71 DAYS TO KICKOFF: Ethan Douglas

#71 Ethan Douglas Redshirt Junior 6-6 | 303 Basehor, Kan. Bio

Position: Offensive Line Previous College: None Projection: Third-String Status: On Scholarship

Ethan Douglas (b. Nov. 27, 1989) is one of those guys who, if you can't root for them to have a little success, you simply have no heart.

He grayshirted in 2007, redshirted in 2008 and appeared briefly in only two games in 2009. But his breakthrough moment dawned last year in August, when Clyde Aufner suffered an undisclosed injury in fall camp.

Bill Snyder did not yet have the faith in Manase Foketi that he showed later in the season, so Zach Hanson remained Foketi's backup at left tackle for the UCLA game.

Filling Aufner's right tackle spot, instead, was the untested Douglas.

Well, we all know what happened next. On the second play of the game, Douglas went down with a torn ACL and had to be helped off the field to a cart. His season — and with it, perhaps his only chance to be a starter — was over.

That's some damn hard luck and you have to feel for the kid. Perhaps it's a factor of his continuing injury recovery, but he was not mentioned by Snyder as being a part of any of the two-deep battles in the spring on the offensive line.

The conventional wisdom right now is that Douglas might slide inside to right guard, to back up Colten Freeze and Nick Puetz. Since I already have slotted Kaleb Drinkgern in as the third-string right tackle, such a move would fit.