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SMU
As Houston and Southern Miss adapt to life without star quarterbacks, the Mustangs are being held up as a possible frontrunner for Conference USA supremacy in 2012. But will they have enough proven talent to deliver? Sure, if Garrett Gilbert can deliver at quarterback, the trio of the Texas transfer, RB Zach Line and WR Darius Johnson is fantastic. However, SMU has holes at less visible spots of the two-deep that need to be shored up. The offensive line, for instance, which lost all five starters to graduation. No program returns fewer lettermen or starters than the Mustangs, who are going to need the first few weeks of the season just to adjust to all of the newcomers to the lineup.

Dont shoot the messenger

I think that is a pretty accurate assessment. If the o-line does well, I think we are set up to do well as a team. But if the o-line struggles, our offense is in a lot of trouble, and we have a very difficult schedule to kick off the season, which could get GG killed.

I have not seen any of the reserve linemen in action, with the exception of Collins. So, Collins will be fine, and McJunk will be fine. But the other three spots we definitely have huge question marks. If the coaching staff is looking at Lowe to start, starting a transfer at o-line who was out of football for a year says a lot.

I will say that even though I haven't seen him play a down, Lasecki looks like a beast. beard is awesome and he has the crazy eyes thing going on.

Valid questions with more positives than negatives pointed out. This team goes as far as the O-Line takes them.

Nothing wrong with that article - I think it hits on all of our concerns.

some pressure on Palcic to coach that young group up

Go poines

that's great raplh wrote:Go poines

I get it.

Charleston Pony wrote:some pressure on Palcic to coach that young group up

I imagine that is why June brought him in. He took average talent @t ucla and made the kids better.

Go Ponies!!

The offensive line will be as good or better than last year's version. 2011 squad might have been veterans, but let's not kid ourselves they were far from beasts, ranking in the bottom half or worse in every o-line category that is tracked.

Just rewatched the bowl game and Pitt got instant pressure most of the game forcing poor JJ to unload or get creamed within 2 seconds...which is actually the point of this offense.

The bar for 2012 was not set that high and with upgraded mobility at the QB spot, I would bet good money we see the sack totals go down in 2012.

RE Tycoon wrote:
Just rewatched the bowl game and Pitt got instant pressure most of the game forcing poor JJ to unload or get creamed within 2 seconds...which is actually the point of this offense.

True, I'm not sure where people got the notion that the o-line was so much better in the Pitt game with Suan coaching them than the rest of the games with Klemm. It was McD's surprisingly good mobility that made the difference.

Here is the main thing to take into account: We are replacing two players who were drafted by players who haven't played much if any.

There is no way anyone can have seen enough of the reserve linemen to know if they are going to be better than 2011. Absolutely no way. The recruits were well regarded, and Klemm talked them up when they were here, but I have also heard conflicting reports about how ready they are. We will see how fall camp plays out, but I definitely don't believe that we can look at the group today and say they will be better than last year's group.

JasonB wrote:Here is the main thing to take into account: We are replacing two players who were drafted by players who haven't played much if any.

There is no way anyone can have seen enough of the reserve linemen to know if they are going to be better than 2011. Absolutely no way. The recruits were well regarded, and Klemm talked them up when they were here, but I have also heard conflicting reports about how ready they are. We will see how fall camp plays out, but I definitely don't believe that we can look at the group today and say they will be better than last year's group.

All the June to the death supporters talk about how June has recruited (remember June signed off on all the recruits you are belittling) all the years he has been here and now we will see. Everyone say that we have this super duper offense line coach now and that Klemm was terrible and now we will see. The offense line recruits we are getting now are now highly regarded so I guess you will talk them up. June said on a video interview that we have the most depth he has had since he has been here. Also, if the offensive line does not play better it might be that our new super duper offensive line coach may not be as good as the June to the death supports have advertized. We should be competitive in all our games according to the June to the death supporters and I believe you might be one of them if I am not mistaken. I see you are already making built in excuses if we lose to Baylor badly.

Gottschalk was the only Klemm recruit starting on offense so we should be fine. I think we do win the conference especially since UCF is on probation.

Rebel10 wrote:

JasonB wrote:Here is the main thing to take into account: We are replacing two players who were drafted by players who haven't played much if any.

There is no way anyone can have seen enough of the reserve linemen to know if they are going to be better than 2011. Absolutely no way. The recruits were well regarded, and Klemm talked them up when they were here, but I have also heard conflicting reports about how ready they are. We will see how fall camp plays out, but I definitely don't believe that we can look at the group today and say they will be better than last year's group.

All the June to the death supporters talk about how June has recruited (remember June signed off on all the recruits you are belittling) all the years he has been here and now we will see. Everyone say that we have this super duper offense line coach now and that Klemm was terrible and now we will see. The offense line recruits we are getting now are now highly regarded so I guess you will talk them up. June said on a video interview that we have the most depth he has had since he has been here. Also, if the offensive line does not play better it might be that our new super duper offensive line coach may not be as good as the June to the death supports have advertized. We should be competitive in all our games according to the June to the death supporters and I believe you might be one of them if I am not mistaken. I see you are already making built in excuses if we lose to Baylor badly.

What's your point?

Rebel10 wrote:

JasonB wrote:Here is the main thing to take into account: We are replacing two players who were drafted by players who haven't played much if any.

There is no way anyone can have seen enough of the reserve linemen to know if they are going to be better than 2011. Absolutely no way. The recruits were well regarded, and Klemm talked them up when they were here, but I have also heard conflicting reports about how ready they are. We will see how fall camp plays out, but I definitely don't believe that we can look at the group today and say they will be better than last year's group.

All the June to the death supporters talk about how June has recruited (remember June signed off on all the recruits you are belittling) all the years he has been here and now we will see. Everyone say that we have this super duper offense line coach now and that Klemm was terrible and now we will see. The offense line recruits we are getting now are now highly regarded so I guess you will talk them up. June said on a video interview that we have the most depth he has had since he has been here. Also, if the offensive line does not play better it might be that our new super duper offensive line coach may not be as good as the June to the death supports have advertized. We should be competitive in all our games according to the June to the death supporters and I believe you might be one of them if I am not mistaken. I see you are already making built in excuses if we lose to Baylor badly.

I'm not saying to give him carte blanche by any means, but cut the man a little slack; I think you may be over-generalizing June's comment. Look at the depth at RB, WR, LB... For the first time in 20 years, we have quality all over our 2-deep. When you see a guy like Stephan Sanders step out on the field for the first time (and you say holy c***, where did that guy come from??), you realize how far we've come depth-wise. Gone are the days when we had a couple of stars and a bunch of schmos.

However, as pointed out, we lost an entire starting OL who'd been playing together for at least four years, and two of which are playing in the NFL now. The replacements are young but supposedly much better physical specimens in general. But unfortunately, they're getting thrown into the fire a little bit faster than you might like. So I, like others, believe the season will largely hinge on how well and quickly the OL comes together and what we have at the QB position.

I thought Coach Klemm was awesome, but the fact is that a lot of his recruits never would have made it academically at SMU. Klemm brought contagious attitude and a lot of hype that we desperately needed, but I'm OK with moving on.

I'm reserving my judgement for how well we recruit next year going in to the BE with Phillips, Odum, Mason and Chang on the staff.