Details on who we replace and why it is or isn't as bad as "they" think?

[blacklistedbully]

Purpose of this thread is to address each starter lost and get opinions on why it is, or isn't as bad as most folks seem to think.

B Mac?


Matthew Wells?


Preston Smith?


PJ Jones?


Kaleb Eulls?


Justin Cox?


Jay Hughes?


Jameon Lewis?


Robert Johnson?


Dillon Day?


Ben Beckwith?


Blaine Clausell?


J Rob?


Malcolm Johnson?


Sobiesk?

[codeDawg]

Why would it hurt to lose a bunch of no-star nobodies? We'll just put a bunch of nobodies in for them and be just fine.

[archdog]

Purpose of this thread is to address each starter lost and get opinions on why it is, or isn't as bad as most folks seem to think.

B Mac?
Gerri Green, B Brown, R Brown, Leo. I will miss BMac, but these guys can play.

Matthew Wells?
Not sure who picks up the torch on this spot.

Preston Smith?
AJ Jefferson is a beast. Ryan Brown is going to do some stuff. I think Coleman will also come out of wherever he has been hiding.

PJ Jones?
C Jones will fill in nicely here, with Nick James and Adams. I think we will be better than people realize on the 2 deep. People will step up.

Justin Cox?
Peters will play as a freshman. He will make some mistakes, but our Safeties gave up like 500 yards to a nonconference team early last year too. Peters and Co will come in as head hunters.

Jay Hughes?
See Cox comments above.

Jameon Lewis?
Loved me some Lewis, but Gabe Myles, Ross, Gray and others will either shift into the slot or play it straight up this year. There also was another guy in the spring game that showed out.

Robert Johnson?
Tough one to call here. Now they play a different role, but I think Morrow or Fred Brown will take over the tough possession type of catches this year. Big body with some big games last season.

Dillon Day?
Oline. We have tons of big boys on the roster. Listened to B and B show some today talking about this and we have tons of guys that played meaningful minutes last year. Not as worried as I was this morning.

Ben Beckwith?
See above

Blaine Clausell?
Tough one to replace. Hopefully someone comes out with a mean streak.

J Rob?
Our RB committee is strong. I am not worried about MSU and running back.

Malcolm Johnson?
We are going to miss M Johnson. We need a bad ass TE. Does Lawrence Roberts or Jamont Gordon have any eligibility left for football. We have 3-4 guys that can play the position, but someone needs to be good at blocking, moving, and catching. Not sure if we have that on the team.

Sobiesk?

Dak goes for it every time. No need for a kicker.

[Johnson85]

I'll go:

Purpose of this thread is to address each starter lost and get opinions on why it is, or isn't as bad as most folks seem to think.

B Mac? Won't hurt because even though he was a loss, our LB corp as a whole is getting better.


Matthew Wells? Will hurt, but hopefully Diaz won't let our WLB get caught in so many one on one coverage situations


Preston Smith? Will hurt. No way around it. Have to hope that Chris Jones turns into Fletcher Cox 2.0 on the inside to offset this loss


PJ Jones? Will be replaced by a freak in Nick Jones, who is in better shape this year, and also have Cory Thomas, who was a DE in highschool and grew out of it, so that will be another athletic DT. Just have to avoid any injuries at DT


Justin Cox? Will hurt. As bad of a football player as he was, he was a freak athlete and was our best alternative. His loss is made worse by having the next best option for this year tear his achilles in November. Even if Jamal Peters shows up and is a freak, we're still short a back-up unless Market truly recovered to the point that he hasn't lost a step, which I just won't be able to believe until I see it


Jay Hughes? Another good option at safety and a smart player, but only really hurts because our options are so slim at safety


Jameon Lewis? Gabe Myles was already better at everything but sliding into open spaces against zones and being in sync with Dak; no reason he won't have both of those issues covered this year


Robert Johnson? We are better at the outside receiver positions than we've ever been. Great bulldog but Morrow gives us everything he did and Fred Brown, assuming he blocks as hard, will give us that and more


Dillon Day? Going to hurt, at least at first. We'll see how the line gels and who takes over calling plays at the line


Ben Beckwith? Going to hurt. Talent may or may not be replaced and then some but probably not reasonable to expect our line to gel from the start the way last year's did. WE'll see how long it hurts nad how bad.


Blaine Clausell? Same as Beckwith


J Rob? Going to hurt, but hopefully SHumpert and company cuts down on negative plays to mitigate loss


Malcolm Johnson? Not sure; shouldn't hurt in blocking; receiving would hurt but the overall options are so good now everywhere else in the receiving corp that maybe we won't miss him.


Sobiesk? Probably going to hurt, but we shouldn't be kicking too many fieldgoals. The bad news is that pain is most likely to show up in our toughest games

[5 Star]

It's easy to see why the media is picking us last after looking at that list. Maybe it's because you spaced them out, but it sure appears long.

