There's been a lot of questions about the number of starters returning and thought that it would be a great idea to ask you if you think the new 2009 starter will be an upgrade or a downgrade from the 2008 starter. Click on the player names for a comparison of statistics and other information, but the big question is if you think that Mickey Okafor is an upgrade over Brandon Carter.
Last Year:
This Year:
My Take:
Since I'm not going to be around to initially comment on this, I thought that I'd just add that to me, this is going to be a very slight downgrade. During the spring game, I was very much impressed with Okafor's athleticism and I think it's safe to say that Carter is a terrific lineman, but he's not as athletic as Okafor and I was very impressed with Okafor's strength. At the end of the day, I think that Okafor will be able to do some things along the line athletically that Carter could not, including pulling and getting to the second level of the defense on running plays. I'm very interested to see what Leach has in store for Okafor this fall. To me, this is pretty close to being a push, but I've never included that option because I wanted to force myself to have to make a tough decision, it's a slight, and I do mean slight, downgrade.