2017 Football Roster....

[HoopsDawg]

Not counting kickers and assuming no one transfers, we will only have 10 scholarship seniors next year. 11 if Cleveland comes back. That's pretty incredible. And good luck picking captains from that group. My guess is all of our captains will be underclassmen.

I guess we will be young again next year.

We are on track for about 18 Juniors + the Juco signees. Looks like we will be bringing in 6-8 Jucos.

[MetEdDawg]

I think a lot of us thought this year would be rough, like 5-6 wins (obviously that isn't going to happen), next year would be 7-8 wins, and 2018 could potentially be like 2014. Lot of seniors and juniors on the roster that will have had a ton of experience in 2018.

But seeing that we only have 10 or 11 seniors on an 85 man roster for next year isn't good. We should have more like 15-17. Attrition and transfers always get a few, but 10-11 is a really bad number. We will have experienced juniors ready to go, but we can't be a developmental program as Mullen claims and only have 10-11 seniors on the roster. That's how you kill a developmental program.

[JoseBrown]

We also can't be a developmental program when very few are developed like this year. A stable of RBs that can't play because of this or that. Defensive backs that we can't find places to play them where they are any good. Lineman that are terrible after 3-4 yrs in the system.... Hopefully that changes in the next few years.

Oh yea, and on being young again next year, aren't we young every year?****

[HoopsDawg]

but we can't be a developmental program as Mullen claims and only have 10-11 seniors on the roster. That's how you kill a developmental program.

Exactly right. If I had to name the top 3 biggest issues on our roster with not much help in sight: 1. Outside WR's 2. Corners 3. O-line-particularly OT's.

[HancockCountyDog]

Not counting kickers and assuming no one transfers, we will only have 10 scholarship seniors next year. 11 if Cleveland comes back. That's pretty incredible. And good luck picking captains from that group. My guess is all of our captains will be underclassmen.

I guess we will be young again next year.

We are on track for about 18 Juniors + the Juco signees. Looks like we will be bringing in 6-8 Jucos.

Someone can find my post, but I listed the seniors next year. Not only do we have a small number, but they aren't big time contributors other than Donald Gray.

As much as I want to give Mullen a pass on this season, it's hard to do that when you look ahead and see what he has allowed to happen to our roster.

We all talk about the bears probation, we've got our own self imposed probation being imposed next season.

[NCDawg]

Exactly right. If I had to name the top 3 biggest issues on our roster with not much help in sight: 1. Outside WR's 2. Corners 3. O-line-particularly OT's.

If I had to name the top biggest issues on our roster with not much help in sight, it would be the entire team, excluding perhaps the QB. I feel Fitzgerald my have potential to become pretty good. We do have some talent on the defense with Lewis, Spencer, and Simmons. Other than that, I'm not sure that we have any real SEC talent on the team for the future at this time.

[Taog Redloh]

This is why I was screaming that we should have recruited a bunch of JUCOs LAST FREAKING YEAR before it was too late, which would have balanced out the classes. It just highlights what Mullen's priorities were. It seems like this has never been important to him, which makes zero sense because we claim to be a developmental program, which requires balance.

[Lumpy Chucklelips]

We all know the situation we are in, but what steps do you want to take to fix it? We have pretty much established that the school is not going to fire Mullen, therefore we have two scenarios that will take place. One, Mullen says he wants to stay. Two, Mullen finds another job. Those are our options.

If Mullen goes, we start over with an entirely new staff and go through that process of getting everyone acclimated to new players and new coaches. We take the chance of losing our top recruits, two coming to mind in Thompson and Hill, and now probably Gay and Avery. We go into 2017 knowing we will have a new system on both sides of the ball for players to learn.

If Mullen stays, you then are looking at having the status quo, or the possibility of making changes on both sides of the ball. Which will it be? Will we get the Mullen of 2016? One that at times seems to care, and most other times seems not to care. Will we get the Mullen of 2014? One that is focused, dedicated, relentless in getting the most out of his players, coaches, and most importantly, himself.

Those will be our choices....he stays on his own or he decides to leave. It will be pretty much up to him. For us, it's how much do we want to keep him? Will we adjust his contract to try and keep him? I'm not sure I see a school that will pay him more than he makes now. If they can pay more, I think they would try and get someone besides Mullen. If they can't pay him as much, but can assure him of a more lengthy contract than his current one, do we extend his out to the max 4 years again to try to keep him? These are the questions that have to be answered over the next 30 days.

