Well I'm a little tired of the depressing state of our football team and the hypotheticals surrounding any new coach talk. So maybe we can talk about the positives on this team. I think this team could be very good, I didn't quite buy into the 10 wins thing, but 8+ was certainly possible. Going by what we have coming back next year, assuming there isn't some freakish mass exodus of transfers.
QB: Hansen: he has played pretty good imo. The KSU game was bad, but he has had 3 out of 4 pretty good games including a decent one, stat wise at least, on the road at ISU. He can be a very good QB for us.
RB: Stewart, Sumler, Lockridge: The makings of a pretty good group of RBs. Sumler doesn't excite me, but he's solid. If these guys had a good OL they could really make a big time impact. The numbers Stewart puts up with the lack of blocking is impressive.
WR: Simas, McKnight, Simmons, Jefferson, Clemons, Darden, Ussery: A very talented if unproven group of WRs. Simas and McKnight are a very good duo, add in another guy stepping up next year and we should have a very capable passing game.
TE: Deehan, Thornton: The one place on offense we take a serious step backwards next year. No disrespect to Deehan, it's just that the depth will be an issue. Deehan has played well and won't be that big of a drop off from Devenny or Geer imo, it will be up to Thornton stepping up. We should probably run more 3 WR sets next year considering the depth at WR and lack thereof at TE.
OL: Solder, Behrens, Iltis, Miller, Givens: I don't know what the problem is, but I think a good coach could turn this into a very good OL. There will be experience and depth. There will be plenty of size and rivals stars there next year, this will be the key to the offense next year.
DL: Kasa, West, Bonsu, Cunningham, Herrod etc: A decent line so far this year. They are very young so improvement is to be expected. Depth is an issue because Hawk doesn't care to have a lot of numbers on the DL like he does on the OL. Healthy Kasa could be a hell of a player.
LB: Beatty(?JR this year right?) Major, Rippy, Ahles, Nobriga, Webb, Sipili: We lose a lot this year in Burton and Smart, but I have faith that Cabral has been coaching up the young guys. I must say, I love what Smart brings, but I think there are some younger guys who bring a lot more to the table as athletes than he does.
DB: Smith, J. Brown, Hicks, Mahnke, Polk, Perkins, Olatoye, Vigo, Wright(?): We lose some pretty good players this year, C. Brown and Burney. Jalil and Smith should be pretty solid at CB, I'm worried about what comes after them with the nickel and dime backs, though. At Safety it's a bit of a crapshoot. Polk should be improved and looks like a player so far this year, a full offseason at safety should help him. At the other safety spot I don't know. Hopefully someone will step up and challenge Perkins for it.
ST: Goodman, ugh. He has been better this season, maybe with a coaching change he'll feel like he's flying under the radar and not have any pressure on him which is where he performs at his best. Grossnickle from all reports outperforms DiLallo when they're punting together, so I'll count that as an improvement. Coverage units, imo, come down to either how good a teams depth is, or if a coach is willing to use it's "important" players on ST. A lot of it also has to do with basic fundamentals as well, so if we get a good coach in here it should improve. KR/PR hopefully will have some open competitions and I think there are a few that can make an impact.
Overall: I'd say we get most of our team back next year and that's always a good thing. The team is not flooded with talent or speed, but it does have some. The schedule is tougher next year, but I think this is a winning team nonetheless. Anywhere from 6-9 wins could be expected.
QB: Hansen: he has played pretty good imo. The KSU game was bad, but he has had 3 out of 4 pretty good games including a decent one, stat wise at least, on the road at ISU. He can be a very good QB for us.
RB: Stewart, Sumler, Lockridge: The makings of a pretty good group of RBs. Sumler doesn't excite me, but he's solid. If these guys had a good OL they could really make a big time impact. The numbers Stewart puts up with the lack of blocking is impressive.
WR: Simas, McKnight, Simmons, Jefferson, Clemons, Darden, Ussery: A very talented if unproven group of WRs. Simas and McKnight are a very good duo, add in another guy stepping up next year and we should have a very capable passing game.
TE: Deehan, Thornton: The one place on offense we take a serious step backwards next year. No disrespect to Deehan, it's just that the depth will be an issue. Deehan has played well and won't be that big of a drop off from Devenny or Geer imo, it will be up to Thornton stepping up. We should probably run more 3 WR sets next year considering the depth at WR and lack thereof at TE.
OL: Solder, Behrens, Iltis, Miller, Givens: I don't know what the problem is, but I think a good coach could turn this into a very good OL. There will be experience and depth. There will be plenty of size and rivals stars there next year, this will be the key to the offense next year.
DL: Kasa, West, Bonsu, Cunningham, Herrod etc: A decent line so far this year. They are very young so improvement is to be expected. Depth is an issue because Hawk doesn't care to have a lot of numbers on the DL like he does on the OL. Healthy Kasa could be a hell of a player.
LB: Beatty(?JR this year right?) Major, Rippy, Ahles, Nobriga, Webb, Sipili: We lose a lot this year in Burton and Smart, but I have faith that Cabral has been coaching up the young guys. I must say, I love what Smart brings, but I think there are some younger guys who bring a lot more to the table as athletes than he does.
DB: Smith, J. Brown, Hicks, Mahnke, Polk, Perkins, Olatoye, Vigo, Wright(?): We lose some pretty good players this year, C. Brown and Burney. Jalil and Smith should be pretty solid at CB, I'm worried about what comes after them with the nickel and dime backs, though. At Safety it's a bit of a crapshoot. Polk should be improved and looks like a player so far this year, a full offseason at safety should help him. At the other safety spot I don't know. Hopefully someone will step up and challenge Perkins for it.
ST: Goodman, ugh. He has been better this season, maybe with a coaching change he'll feel like he's flying under the radar and not have any pressure on him which is where he performs at his best. Grossnickle from all reports outperforms DiLallo when they're punting together, so I'll count that as an improvement. Coverage units, imo, come down to either how good a teams depth is, or if a coach is willing to use it's "important" players on ST. A lot of it also has to do with basic fundamentals as well, so if we get a good coach in here it should improve. KR/PR hopefully will have some open competitions and I think there are a few that can make an impact.
Overall: I'd say we get most of our team back next year and that's always a good thing. The team is not flooded with talent or speed, but it does have some. The schedule is tougher next year, but I think this is a winning team nonetheless. Anywhere from 6-9 wins could be expected.
