Ranking the SEC East’s wide receiver groupings for 2016
- Thread starter wildcatman26
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I was surprised our group was ranked third going by returning yardage we would be at or near the bottom, then read the article, we didn't play Arkansas or Arizona St. last year and beat PSU in the Taxslayer Bowl.
Not even mentioned was Timmons, who I think may break out of his funk this year.
These guys over at SEC Country have us going 8-4 overall and 5-3 in the SEC. They rate Barker the 3rd best QB in the league and they say we have the best receiving corp in the east. I just hope they know more than a lot of people on this message board(myself included). We shall see.
No... ascending would mean you're starting at the lowest and going to the highest.
Anyway, I think we have a ton of talent and ability at WR. However, we have to get the ball to these guys consistently. We've struggled with that for years. If we can regularly make the easy throws and catches then our offense is going to be one hell of a force. Boom will be a home run threat every time he gets the ball and defenses will have to key on him. When those linebackers creep up then Johnson will easily take one to the house over the middle. The talent on this offense is unreal... we just have to get some good blocking and a quarterback that can make the throws. Barker has the credentials... now he needs to make it happen.
This is why I think, when people say 6 wins will be hard I laugh. We should win 6 with ease this season and 7 is where I am setting the bar. 8 will be overachieving and 6 will be underachieving imo.
All those people saying 4-5 wins don't know what their talking about. The people who get paid sure think we are better than that and so do I!!!!!
On paper, the only games I see UK having little or no chance to win are Bama and UT, the other 10 vary from 30 to basically 100% chance to win. Of course games aren't played on paper, its not likely but UK could beat Bama and UT and lose the other 10.
What you are saying is the same thing as last season. I thought last season we would have good chance at 8 wins.... well we did and had a good chance of losing every game we played as well.
I'm not sure how much confidence fans have in the OL/DL/ coaching staff/ QB etc.
On paper we have the weapons on offense to hang with anybody, its the execution part that has people scratching their heads.
The biggest concern is the quality and number of bodies we can put on the field. Fans see greatness, in coaching staffs and execution, when those two things are SEC caliber. The OL/DL and Quarterback positions are still in their infancy in terms of both. The only solid unit that we have is the Secondary. All others are obvious question marks to everyone. All talk of potential should refer back to the unhappy but gutty saga of our most recently transferedt quarterback. What's on paper sometimes never makes it to the field.
We've just begun SEC quality recruiting in the last three and one half years and we still rank near the bottom of the conference in that category. Keep giving the coaches more high caliber players, at all positions, and watch how much better their decisions and coaching becomes. Not to mention our W/L records.
Trying to look at this as a sports fan not wearing "true fan" blue blinders. In any event here is to 7 wins without any stumbles.
The Las Vegas over/under released yesterday for UK was 5 (the same as it was for Vandy).
I agree that the secondary is the best we have on the team and they were true freshmen last year. Don't really need a decade to get better just need good coaching. We have the recruits to make the leap to be a respectable unit but development has lacked in several areas. With the changes Stoops has made the past winter it was for the better.
Hopefully he makes some more this upcoming year and replaces the staff members who are not pulling their weight.
Man, I hate the thought of waiting a whole season to get my money back, but I have to come up with some money for that.
Brother, could you loan me a dime? LOL
I think whoever loses that game still has a good chance at five, and whoever wins will have a huge step up. If UK wins this game I think we win at least six, good chance at seven.
I used to have this kind of optimism. But Coach Stoops' and his staff's inability to put a fundamentally sound team on the field together with their on-field coaching lapses have dampened my optimism.
We seem to have upgraded the talent, but the coaching remains woefully suspect, IMHO.
We all know about the typical JUCO player KY gets which is usually an average first year and then the lights come on second year, but Ross looks like he has worked very hard to get ready. Tall, athletic, and appears to be physical. Will be very interesting to see if he takes snaps away from others. If I am Blake Bone, I am putting in the summer workouts of my life.
Baker has the potential to be All SEC, but the question remains about his maturity level and suspect hands.