Lot's of factors to consider. Another is what looks like to become a free for all from schools looking to get new coaches. Do we decide to jump in with the others? Or do we feel we're better off staying where we are? Can we truly compete with the others that will come open and go after an established head coach or would we have to go the coordinator route again? Which do we prefer? If we don't jump in with the others this year, you can pretty much take all of those coaches that switched jobs this year off the board for next year as they won't be leaving new jobs after only one year, if indeed it didn't work out after another year of trying. Lot's of questions to be answered by....currently Keenum and eventually Keenum and a yet to be named A.D. You know Keenum will probably be answering most if not all of these questions with the new A.D. having some input, but probably not too much since he will be so new to the situation. Or will he? If it's Cohen like some have suggested, I still see Keenum making the decisions in the end.

All I know is I'm glad I'm not the one having to make this decision. This one will be a fine line between being the right call or being the wrong call. Only time will tell.

[HoopsDawg]

We all know the situation we are in, but what steps do you want to take to fix it? We have pretty much established that the school is not going to fire Mullen, therefore we have two scenarios that will take place. One, Mullen says he wants to stay. Two, Mullen finds another job. Those are our options.

If Mullen goes, we start over with an entirely new staff and go through that process of getting everyone acclimated to new players and new coaches. We take the chance of losing our top recruits, two coming to mind in Thompson and Hill, and now probably Gay and Avery. We go into 2017 knowing we will have a new system on both sides of the ball for players to learn.

If Mullen stays, you then are looking at having the status quo, or the possibility of making changes on both sides of the ball. Which will it be? Will we get the Mullen of 2016? One that at times seems to care, and most other times seems not to care. Will we get the Mullen of 2014? One that is focused, dedicated, relentless in getting the most out of his players, coaches, and most importantly, himself.

Those will be our choices....he stays on his own or he decides to leave. It will be pretty much up to him. For us, it's how much do we want to keep him? Will we adjust his contract to try and keep him? I'm not sure I see a school that will pay him more than he makes now. If they can pay more, I think they would try and get someone besides Mullen. If they can't pay him as much, but can assure him of a more lengthy contract than his current one, do we extend his out to the max 4 years again to try to keep him? These are the questions that have to be answered over the next 30 days.

Lot's of factors to consider. Another is what looks like to become a free for all from schools looking to get new coaches. Do we decide to jump in with the others? Or do we feel we're better off staying where we are? Can we truly compete with the others that will come open and go after an established head coach or would we have to go the coordinator route again? Which do we prefer? If we don't jump in with the others this year, you can pretty much take all of those coaches that switched jobs this year off the board for next year as they won't be leaving new jobs after only one year, if indeed it didn't work out after another year of trying. Lot's of questions to be answered by....currently Keenum and eventually Keenum and a yet to be named A.D. You know Keenum will probably be answering most if not all of these questions with the new A.D. having some input, but probably not too much since he will be so new to the situation. Or will he? If it's Cohen like some have suggested, I still see Keenum making the decisions in the end.

All I know is I'm glad I'm not the one having to make this decision. This one will be a fine line between being the right call and being the wrong call. Only time will tell.

There's a 3rd scenario. Force him to make staff changes. That could lease to your #2 scenario of him leaving. I know that if I was the AD, I would not fire him, but I would not be extending his contract and may even try to negotiate a lower buy-out for both parties benefit.

[CadaverDawg]

If I had to name the top biggest issues on our roster with not much help in sight, it would be the entire team, excluding perhaps the QB. I feel Fitzgerald my have potential to become pretty good. We do have some talent on the defense with Lewis, Spencer, and Simmons. Other than that, I'm not sure that we have any real SEC talent on the team for the future at this time.

Come on, man. Lewis, Simmons, Spencer, Gerri Green, Fletcher Adams, Cory Thomas, Kobe Jones, Washington, Stamps, Smitherman, McLaurin, Peters, D Gray, Rankin, Aeris, Gibson, and others would all be on an SEC roster somewhere. They may not all be playing like SEC players right now, but they would all be on SEC teams. Don't be silly.

[GTHOM]

Exactly right. If I had to name the top 3 biggest issues on our roster with not much help in sight: 1. Outside WR's 2. Corners 3. O-line-particularly OT's.

We will be better at CB. Our best 2 are redshirted CJ Morgan Walker and Cam Dantzler. And youve got Reggie Todd and Osirus Mitchell at X. Both of them are tall

[GTHOM]

Come on, man. Lewis, Simmons, Spencer, Gerri Green, Fletcher Adams, Cory Thomas, Kobe Jones, Washington, Stamps, Smitherman, McLaurin, Peters, D Gray, Rankin, Aeris, Gibson, and others would all be on an SEC roster somewhere. They may not all be playing like SEC players right now, but they would all be on SEC teams. Don't be silly.

That should be a nasty ass defense. Would be now if they were coached better and didnt have to start over every spring