Originally Posted by
Johnson85
I intended to caveat that with are NFL talent but forgot. Chris Jones and Derunya both would have played at any point in Dan's career and regardless of whether we had a glaring need. But looking at your list, it seems pretty clear that your filter of "played in 5 or more games as either a FR or RFR or a 1st year JUCO" is way too broad. Dontavian Lee, for example, barely had any meaningful time this year. Aeris did, but at the same time we were terrible at RB and he and DLee were the only guys that looked to be physically capable of being primary backs in the SEC. If both of them weren't kept off the field by disciplinary problems (and real ones, not just understandable 19 year old immaturity that can be disciplined with extra sprints and stuff), that was a huge fail to not try to get either of them read in the first half of the season so that we could have a legit SEC back in the second half. Malik Dear was not used nearly enough this year, but presumably that was because of injuries. If not, that was a huge fail to not utilize one of our few guys that could be a playmaker with the ball in his hands.
Some of it is not a question of playing guys, but seems to be a problem with getting them ready in a reasonable amount of time. For example, we were really bad at safety. Kivon Coman is not good. Brandon Bryant has all the measurables to be better. Is he just like Cox and not football players despite his athletic ability? Or is our defensive scheme really so complicated that a RS freshman can't be trusted at the beginning of the year? Or were Mullen and Diaz simply too reluctant to let Bryant play because of his inexperience (understanable considering how costly mistakes by Safeties are, but at the same time, there's no way to get experienced other than by getting experience).