Autry will give us a chance against the more pass-happy teams on our schedule. The absense of Big Pern REALLY reared it's ugly head in the Auburn and Arkansas games this past year. Autry helps our odds tremendously against the Arkansas, Tennessee, and Auburn pass attacks. Our d-line skill and depth is beginning to really put us in a position to compete with the top of the conference on the defensive front. On the defensive side period, really. We finished last year roughly identical to 2010 in scoring d, and we had a GLARING hole at rush end... had we adequately filled that position previously, we would've been close to a top 10 defense(finished #16 in scoring d). Are we confident that we have a rush end for post-Autry? This was one reason I hated to miss on Channing Ward...but one of our other signees may fill the role, I'm not sure.
We need more...ALOT MORE...out of the offensive line. Gabe Jackson is a sure thing at this point. On his current path, he'll be a first or 2nd rounder(projects as the #6OG in the 2014 draft). From there, we need 4 of the following to be solid: Siddoway, Holley, Robinson, Day, Clausell, Trapp, Hardy...assuming that one of the rs fr don't step up, and I don't expect them to. I still firmly believe that it takes 90% of o-linemen 3 years out of HS to be truly ready to contribute, which basically says that we should have a bunch of new bodies ready to contribute this year....