Fact of the matter is that we don't know what we have. What we know is that we have a few stud wideouts, a few good to great backs, a more experienced QB, a more experienced OLine at first (with a substantial drop-off in exp as the two-deep falls but has much more talent).
Bone and Baker showed spurts but never wowed me. They were sporadic as freshmen typically are. Brilliance one moment and lack-luster crap the next. Timmons had a few instances of butter-fingers. Johnson was incredible and the most steady of them all which seems to have translated into the spring. Outside of that, we have Williams, Snodgrass, and Herrick who should all have potential to do great things but haven't hardly seen the field if they have at all.
Boom is an incredible athlete and I'd go as far as to say the best offensive threat we've had since Cobb. Outside of him, we have a running back in Kemp who made Spurrier his bish last year but did next to nothing else for grades, injury, or whatever it was that kept him out of games. Horton supposedly wowed the coaches this spring, but we haven't seen him do much more than pick up chip yardage and/or lose the ball.
We have a freshman and RS freshman TE who we've never seen play a down of SEC football but should give us a much needed threat in the middle that we have been sorely lacking. Again, unproven but harnessing enormous potential.
Towles ran almost as much as he threw (easy there, stats folk) and he is not a dual-threat. He's improved a lot this spring, but has he improved more than Dak, Maty, and others around the league? I think so, but the folks at the major mag companies aren't going to waste time looking into that crap.
Our OLine will improve dramatically, in my opinion, although that may not mean too incredibly much. Our group is another year older with the best center in the SEC (IMO) anchoring them. They will be given rest by a plethora or more talented underclassmen. Do not sleep on Krok, LaRubbio, Stallings, Meyers, Haynes, and Richardson. Those are tough guys, folks. Also, for those of you who are worried about tackles, Stallings, Richardson, Krok, Meadows, and next year, Young, will provide excellent tackle production for years to come. That's potential, though.
The Defensive Line should improve. You can tell me that I'm wrong, but we have solid defensive end play coming from Huguenin, Hatcher, Ware, and Johnson. They will not be double or triple-teamed like Bud and sometimes Z were. Meant, Lewis, and Elam will be able to clog up the middle and our ends will be freed up unlike our stars were last season. However, all they see are two draftees gone and less-than-productive NT's coming back.
Our linebackers will improve substantially, IMO. They will be an asset on defense instead of am liability, however, you wouldn't be able to tell that from last year had you not seen the improvements from Forrest and Flannigan. We have Hendrix and Henderson, who should be more experienced. Firios, Hatcher*, Daniel, Ware*, Walker, Love (maybe), and Jones... Anyone know what happened to Jabari Johnson?
Our secondary has Stamps, McClain, Randolph, McWilson (who aside from a couple key drops, improved a lot in year two), West, Edwards, Hytche with speed, and a slew of other corners who will be serviceable. However, Stamps and McClain were the only ones who jumped out at you if you weren't a Kentucky fan. You likely didn't see the solid play from McWilson and Randolph if you weren't looking at the whole season. Don't give me crap about our freshmen and redshirts being untested, either. They've had to put up with Badet, Johnson, Timmons, our possession receivers, and Snodgrass in practice.
We as fans see these cogs in motion but the writers of these publications only see the face and hands. We know that the potential and talent is there, but it has yet to be seen by these editors and their magazines tailored to more historically productive programs. Stoops does not sugar coat damn-near anything. If the coaches are impressed and Stoops is pleased with the effort, then we've gotten our foundation and simply need to march. This will not be told in anything Athlon or Lindy's has to offer. That's why I said in my mashup that they were crap except for the tables and data. Their insight is shallow at best, and the average to rabid UK fan would be better suited getting a CatsIllustrated or Cats Pause to fulfill their appetite (if not for these forums...
