Three thoughts from the spring game
- Thread starter UKErik
- Start date
Good post. I've said all along losing Tubman and Hatcher are HUGE losses. People say Hatcher didn't mean much but they're wrong. He was one of the top 2 talented players returning on our D. Too bad he couldn't get his head straight.
Our DL has no SEC depth. I think Elam and Ware will be good, but beyond that? Not up to SEC standards at all.
It's gonna be an absolute train wreck. I like our talent at LB, but they have no SEC experience, which means they will struggle.
Our defensive strength is in the Secondary, but like you said it won't matter because of our D-Line depth.
UL will beat us yet again and prevent us from getting 6 wins if I had to wager money on our season.
Very disappointing thread. I would only point out that we are undergoing a complete rebuild of the DL having lost all contributors the past year, same thing with the LB corps. I would suggest holding off judgement until you can see the finished product.
I would have to disagree that RB is a weak point on our team, in fact if the WRs group doesn't catch the ball better then they did last year, I would say the RBs is our strongest offensive part of the team. Do we still have problems picking up a running QB, yes it does seem that we do.
When I watch the spring game I look for size speed and mobility out of all positions. We have sec athletes at every position. People can dog the dline but Elam and Meant are quality players and have played a bunch. Miggins played quite a bit last year and has good size and speed. We have 2 dynamic rb we have a bunch of returning experience at wr and interior oline. I think the dline ends up being pretty good. We do need guys like Middleton Taylor Pringle Dubose to develop but atleast we have size and strength to work with. If. The dline can pick up the techniques they will be fine. The backers are good and very very fast. Jones Love Brown Daniel Laster Ware Allen are very talented. Not to mention a secondary with 3 studs and a solid senior in mclain. I like this team and saw size length and athleticism that can compete against the teams we play.
Im definitely an optimist when it comes to our football team and what Stoops is building.
But I absolutely share your concerns around the OT and Dline positions. And the spring game did nothing but heighten those fears.
At Tackle, the lack of success of Leavitt is very disheartening. We needed he and Young to be immediate upgrades in the worst way. The good news is that Meadows and Mosier DO look to have improved and Leavitt will get better. BUT in my opinion it becomes absolutely imparative at this point that Young lives up to his ranking and locks down a Left tackle spot from the jump. IF he does that the offense can still be very good. As the interior Oline looks solid and you can hide one subpar Tackle much much easier than you can two (as we saw last year)
The Dline just reaks of no legit SEC talent much less NFL talent. We had that the last 3 years with Stoops and still struggled to stop the run and pressure the QB. Can we honestly say any of our 2 deep Dline would start or even play significant roles on any other SEC team? Miggins looks to have the best combination of athleticism and size. But other than that it looks sparse. I'm just not optimistic that Elam ever develops. He just doesn't seem to have the discipline or desire to get significantly better. And Meant is just limited and is what he is. For someone that you hear about being physical as his best trait, he seems to constantly being washed down the line of scrimmage or 3 yards off the ball. Middleton and Bell still looks like nonfactors, Daniel still looks a year or two away and Pringle was dominated in the Spring game. Not a glowing outlook. Perhaps Looney, Cross or the Dubose surprise. And I hope to god we get the Nebraska transfer to come in and make a difference.
We just need to try and be serviceable on the Dline this year. The good news is we have lots of big bodies and that hasn't always been the case. I frankly think the 3-4 needs to go this year. Stack the line of scrimmage and take your chance with the secondary holding up much more often then not.
I really think we can be much better in 2017 on defense. Guys like Meant, Middleton, Elam, and Dubose will all have been around for 4 years. Add a couple of redshirts in Cross and Looney and hopefully a highly ranked Hudson and a juco Provitt. Still not ready to be a dominant Dline but it starts to look a lot more like a Miss St or Mizzo Dline with grown men playing even if they aren't the most talented.
But I absolutely share your concerns around the OT and Dline positions. And the spring game did nothing but heighten those fears.
