Can anyone point out a unit or position that will be better on next years team?

[rumsearch]

DLine - James and Evans, if he's around - remains to be seen if they are upgrades. No pass rush again equals burnt secondary. Reason Wilson plays soft is he knows we have no pass rush. All American corners get burned if QB has time and equally or near equally talented wide receivers. Any reason to expect better pass rush next year?

Secondary - young. No Slay and Banks. No pass rush again and it will be this year all over again only worse.

McKinney as sophomore will be better (famous last hope). Two redshirt LB's highly regarded. LB play maybe better?

OLine - this year has been unable to move opposing DLines in any game that a run game is needed. Been decent in pass protection, particularly against teams with losing records.

Receivers - production is gone. Maybe Morrow is better next year?

Running Backs - absent in big games, related to absence of OLine. Perkins, Griffen, Robinson, Milton all back. Will it be identity confusion?

QB - Russell is best passing QB at State I've seen. Coaches can't seem to figure out a game plan much less make adjustments with his style of play. Mullin maybe more comfortable with a QB like Prescott BUT teams with good D's loaded the box against us with Relf and dared us to pass. Other than Michigan, it worked and we couldn't run in those situations. QB Play next year likely to degenerate into division between play Russell and play Prescott camps. QB controversy plus weak line play next year means ...

Mullin and coaches - against teams with winning records seems like they have few to no answers to attack, to defend, or make adjustments once in game to respond to adversity.

So...next year where can/do we have a reasonable expectation to be better?

 

[esplanade91]

Linebackers will be much much much better. Look, I like Lawrence as much as the next guy... But the guy runs in slow motion. He's got the head to be a GREAT coach one day, and he made every one around him better but the talent we replace him with will more than make up for that.

With the Browns coming in we have the right personnel to run a 3-4. We have McKinney and depth at MLB, placing Richie to the outside and leaving Wells to the opposite side. Our DL sucks, but depending on how the DT's develop this bowl season and summer I might change my mind about the whole 3-4 situation. The problem is we don't have solution at DE. I expected Autry to be a possible one and done.

Losing Banks sucks, but he's had 2 different guys studying under him (Calhoun, Redmond) and we bring in Justin Cox who might actually could be a one and done... Not saying we'll rock everyone's world, but they're not going to cause us to lose any more games than this year's team did.

I don't see how our OL could be any worse. I'm hoping for a Brewster type hire when Hevesey's douche *** gets run out of town and that might make up for how bad these guys are.

We lose a lot of numbers with Bump, Clark, Heavens, and Smith leaving... But come on... Aside from Bump they're middle of the pack when it comes to talent. I don't look at their careers and say "they got better every year". They put up about the same numbers every year, they had the same about of drops every year, and they drew the same amount of converge... Every year. The kid from CoLin if he can get healthy gives us a legitimate threat at the slot and if we decide to burn every single shirt from this class we have the tallest WR corp in the SEC.

I know every one says this every single year that "we'll be better" and that "this is year ___ and Mullen finally has his players", but unlike years previous none of the guys we're replacing people with are projects, crap shoots, or "diamonds in the rough". Every single person we're replacing someone with had other SEC offers and was a 3 or 4 star, i think with the exception of the JUCO receiver and Bumphis. This hasn't happened to date.

 

[MetEdDawg]

I think quite a few units will be better.

Linebackers, as already mentioned, will be better just because of the athleticism and size we will bring. We didn't hear much from Skinner this year, but that's because Cam Lawrence and Benardrick McKinney are tackling machines. McKinney will go over 100 tackles in the bowl game and Cam has 111. Losing Cam sucks because he puts us in the right position, but I think an LB core of McKinney, Skinner, Brown, and Wells is very formidable. McKinney looks ready to take over the duties of field general and his play this year proves that.

DL will be better, but only if we move Eulls inside. He's playing SEC DE at 280 pounds. Zero sacks and one tackles for loss and there's the reason why. He's too damn big to play DE in the SEC. Put 20 pounds on him and move him inside. Boyd goes, Cherrington goes. Jones, Virges, Evans, James, and hopefully Eulls inside. Autry will be a force and will be better, and I think Preston Smith will be on the field a lot. Hard to believe, but Preston Smith leads the team in sacks and almost never got any playing time. He's disruptive, has good technique, and can get in the backfield. DL should be better whether Wilson stays or not.

RBs will be better. We lose no one from the group and we hopefully add Kailo Moore to the mix. No brainer here. RBs will be very good next year.

