When healthy, I think Walker will fight to be in the 2 deep. Stoops seemed to like his spring and the potential he exhibited.
Not necessarily looking ahead to next year but after looking at our depth chart
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When healthy, I think Walker will fight to be in the 2 deep. Stoops seemed to like his spring and the potential he exhibited.
I love that auto spell turned Miggins to Muffins. I wonder if he will consider that as a nickname!
Without taking the time to look up the individual ratings of the above players, I am going to assume that they are better as a group than the ones they are replacing since our overall classes have been much better for the past 3 years. So I will say that we will be starting with a better foundation.
These guys will have had at the minimum 1 additional year in this amazing strength and conditioning program. There has been a noticeable difference in this area from last year to this year. I would expect that trend to continue for 1 or 2 more years.
Finally, Stoops has been coaching on the defensive side of the ball for years and has had tremendous success. Going into this season, everybody said the defense would be our Achilles heel. I would say that the defense has outperformed the offense through the first two games. Bottom line, Stoops will have the defensive unit ready to go next year.
Well then consider this by Rivals. Cory Johnson a Sr. DT is our highest ranked DL with four**** and a 5.8 rating. Next year as it stands now the closest ranked player we have on next years team will be Kobe Smith presently ranked as a three *** 5.7 Fr DT with no college experience. Every other player on the DL is 5.6 or lower. Recruiting the DL has not been at the same level of success as every other position group on our team. Just pointing that out.
No. The point is it's easy to ferret out UK basketball fans that are casual football fans.
Did offense win our last two games? No. Defense did, but many of these same casual fans go on and on about what the offense will look like at some point whether it be next week or next year. Was just attempting to point that out but I guess I didn't do a very good job of that.
OP here - As I said in my reply to your original comment, just because I didn't mention the defense doesn't mean I'm not excited about the future there too. I simply made a surface level observation that there were literally two SRs on the depth chart of what is already a very solid offensive team. I'm glad the thread has turned into a look at the future of the team as a whole but my original point was basically just "wow, we return almost everyone from an already exciting offense...sweeeeet."
If there is a board rule I missed somewhere that I must mention the defense every time I post about the offense, I apologize.
No problem. I'm as much at fault as anyone but to become an annual factor in the SEC it will take much more than a high octane offense. That's all.
To be fair Elam was a high 4 5 star by all other services and had offers from who's who. Meant a 2 star is starting over CJ Johnson and Miggins is getting snaps now and probably splits reps with Huguenin going forward. I do think Lewis is a Huge loss but Elam with another season will be a big time pro prospect . I do think UK will sign another defensive tackle this year and an elite one to boot.
Not sure that last sentence is completely accurate. Since arriving in Kentucky, Stoops has signed Z'Darius Smith, Jason Hatcher, Denzel Ware, Matt Elam, and C.J. Johnson. All five rated as 4 star defensive line recruits by one service or another. UK was still a 4-3 team when all were signed, so you have to include them in your comment about UK's D-line recruiting success. When has UK ever recruited that many 4 star defensive linemen in a three year period?
I would also add that Stoops has done an outstanding job of evaluating and recruiting all the three star defensive linemen (the hardest position to recruit in football) you mention. Melvin Lewis, Reggie Meant, Josh Allen, and Tymere Dubose are all excellent examples. Plus, Miggins, Bell, Daniel, and Middleton all have good potential and sported nice offer sheets.
I would argue CMS has done a great job of recruiting the d-line. That's not to say we have top tier SEC d-line talent, but he's certainly closed the gap on the rest of the league.
In fairness, 2 of our DL recruits are going into their 2nd year of football, period, and already have SEC offers. It should be better after this season. I also think we're going to sign a highly touted DT or 2. Maybe out of JUCO.
I said Rivals and you are wrong if you think Rivals rated Elam as a four**** when he came out of HS.
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If you pick your recruiting service you can argue next year DL as you like but I'm using Rivals and if you can prove me wrong then do it. I welcome the good news if you can provide it. Please do it.
That's fine but it still does not change the ranking of a single DL for next year. It does not change what I've written. I do hope to see Kobe Smith get bumped to four ****'s, that would be a great bump but then he would be a Fr DL in the SEC.
