carr.

DEFENSE:

Redshirt Announced: NONE

Redshirt Eligible: DT Atlias Bell (Jr.), LB Terrance Edgeston (Jr.), LB Elijah Gooden (Jr.), LB Zamar Kirven (Soph.), DE Taures Payne (Jr.), CB Ka’Darian Smith (Sr.), S Gleson Sprewell (Jr.)

Not Redshirt Eligible: S Deontay Anderson (Jr.), DE David Anenih (Jr.), LB Jordan Carmouche (Jr.), DE Isaiah Chambers (Jr.), NG Olivier Charles-Pierre (Jr.), DE Alexander Duke (Soph.), NG Aymiel Fleming (Sr.), S Darius Gilbert (Sr.), DE Leroy Godfrey (Sr.), DE Logan Hall (Soph.), CB Shaun Lewis (Soph.), LB Jordan Milburn (Sr.), S Jordan Moore (RS-Fr.), LB Donavan Mutin (Soph.), DT Jamykal Neal (Jr.), CB/S Gervarrius Owens (Soph.), DE Derek Parrish (Soph.), CB DJ Small (Jr.), S Grant Stuard (Jr.), DE Payton Turner (Jr.), S Garrison Vaughn (RS-Fr.), CB Damarion Williams (Jr.), LB/S Amaud Willis-Dalton (Soph.), DT Blake Young (Sr.)

It’s probably just semantics as to whether any Cougar defensive players have been ‘announced’ as redshirting like King/Corbin/Jones were on the offensive side of the ball.

Redshirt-eligible defensive players like Atlias Bell, Elijah Gooden and Ka’Darian Smith were all but officially announced as out for the season and redshirting during the UConn game broadcast.

The only players who are redshirt eligible that I don’t expect to see get a redshirt in 2019 are: Zamar Kirven and Terrance Edgeston. Kirven had ably filled in as a starter since the Tulane game, but twisted his ankle in practice late last week and Edgeston (coming off his own injury injury) tried to fill in and Holgorsen admitted probably wasn’t ready for game action.

Both Edgeston and Kirven are at 4 games played, which adds some intrigue. If I had to guess (based on nothing other than my gut) Edgeston will redshirt and Kirven will come back at some point this year. Both guys not redshirting feels pretty likely, as the defense is pretty short on healthy linebackers.

As presently constructed, the number of seniors who are certain to end their Cougars career is a relatively small number. This is especially true on defense where there are only 5 seniors listed at defensive positions who meet this criterion: Aymiel Fleming, Blake Young, Leroy Godfrey, Jordan Milburn and Darius Gilbert. Of that group of 5, only Fleming and Young have started a game this year which speaks to the relative youth of this Cougar defense.

There are 31 Cougar players with defensive positions on the current roster who have seen a meaningful amount game action in 2019. Out of that 31, 22 are currently sophomores or juniors. This speaks to the level of youth Joe Cauthen and the new Cougar defensive staff are dealing with as they try to rebuild a defense that bottomed out in 2018.