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Digetydog wrote:

footballdad wrote:The redshirt list provides little inspiration, and the true frosh are...... true frosh, going to be another long year on D. Hopefully some of the freshmen start to really help 2 years from now.

Exactly. True freshman lineman, in particular, rarely make an impact.

In addition to a general talent upgrade, Malone desperately needs to find an "impact player" at LB and/or DB. If we had a guy capable of making 5 "special" plays per game, we probably have 4 wins and maybe 5.

Unfortunately, none of the existing guys seem to have that "it factor" that our defense desperately needs. I am hoping one of the Scott brothers is "that guy."

I will be watching Gary because of his athleticism.

Rebel10 wrote:Speed wise coach noted that we are not fast. Sometimes when you have talent in place it can make up for mistakes. As noted by another coach that since we don't have the talent we have to make perfect plays most of the time. That's tough.

The 90+ yard run by Temple epitomizes the problem. While a defense can afford to have a guy with below average speed, it cannot have below average speed at almost every position.

On that play:
1) the right side LB bit on the fake and took one bad step. He never caught up to the ball carrier.
2) Both of our safeties (as outlined on TV) took 1 bad step. Neither one of had the speed to get close enough to the Temple RB to even slow him down. Even if they didn't make the tackle, slowing down the RB might have allowed another SMU defender time to catch up and make the tackle.

All year long, any offensive player that got a "step" on our defense scored.

[quote="ojaipony"]

So I'm going WAY out on a limb here and say we win 3 games this season (Tulane and one more surprise one). Then next year maybe 5. Then, 2017 is bowl game.

That is definitely going way out on that limb. I would be shocked if these guys could upset one of the ranked teams left on our schedule (both being road games) and just hope they can taste success in the final home game for our seniors against Tulane. That would be a big win for this program going forward. I hope you are right about 5 wins next year and I'm sure the team will set a goal of qualifying for a bowl...but I will wait to see what our starting lineup looks like for next year before even having any expectations.

Charleston Pony wrote:

ojaipony wrote:
So I'm going WAY out on a limb here and say we win 3 games this season (Tulane and one more surprise one). Then next year maybe 5. Then, 2017 is bowl game.

That is definitely going way out on that limb. I would be shocked if these guys could upset one of the ranked teams left on our schedule (both being road games) and just hope they can taste success in the final home game for our seniors against Tulane. That would be a big win for this program going forward. I hope you are right about 5 wins next year and I'm sure the team will set a goal of qualifying for a bowl...but I will wait to see what our starting lineup looks like for next year before even having any expectations.

Well next years schedule will be
OOC Home - TCU, Liberty
OOC Away - Baylor, NTSU
AAC Home - Houston, Memphis, Navy, USF
AAC Away - East Carolina, Temple, Tulsa, Tulane

So, I say 2-2 OOC and hopefully you scrap your way to wins against USF, Tulane and Tulsa. Our O will be better, but the defense will be very VERY young. The schedule doesn't look very nice next year either......

HOWEVER, IFFFFFFF Houston, Memphis and Temple all have new coaches next year, who knows.

hopefully we can emulate Baylor who began to outscore opponents despite having a gawd awful defense in Briles early years. I expect significant improvement in the Offense next year-should get close to 500 yards per game.

My sources, which I will not expose but can be found indicate a softer OOC schedule next year. 3-1.

mrydel wrote:My sources, which I will not expose but can be found indicate a softer OOC schedule next year. 3-1.

2017 not 2016

My sources, which I will not expose but can be found indicate a softer OOC schedule in 2017. 3-1.

mrydel wrote:My sources, which I will not expose but can be found indicate a softer OOC schedule in 2017. 3-1.

Wait...aren't these the same suspect sources that misled you about next season?!?

No misleading. Simple dementia.

I am interested to see how the Scotts play next year. There have already been a few WRs given shots as DBs, with Proche (hopefully) and Benson added to WR, anyone have a guess on any speed from the WRs that can be switched to DBs?

Also what happened to Badejo's teammate Jim-Lawson that committed with him?

Planter's Punch wrote:Also what happened to Badejo's teammate Jim-Lawson that committed with him?

He "decomitted", but if you Scout your Rivals, you'll be able to find out exactly what happened.

blackoutpony wrote:
Well next years schedule will be
OOC Home - TCU, Liberty
OOC Away - Baylor, NTSU
AAC Home - Houston, Memphis, Navy, USF
AAC Away - East Carolina, Temple, Tulsa, Tulane

So, I say 2-2 OOC and hopefully you scrap your way to wins against USF, Tulane and Tulsa. Our O will be better, but the defense will be very VERY young. The schedule doesn't look very nice next year either......

HOWEVER, IFFFFFFF Houston, Memphis and Temple all have new coaches next year, who knows.

Out of curiosity, why would we have USF and East Carolina on our schedule again? We had them on our schedule last year. Shouldn't we get another two teams from the East on our schedule or did everything change when the league expanded this year?

The addition of Navy this year changed everything, yes.

To the best of my knowledge it has been two years (home-away), before your conf opponent from the other division switches to two new teams. Was that way in Conf USA as well.