I am in the camp of not have any expectations for Timmons so hopefully he becomes the most improved player on the team as reports from Spring indicate.
Badet will remain steady on the outside.
IMO, Juice will need to be the workhorse this coming year and hopefully stay healthy. Kid has ALOT of potential if he can only play every game like his does when he plays Florida.
Baker has the potential to be All SEC, but the question remains about his maturity level and suspect hands.
I am in the camp of not have any expectations for Timmons so hopefully he becomes the most improved player on the team as reports from Spring indicate.
Badet will remain steady on the outside.
IMO, Juice will need to be the workhorse this coming year and hopefully stay healthy. Kid has ALOT of potential if he can only play every game like his does when he plays Florida.
When we talk about our receivers, have to remember Barker must have time to pick out an open receiver and deliver the ball, which falls on our offensive line. In the recent past, this has been a big problem. Then the receiver must catch the football instead of dropping it. I like our new receiver coach and I have hopes that Baker, Johnson, Bone, Badet will play better. But I think Ross, Greenwood, Richardson are going to play and contribute a lot. Ross is a big time addition who could really help Barker.
Hoping a newcomer or 2 can push the WRs. Johnson's the best of the lot but is very small and gets knocked around. Badet is the only one with anywhere near plus speed. Bone can't get off press coverage by SEC DBs. Baker is the poorest route runner on the squad and generally lacks the attitude to really excel. I too expect nothing from Timmons. Lots of questions about this group.
Baker is a good looking athlete, yes he had a couple of drops last season. But I think it was the timing of his drops that magnified the number, it seemed like they were always at a crucial point in the game or on the field. As for being all SEC, the kid at A&M and Ridley at Bama will be hard to get off the first team and are head a shoulders better than anyone returning in the SEC this season
If some of our newcomers don't put up good numbers this season we may not pass for a 1000 yards. We only had 4 WR on scholarship for spring after one was moved and stayed at RB and they are all soph. We have a JUCO coming in, but they usually don't work out very well for us and 3 frosh WR next week. We have almost as many TE and we do WR, I guess one of them could move outside, he is about 6'4" 230 and very fast for a TE, We do have 4 TE who are all 6'5" 250 or better and all 4 have good hands so our leading receiver could come from the TE group. Richt recruited some talented kids, but class seperation was a strength of his. Our WR and OL recruiting hasn't been good for years.
Our best returning receivers got hurt by missing their redshirt opportunity. Johnson - true junior, small, our most skilled receiver but wore down late last year after taking a beating in October. Baker - true junior with good size and skills who still has a lot to learn about trade craft. Bone - true junior with great size and football IQ who must be used right because he isn't very fast. Badet - our fastest receiver, but very small. Timmons - missed his redshirt and never caught up physically or otherwise. Walker - great heart and hands, but lacks other tools. Ross - athletic, great size, good speed, could become an elite SEC receiver. Richardson - good size, good hands, redshirt season helped, we will see if he has enough speed. Greenwood - redshirt season helped, skilled, good size, nice upside. By November, Ross and Greenwood should be among the best receivers in our offense.
when I look at this coming year, I see C J Conrad as one if not the best of the receivers and he is not mentioned. That will be a large part of of offense. Not to worry about offense to much it will be greatly enlarged with our new Oc....
Not so fast. TE's like Gates, Witten, Whalen, Tamme and yes, Conrad can not be left out of the conversation when discussing receivers for there respective teams. They are essentially receivers when they are targeted and must be accounted for as such each play by defenses.
One thing for sure, they had better not leave him unaccounted for. And that leaves more openings for the WRs.
My confidence in QB and OL was low but it growing since the spring game. Both looked fairly well. I'd still like to see them in real games first but at least those spots appear to be improving. DL is another story. From what I saw in the spring game our DL has gotten much worse since the end of the season.
I think our D line is better than you are giving them credit. Our O line is much improved and that is why the D line did not impress as much. I think this is the year our lines are part of our strength.