I will say Moorhead had a great transfer-recruiting season. I'm excited to see Stevens run this offense. Nothing would make me happier than eating some crow this fall
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I will say Moorhead had a great transfer-recruiting season. I'm excited to see Stevens run this offense. Nothing would make me happier than eating some crow this fall
I don't expect ULL to challenge us that much, but I do think it's a decent test for our interior DLine. ULL was 22nd nationally in rushing, and they return top 3 rushers: 1181 yd rusher, 977 yd rusher, and a 754 yd rusher. They have 5 RS seniors as starting oline
Some of you guys willing to accept 6 wins as the floor do realize that is beating 4 OOC cupcakes and going 2-6 in the SEC? 2-6, with our talent and the joke schedules OOC today, most any SEC coach should hit that unacceptable floor at MSU today. Anyone who can't, should see the door. Hail State!
I hope they come in with chips on their shoulders and get it done against SEC defenses, but a lot of hope is being put on transfers that didn't start in another league or had poor receiving stats against Top 100 pass defenses. I hope to be shown that I am wrong. Hail State!
They have not scheduled a good OOC opponent since Ed has been there. Miami went 7-6 last year and Syracuse went 3-9 the year before. Texas will be ok this year but nothing special. Better than Kansas State I would imagine, but you never know from year to year with Texas. Florida was not any better than Kentucky last year or the year prior, but that is usually the case. During Ed's time at LSU their schedule has not been any more difficult than ours outside of the Georgia game they played last year. They played Georgia while we played top 15 Kentucky and that was the difference in schedules. Not that big of a difference in SOS there.
Going forward, they will probably have a tougher schedule because Kentucky and Florida will go back to their averages more than likely. My point is that 8 or 9 wins is not more than pretty good. There are a group of teams that do that in the conference every year and it is nothing special.
I don't think the list of concerns is that out of whack - as always with 34, it's all about how he frames the information so he can drive discussion. Some of those things show how little people look at certain numbers and trends.
A good example is his statement about Joe running his QB 185 times and framing that as some sort of outlier or indicator of how Joe's offense is designed to run. Between Fordham and PSU, Moorhead's starting QBs eclipsed 160 rushing attempts in a season in only 2012. Meanwhile, Dan Mullen's QBs eclipsed that mark 5 times in 9 seasons with a high of 210 by Dak in 2014. We ran our QB so much because he was our best running threat - it's that simple.
Was that the best strategy? Should the RBs run more? Maybe, maybe not. But it sure wasn't any different than how Mullen handled a number of seasons. However, it was very different than how Moorhead had handled his offenses at Fordham and PSU. When you have the best running QB in SEC history, it kind of makes sense that he - you know - runs with the football.
https://media3.giphy.com/media/ytTYw...&rid=200w.webp
And keep in mind that that's not 185 designed QB runs. It's the reads and if the QB made the right read.
7-5 with a win over OM in the Egg is most likely- an 8th win is possible at Tenn. Big toss-up game there.
Williams, Rivers get drafted along with Gay, Thompson, Hill, and Dantzler declaring early for the draft.
2020 becomes the major rebuild after another year of losing a ton of talent, starters, and draft picks.
We know Stevens is more familiar than Fitz with the offense. We know Zuber is an accomplished wr. We know the team has had an extra spring and will have had an extra August learning it.
Offense will be better. Now how much better is certainly a question. You and I agree about chemistry being the wild card variable. Defense might be our adventure.
Recruiting feels better but admittedly I can?t get a sense of it until Joe has 3 year recruits on the field.
Maybe it?s a slice more than shit.
I pretty much agree on all points...I know last year was Joe's first year in the SEC but man the offense looked like shit in several games. The UK, UF and Iowa games come to mind. Last year we had posters claiming we would go 11-1 and 10-2 but yet we lost 5 games. Joe hasn't proven anything to me and tbh, I have no expectations this year, I will wait and see...I would assume 7/8 wins max due to the key loses on the defense. For some reason, several people on this board skip over the fact that we will have a drop off on defense, how can any rational person not realize this? We WILL give up more big plays this year and more points! Will Joe's offense be able to be productive is the question...
I wouldn't say "several" people are saying we won't have a drop off on defense. Just Coach007 that I've seen. In fact most have repeated often that we WILL have a drop off at defense, the question is just how much. The counter balance to that is most people also expect some offensive improvement.
Back to defense, the drop off depends on how quickly our inexperienced DT's can adjust to significant playing time and how healthy we can stay with our starters in the back 7. I'm comfortable with our starters back there but the depth is questionable. People keep repeating that we have quality depth at linebacker and it's just not true, not that we know of at least.
