Earlier today, quarterback Phillip Bates notified the ISU Athletics Department he was going to transfer. Despite going about it in kind of a classless manner, without actually facing Coach Chizik, the ramifications should not be too bad, unless Austen Arnaud were to go down. 

It's become clear at this point that Arnaud is the leader of this team, and that Bates would continue to see diminished playing time. He didn't like that, so he decided he wanted out.

Jerome Tiller will step in at QB if Arnaud were to go down for an extended period of time. Brett Bueker could see playing time in blowouts.

With fall practice heating up, the two deeps are starting to take shape. Heading into August first, here was the preliminary depth chart.

No "-OR-"s show up on the depth chart, so one has to assume that every guy listed first at any position currently has that spot, even with Coach Chizik stating that Arnaud and Bates are basically tied at QB.

Here's my early depth chart prognostications.

Obviously, the battle here is for the first spot. I'm still of the opinion that the coaches are going to use the South Dakota State game as an evaluation period to try and decide on one quarterback. If they can't, I honestly see a Leak/Tebow situation between Arnaud, the better passer, and Bates, the better athlete/scrambler. I'm still can't decide if it's good or bad that Arnaud hasn't broken away yet. He was way more impressive in game action than the limited snaps that Bates got, but as recently as the spring game, Bates seemed a bit more impressive. I still think Austen has the edge, but I don't see Bates not getting snaps as well.

The other two quarterbacks, Tiller and Bueker, are not likely to see game action. Tiller has talent, and the coaches continually talk about him having a chance at the job, but it's impossible for him to get the playbook down that quickly. He's looking at taking the helm as a junior. Bueker is one of those walk-on quarterbacks from the state of Iowa that will be a lifelong backup, provided he doesn't pull a Sage. He's not likely to play at all this year either unless we win big, or the three guys in front of him get hurt....

Runningback may very well be Iowa State's deepest position with the return of JJ Bass to the team. The pre-fall depth charts list Jason Scales as the number one, but I find it hard to believe he'll stay above Robinson and Bass, especially with Chizik talking about Robinson's work this summer. I fully expect to see all of the top 3 guys get a number of touches, if not all four. Rickey Thompson won't see any meaningful time, while Jeremiah Schwartz will likely see a redshirt this year, joining the unlisted Bo Williams. All of the top four guys have starter potential, but Robinson and Bass have thus far proven to be the most complete of the group.

The fullback is kind of an odd cat in Robert McFarland's offense. They don't run the ball, they don't catch the ball, and they rarely play, even when the Clones use a blocker in the backfield. The majority of the snaps in that situation went to H-Back/Tight End Derrick Catlett. Ekwelundu played sparingly in goal-line sets, and he'll be joined by Taylor Mansfield, who may well push for the starting spot simply due to his superior size. God knows we aren't looking at these guys to run the ball...

Next up, I'll continue looking at the offense. 

QB: Austen Arnaud (So.)
RB: Alexander Robinson (So.)
TE: Derrick Catlett (Jr.)
WR: Marquis Hamilton (Jr.)
WR: RJ Sumrall (Sr.)
WR: Sedrick Johnson (Fr.)
LT: Matt Hulbert (So.)
LG: Reggie Stephens (Jr.)
C: Alex Alvarez (So.)
RG: Ben Lamaak (So.)
RT: Doug Dedrick (Sr.)

The readers have spoken, and this is the lineup you guys wish to see to start out the season against the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State.  There aren't any real big surprises from the readers, save maybe Reggie Stephens at left guard. It's still anyone's guess who will start at center between Mike Knapp and Alex Alvarez. And, if Sedrick Johnson is as good as advertised, it'd be hard to imagine him not starting, as guys like Jason Carlson and Wallace Franklin are still pretty much question marks.

I still have to believe many of the positions on offense will occur in a playing time by committee fashion. I fully expect Austen Arnaud and Philip Bates to split time at quarterback, while Alexander Robinson, JJ Bass, and Jason Scales will all get meaningful time at runningback.

Needless to say, if last year's offensive line improvement showed anything about Coach MacFarland's skill, and Gene Chizik's claim that he's the best offensive line coach in America - plus the fact that we're reportedly having the redshirt freshman from last year outplay the starters from last year - we're going to be able to move the ball better than we had. We saw what happened last year when we finally got ahold of the offensive system. 

The Spring Game was kind of painful to watch, but it was reportedly the worst "practice" of the spring for the offense. They'll have a smooth enough learning curve at the beginning of the year with South Dakota State, but let's hope the incoming freshmen make a bit of a push.

I got to play with the player tag function in this story. It's pretty powerful and it's going to be very useful.