Wake Forest Player Countdown: No. 85 Ryan Anderson

Today marks the beginning of our player countdown, which will last until just a few days before the Demon Deacons take on the ULM Warhawks on August 28th. The premise of the countdown is to count down from 85 (scholarship limit) to one in terms of impact each player will have on winning. The first few players on this list will be the freshmen who the Blogger So Dear staff anticipates will redshirt this season. The players towards the top of the list will be our best players at our most critical positions. Using our criteria, if a quarterback and a long snapper are of equal talent level at their respective position, then the quarterback will be ranked much higher based on how important that position is to winning and losing football games. We hope this series helps to spark some debate and also gets our readers ready for football season. We'll revisit the list after the season and evaluate how well we did.

Ryan Anderson comes in at number 85 mostly because of how common it is for offensive linemen to redshirt their first year on campus. Anderson enrolled in December, but is still listed at just 275 pounds on the Wake Forest website, which puts him at a disadvantage compared to the older players who have had several more seasons to develop physically. The projected starting offensive linemen weigh at least 300 pounds, and some are closer to 310. 247 Sports rated him as the 265th best offensive tackle in the class of 2014, and he was a 2-star according to Rivals.com. Anderson is a Raleigh, North Carolina native, but spent a prep year playing at The Hun School in New Jersey.

Do you believe Ryan deserves to be ranked higher? Check in tomorrow to see who comes in at number 84.

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