Pick one key to the season

[leopold]

If you had to pick one thing being the key to our season, what would you pick?

I would argue it's Shane becoming just a little more efficient. I understand there are questions at RB and on defense, but how Shane goes is how the season is going to go. If he just improves a little bit on his accuracy the sky's the limit offensively, allowing us simply to outscore anyone we play.

Any other opinions?

[ponyboy]

If I had to pick one thing, it would be finding an adequate replacement for Xavier.

[JasonB]

This is hard.

Proche replacement I'm pretty confident in. RG replacement I'm confident in. RB I'm actually okay with. DT and S are big areas on D.

But I'll say replacing Patrick Nelson. He made an absurd number of plays for the defense last year. Someone on the defense needs to step up not only in the Fox position, but as a major playmaker for the team to get us off the field. IMHO, that is the biggest key to us having a team that could win every game versus a team that has to win shootouts every week.

[mustangxc]

Health on and off the field. If we don't lose players to injuries or COVID-19 this will be a special season.

[peruna81]

Health on and off the field. If we don't lose players to injuries or COVID-19 this will be a special season.

I tend to agree that his is the key^

[Hoofprint]

HealthDefensiveLineRunningBack is the key

[Donnell88]

We need to convert on 3rd down and one (or two) with one of our running backs making some tough yardage.

[Horseshoe]

Avoiding injuries is the first key to any season

[malonish]

Scoring more points than the other team.

[PNW_Stang]

I’m still worried about RB, and DT depth. Not worried about the OL or passing game.

[smubrooks]

The SMU curse...

Can we finally beat it?

Came veeeery close last year!

[JasonB]

Too many people I think are discounting the number of defensive stops we got last year from Nelson and Scott. We have to get massive productivity out of the Fox position. Without that, the improvements in secondary won't matter.

[leopold]

I get that and agree to a certain extent but I got the impression that later on in the season teams that saw the weakness in our LB's pass coverage and had the means to exploit it just had their way with us offensively, especially Memphis, ECU and FAU . Lack of talent, poor QB play or HORRIBLE game plans by opposing coaches masked this weakness earlier in the season - Nelson had a pick in the UNT game where the kid he was covering was wide open and Fine underthrew the ball by a country mile.

If we were walking into this season with Nelson starting for us I guarantee you we would see a different game plan thrown at us with that in mind, assuming that they had the offensive talent to deliver it - TCU with a healthy starting QB, Memphis, Cincy, possibly TSU all would be licking their chops looking at Nelson, furthering the all-or-nothing approach that occurred last year defensively.

I just think that we took as much advantage out of Nelson as we could and that it would be a different story this year. Denbow will be a step forward in pass coverage so I see us being a more consistent but less dramatic defense this year, all other things considered.