I guess Nick Saban and Urban Meyer weren't looking just at Rivals when they were battling us for Elam and Dubose. I was responding to your comment about Stoops not recruiting the defensive line position as well as the other position groups. I didn't realize we were limiting the discussion to what Rivals thinks of our d-line talent! ;-)
That's fair in some way I guess. But I have been pointing this out for some weeks now. I think it's funny when people use the Rivals rankings to express their joy when Kentucky gets commitments from highly regarded WR, QB, OL, TE, DB, LB, and RB's by Rivals recruiting service but start rationalizing when it is pointed out the DL has not seen the same success using that same recruiting service.
I point this out just as I point out that we are still not very good at stopping the run. I think they are connected. As an example go back and review the 56 yard TD run ULL made against us. How can the problem be fixed when the problem is not even identified?
I'm sorry where did i say rivals had Elam above a 3 star? So I guess rivals was right about Garret Johnson 5.6 Badet 5.5 Gaa 5.7 Allen 5.5 etc. I guess if you wanna go solely on rivals we will finish this year at 4 8 5 7.
Two things for sure:
You need thick skin to post on this board and give your opinion. Seems some must have a miserable life and makes them feel good about themselves to shoot someone down. Or just grumpy ole men.![[winking]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/wink.r191677.gif "Winking [winking]")
Wasn't Cobb a two star? Get good players and make stars out of them.
You need thick skin to post on this board and give your opinion. Seems some must have a miserable life and makes them feel good about themselves to shoot someone down. Or just grumpy ole men.
Wasn't Cobb a two star? Get good players and make stars out of them.
I agree. We still have a ways to go on improving overall talent in the front seven. That 56 yd run by ULL was a combination of Meant getting blown up, Henderson taking a bad angle, and Allen not getting off the block.
I still don't understand your idea of basketball fan vs football fan. I have never met anyone who is a fan of one or the other. Everyone I know is a UK fan. In fact, the only place I have ever heard such a notion is on this board by posters such as yourself. Really weird.
What? I didn't mention anything about ohio state or tennessee. I don't follow your logic, but that's not surprising considering you only root for uk football and not basketball.
What is wrong with being a casual fan? I would assume that those people have every right to post here too. I just don't understand the hostility. I'm sure that every casual fan would love for the football team to have long term high level success. And what difference does it make is offense or defenes won the game? Wouldn't you agree that for a majority of people good offense is far more intertaining than good defense? And isn't that what its really about in the end, entertainment? Furthermore, neither offense nor defense win without each other.
Agreed, it is so hard to build defensive depth. Seems like it takes forever. On offense, we are in very good hands the next few years.
Not entirely true. Unless you're an absolute phenom, you've probably had to spend a bit of time building a recruiting resume.
But does that bump on his online profile make or break a college career? No. Recruiting rankings do not make the player, so saying "He needs a bump to 4 stars, then he would be a Dr DL in the SEC"
Chris Westry was a three-star out of HS, and if you look around at the articles, or read his stats, or simply watch his film, he's playing better than most five-star freshman players in the SEC. Last week, he played better than all five-star freshmen in the SEC.
I totally agree. There are some nice pieces in place for our 2016 defense. But replacing Lewis, Forrest, Flannigan, Stamps is a huge problem. Just plugging in younger players with stars and upside isn't the quite same as having these 4 senior starters who impact every game in a big way and will all receive all SEC consideration. Our 2015 defense is better than people think right now, and that will become obvious as Hatcher, Flannigan, and Walker get worked into it.
The true freshman Kobe Smith will back up Elam in 2016. Smith should see a lot of playing time, and I think he is better than advertised. Javon Provitt would have filled that role next year, but he did not get enrolled. Middleton and Dubose will never be nose tackles.
You are arguing a different point than what I have posted. You do not have to like what I have posted and you can assume I have views I don't but I challenge you to disprove what I have posted. I spoke to position groups, specifically the DL being the lest heralded group we have recruited and you come back with an individual from a position group that has (3) 5.8 four stars and (3) 5.7 three stars. I'm pointing that after this year the DL unless we get some bumps will not have a player higher than a5.6 three star recruit.
If you compare apples to apples you will find I am not wrong and you have only made my case for me.
You seem to be assuming that a 5.6 won't improve or play above his rating while a 6.0 will at least hit his rating and not play below it. We have recruited kids specifically for the positions in this defense in the last two classes and the ones moving forward. Finding the right fits for your scheme has to count for something.
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