Totally agree.
I love everything about this team except the secondary. Hopefully Mark and Brad can hide that weakness.
I think this team is going to be really solid except..
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I love everything about this team except the secondary. Hopefully Mark and Brad can hide that weakness.
Yeah. I’m a fan of TW. I think he’s going to have a huge year. He’s got a great demeanor, huge arm, and his accuracy really improved late in the season.
What’s very strange to me, is he’s not as great a running QB as he was advertised. Good, but not great.
I still think he’s a weapon.
I agree. I think people were expecting him to be shiftier in open space. I will say, however, that he has elite straight line speed. If he gets some space and freedom i doubt there's many in the country that can run him down from behind.
Wouldn’t you rather be worried at about DBs than QB, DL, and WR? That’s what we worried about last year. Best thing to have with sketchy DBs is a great deep DL.
Big key, he still had to make the throws. It doesn't matter if a WR gets wide open if the QB doesn't hit him...
I trust the coaches to get it done. A couple years ago, the concern was the OL, so the focus was put there and it ended up being a strength. The next year, it was the DL, and it ended up being a strength.
While CB is a concern, I think echols will be solid and trust the staff to find someone with the SEC level athletes we have returning, plus the newcomers (I'm high on Devonshire) to coach them up to at least be serviceable in the backend.
And the most optimistic part is the front 7 is solid, so I'm optimistic about being solid against the run forcing more predictable passing situations. I love our pass rushing personnel for 3rd and long up front.
Wright, square, oats, boogie at LB
Paschal, Taylor, Hoskins at DL
That's a scary solid, fast, and athletic front 7 to block in passing situations.
While CB is a concern, I think echols will be solid and trust the staff to find someone with the SEC level athletes we have returning, plus the newcomers (I'm high on Devonshire) to coach them up to at least be serviceable in the backend.
And the most optimistic part is the front 7 is solid, so I'm optimistic about being solid against the run forcing more predictable passing situations. I love our pass rushing personnel for 3rd and long up front.
Wright, square, oats, boogie at LB
Paschal, Taylor, Hoskins at DL
That's a scary solid, fast, and athletic front 7 to block in passing situations.
This is a realistic concern. Cannot argue with it, because we lost all our starters in the secondary. We still have good players back there, but there is bound to be a challenge in replacing 4 starters. OTOH, I trust Dean Hood, and I like the returning talent. The guys who will be playing in our 2019 secondary all had multiple SEC and/or B10 offers. They are not exactly chopped liver. If you want convincing, look at Yusuf Corker’s, Tyrell Ajian’s, Stanley Garner’s, and Moses Douglass’ other offers.
I think the bottom line is UK is going to have to score more points next year to let the defense get their sea legs. We could score under 20 last year and still win 7 games. That’s truly impressive defense.
Totally agree and I truly believe the offense will score more points than last season. I can realistically see 7-8 wins in a bridge year. I’ll take it.
Actually, we are better at WR now than we have been at any other time since Coach Stoops got here. Lynn Bowden is a star and an all conference player. Wagner, Ali, Epps, Dailey, Alexander, Hayes, and Oliver have legit talent. Wagner might be the most improved player on our team. He has the athleticism and vertical leap of a B10 basketball player, and he is a mismatch nightmare because of his length. I know it was just the spring game, but Oliver impressed the hell out of me with his size and effort. If I could point out 1 uncertainty, it is time for Epps to step up. He missed his RS, and I think that hurt him more than some others that miss their RSs. But Epps is a junior now. He has a nice size/speed package, and it is time for his brain and his hands to catch up. I think he will be another positive surprise this year.
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Don’t underestimate the athletes we got. Allen is a freak. I think he could get the rookie sack record. But he came in 200lbs. Xavier Peters has that body NOW
Allen plays for the Jaguars now. We don’t know if Peters will be eligible this year. But I agree with you that our roster is deeper and more athletic than most people realize. By a lot.
I hope you are correct, but only Bowden is proven. Hopefully a couple of guys step up!
Yup. I remember us battling Toledo and Akron for guys.... we went 10 rounds deep so far in the fantasy draft for the guys here.... we couldn’t go past round 4 couple years ago.... and we still have talent left wow
One thing to note. The staff sought and landed needed depth at QB thru the grad transfer process. They did not go after DBs, to my knowledge.
Absolutely false. Baity had as good of a senior year as any CB we've had in recent memory. Really bad take. Teams wouldn't even throw at him...
Westry never really improved.
Some people continue to underestimate our team.
So many new guys just no way to know how mentally tough all the new guys are. Douglass made one play that showed me he will probably be a physical player like Edwards. Echols has all the physical tools like speed and hips that could make him a solid player once he gets some experience. Mosley made some bad plays in spring game but also made a couple of plays that showed he could be good with high level coaching and experience against the big boys. Think Robinson will be pretty good as far as making some plays and they are expecting a couple of the other holdovers to be fairly solid.
But overall I think you are right that it could be rough for a while till they get that big time experience. At the same time there are some JC's with some college experience and enough players on the roster that you would think a couple of them will rise up pretty fast. But in this conference, it is no place to learn on the fly without some pretty rough growing pains. Think our roster personnel is such that it may be next season before we get back to having solid experienced starters and depth that plays well every game. Think this season we will see a lot of guys show flashes and show growing pains that will translate into inconsistency. The wildcard will be how well the new guys catch on, because a couple of them may be fast learners with the mentally tough mentality and competitiveness that helps them develop faster than normal than most.
Everyone thought our D-line would be a huge weak link last season... you see how that turned out
I attended the victory over UF in Gainesville. TW is a fantastic runner, and showed it in that game against a good SEC defense. Later in the year he was playing with a bruised knee. Funny how a knee injury will compromise a QB’s running game.
A lot of concern on this thread about our secondary. It is justified, but we shouldn’t get carried away over this. We lost the starters but we have not lost all of our experienced DBs. Jordan Griffin and Davonte Robinson are veterans that were recruited by lots of major programs. Tyrell Ajian, another heavily recruited player, got great experience toward the end of last season and played well in the Citrus Bowl. Yusuf Corker and Stan Garner both got offers from Bama and Clemson, so they can play. Jamari Brown had offers from 4 SEC programs and Oregon. Moses Douglass had offers from 5 SEC programs, including Bama.
I feel very good about Griffin, Robinson, and Ajian. They weren’t starters, but they are proven players. In my mind, Corker, Garner, Brown, Douglass, and Brandin Echols are important keys to this season because they have talent but little or no experience. I don’t believe Dort can beat these guys out. If he can, more power to him.
Absolutely correct about TW getting dinged up...he wasn't the same guy in the middle of the season.
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