So 2025 aside. Good or bad, 2026 looks to be a really bad roster management situation in the making.
Based on Ourlads projected depth chart alone, 16 starters will be out of eligibility. I changed out Williams for Hayes, as I think Hayes probably wins out. 5 of the likely top 6 WRs alone are out of eligibility.
At some point we have to actually produce young guys. We are now setting ourselves up to be in this constant circle of portaling a new group together every year. That 22' class looked extremely promising, but the progression of those guys fell off a cliff. I don't think it is talked about enough how bad things have gotten in the development of players here.
A big question for anyone; who on this roster that we recruited has the staff progressed significantly over the last 2 years? So many guys looked like they would be big pieces and all have seemed to fallen off. Not only have we not developed anyone properly, we missed on almost every portal player we brought in last year. So really hard to expect some kind of good roster overhaul now. I know some want to bring up Indiana or Ole Miss and how they overhaul their rosters regularly, but Ole Miss gets higher quality transfers and they had a QB/WR/TE room that was mostly together for 2-3 years & 3 of the top 4 tacklers on D this year were young guys Ole Miss had developed (on the #1 SEC defense). Indiana brought in a lot of key guys that he literally coached the year before at James Madison. Leading receiver was from JM, 670yd rusher was from JM, leading tackler from JM, 2nd leading tackler from JM, sack leader from JM. So most of those key transfers other than QB and the other RB were already his guys he coached up. So it's nowhere near the same as this roster overhaul we are seeing. I know some get tired of the doom and gloom, but this roster mismanagement and lack of development is concerning, even if the portal was working. You still have to have some sort of progressive development going on with your other guys.
Based on Ourlads projected depth chart alone, 16 starters will be out of eligibility. I changed out Williams for Hayes, as I think Hayes probably wins out. 5 of the likely top 6 WRs alone are out of eligibility.
At some point we have to actually produce young guys. We are now setting ourselves up to be in this constant circle of portaling a new group together every year. That 22' class looked extremely promising, but the progression of those guys fell off a cliff. I don't think it is talked about enough how bad things have gotten in the development of players here.
A big question for anyone; who on this roster that we recruited has the staff progressed significantly over the last 2 years? So many guys looked like they would be big pieces and all have seemed to fallen off. Not only have we not developed anyone properly, we missed on almost every portal player we brought in last year. So really hard to expect some kind of good roster overhaul now. I know some want to bring up Indiana or Ole Miss and how they overhaul their rosters regularly, but Ole Miss gets higher quality transfers and they had a QB/WR/TE room that was mostly together for 2-3 years & 3 of the top 4 tacklers on D this year were young guys Ole Miss had developed (on the #1 SEC defense). Indiana brought in a lot of key guys that he literally coached the year before at James Madison. Leading receiver was from JM, 670yd rusher was from JM, leading tackler from JM, 2nd leading tackler from JM, sack leader from JM. So most of those key transfers other than QB and the other RB were already his guys he coached up. So it's nowhere near the same as this roster overhaul we are seeing. I know some get tired of the doom and gloom, but this roster mismanagement and lack of development is concerning, even if the portal was working. You still have to have some sort of progressive development going on with your other guys.
