Pony81 wrote:5-7 if we don't sustain significant injuries.
This is JJ's last year. You just can't have a 100 ranked team, make 2 million, have great facilities, have top recruits right out your front door. Doesn't have to be. With all our advantages we should be competitive. But we aren't.
according to June and the Goose, we cant compete..
Pony81 wrote:5-7 if we don't sustain significant injuries.
This is JJ's last year. You just can't have a 100 ranked team, make 2 million, have great facilities, have top recruits right out your front door. Doesn't have to be. With all our advantages we should be competitive. But we aren't.
according to June and the Goose, we cant compete..
If I rate each position by whether or not they are average, above or below...
QB: 2013 - Plus position. 2014 - Neutral. Burcham is the most ready for action, makes quick reads which is important behind a young o-line. Davis - great leadership. Lots of good, young arms. I don't think this position will be a minus this year, but will be neutral, with less effectiveness than last season.
WR: 2013 - Holman Plus, DJ Plus, JJ Plus, DT minus 2014 - DJ is a plus, the others are unproven and I would mark as minus at this point. Nobody stands out like Holman did before last season in practice. There is some young talent (Gaines, Lancaster, Halverson, Stewart, Deion), but none of them are ready to force a defense to adjust to their presence yet. Overall, I think this is a minus.
RB: 2013 - Minus. Nobody really excelled until Pope late on. 2014 - Lots of depth. Pope looks great, Line is better. Nlemchi looks great. Durall is fast and can make an impact. Haven't seem Gresham but as a whole I think the unit moves from a minus to a plus.
OL: 2013 - I think we had two spots that did fine and three that were a minus. Overall a minus, although the unit improved as the season went on. 2014 - From what I have seen, I think the starting group is actually going to be just fine. Tackles look more consistent and fluid having grown up. First player that stood out to me was number 63, which I realized is Brown the frosh. He not only held his own against the starting D-lilne, I thought he actually played well. Depth is a concern, but for the starters I think we are neutral across the board with a potential plus for Lasecki at center. Overall I would grade us as neutral, which is better than we have been in a couple of years. As young as the starters are, depth is younger, so this picture could change pretty quickly if there are injuries.
Overall offense: last season, the offense struggled in non-conference partially because of the offensive line, and lack of a running game. As the season went on, QB and WR were able to mask some of those deficiencies, and OL improved later in the season. The offense as a whole performed above average until GG was hurt, which shows how important the QB is. Neutral-plus rating overall.
This season, the script is flipped. OL and RB are better, QB and WR will be worse. I think what that means is that we will be able to play a little more consistent offensively against the big 12/sec teams because we aren't getting spanked up front, but we lose our upper end dynamic against less skilled teams and won't be able to put up 50 points against weaker teams. Overall, I think the offense will be a little worse than last season. Neutral.
D-Line: 2013: I think we were solid, a neutral. Barnes, Wright, and Wood were not dominant, but they held their own. 2014: I think Wood has a chance to be neutral to plus. Wright is a neutral at worst. Minor is neutral to plus. And there is a ton of depth. The unit as a whole will be better than 2013. I think I would still give it a neutral grade, but there is a chance it could become a plus like we had with Hunt, Pittman, Frazier that one year.
LB: 2013: Yenga was a plus when he started. Rambo was a plus when healthy, but his replacements were all minus. Sanders (due to injury) and Pope I thought were neutral/plus against the run, minus against the pass. Overall, I thought LB was neutral to plus against the run, but a minus against the pass.
2014: On the outside, hopefully Sanders is healthy and is a plus against the run, but I would still mark minus against the pass. Seals I think is ready and can be a neutral in both. Longoria and Barnes provide solid depth, Barnes better agains tthe run and Longoria better in pass D. Yenga is a plus against both run and pass. The other starter on the inside is going to be a neutral against run or pass, with upside potential. Overall, I think I would still mark the unit as plus against the run, and minus against the pass. But I think there will be some improvement in pass defense.
