Several players named by Steele for Preseason Conference USA

Rhys Williams/Sports Director-Columnist

Early June had the release of Phil Steele’s Preseason Conference USA football team’s from first team to what would be the fourth string. This is not something to be stunned by as Steele is one of the most highly respected college football analysts around. It comes as no surprise that there are a few Panthers among the names but there are some concerning ones from Head Coach Ron Turner’s second year at the helm.   Smith highest ranked Panther The first Panther sighting on Steele’s list is one of the few players who had a decent year in 2013, tight end Jonnu Smith. For being at a mostly disregarded position in today’s football, Smith was pretty spectacular given the situation last season while going 1-11. Smith had 39 receptions for 388 yards, including a 10 reception game against the Pirates of East Carolina University. However, with only two touchdowns on the entire season, those numbers lack a certain luster to me, even for a tight end. Now I respect the position a lot more than the average fan but still, I think he needs to have a breakout year to get close to being all-conference. This along with the uncertainty of who will be leading the offense may not be the best thing for an offensive all-conference hopeful.   Budwig, Halley, Leonard all share the fourth-team   Offensive guard Jordan Budwig has the measurables of the typical offensive lineman. He is 6-foot-4 and weighs in around 325 lbs. It is very hard for someone to measure the talent and level of an offensive lineman, especially one on the interior but giving a stab at it, I can see why this pick makes sense. He has the potential to be a pretty good offensive lineman and possibly follow in the footsteps of former Panthers offensive lineman Caylin Hauptmann and make it to the NFL. However, if they can’t get the number of sacks, quarterback hurries, and tackles-for-loss down, I doubt that we will be seeing a Panther offensive lineman on anyone’s big board for a while. The next name that pops up on the list is the first on the defensive side of the ball for the Panthers in safety Justin Halley. The 6-foot-3, 200 lbs. Boca Raton native is entering his final year for the Panthers and if he has any hope of continuing to play, must make this season phenomenal. Halley had 53 total tackles in the 2013 campaign and never reached double digits in a single contest. This along with the three sacks and eight pass breakups that he had make me a little hesitant to put him on a preseason C-USA team but he may end up surprising everyone. The second to last Panther mentioned by Steele is cornerback and kick-returner Richard Leonard. The last stats from Leonard are from the 2012 season, as he was academically ineligible for the 2013 campaign. I am not going to delve into stats from a different era in Panthers football – Pre-Turner -, so if you want to see them, you can look them up for yourself. He is on the list as the fourth-team punt returner. I could see this happening if he can truly get back to form but also I think that the reason he is so low on the list is for missing that season. One of the least surprising events to me would be Leonard making first or second team all C-USA.   Confusing pick by Steele   Austin Taylor was possibly the least expected name to make this list from the Panthers but it happened anyway. He was one of two place kickers that saw playing time in the 2013 season along with Sergio Sroka. Taylor was 66 percent in field goals for his true freshman season. he went 8-12 with a long of 52 yards. He also missed a point-after-touchdown which brought his overall to 11-12 which an all-conference kicker cannot do. It also is a bit strange that someone who only kicked off 19 times throughout 10 games would get this nod. The Panthers did not score too often and most of these would be at the beginning of the game or of the second half. Out of those 19 kicks only four were touchbacks, which even at the college level is too few, in my opinion.   I think he missed a couple   This team is without it’s two defensive leaders from last season in defensive tackles Isame Faciane and Greg Hickman, who are both making names for themselves in the NFL. Faciane with the Minnesota Vikings and Hickman in Detroit as a member of the Lions. In comes defensive lineman Giovanni Francois to take their place as the leader of the front seven for the Panthers on defense. Although he missed four games he still put up some pretty decent numbers for not being heavily relied on. Now I will expect that if he stays healthy he will have more than the 16 tackles and two sacks that he has in 2013, and if he does that and leads this pretty young team on the defensive side of the ball, there is no question in my mind that he would be all C-USA. The other is center Donald Senat, who is on the watch list for the Rimington Trophy, which goes to the nation’s best center. Senat, is one of 64 on the spring watch list and if the offense gets more production and keeps whoever will be playing quarterback upright, than I think Senat may get both the nod for all C-USA and the Rimington Trophy.   -rhys.williams@fiusm.com