[scottycameron]

It's easy to see why the media is picking us last after looking at that list. Maybe it's because you spaced them out, but it sure appears long.

man, that's what I was just thinking. It doesn't make you feel very good to see it listed out like that. You can start to see the media's slant. And the comments next to each one actually make it seem worse, not better, LOL.

[Leroy Jenkins]

I think this team is better athletically, some guys just haven't been through the fire yet.
For example I think Rufus is a better FB player than Blaine he just hasn't been through the SEC gauntlet so we don't know what we are getting.

How did we replace:
Fletcher Cox
Chad Bumphis
Jon Banks
Pernell McPhee
K.J. Wright
Gabe Jackson

Every year there are these questions, I think we have the best group of athletes we have ever had. We don't know if they are great football players yet, but I feel very confident.

[BankerDog]

[QUOTE=blacklistedbully;393616]Purpose of this thread is to address each starter lost and get opinions on why it is, or isn't as bad as most folks seem to think.

B Mac?
Beniquez called all the plays the last year. BMac was also not strong against the pass.


Matthew Wells?
JT Gray is a playmaker. He has good speed and good instincts; just a football player, period. Look at his preseason stats last year as a freshman, he lead the team in tackles; then repeated that this spring. Always around the ball.


Preston Smith?
I like Ryan Brown's potential. AJ Jefferson has been underrated his whole career. He can rush the passer and stop the run; reminds me a lot of Willie Evans. And since I also played against Jonathan Calvin, who is only in his 4th year of playing football, he will provide a pass rush we haven't had since McPhee. He has the size 6'5/260 and ran a 4.6 40 this spring. Kid will surprise a lot of people this fall.

PJ Jones?
Nelson Adams had better stats in less snaps than PJ Jones did. Another guy who gets overlooked, but does his job and does it well.


Justin Cox?
Having been around him some, I think he was just not there mentality. He had the tools, yes. But he always seemed lost, even outside of football settings. Peters, Bryant, McLaurin, Coman will all be upgrades over Cox because they at least have it mentality and have some talent to work with.


Jay Hughes?
People seem to forgot he also tore a tendon. He wasn't overly fast to begin with, and that also slowed him down. Combine that with Cox not being there between the ears and you have a starting safety tandem of a DA and a guy with not much physical traits to work with. Again Peters, Bryant, McLaurin, Coman will all be upgrades. Young, yes but they have it upstairs along with the talent to back it up.


Jameon Lewis?
Gabe Myles did just as well filling in for him. Just another young guy, but he proved himself against LSU, Auburn. I also know Malik Dear is just as talented and has more speed than Lewis, another young but talented guy.



Robert Johnson?
Great blocker. Very Physical. But Fred Ross is a more polished WR and will show his worth more this year with more snaps.


Dillon Day?
When Day got suspended we didn't miss a beat with Desper/Clayborne filling in. Clayborne is very talented; saw him play against Bama his freshman year. He manhandled some of their DTs as a freshman. I believe we will be alright.


Ben Beckwith?
When Day went down, Beck slid over; Desper filled in nicely against A&M. Former Under Armour All-American.


Blaine Clausell?
Rufus Warren in last year's spring game looked good to me. He has really good feet and very athletic; which is what you want out of OL because we run a zone blocking scheme. His senior year and NFL scouts love athletic LT; time to earn a paycheck.


J Rob?
Three headed beast a RB should help relax us a little. Robinson will be missed because he could cause people to miss.


Malcolm Johnson?
The only one I don't think we can truly replace until Dontea Jones and Christian Roberson get on campus. None of our backups have stayed healthy or have been overhyped.


Sobiesk?

Bell has the leg strength and is fine with 35 yard. Just needs to be confident in himself and block everything out.

[HancockCountyDog]

You forgot Eulls, he was a major help on the DL. Probably one of the most underrated players we have had in a long time. Played out of position at DE for 2 years, but was a War Daddy for us last year.

Look - we have losses, we need people to step up. I believe they will.

[blacklistedbully]

You forgot Eulls, he was a major help on the DL. Probably one of the most underrated players we have had in a long time. Played out of position at DE for 2 years, but was a War Daddy for us last year.

Look - we have losses, we need people to step up. I believe they will.

Thanks for pointing that out. Meant to include him. He's in there now.

[Tripp McNeely]

We are overarchingly replacing more "starts" with just as many "snaps" and better talent (with higher ceilings).

[archdog]

Everyone will be missed, but I am confident our guys coming back can pick up the torch and crack some skulls. That is what solid recruiting and coaching gets you. We will be ready.

[Where'sWaldo]

[QUOTE=blacklistedbully;393616]Purpose of this thread is to address each starter lost and get opinions on why it is, or isn't as bad as most folks seem to think.