At Tackle, the lack of success of Leavitt is very disheartening. We needed he and Young to be immediate upgrades in the worst way. The good news is that Meadows and Mosier DO look to have improved and Leavitt will get better. BUT in my opinion it becomes absolutely imparative at this point that Young lives up to his ranking and locks down a Left tackle spot from the jump. IF he does that the offense can still be very good. As the interior Oline looks solid and you can hide one subpar Tackle much much easier than you can two (as we saw last year)
The Dline just reaks of no legit SEC talent much less NFL talent. We had that the last 3 years with Stoops and still struggled to stop the run and pressure the QB. Can we honestly say any of our 2 deep Dline would start or even play significant roles on any other SEC team? Miggins looks to have the best combination of athleticism and size. But other than that it looks sparse. I'm just not optimistic that Elam ever develops. He just doesn't seem to have the discipline or desire to get significantly better. And Meant is just limited and is what he is. For someone that you hear about being physical as his best trait, he seems to constantly being washed down the line of scrimmage or 3 yards off the ball. Middleton and Bell still looks like nonfactors, Daniel still looks a year or two away and Pringle was dominated in the Spring game. Not a glowing outlook. Perhaps Looney, Cross or the Dubose surprise. And I hope to god we get the Nebraska transfer to come in and make a difference.
We just need to try and be serviceable on the Dline this year. The good news is we have lots of big bodies and that hasn't always been the case. I frankly think the 3-4 needs to go this year. Stack the line of scrimmage and take your chance with the secondary holding up much more often then not.
I really think we can be much better in 2017 on defense. Guys like Meant, Middleton, Elam, and Dubose will all have been around for 4 years. Add a couple of redshirts in Cross and Looney and hopefully a highly ranked Hudson and a juco Provitt. Still not ready to be a dominant Dline but it starts to look a lot more like a Miss St or Mizzo Dline with grown men playing even if they aren't the most talented.
I'm amazed at the amount of flipping out over a scrimmage where everything was pretty much vanilla lol.
JUCO's take a while to adjust. Normally suck their Jr year. Tate is getting that out in the spring and summer and will be improved by end of fall camp.
DL didn't do anything to jump out but they weren't getting blown off the ball by our interior line and that's a solid group. Elam got lazy on a few plays but battled for a lot of snaps that first half. Pringle has to get up to speed by the end of fall to spell him. Pringle needs to play 20 or so downs this year.
I thought the lber looked great for being so young. We didn't do any scheming which makes it hard to judge much but overall they attacked the ball carrier and stopped forward progress.
Not thrilled with spring but saw positives.
DL didn't do anything to jump out but they weren't getting blown off the ball by our interior line and that's a solid group. Elam got lazy on a few plays but battled for a lot of snaps that first half. Pringle has to get up to speed by the end of fall to spell him. Pringle needs to play 20 or so downs this year.
I thought the lber looked great for being so young. We didn't do any scheming which makes it hard to judge much but overall they attacked the ball carrier and stopped forward progress.
Not thrilled with spring but saw positives.
Laster was running 2nd team, apparently someone learned how to block him.
Then either that doesn't speak very well of our coaching staff or our players sucked because we were horrid on D last year too. So we're either going to still suck because the coaching staff sucks or we'll improve because we have better players this year.
totally agree with stacking the line of scrimmage and taking chances with our talented secondary. We have to do something to stop the run.
True. But those injuries also allowed for some experience to be gained...not sure if some (who are doomers about stopping the run) realize how much Middleton, Elam, Miggins played toward the end of the year...or how much Meant played at the beginning. And those dudes were not gashed up the middle.
Edge rushers and outside containment are the true ?s IMO...I think we will be fine against the run between the tackles.
A weak defensive line in the SEC is a sure recipe for disaster. I don't expect UK to stop the run but if they can't at least slow it down there is no chance of competing. I fear this is going to be another really bad year.
The defense played well enough last year that of we had ANY offense at all we at least win three (otis, Fla, vandy) more games last year...you CANNOT average 18 ppg-- well maybe Alabama could -- and expect to win in today's college football and that is my biggest fear with Mark Stoops... If this year's team can average 30-35 PPG I think we will surprise a lot of people
ERIK do you see the possibility of improvement in the weaker Positions this summer either by added players or improved players.. Did the conditioning of the players as a whole seem better. I guess what I am asking do you think the possibility of going to a bowl can change from being a possibility to being a probablity I realy appreciate your post and respect your opinion
That will be what tanks the season IMO. Unless they can go out and *somewhat* stop the run, we're doomed.
For all the gnashing of teeth, hemming and hawing, etc...SEC football is pretty simple: To win you have to be able to run the ball on O and stop the run on D. It's been that way for decades and isn't changing anytime soon.
The defense is improved and has better depth. The question is how improved and will the depth be a factor in helping keep the offense off the field and fresh. I tend to think optimistically on this issue. I still say 6-6, 7-5 and the upset will be Florida in the Swamp.