Offense v. Defense

[law_bee]

when you look at the list of people that we lost it appears that the D took the worst of it.

I really did not expect Hollings to come back this year (usually takes more than one year), however O did lose Sampson and that is big given the solid spring game he had. I think that is the only O players.

The loss of Hargrove seems to be the biggest name on the list. Hopefully Gathers can come back strong and that could lessen that loss.

No matter where the blame lies it is still about wins and losses.

If we can win that first one that can go a long way in righting this ship.

 

[GTTerrific]

I hope what I've been reading is correct in that Pullen is ready to go. I love Hargrove, and think he was ready to be a stud, but in the light of everything..... I'm telling ya..... Pullen can play!! Really hated it on spring day fans couldn't see him. He's impact type player in my book. Henderson in my eyes had a great spring as well. What has happened is maybe a switch in the rotation. We could get a look in the depth chart with guys coming in quicker now.

 

[techsamillion]

I agree Law.......Sampson, as much as I love him, was an unproven commodity. If the O can open holes the guys we now have can run throuh them and even can (esp. Grant) fire out in a different
direction....Ace and P.J. indeed are no slouches either....As always: "D" will be the key. If they can't score, we can beat them.

 

[Smooth]

Offense: We all know what the key to the O is this year. Bilbo, Bilbo, Bilbo. If he preoduces, we'll score points (esp. if Grant can give us production at RB). If he does not produce, look out. Not much of a change here, except we can't have 15 RB's get injured like last year.

Defense: The good news is we have a lot of talent at DE, so maybe we can cover the loss of Hargrove. The bad news is our depth and numbers took a big hit. We need to pray for no injuries and cool weather in September.

I'm most worried about the next couple of years after this one. Losing 10 players of this caliber is like losing 10 'ships to probation. There's no way that we will cover all these losses in the next recruiting class. How many games will we lose in the next couple of years due to this?

Note that I have not bought into the line of thought that "we lose this many players every year, so it'll be OK". Most years when we lose some players, they are guys that never played due to injury, skills, academics, whatever. These 10 were all on the 2-deep chart to my knowledge.

 

[ncjacket]

Smooth, first we still hope most of those guys will be back. To my knowledge only one has said he won't. If they use their RS year to get things in order and get phyically stronger they could come back better than they are now.

Second, don't be too quick to write off the guys we've been losing every year. While they may not have been in the 2 deep (altought you'd have to ask MasterB to be sure) many were expected to play and at least provide depth. To some extent it doesn't matter who you lose, you just can't afford to lose 11 a year for any reason. If you have that many you can afford to lose it says your recruiting has been pretty bad because you have been bringing in people who can't help.

You are right though. The one thing that hasn't changed is that next season is all about what we get from the QB position.