FanHouse StanleyMcClover

Training camp is finally here and FanHouse breaks down the most important position battles heading into the season, team by team.

The Carolina Panthers go into training camp with several key positions on the line. Muhsin Muhammad, D.J. Hackett and Dwayne Jarrett are all fighting for the chance to start with Steve Smith at wide receiver. Rookie Charles Godfrey and free agent acquisition Terrence Holt will likely compete for the free safety spot. The right guard competition is full of big boys -- Keydrick Vincent, Toniu Fonoti, and Milford Brown weigh a combined 1000 pounds -- who look like they could out-eat Joey Chestnut. (Looks can be deceiving, of course.)

Perhaps the most closely watched position battle in Spartanburg this year, though, will be the defensive end battle. The Panthers lost much of its once-potent pass rush last year when Julius Peppers fizzled and Mike Rucker looked less-than-fully recovered from knee surgery in 2006. Rucker is retired, while Peppers will try to prove last year was an anomaly.

So who starts opposite from Peppers?

Stanley McClover was back in practice for the Carolina Panthers today after being out the last couple of weeks with a groin injury. This couldn't have happened soon enough for this defense. So far, the vaunted Carolina pass rush has managed only 1 sack in two games, and having the Houston Texans line keep them at bay cannot have been good for their morale.

McClover looked good enough to start at defensive end for Carolina during the preseason. He also has an enthusiasm for the game that's highly infectious. During the preseason, he started barking after making plays, and before long, other players were following his lead and barking, too.

More importantly, though, McClover notched 1.5 sacks in two halves of action in the preseason. Having him in the lineup could be quite important to this pass rush down the road. If he sees any significant action on Sunday in Atlanta, you should only be surprised if he doesn't get Joey Harrington at least once.

Now that Mike Minter has retired, everyone in the Carolina Panthers organization is waiting for Julius Peppers to become a vocal leader for the defense, which is something he clearly does not want to do. Peppers is a quiet country boy who leads by example and doesn't fall back on big emotional speeches.

There's another guy on that line, though -- Stanley McClover, the dreadlocked 2nd-year man from Auburn. He's starting to bark a bit, and it's starting to rub off on people.

"Basically I've been like that since high school. I'm just a loud person, an emotional guy. I like to let somebody know when I make a play; I like to let the next man know when he makes a play. I feel like the team feeds off that energy, so if I feel that way, I'm going to keep doing it."

Finally, the offense is starting to strike back.

"Oh yeah, they're barking over there now," McClover said, his smile returning. Guard "Jeremy Bridges, he likes to bark when they're doing something good. When we do good, we've got to bark. So it's pretty much turned into a thing now where we're trying out-bark each other."

Look no further, Panthers fans. He's the one. Mike Rucker may still be the other starter at defensive end, but Stanley McClover has all the makings of the defense's next emotional leader. He's clearly good enough to start, too. Just watch the impact he has on this team in 2007, and don't say you weren't surprised.

Previously at FanHouse:
Panthers Owner Wants Julius Peppers to Be Something He's Not

Carolina Panthers defensive end Stanley McClover might have been higher than a 7th-round draft pick in 2006 had he stayed at Auburn another year. He racked up 15.5 sacks as a freshman and sophomore, but he left school early because he had to support his family.

The talent he showed as a high school superstar, though, may be on full display in Spartanburg right now. According to reports, McClover is getting reps with the first-team defense while Mike Rucker continues to rehab his knee, and he's looking fairly impressive out there.

A lot of people expected Charles Johnson, the Panthers' 3rd-round pick out of Georgia this year, to be the guy to step in for Rucker, but don't count McClover out. His early departure from Auburn turned a lot of teams off, but he's been a big talent at every level he's played, and he's never had a major injury to hamper his 4.7 40 speed. I suspect he and Johnson will get into a friendly little SEC rivalry, too, as they battle for playing time. Nobody from Auburn wants to get beaten by a Georgia guy.

Then again, if Rucker gets cleared to play this week as expected and returns to his old form, both McClover and Johnson may end up being backups. We'll see.