This week once again there's some movement on who is and isn't redshirt eligible, PLUS we take a look at how much experience is coming back in 2020 on both sides of the ball!

OFFENSE & SPECIAL TEAMS

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

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

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

The only movement of statuses here was an expected one: Dixie Wooten starting his 3rd game in a row at right tackle and making his 5th appearance of 2019, making him ineligible for a 2019 redshirt. Because Wooten was a part of the 2016 signing class and didn’t show up on a UH roster until 2018, he may not have been redshirt eligible to begin with.

Mulbah Car was taken out of the proverbial garage and ran for 136 yards against SMU. But Dana Holgorsen talked about how much he was looking forward to Car being with this program next year and that’s as good a sign as any he’ll be held to 4 games this year.

The major thing to watch the rest of the season will be if the staff considers Clayton Tune’s redshirt secondary to the development he’ll get from 4 more games played, or they play him in 1 more game and give Logan Holgorsen a 3-game tryout and plan on redshirting him in 2020 while redshirting Tune now. I’d lean towards playing Tune now if it was my decision, but there are pros and cons to both choices.

For this week I’ve also tracked from all position groups who has/hasn’t been a regular starter in 2019. I will define regular starter as players who have started 50% or more of their current games played. Here are the team’s regular starter offensive and special teams (I counted each starting specialist as one) regular starters broken down by classification:

· Senior: 8

· Junior: 5

· Sophomore: 4

· Freshman: 1

Out of those 8 seniors, only 5 are certain to be gone at the end of this year: Josh Jones, Patrick Carr, Dane Roy, Nick Wildberger and Jarrid Williams. Jones and Williams will both be missed as this team’s 2 best tackles and when healthy Carr has been as dynamic as we all expected as a feature back. Roy is having maybe the best punting season in UH program history, which is possible thanks to the freakish consistency of Wildberger.

The point being those guys will all be missed and yet in terms of volume, UH will return a lot of players on offense.

DEFENSE

Announced Redshirt: NONE

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

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

The one piece of movement this week was Terrance Edgeston appearing in his 5th game... except maybe he didn't? Just going by only the official UH participation guide, it lists Edgeston as appearing as a reserve against SMU, which seems like a mistake and thus I'll leave it uncertain for now. Its academic, because I am sure Edgeston is bound to see enough action to make him not eligible for a 2019. I’d venture to guess Zamar Kirven, though technically still redshirt eligible, will also see the field once his injury has dissipated.

I’m listing Willie Smith III with redshirt eligible players as he made his 2019 debut on Thursday night. Smith played a bunch last year (along with Logan Hall) on the D Line when the injury crisis hit and did not redshirt. I won’t speculate why he didn’t make his season debut earlier, but his short collegiate career seems to indicate he’ll probably be in the big rotation of guys in the defensive front.

In a post game write up focusing on Houston, Texas Football writer Shehan Jeyarajah noted that only 1 player who registered a carry, reception or pass and only 1 player who made a tackle was not projected to be back with the Coogs in 2020. I think that youth movement is even more personified on the defensive side of the ball when you look at the regular starters:

· Senior: 2

· Junior: 7

· Sophomore: 3

· Freshman: 1

Both starting interior defensive linemen for most games: Aymiel Fleming and Blake Young, will finish their careers after this season. Young missed the game against SMU and sophomore Logan Hall, a regular by the end of 2018, started in his absence. I think we saw Olivier Charles-Pierre, the mammoth 340-pound Canadian JuCO product, play a bigger role than we’d seen prior. Charles-Pierre and Isaiah Chambers combined to stuff an SMU running back for a 3-yard loss and he finished the day with 4 tackles.

At every other level of the defense the Coogs are bringing back basically anyone who’s played a snap in 2019, with the looming additions of impact transfers like Eyabi Anoma, Marcus Jones, Thabi Mwaniki and Kelvin Clemmons. That’s an exciting thought, paired with a defensive staff that seems to be changing the culture on that side of the ball.