OL should be better whether Hevesy stays or not. Only one that doesn't come back is Tobias and Justin Malone got so many snaps that it was like he started. He's ready to be the guy at guard. I don't think Gabe leaves. He will come back because the last half of his season was very average. So we only lose one guy and I'm thinking we may have some much tougher competitions at RT and LT. Should be improvement there regardless.

I would like to say the QB position will improve, but that will be tough with a new core of receivers. We get younger, but I believe we get more athletic. More deep threats, more guys who can stretch the field, but overall the guys at WR are more SEC caliber. Hoping that translates to the QBs. If Tyler can find a comfort blanket like Bumphis was this year, we will be in good shape at the QB position.

 

[The Usual Suspect]

Kicker should be better, not sure about the rest.

 

[johnson86-1]

We'll be the same or better everywhere except that we'll be worse at CB and possibly slightly worse at WR. The problem is that there's no area where we clearly have an up and comer that should result in big improvement for next year. We're going to have to improve coaching. On offense, our play calling has plenty of room for improvement. On D, we have plenty of room to improve fundamentals and scheme.

OL - If Tobias comes back and Gabe stays, we'll have everyone back on OL and there will be a chance for improvement if Tobias comes back healthy and some of the younger players improve like they should. But we are close to the ceiling with this group I think. The players with the chance to improve are all interior lineman where we're ok; I'm not aware of anybody that might give us improvement at the tackle position, where we need it most.

QB - Same. The improvement should come from Mullen being more comfortable putting Dak in and Dak being more reliable. Also, with it being Russell's senior year, I don't think Mullen has to be as sensitive to starting a qb controversy that will affect the team over the offseason.

RB - Same. Hopefully they'll be improvement from Nick Griffin earning more playing time and being healthy all season.

WR - Losing Bumphis could hurt. Otherwise, we might be slightly worse but there's not much room to drop off.

TE - Losing Green.

DL - Again, not much room for drop-off. We'll miss Boyd but we better have young DL ready to improve a lot over the off season. If Autry leaves and somebody drafts him, we need to fire Chris Wilson the moment he's drafted. If Autry is capable of going to the league this year and we didn't get anything out of him, that's reason enough to hire a new DC.

LB - We'll upgrade athletically, we'll have somebody new putting people in position.

CB - We'll miss Slay and Banks. Cox will help and the fact that we really didn't take advantage of SLay and Banks anyway will cushion some of this blow.

S - Can't get much worse. Probably too late to teach Whitley coverage basics, but he should improve a little just from having more time back from his injury. Hughs should be better.

 

[Singer]

Linemen linemen linemen we need linemen O and D.

 

[Victory Red]

Any chance y'all move Whitley down to LB with Cox coming in? He's a big-time player and will take over a safety spot I would imagine. It would immediately shore up coverage issues and give more speed at LB. You could also move your best pass rushing LB to DE to get more help there.

 

[MetEdDawg]

No way Whitley moves to LB.

He's an awful tackler. He's almost as bad a T'Sharven Bell at Auburn. He never wraps up and is always looking for a big hit. Terrible in open space and takes poor angles. I don't want that at LB. Maybe move him down to SS, but no way he stays at FS with Cox coming in. I will take my chances with a RS freshman in Richie Brown at LB rather than Whitley.

 

[NCDawg.sixpack]

The one play that stands out is the hit on the Georgia RB at the goal line a couple of years ago which saved the game for us. Outside of that, he hasn't played very well. He is not a DB, and as you say, I'm not sure he would be good at LB.

 

[dpalm]

I smell bs!!!

 

[dpalm]

Where the 17 have you mfers been...Whitley has played his *** off for you pussies and now you want to talk? Whitley has had more moments than at Georgia. The man is back from a fkn injury so raise the 17 up.

 

[Sutterkane]

Back from injury or not, Whitley has had a poor year this year. If the injury has made him lose some of his game it doesn't matter what he's done in the past if we have better players. Playing someone because they made plays 2 years ago is Templeton/Swindoll ideology.

 

[OzarkaNSW]

^ douchebag

nm

 

[johnson86-1]

A lot of Whitley's problems are not related to his injury. He's not doing things he's supposed to do, and it may be because of a coaching issue, which means it may not improve for next year. But I'll agree Whitley definitely had more moments than the one at UGA. It's ok for him to be better at run support than coverage, he just can't be awful at coverage and he's got to take better angles in run support. If he just comes back full speed next year with the normal progression you would have expected from him going from 2010 to 2011, he'll be a good player for us next year. But again, with some of the issues he has, I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect it to be fixed for next year.