Offensive line looking Peachey for Mean Green

[MeanGreen61]

Offensive line looking Peachey for Mean Green

Ex-Georgetown standout battling for starting spot

10:27 PM CDT on Thursday, August 10, 2006

By Brett Vito / Staff Writer

At this time a year ago, Robert Peachey was a little lost in his freshman season at North Texas.

The former Georgetown standout not only had to learn about a new town and a new campus, he also had to learn about a new position after switching from defensive to offensive line.

Since that time, Peachey has not only found his way, he has moved to the top of the Mean Green’s depth chart at right tackle, where he is in a battle for a starting job with Jeremy Brown.

UNT offensive line coach Harold Etheridge said Thursday that Peachey has the edge over Brown and will see significant playing time whether he wins the job or not in his redshirt freshman season.

“It feels great to have the opportunity to play right away,” Peachey said. “I improved from last fall and last spring and then made another big jump heading into this fall.”

Peachey’s improvement could provide the Mean Green an answer at a position that remains one of the team’s biggest question marks in the early stages of fall practice.

UNT was set to return starting tackles Joel Foster and Josh Alexander, plus Brown, who was a part-time starter in 2005.

The Mean Green lost Alexander for the season to a lingering knee injury that will require surgery. Etheridge said Foster is likely to start at left tackle to fill the void left by Alexander, leaving the job at right tackle up for grabs.

Brian Carlson of Kilgore College came to UNT as a tight end in December, but is now splitting time working with UNT’s tight ends and offensive linemen. Matthew Menard, a freshman from Spring Westfield, moved from defensive line to offensive line early on in fall practice and has also shown promise.

“We have two guys with a lot of experience at tackle in Foster and Brown,” Etheridge said. “Now we have to bring the young guys along.”

None have come along quite as quickly as Peachey, who is listed at 6-5, 279, but pushed his weight to 288 pounds over the summer.

Peachey’s increased weight is just one sign of his rapid rise through the ranks of UNT players since signing with the Mean Green in February of 2005 as a 6-4, 270-pound defensive lineman.

Peachey made the move to offensive line the following fall and showed his potential.

“The good thing about Peachey is that he is very coachable and is one of those guys who does what you ask him to do,” Etheridge said. “He plays older than he is. He is a freshman, but he knows what he is doing.”

The performance of Peachey and the rest of UNT’s offensive line will be of paramount importance to the Mean Green’s prospects this season. UNT averaged just 3.9 yards per rushing attempt last season and allowed 21 sacks.

UNT is hoping Peachey can help the Mean Green improve both totals.

Senior Dylan Lineberry was the cornerstone of the Mean Green’s offensive line last season, when he was named to the All-Sun Belt Conference team. So far, he has been impressed the Peachey’s performance, especially considering Peachey has only played on offense on a fulltime basis for a short time.

“Peachey is a big, strong guy,” Lineberry said. “He just needs to get the fundamentals down and he will be good to go.”

Briefly …

Freshman defensive end Draylen Ross reported for practice on Thursday after the last of the paperwork he needed to be cleared to practice with the Mean Green was filed. Ross missed the first three days of practice.

Tackling the tackle spot

A season-ending injury to projected starting left tackle Josh Alexander has made the battle for the staring tackle jobs at North Texas one of the most intriguing of fall practice. The following is a look at the candidates:

Joel Foster, 6-4, 282 — Senior appears to be a lock to start at left tackle.

Robert Peachey, 6-5, 288 — Redshirt freshman is challenging for staring job at right tackle

Jeremy Brown, 6-5, 308 — Junior has played both right and left tackle and could start on the right side or rotate as a backup on both sides.

Brian Carlson, 6-5, 268 — Junior transfer is working at both tackle and tight end, where he might fit best

Matthew Menard, 6-5, 275 — Freshman could be key backup this season and a starter down the line.

[FirefightnRick]

Good things happen to good people and Robert is just that. I'm excited for him and hope he has a great fall camp.

Any word on Nick Foster? I would assume he will be looked at to play guard?

Rick

[H-towngreen]

Don't forget about Kelvin Drake possibly taking over the center position. I think he has a good shot at it unless Rose gets it in gear, and fast.

With Foster I would suspect that they red-shirt him. He weighs 340, but I'm sure the staff would love for him to lean up a little bit.

A bit surprised that they moved Menard to O-line, I would have thought Santiago would have made the move. Thats one of the great things about signing so many linemen is that most have played on both sides of the line.

Where is Ajani Banks by the way?

It's a bit surprising how much the line has changed so drastically in the past few weeks. It seemed as though it was pretty much set except for one spot. Now the entire line seems to be up for grabs.

Edited August 11, 2006 by H-towngreen

[good_ken]

So what does our "first team" O-line look like?

LT - Foster

LG - Lineberry

C - Rose / Drake

RG - Banks

RT - Peachey

That is my best guess; could someone who has been to practice correct this

[LongJim]

None have come along quite as quickly as Peachey, who is listed at 6-5, 279, but pushed his weight to 288 pounds over the summer.

That is great news right there!

[SCREAMING EAGLE-66]

---I sure hope the O-line does better this time than they did at UT in 2004. The Horns just went right through them like they were blocking dummies. It was spooky and gave the QB and RBs no chance. That was one case that no game plan could have done much.

Edited August 11, 2006 by SCREAMING EAGLE-66

[Guest GrayEagleOne]

So what does our "first team" O-line look like?

LT - Foster

LG - Lineberry

C - Rose / Drake

RG - Banks

RT - Peachey

That is my best guess; could someone who has been to practice correct this

←

I haven't yet been to practice but I doubt that there's been any movement, at least until there's a scrimmage.

The last two-deep had Jeremy Brown at right tackle. He has started before and will likely start the season. Peachey may challenge but remember Peachey's experience has been in the defensive line and I don't think that you jump to starter your very first game at that position.

The other position that hasn't changed (yet) is right guard. The depth chart last showed Adam Venegas as the starter. Chris Eidd is possibly @2. Banks, at this point, is still backup to Lineberry.

[adman]

Is it just me or does this look to be the tallest OL, across the board, that we've had?

What are the repercussions for our QB's in having such a tall line? For example, if Woody, who i think is 6'1", is the starter, do we roll him left and right in order to see better. Is the shotgun used more? Etc etc etc...