Discussion Question: What player surprised you the most this season?
- Thread starter dawgatUSM
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I thought he really stepped up for a young player. That allowed us to adjust our line because of injuries.
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1dawgfan09
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He's smart. He's aggressive. He's everything you want in a LB.
Now, on the flip side: Players that really disappointed me.
James Carmon.
He honestly didn't seem to do anything well. His false starts killed how many drives against Bama?
Now, on the flip side: Players that really disappointed me.
James Carmon.
He honestly didn't seem to do anything well. His false starts killed how many drives against Bama?
Got to give it to Cam for improving game by game and becoming a leader on defense. Aplayer that the other guys nowlean on and depend on.Wilson and Skinner have contributed alot in the tackles dept andhad to helpcarry the loaddefensively to an extent due to having non factors at DE and little depth at LB since Maye didn't pan out at all.I thought we got better than expected play out of those 3 LB's and they did a nice joball year helping us defendagainst the run. Now to the bad....Broomfield went from Pick 6 machine to toast and it wasn't from a lack ofopportunities because it was obvious thatteams were not gonna throw to Banks' side. I've felt since day 1 that Marcus Green would be a weapon for us and he's yet to show it consistently. He's got everything you want athletically in a TE to create mismatches but drops way too many easy ones. Obviously, the LT spot was a question mark going in and their struggles were expected but I didn't think 2 guys could be this bad. It's one thing to not get much out of 1 guy but they were both a disappointment, even with little expectation going in.
That's what happens when you take aJUCO who wasn't even a full-time starter on DL and try to move him to LT for his senior season even though he hasn't played OL since high school. That was a huge red flag for me this summer that we had some seriousproblems at the LT position.1dawgfan09 said:
Took Skinner a little while to get going & knock Wells out of his starting spot, but he came on really strong late in the season. He's 4th on the team in tackles and has the most TFL of any linebacker. I was always concerned he didn't have the speed to play LB in the SEC but he's proven me wrong. He should be a good one going forward.<div>
</div><div>And Banks was just plain awesome this year. We knew he was good, but that guy was a weapon all year. Great in coverage, 5 INTs, corner blitzes, forced fumbles, punt returns... just constantly making plays every game.</div>
</div><div>And Banks was just plain awesome this year. We knew he was good, but that guy was a weapon all year. Great in coverage, 5 INTs, corner blitzes, forced fumbles, punt returns... just constantly making plays every game.</div>
I loved me some Chris White, but I'm starting to think that our defensive scheme is gonna make most decent MLB's look great. I remember Diaz telling White last year that he could win the Bednarick award in this system. Somebody with more football knowledge than me might explain further, but nobody thought White would put up the numbers he did just like nobody thought Lawrence would this year.
Skinner and Lawrence. While I had high hopes for Lawrence, after a tough first few games he turned out to be a great QB for our defense out there. He has a high football IQ and understands what the offense is trying to do. One of the leaders in the SEC in tackles, anyone who can make that cut is a bad dude. I honestly thought that Skinner would be on special teams and not figure into the rotation at LB much this season. I was really impressed at how well he developed under Collins and came on strong later in the season. He is way more athletic than I was expecting him to be. If Brandon Wilson does not come back you can expect one of these guys to move to the mike LB spot. I really like our future at LB now.
Very surprised with the LB play this year especially considering not many people gave them much of chance after we lost chris and kj. Bad surprise was how god awful relf looked all year after I thought he had maybe turned the corner a little at the end of 2010. He played well in against OM but after than that he seemed to be a big let down.
Especially after the first game I thought Cam was going to be worthless this year, but he got better each week. Charles seemed to have a dud of a senior season....missed a lot of tackles and had only about 3 pass breakups and 0 interceptions.
Whitley is not necessarily a surprise, as he did give us a preview of things to come last year (i.e. blowing up and knocking out Washaun Ealey in the UGA game). I can't wait to see him get healthy and back out there next year to see who's head he'll bust next.
I was very disappointed in Maye however. We knew the younger LB's would struggle early on and we were counting on Maye to come in and give us some experience right off the bat. Instead, he turned out to more of a liability.
I was very disappointed in Maye however. We knew the younger LB's would struggle early on and we were counting on Maye to come in and give us some experience right off the bat. Instead, he turned out to more of a liability.
Cam Lawrence wasn't a surprise to me. His play over the last 2 years indicated to me he had this potential. I wasn't surprised at all. Marcus Green also not a surprise. I gave up on him 2 or 3 years ago.
Bad surprises were DePasquale (I know kickers can be streaky, but I expected more consistency from him), Relf (seemed to lose confidence - offensive line play didn't help him) and Broomfield (I expected more from him in the turnover department). I hoped for more from Maye, but didn't really have any expectations because he was fairly unknown to me.
Good surprises were P.J. Jones (looks real solid), Kaleb Eulls (coming on quicker than I expected). Also, I DVR'd several games and went back and watched Fletcher Cox. I knew he was good, but after focusing on him I have a new appreciation for how good he is. He is definitely 1st round NFL potential. I also like the way Skinner progressed.
Bad surprises were DePasquale (I know kickers can be streaky, but I expected more consistency from him), Relf (seemed to lose confidence - offensive line play didn't help him) and Broomfield (I expected more from him in the turnover department). I hoped for more from Maye, but didn't really have any expectations because he was fairly unknown to me.
Good surprises were P.J. Jones (looks real solid), Kaleb Eulls (coming on quicker than I expected). Also, I DVR'd several games and went back and watched Fletcher Cox. I knew he was good, but after focusing on him I have a new appreciation for how good he is. He is definitely 1st round NFL potential. I also like the way Skinner progressed.
based on what I thought coming into the season against how they actually played this season. Cam Lawrence is badass and I never expected that off of what I saw him do last year. Brandon Maye was a disappointment just because with his hype I thought he would be hands down our best LB this year and he wasn't even close to that.
Honorable mention: Good - Dillon Day, impressive that a guy who got a scholarship offer on the last day of recruiting could end up being a serviceable starter in the SEC when pressed into duty as a freshman. Bad - our entire WR corps, I know part of it was due to our degraded running game from a year ago but our WRs were terrible at getting any separation from DBs this year.
Honorable mention: Good - Dillon Day, impressive that a guy who got a scholarship offer on the last day of recruiting could end up being a serviceable starter in the SEC when pressed into duty as a freshman. Bad - our entire WR corps, I know part of it was due to our degraded running game from a year ago but our WRs were terrible at getting any separation from DBs this year.
I know it was obvious just watching the games, butafterlooking at theseason stats yesterday - I noticed Maye recorded 37 tackles, 8 of which were unassisted. That's horrible for a MLB.For comparison BrandonWilson had 92 tackles, 43 unassisted. Almost everyone else on the team made a minimum 1/3 of their tackles unassisted. Maye barely made 1/5 of his solo.BudgetDawg said: