In years..... I like every position we have... The next position I worry about is equally important, the QB, but with an offensive line that can hold a D-line a second or two longer, I think our QB will hit some of our receivers... I think our offensive game will be really good... The O-line can lead us in rushing too... So, kicking and special teams holding up, i look for us to challenge in the east this year.....
If our D-line is better this year, UK will have the best season....
- Thread starter Gary4UK
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Gary-you working an all nighter or is it just a detour to bed after a pit stop like me. I think you may be right, but I'm holding my breath after the first three seasons. CMS now has four years of his recruits, but because of high performance we are really weak performance.
I don't normally agree with you, but you're onto something this time.
I think the overriding weakness on offense will still be offensive line. We will have one constant plug in the middle with Toth. Asafo who will keep getting better. No one else on the line really left me impressed last year. We got 2 great young guys coming in. But one of them is a potential Center so he probably wont see the field because Toth is so good. Even as great as they are though, they are still young so there will be a huge learning curve. But if this line can even block twice as good as last season, our offense will blow up this year.
Defense you're right again, it's going to be the line. I think Elam has his breakout year this year, but will it be enough. After him, who can step up and clog the middle. Who will be able to contain on the ends?
Even with that said, I definitely think we go bowling. Maybe even an 8-4 record. I'm excited.
Outside of Elam (and really he's 100% run stopper)...I just don't see a DL/OLB that I'm legitimately excited about for a big year next year. Maybe Kenegra Daniel, but I think he is still a year away from being ready for big snaps in SEC. Does Meant, Miggins, Bell, Middleton, etc.. really give you great excitement for DL production?
With Hatcher now gone for good...do you see UK having a legit pass rush threat off the edges? Hopefully Bonner is ready to go day 1...but Ware, Allen, etc...I think need alot more time to be ready for tons of SEC snaps and be productive. Maybe Laster can move to OLB and be ready to go is my only hope.
I just don't see how UK's defensive front will be anything but at a decided disadvantage most SEC games this year.
With Hatcher now gone for good...do you see UK having a legit pass rush threat off the edges? Hopefully Bonner is ready to go day 1...but Ware, Allen, etc...I think need alot more time to be ready for tons of SEC snaps and be productive. Maybe Laster can move to OLB and be ready to go is my only hope.
I just don't see how UK's defensive front will be anything but at a decided disadvantage most SEC games this year.
Until proven otherwise another 4/5 win season.
Truly would enjoying being wrong.
Unproven QB
At best a equal D-Line
No pass rush
O-Line will be slightly better because Swindle is gone and there won't be as many off side penalty's
I'm just not falling for the hype until I see results.
I hope Stoops will get it done but he's been a disappointment so far.
Truly would enjoying being wrong.
Unproven QB
At best a equal D-Line
No pass rush
O-Line will be slightly better because Swindle is gone and there won't be as many off side penalty's
I'm just not falling for the hype until I see results.
I hope Stoops will get it done but he's been a disappointment so far.
Look at who was playing left tackle for us last year. Tate is a definite upgrade. Coaches are really high on him.
I said hopefully he'll be an upgrade, can hardly be any worse, but we won't know for sure until he takes the field against good SEC teams.
I usually talk to my son about this time every night/morning.... I guess I'm just lucky.....
Alabama doesn't offer JUCO's they don't intend to start right away, just no need for JUCO "projects" with 4-5 stars stacked at every position.
No, they (and many others) recruited Tate to start from day1, just as he will start, and excel, at UK on day 1.
Meantt, Middleton, bell, and miggins looks like a better group than all but a few of our dlines the last 20 years. Outside of meantt all these guys had legit d1 offers.
We played a lot of years with only 1 guy with another d1 offer. Miggins was a projected starter for Ms st by most of their fans before our signing day steal. Middleton had Charlie strong drooling and that guy knows D. Meantt was starting ahead of cj part of the season before injury.
Pringle needs to be a solid backup at NT and dubose needs to be healthy by fall and this line will be deeper and more talented than last year. Not as experienced but I've seen enough bad players with experience that I'll roll with our current situation and be happy til proven otherwise.
OT still worries me even though we should be better... will it be enough to hold a pocket?
And qb is still the biggest? ??? On the team.
I don't think the oline will be a great pass blocking group yet. I do think UK runs the heck out of the ball this year. The projected starters on the oline are all extremely big and nasty. Leavitt 310 George 315 Toth 310 Meyers 320 and Young 305 are all big time roadgraders. Throw in what I believe is the next 3 Haynes 308 Meadows 305 and Mosier 330 and you got some running lanes.
