Good or Bad - Youth Movement on Offense

[Digetydog]

The youth movement at the offensive skill position is nuts:
WR - 1 Junior/Senior scholarship (Walker) player will see any PT
TE - 1 Senior scholarship player will see any significant PT
RB - All our scholarship RB's are Freshman/Sophomores - no redshirts
QB - Senior starter with Sophomore/Freshman as a backup.

If anyone thinks Jones left behind a good roster, ....

[Stallion]

when you have June Jones level talent radical turnover is always outstanding

You're going to see the same thing on Defense by mid-season

[JasonB]

June didn't leave behind a good roster, but he did leave behind a handful of players good enough to be starters...

Offense - Sutton, Davis, Gaines, and all 5 starting linemen are Jones recruits.
Defense - Lawler, Horton, Gentry, Minor, Rhone, Jackson, H Richardson, Wyatt, DM are all Jones recruits.

Vast majority of skill positions on O and D are Chad, all the depth on both sides of the line are chad (and we can all agree that they are just backups because they are young and not ready yet).

Chad has done a great job of reconstructing the roster and, frankly, getting more out of the starters above than June would have gotten (Sutton might still be at safety ). But some of our better players this year will still be June recruits.

As far as transition on defense, I think we all expected M Scott to blow by Horton, but I think M Scott is a 3rd down/pass rush guy this year unless he improves significantly over the next 3 weeks. Minor will keep his place until he gets hurt, which from past experience may happen in the first quarter of the first game , I didn't see anyone ready to push Rhone or Jackson (it is what it is). Look for frosh at the Star/3rd LB position, K Mitchel is the other June recruit that was penciled in before camp but I don't think he wins his spot back when he gets healthy. The secondary guys look great, I don't think they are going anywhere. Being in a valid weight program has done wonders for them. K Johnson is absolutely amazing at the other safety spot, his quickness to the ball is awesome.

The reason this team is going to be better this year is Chad and Chad's recruits. But don't completely dismiss the fact that the majority of starters on both sides of the ball are still going to be June's players.

[Rebel10]

when you have June Jones level talent radical turnover is always outstanding

You're going to see the same thing on Defense by mid-season

I agree that by mid season we may see a lot of June's players being turned over maybe sooner. I think we could see a 4 to 6 win season this year. Hopefully the other AAC teams have gotten worse because every year a certain pro June Jones poster posts how well the June Jones recruits look in practice against each other but when they have to play against other teams and they don't pan out for obvious lack of talent reasons. Anyway, I think the youth movement will payoff for SMU really well next year imo.

[smusic 00]

Fog of war is being defrosted.

[PerunaPunch]

Not to be argumentative, because I agree with JasonB's point, but Davis wasn't a June recruit. He basically fell into June's lap like Margus did.

[RyanSMU98]

Not to be argumentative, because I agree with JasonB's point, but Davis wasn't a June recruit. He basically fell into June's lap like Margus did.

I think we need to qualify what we mean by a June "recruit". Recruiting implies actively going out and persuading prospects to join the team; we all know damned well that wasn't June's style. Other than that minor point, I agree with JasonB's analysis of who we see week 1. Can't wait to see how this plays out; could be a really interesting season.

[JasonB]

Not to be argumentative, because I agree with JasonB's point, but Davis wasn't a June recruit. He basically fell into June's lap like Margus did.

I think we need to qualify what we mean by a June "recruit". Recruiting implies actively going out and persuading prospects to join the team; we all know damned well that wasn't June's style. Other than that minor point, I agree with JasonB's analysis of who we see week 1. Can't wait to see how this plays out; could be a really interesting season.

I was just about to respond that one could argue that every starter in that list "fell into June's lap". So....

[Digetydog]

Not to be argumentative, because I agree with JasonB's point, but Davis wasn't a June recruit. He basically fell into June's lap like Margus did.

My main point is that the difference makers (and their backups) on offense are almost entirely going to be freshman & Sophomores.

Was Davis technically June's recruit? Was Sutton June's recruit? Yes. Even a blind squirrel (and a lazy one at that) finds a nut once in a while.

Bottom Line: those fans who wanted Morris to turn the roster got their wish. Hopefully, the talented, younger players are going to thrive with the extra PT.

[Rebel10]

My main point is that the difference makers (and their backups) on offense are almost entirely going to be freshman & Sophomores.

Was Davis technically June's recruit? Was Sutton June's recruit? Yes. Even a blind squirrel (and a lazy one at that) finds a nut once in a while.

Bottom Line: those fans who wanted Morris to turn the roster got their wish. Hopefully, the talented, younger players are going to thrive with the extra PT.

Right, and we need to continue to turn over the roster as quickly as possible like the USF coach did in his second year so that by year 3 we will be in an even better position.