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Washington State released its first media notes of the year and with that comes the first depth chart of the 2014 season. If you read Andy's practice reports during camp, you likely had a decent idea of how things were shaping up and the depth chart reaffirmed a lot of what we thought. That doesn't mean it isn't without a couple of surprises.
Skill positions
No major surprises among this group. Connor Halliday and Luke Falk are the top two quarterbacks. Vince Mayle and Dom Williams lead the X receivers. River Cracraft and Robert Lewis top the Y. Rickey Galvin and Calvin Green at the H. Kristoff Williams opens as the No. 1 Z receiver with Isiah Myers and Gabe Marks next with an "or" designation between Myers and Marks. At running back, it's a pair of redshirt freshman. Jamal Morrow on top and Gerard Wicks No. 2. Andy detailed Morrow's strong camp and Wicks' late surge was enough to jump Theron West for the backup job.
Offensive line
Joe Dahl and Gunnar Eklund are at their familiar places at left tackle and left guard. Riley Sorenson won the starting center job with Sam Flor the No. 2. Eduardo Middleton will open as the right guard with Cole Madison the starting right tackle. Most of that fits in with what we thought for a while. The biggest surprise to me is Middelton instead of Jacob Seydel at right guard. Seydel is the No. 2.
Front Seven
No surprises here. Xavier Cooper, Toni Pole and Destiny Vaeao make up the starting defensive line. Kache Palacio is the starting BUCK with Ivan McClennan the No. 2. Cyrus Coen, Darryl Monroe and Tana Pritchard are your starting linebackers. Paris Taylor, Jeremiah Allison and Chester Su'a are the three backups. Of the 14 players topping the two-deep 12 are true juniors or older with Robert Barber and Taylor both redshirt sophomores. (Chester Su'a is mistakenly listed as a sophomore, he is a redshirt junior).
Secondary
There were a lot of moving parts in the back end and it settled with a lot of inexperience. Tracy Clark and Daquawn Brown are the starting corners to open. Charleston White is listed as the No. 2 behind Brown while Jeff Farrar is the No. 2 behind Clark. At least from that, it would appear Farrar is going to play, despite joining the team very late in camp.
At safety it will be Darius Lemora and Taylor Taliulu which Andy predicted on the CougCenter Hour. The surprise here is Teondray Caldwell is the No. 2 at strong safety. He moved from running back to safety last week. That's a little precarious and I'm surprised Sulaiman Hameed isn't the No. 2. We'll see how much playing time Caldwell gets right off the jump.
Special teams
Nothing settled at punter with an "or" separating Wes Concepcion and Jordan Dascalo. That decision could come down to the day of and how each performs in warmups. Erik Powell will get the first shot at replacing Andrew Furney. Cracraft is your punt returner with Kristoff Williams and Rickey Galvin set to handle kick returns.
Freshman
Mike Leach has always said if a freshman is in the two-deep they will play. Based on that, it appears at least two true freshman, Green and Farrar will for sure play this season. Patrick Porter and Marcellus Pippins aren't listed on the defensive two-deep, but both could be in the mix for playing time at corner. Hameed could see some action at safety.
If everyone in the offensive and defensive two deep plays, which isn't likely, 14 players would make their first collegiate appearances. If the depth chart holds true, six players will start a game for the first time.