Seems like a rehash of old posts on previous seasons. Hope the results ate not the same.
The OL will be better unless we have injuries. The DL looks promising but we usually say that every year.
I will bet anybody that we don't finish 4 8
I will bet you 50 bucks that UK finishes better than 4 8?
You are right. A lot of Auburn fans were excited about Cam Newton also.
Maybe a stretch, but we aren't exactly asking him to replace an All American, are we? He isn't just a four star, he is a 5.9 four star, another way of looking at it is if both were degraded 0.1 by Rivals we would be replacing a two star with a four star.
And actually we do seem to be doing that on the OL quite a bit in recent years, the 07 team with a pretty good offense had a starting OL that averaged about a 5.2, if it amounted to a hill of beans we could start an OL that averages over a 5.8 next year..
Leavitt isn't coming in straight out of high school.
Despite having a massive drop in offensive production, the defense actually improved quite well last yr. While the personnel isn't perfect yet, the depth and talent across the board on defense is the best it's been in the last 5-6 yrs. Certainly I expect some defensive struggles at times but I'm most concerned with the offense production. We can't be as stagnant as last yr if we expect to register a winning season.
I agree but when we lose a player like Lewis early, it's hard for us to reach into our depth chart and pull someone up with the same abilities. This is the problem that Stoops and staff are trying to fix.
I agree dline is very very hard to recruit. There is a handful of college ready big guys and they all go to the powerhouse teams. UK has guys in the system right now that are developing guys like Middleton Dubose Meant Miggins Bell and Daniel will determine are dline success.
Well that was the prediction so not really that funny. If all these negative posters truly believe UK is not making progress put your money where your mouth is.
I thought the defense was pretty good last year with the exception a couple of rough games. I would solely credit the poor offensive play with at least 3 losses last year. This staff has done a pretty good job of coaching up the less than stellar talent we have had on the DL. If they can coach this group up, we should see a pretty good unit by mid-season. Remember, the 3 man front relies a lot more on the backers and ends to pressure the QB and contain.
Wow, I just posted that from different computer that had my old username logged in. I didn't know that still worked. I haven't used that name since right after we switched from Catspause.
Meant elam and Miggins have experience and size and athleticism. Those 3 guys will be solid the key will be Middleton Dubose Pringle Daniel and Bell giving quality depth. Positive is all these guys have length and athleticism so we will be ok.
The biggest improvement will be coaching and that will be on the offensive side of the ball. That can help our defense but won't replace it.
All the talk about an improved DL is normal Kentucky fan preseason wishful thinking. Nothing wrong with that but it would be very risky reasoning to bet the mortgage money on.
Can the DL improve? Of course it can. Is there solid personnel reasoning or experience to predict that improvement? No there isn't. Several players will have to exceed their ranking and nobody can suffer injury for this DL to improve
We now have one lineman that was rated above a 5.6 by Rivals and he is a Juco who as we all know normally takes a year to play up to their potential. These guys will be playing against SEC programs folk. If they were 4th and 5th year players that had the max development and experience that would be one thing, but they don't, they are mostly in their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year of development at Kentucky.
Best bet for 6 wins is overall team improvement. Offense, defense, and ST's. I just cannot buy the hype our lackluster DL who lost four starters from last year is going to make big improvements with it's dearth of even upper mid-range talent and experience.
All the talk about an improved DL is normal Kentucky fan preseason wishful thinking. Nothing wrong with that but it would be very risky reasoning to bet the mortgage money on.
Can the DL improve? Of course it can. Is there solid personnel reasoning or experience to predict that improvement? No there isn't. Several players will have to exceed their ranking and nobody can suffer injury for this DL to improve
We now have one lineman that was rated above a 5.6 by Rivals and he is a Juco who as we all know normally takes a year to play up to their potential. These guys will be playing against SEC programs folk. If they were 4th and 5th year players that had the max development and experience that would be one thing, but they don't, they are mostly in their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year of development at Kentucky.
Best bet for 6 wins is overall team improvement. Offense, defense, and ST's. I just cannot buy the hype our lackluster DL who lost four starters from last year is going to make big improvements with it's dearth of even upper mid-range talent and experience.
1 linemen over 5.6 seems low, but most my life UK had 1 or,2 DL guys on the roster with a d1 offer outside us. We are a hell of lot more talented by offer sheet than we usually are,at dl.
Maybe.
Historically we haven't had very good DL on any sort of consistent basis. So my question to you is, would you bet a large amount of money that we will have a better than average DL this year? How long has it been since we had a DL better than half the teams in the SEC anyway?