CB: 2013: Acker Plus, Parks minus, Montes neutral/minus in the slot. Depth was a minus, overall the unit was a minus. 2014: JR, HR, and Montes have now been on campus for 3 years. Since they got here, they have been a different level of athlete in the secondary than we have had in a long time. I think HR and Montes are ready to play now. And I think JR will be good once he is healthy. The depth is talented and athletic, but really young. Corner is the one position that has improved remarkably over the past 3 years in terms of size, speed, athleticism on the roster. There is a reason why we stopped recruiting the emergency JUCO corner. Because I think those three are actually ready now, I rate this as a neutral position, with a chance to actually be a plus.
S: 2013: HG got hurt early. Scott was good in some areas but had limitations in others. Overall, a minus. The HG loss was huge, he was really good against TT. 2014: DR is a stud. AJ and SR have grown up, and HG is back. Two years ago, we didn't have anyone who could play this position. Now it could turn out to be the best position on the team. I'll rate this as a neutral going into the season, but it could very well be a plus.
Overall defense: last season, the D-line was neutral, LB was good against the run, poor against the pass, and CB and S were poor. Defense as a whole obviously was a minus.
2014: I think the weakest part of the defense is LB against the pass. All of the other aspects of the defense I think are neutral with a chance to be plus. Overall, I think the defense is at worst average, with a shot at being pretty darn good if it stays healthy and the players who should be ready to go show up in the games.
Prediction: I am a little more optimistic about our defense and o-line than I was before. I'll bump my prediction up to 6-6 as long as we stay relatively healthy because I think we find a way to upset TCU, ECU, Cincy, UCF, or Houston. Jones has been pretty salty in conference at home, so Cincy and Houston probably stand out. A team with a mid-table offense and defense wins the UNT, UConn, USF, Memphis, and Tulsa games.
8-5 Snake bit a few times last year, and a terrible plus/minus. Our fortunes are finally turning this season... and as we know, our bowl game performances are pretty darn good.
Last edited by PonyKris89 on Mon Aug 25, 2014 7:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
We will go to a Bowl Game and Win! Baylor game scares me a lot. (I will be there that's why they play the game.) Realistically, I think it will not be that close. To me the season comes down to QB play and the leadership roll from that position.
Baylor 49, SMU 17 Coach Mason often employs the three-man rush in third-down passing situations, ie, let's give a Heisman-trophy candidate quarterback all night to find a receiver. Baylor will embarrass our defence with over 400 yards passing. And, on those rare occasions when we hold them on third down, we will probably be called for either roughing the passer or pass interference.
On offence, I cringe at the thought of how many illegal procedure penalties we'll take. And don't forget some lame efforts to return kickoffs from five-yards deep in the end zone, resulting in first-and-ten on our own eight-yard line. Or worse, if the kick returner makes it past the 20, there will be a clipping or holding penalty that takes it back to our own five-yard line.
But I'll be watching; really hope I have it all wrong.
Donnell88 wrote:Baylor 49, SMU 17 Coach Mason often employs the three-man rush in third-down passing situations, ie, let's give a Heisman-trophy candidate quarterback all night to find a receiver. Baylor will embarrass our defence with over 400 yards passing. And, on those rare occasions when we hold them on third down, we will probably be called for either roughing the passer or pass interference.
On offence, I cringe at the thought of how many illegal procedure penalties we'll take. And don't forget some lame efforts to return kickoffs from five-yards deep in the end zone, resulting in first-and-ten on our own eight-yard line. Or worse, if the kick returner makes it past the 20, there will be a clipping or holding penalty that takes it back to our own five-yard line.
But I'll be watching; really hope I have it all wrong.
Most negative post I have seen. You get what you ask for. I don't get the fear you have for a team that lost to UCF, almost lost to TCU and got beaten by OK St.