B Mac? We have plenty of talent at Linebacker so we will be fine there.


Matthew Wells? I want to see JT Gray at this position and I think he can be a big time player but Wells was one of those rare breeds that will be tough to completely replace. You didn't have to worry about match up problems with Wells in the game and that was huge for us.


Preston Smith? Will replace with a less talented player period. We need Ryan Brown and Chris Jones to have improved a lot to make up for this loss. AJ Jefferson is imo a DE version of Kendrick Market. He doesn't have all the tools but he is a football player and when times get tough he is not going to back down to anybody and he will lead our defense.


PJ Jones? Nelson Adams can replace PJ. Nick James will be gravy on top.


Kaleb Eulls? Replacing with a more talented but less consistent player. Let's hope the light comes on for Chris Jones. As of right now Chris Jones is a lot like Dwight Howard. He needs to quit smiling and go hit someone in the mouth. I hope he has that in him.


Justin Cox? Not a loss. He was fast but it didn't matter because he had already taken 3 steps in the wrong direction.


Jay Hughes? Market will take over his leadership void and is as good or better as a player.


Jameon Lewis? Receiver is loaded. Jameon was a good player but Myles has the potential to be more of a game breaker imo.


Robert Johnson? Fred Brown is an upgrade in talent.


Dillon Day? Was a solid performer but having a guy like Clayborne will be an upgrade against the top tier D lines. I watched the Bama replay the other day and Day was pushed 2 yards in the backfield every play. We can replace his talent but his experience will be missed early in the season.


Ben Beckwith? Was solid but I have to believe we can replace him talent wise. Desper should be an even trade.


Blaine Clausell? Time will tell but I think Hevesy can get our guys prepped to be as serviceable as Clausell. We have a few solid options


J Rob? Toughest replacement on the team imo. Found hidden yardage nearly every run and we need to stay ahead of the chains. 2nd and 7 and 3rd and 4 were common place. We don't need 2nd and 9 and 3rd and 7. Couple this with Dak looking like he may not take as many short yardage runs this year has me worried.


Malcolm Johnson? 2nd toughest replacement. He was our mismatch guy last year and made a ton of big catches. Him and Bear were the only guys that could get open against Bama.


Sobiesk? Sigh....We won't know anything on this until the lights come on. Let's hope this doesn't cost us a big game early.

[Coach34]

It's easy to see why the media is picking us last after looking at that list. Maybe it's because you spaced them out, but it sure appears long.

Not really

[Coach34]

Purpose of this thread is to address each starter lost and get opinions on why it is, or isn't as bad as most folks seem to think.

B Mac?
Good against the run- struggled vs the pass. Our talent level at LB is top 10-12 in the nation


Matthew Wells?
We have to have someone step up here- we certainly wont be as good here- but should get good play.


Preston Smith?
We upgrade vs the run with AJ- but lose the pass rush.


PJ Jones?
Adams had better stats than PJ last year- Nick James has more talent and should show it.


Kaleb Eulls?
Replacing him with a potential 1st rounder. Jones needs to bring it every play.


Justin Cox?
Good athlete but average Safety. Our secondary didnt look any worse after he left.


Jay Hughes?
We will be better at SS this year.


Jameon Lewis?
Lewis lost his spot to Myles and Ross.


Robert Johnson?
He is being replaced with 3 better players in Fred, Morrow, and Gray


Dillon Day?
Clayborn is the strongest guy on the team and is a draft pick. Just need to gel early.


Ben Beckwith?
Desper is a hustle player also. We'll be fine


Blaine Clausell?
Warren has skills to replace him. We'll see in Sept.


J Rob?
RB by committee has plenty of talent and will be fine


Malcolm Johnson?
Wont be as good here


Sobiesk?
No idea here.

Nm

[5 Star]

[Coach34]

It's easy to see why the media is picking us last after looking at that list. Maybe it's because you spaced them out, but it sure appears long.

And I say not really because Auburn, Bama, and others lost as much as we did- including their QB's. It still comes back to the perception that we havent recruited very well. Thats why they all said before last year we couldnt compete for the West- we hadnt recruited well enough. Now they see they were wrong- but it's still the same reason for picking us last. Auburn lost as much as us- but they are picked to win the West.

[DancingRabbit]

You forgot

Geoff Collins? Can't replace his artistic skills, but IMO Diaz is an upgrade in game-planning and game day coaching.

We won't improve much in scoring defense where we were respectable in most games, but we won't give up as many yards and big pass plays. Diaz' defense is going to get off the field and give the ball back to Dak.

As for all the players we lost, sure some of them will be missed, mostly in the early going (fingers crossed for LSU and AU). But what the outsiders don't realize is how many talented players we have been redshirting. Even those that haven't played a lot have been in the strength program for several years. They've been through several fall camps, bowl practices and spring practices. Dan's biggest strength is he knows how to run a program.