You do realize we had a top 10 strength of schedule last year and you are saying that because some people said 10-11 wins that is a huge disappointment? So a first time SEC coach with a QB that doesn't fit his system is supposed to have at minimum the 2nd best season in school history? It seems most people are angry we didn't go on the road and beat any top 10 teams which is insane when you say it out loud. We returned a top 15 defense that was prone to give up big plays.
This same team was shutdown by UGA and Auburn the previous year but now is supposed to not let that happen. I don't know if Joe's offense will work against great teams but I do know Mullen's didn't do it as consistently as people now think it did.
I have never stated that we would not have a drop off. I stated that it won't throw us off the map on defense. What I have stated is I expect the defense to be top 15.
True. The DTs will be the ones to watch.Quote:
Back to defense, the drop off depends on how quickly our inexperienced DT's can adjust to significant playing time and how healthy we can stay with our starters in the back 7. I'm comfortable with our starters back there but the depth is questionable. People keep repeating that we have quality depth at linebacker and it's just not true, not that we know of at least.
I dont know many or anyone that have said the defense won’t take a step back. How far back we will see. I don’t think it will be near as far as most think
Again we cant replace Simmons and not but a handful of schools can. But he didn’t play every snap last year nor did Sweat. I think we can all agree replacing Thomas and Hoyette will easily be done
And yes theres is still a bad taste in everyones mouth with a couple of games we lost. Do you all not think that same taste in this staffs mouth and players ?
And those four loses 3 played in NYE6 games and UK did play and beat PSU in the citrus bowl
Its not liked we lost to South Alabama or OM...
Its pretty sad when this fan base cant get behind , create some excitement and create a buzz about a team that the national publications and so called experts feel pretty good about..
lose 3 guys in the first round of the nfl draft and still damn near everyone has us in the top 25
And btw with our starting 22 and 2 deep what positions besides DL and S are we not going to be as good or better at next year ??
And before anyone says QB... trust me it’s going to be an overall upgrade
well stated
I think of my military career but any training in general. The first sessions and application are pretty much a mixed bag of execution. Then, a rhythm starts to surface. It doesnt make things perfect, but it gets moving parts in sync. If I had to think of an overall upgrade on offense, thats what I imagine.
Some people are banking on six or seven wins to make themselves feel better if we lose a game we are supposed to win.
Some want that 'I told you so" moment. There isnt one. This season is a great unknown. I just think at the end, we will be on a positive track for the future rather than an negative.
Here is where we disagree. I dont think we have a DT on the roster that will be as good in 2019 as those 2 were in 2018. Thomas is expected to make the Dolphins roster and I believe Hoyette ends up on one if he doesnt hold on in Tenn. With Simmons sitting the 1st half of the season- gives Hoyette a good chance there.
Experience no.
Talent (minus Simmons) yes.
If we just want to go off stats alone Autry and Harris numbers weren’t far behind Hoyett and Thomas and I’m guessing they prob got half the amount of snaps
Not to mention Trey Brown ate up a lot of those snaps for those guys as well..
Throw in Love ( if eligible), the red shirt guys and maybe Pickering if he is ready and we can for sure get the production up front with these guys as we did when Simmons wasn’t In the game .
Not arguing it’s for sure our biggest question mark .
Again there is no way we can replace Simmons and his absence will also hurt the DE but Rivers had pretty good numbers And is a Pro. Spencer was a starter as a true freshman.
Kobe had like a half dozen tackles behind the LOS and Fletcher is a solid player and both bring SEC experience
Can Coach Adams be close to the X and O guy that Baker was? that’s a question mark as well, but he is already well ahead on the recruiting side of things over Baker...
It's just hard to brush over the fact that 3 of our 4 on the 2 deep at DT haven't played a meaningful snap. 2 redshirt freshmen, and 1 guy who was a center last year. I think everyone can agree we will take a step back at DT, but will it be a disaster? I don't know, but it could be.
Autry, Harris, Love (if eligible)
And I think if we have too we can move Spencer inside some
I wasn’t brushing off the lack of returning depth at DL
And not saying it isn’t an issue .. but we won’t be running Walkons or 2stars out there ..
Just need a couple of young talented kids to step up..
And thanks to the OL recruiting by this staff we are allowed to move Jackson back to the defensive side of the ball.. where he belongs
I know you know, but DT's in this system don't have to make plays just clog holes and take up blockers and make plays when it presents itself. Hoyett did a good job of that. And the depth part is HUGE. We now have zero. No need to comment on Simmons again, that's been covered. If we end up w a top 15 defense Shoop deserves and award. Hell even top 20.