Since it's an off week lets really get the crystal ball out and speculate.
On Offense:
For me I would assume that we lose both Trey Smith and Brandon Kennedy on the OL along with J Jennings, M Callaway, T Byrd and B Johnson at WR and DWA at TE.
Who knows about the QB as that's a BIG question mark at this time.
We do get D Gibbs at WR next year thank goodness. Ramel Keyton should help next year along with C Tillman and hopefully J Means. Who else would contribute?
I think you have to figure we will NOT be as good next year at WR as we have been this year.
We also lose DWA at TE but if we can sign Darnell Washington I think we come out ahead as DWA has not been as good a player as many of us were hoping for and I think D Washington would be a better blocker. Of course, in his defense I think part of that was the QB situation but his hands are just ok not amazing.
On the OL I think the Freshmen tackles should be much improved as they get additional coaching and another year of S&C. In addition to Smith and Kennedy we also lose J Johnson, M Tatum and R Johnson. You might plug in Chris Akporoghene at left guard.
Overall on the OL IF B Kennedy were to come back I'm pretty sure we would be better even though I hate losing T Smith.
On Defense obviously our biggest loss is Daniel Bituli, Darrell Taylor and Nigel Warrior.
I think our DL and DB's will be better next year and with more coaching I think we can upgrade our DB's.
I never would have thought that losing N Warrior would be a loss but he has really come on. Good for him.
Obviously, losing Bituli is a big loss but Henry T is coming on and can hopefully fill his void. Lord only knows who would take over the ILB position that Henry T leaves. I am hopeful that Q Crouch can take over as he has the very raw talent so it all depends on him learning the system as his pass coverage skills are bad supposedly. You never know, one of the other LB's could come on or perhaps a Freshman next year may perform as well as Henry T did this year.
As for the QB situation I will only say that putting your faith in H Bailey would be VERY risky, most Freshmen QB's are NOT at all ready to play in the SEC.
I think this year proved that with a QB that plays well we would be looking at a 9-3 season which is beating all the people we should beat before we can compete with the UF, GA and Bama's of the world. We need to find a way to run the ball better next year as we will not be as good at WR to bail us out on less than perfect throws and to get as many jump balls.
On Offense:
For me I would assume that we lose both Trey Smith and Brandon Kennedy on the OL along with J Jennings, M Callaway, T Byrd and B Johnson at WR and DWA at TE.
Who knows about the QB as that's a BIG question mark at this time.
We do get D Gibbs at WR next year thank goodness. Ramel Keyton should help next year along with C Tillman and hopefully J Means. Who else would contribute?
I think you have to figure we will NOT be as good next year at WR as we have been this year.
We also lose DWA at TE but if we can sign Darnell Washington I think we come out ahead as DWA has not been as good a player as many of us were hoping for and I think D Washington would be a better blocker. Of course, in his defense I think part of that was the QB situation but his hands are just ok not amazing.
On the OL I think the Freshmen tackles should be much improved as they get additional coaching and another year of S&C. In addition to Smith and Kennedy we also lose J Johnson, M Tatum and R Johnson. You might plug in Chris Akporoghene at left guard.
Overall on the OL IF B Kennedy were to come back I'm pretty sure we would be better even though I hate losing T Smith.
On Defense obviously our biggest loss is Daniel Bituli, Darrell Taylor and Nigel Warrior.
I think our DL and DB's will be better next year and with more coaching I think we can upgrade our DB's.
I never would have thought that losing N Warrior would be a loss but he has really come on. Good for him.
Obviously, losing Bituli is a big loss but Henry T is coming on and can hopefully fill his void. Lord only knows who would take over the ILB position that Henry T leaves. I am hopeful that Q Crouch can take over as he has the very raw talent so it all depends on him learning the system as his pass coverage skills are bad supposedly. You never know, one of the other LB's could come on or perhaps a Freshman next year may perform as well as Henry T did this year.
As for the QB situation I will only say that putting your faith in H Bailey would be VERY risky, most Freshmen QB's are NOT at all ready to play in the SEC.
I think this year proved that with a QB that plays well we would be looking at a 9-3 season which is beating all the people we should beat before we can compete with the UF, GA and Bama's of the world. We need to find a way to run the ball better next year as we will not be as good at WR to bail us out on less than perfect throws and to get as many jump balls.
