I think the last two weeks of camp have gone great for us. I think our fans should be very excited about where we stand.
First of all...lets look around the league. Georgia continues to have three players not stand out at QB. It is now likely that they will enter their first couple of games still playing two of the three guys, and for a team that doesn't have all that much at receiver to begin with, and that relies on a balanced, pro style offense with an active passing game to loosen up and exploit the defense, and for a starting QB that needs all the reps he can get to begin with, this continued uncertainty and subpar talent level at the position will pay dividends for some of their opponents later in the fall. There is a very legit weak spot on that team.
Florida remains a clown show on offense and none of their recent 5 stars have come in and won jobs. CeCe Jefferson showed up a legit 6'1" and no one is talking about him having Kyle Phillips type explosiveness in any live action. Haven't heard of any sacks he's made...Even their homers on Rivals just give the standard "he looks good running around"
Arkansas obviously got hit hard with injuries and even ol' Alabama seems to have some offensive issues of its own as Coker still can't take the QB job and is now out for a week or so. And they aren't exactly rolling out Amari Cooper, Trent Richardson, Barrett Jones and Chance Womack anymore on that side of the ball either. Drake and those guys still are very good, but they aren't unstoppable.
Not aware of any opponent coming out and somehow drastically transforming itself for the better so far this August...nothing intelligent sounding out of S Carolina.
As for us.... yes, losing Marcus Jackson is a major disappointment. We certainly did not need an injury there. To him...Just gonna have to wait and see on what Crowder and Jack Jones can produce on game days. OL is obviously our issue.
But the rest is all manageable. Would have been nice for Dillon Bates to show up more, so far at this point. I know there were still a few rubes who held out hope Dontavious Blair might all of a sudden magically produce. Justin Martin has missed some valuable time. The Preston Williams situation blows...but still should work out...
But that's mainly it.
And the positives? Well, there are almost too many to count...in no order...
1) We got Von back and he's good to go...this was a major "to do" item three weeks ago.
2) Aaron Medley. Seems like we have a legit weapon there.
3) Neither Shy Tuttle or Khalil McKenzie have been busts (always was the doomsday scenario). Quite the opposite in fact. They are guys who will impact games this year and very much are what we assumed they would be.
4) Kyle Phillips is even better than we thought.
5) Kendall Vickers, Owen Williams, and D Mixon all evolving into upper level talent.
6) Vincent Perry is a future player. Great pick up out of nowhere (not geographically).
7) Kirkland seems to have hit his stride and is gonna do what many hoped at linebacker. Proven to be a guy with unique talent. Bynum is much improved (better than nothing...)
8) Josh Malone coming around. Josh Smith appears to be solid.
9) Kyler Kerbyson seems a good bit better to me.
10) Coleman Thomas is better. He will still give up some plays, but I bet it's half as many as last year and there is potentially a way to live with that.
11) All of the freshmen OL (and I include Mosely) have come in and proven to be keepers.
12) J Jennings. Completely transformed the outlook at receiver moving forward.
13) Might have found a couple of decent depth guys at RB. Kamara just keeps getting better.
14) QD at QB
15) E Moseley just gets better. Justin Martin is legit. Gaulden is continuing his development
Hell, they even found a home for J Johnson... And I could go on...Yes, our TEAM still has some hurdles to overcome over the next month (sure BRAJP can talk all about passing game timing, conditioning, the walking wounded, depth at TE, etc) but in reality, I think the last three weeks might have been the single biggest demonstration of tangible improvement and development in our program that we have seen in a decade, and certainly under Butch...
If they play today, I think team 119 beats the team 118 that started against Iowa by two touchdowns, maybe 20 points. What other team in the conference can say that just happened to them? And we have played some close games against our side of the conference recently...
Now lets get another OL panic thread going...
First of all...lets look around the league. Georgia continues to have three players not stand out at QB. It is now likely that they will enter their first couple of games still playing two of the three guys, and for a team that doesn't have all that much at receiver to begin with, and that relies on a balanced, pro style offense with an active passing game to loosen up and exploit the defense, and for a starting QB that needs all the reps he can get to begin with, this continued uncertainty and subpar talent level at the position will pay dividends for some of their opponents later in the fall. There is a very legit weak spot on that team.
Florida remains a clown show on offense and none of their recent 5 stars have come in and won jobs. CeCe Jefferson showed up a legit 6'1" and no one is talking about him having Kyle Phillips type explosiveness in any live action. Haven't heard of any sacks he's made...Even their homers on Rivals just give the standard "he looks good running around"
Arkansas obviously got hit hard with injuries and even ol' Alabama seems to have some offensive issues of its own as Coker still can't take the QB job and is now out for a week or so. And they aren't exactly rolling out Amari Cooper, Trent Richardson, Barrett Jones and Chance Womack anymore on that side of the ball either. Drake and those guys still are very good, but they aren't unstoppable.
Not aware of any opponent coming out and somehow drastically transforming itself for the better so far this August...nothing intelligent sounding out of S Carolina.
As for us.... yes, losing Marcus Jackson is a major disappointment. We certainly did not need an injury there. To him...Just gonna have to wait and see on what Crowder and Jack Jones can produce on game days. OL is obviously our issue.
But the rest is all manageable. Would have been nice for Dillon Bates to show up more, so far at this point. I know there were still a few rubes who held out hope Dontavious Blair might all of a sudden magically produce. Justin Martin has missed some valuable time. The Preston Williams situation blows...but still should work out...
But that's mainly it.
And the positives? Well, there are almost too many to count...in no order...
1) We got Von back and he's good to go...this was a major "to do" item three weeks ago.
2) Aaron Medley. Seems like we have a legit weapon there.
3) Neither Shy Tuttle or Khalil McKenzie have been busts (always was the doomsday scenario). Quite the opposite in fact. They are guys who will impact games this year and very much are what we assumed they would be.
4) Kyle Phillips is even better than we thought.
5) Kendall Vickers, Owen Williams, and D Mixon all evolving into upper level talent.
6) Vincent Perry is a future player. Great pick up out of nowhere (not geographically).
7) Kirkland seems to have hit his stride and is gonna do what many hoped at linebacker. Proven to be a guy with unique talent. Bynum is much improved (better than nothing...)
8) Josh Malone coming around. Josh Smith appears to be solid.
9) Kyler Kerbyson seems a good bit better to me.
10) Coleman Thomas is better. He will still give up some plays, but I bet it's half as many as last year and there is potentially a way to live with that.
11) All of the freshmen OL (and I include Mosely) have come in and proven to be keepers.
12) J Jennings. Completely transformed the outlook at receiver moving forward.
13) Might have found a couple of decent depth guys at RB. Kamara just keeps getting better.
14) QD at QB
15) E Moseley just gets better. Justin Martin is legit. Gaulden is continuing his development
Hell, they even found a home for J Johnson... And I could go on...Yes, our TEAM still has some hurdles to overcome over the next month (sure BRAJP can talk all about passing game timing, conditioning, the walking wounded, depth at TE, etc) but in reality, I think the last three weeks might have been the single biggest demonstration of tangible improvement and development in our program that we have seen in a decade, and certainly under Butch...
If they play today, I think team 119 beats the team 118 that started against Iowa by two touchdowns, maybe 20 points. What other team in the conference can say that just happened to them? And we have played some close games against our side of the conference recently...
Now lets get another OL panic thread going...
