Quote Originally Posted by CadaverDawg View Post
I've got a strange theory that I'd like to get you guys thoughts on...

I really like the fact that we are getting some good JUCO prospects, but I'm worried that it is affecting our leadership a bit. Last year, we had guys like Graveman, Frazier, Renfroe, etc, that had been in the program for a while and were comfortable as leaders. This year, we are relying on guys like Detz and Pirtle to be leaders, yet they've only been in the program 1 year so they probably still feel like rookies. Next year we will have guys like Heck, Vickerson, Holland, etc in the lineup who have very short tenures with us as well. I think it is imperative that we have guys like Britton, Rea, Holder, etc, stick around and develop into leaders. I was kinda expecting that from Rea this year but he disappointed me. And I know Britton will be back, but I wanted to mention the Seniors next year.

I really hope that Collins and Humphreys can lock themselves into full time starters next year so that we can have them as veteran leaders the following year. But unfortunately they will likely be gone after their Junior years, which is why I hate we wasted Reid this season for the most part.

Anyway, I just think we need to make sure we have a good group of Senior leaders rotating through for locker room and leadership purposes, and I hope our JUCO success isn't going to hurt one of the key proponents of a Championship team, which is what I feel like chemistry, locker room, and leadership are.

Does that make sense? Am I the only one that feels that way? If so, just ignore me.

Oh, and good write up, Todd. Thanks
I hate to blame Ron Polk for anything 6 years after the fact but the reason we have so many JUCO players is because our scholarship numbers were out of whack when Cohen took over. It takes some time to fix that- and the only ways you do that are by having guys go to MLB or bring in JUCO guys to speed up "good attrition" to get to the point where it's less of an issue. Our scholarship numbers being out of sorts is why we had a big class followed up by a really small one. We only have two JUCO's in our current class- Daniel Brown and John Holland.

Compare that to some of our other classes. Now that our numbers are more in line, we're going to focus more on high school talent and then get JUCO's to fill holes or find overlooked talent that can help us immediately.

I do think it could affect leadership if nothing else from an experience standpoint. The SEC is a jump from even some of the better JUCO leagues out there.