Real talk about 2012...

bomb

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2012 is going to be brutal. Young players at key positions, little upperclass talent and leadership and depth is going to be as scary as we've ever seen it. Keep that word in mind… depth. It's going to be an albatross. We are going to have OVER 40 FRESHMEN ON SCHOLARSHIP next year. That means a TOTAL of 40-45 sophs, juniors, and seniors combined. Yeah, half our team is going to be freshmen.

This is a long term repair and rebuild project. Think of last years class as the Santana Moss class. The goal is to be good before they leave. Let's just pray we don't have scholarship reductions.
 
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Not buying that. Where will we be weaker except LB? Oline will be much better with Kehoe gone. That will help the running game and give Morris more time.

Dline will be strong with Porter and Vernon playing a full year. Secondary will be vastly improved with the freshman.
 
Disagree
OL can't be worse, if Washington is back and seantrel healthy - Bunche, feliciano and Linder can't be worse than gunn, horn et al
DL will be better just with porter, smith, chick and Vernon for a whole season
If ojomo reruns and plays inside and Trimble/Pierre develop - we are already better
LB will tough, least perryman looks the part and one of the two in Gaines or Cain will be better
Cookie will be back also
db well it will be **** again- don't care for any hype with tmaq or rayray
At least depth will be better just due to shear numbers

Offense will be addition by subtraction
Benjamin and Harris alone cost us games this year and years past
Morris/Williams alone will be better and streeter, hurns and dorsett will be an improvement
Losing ford at TE is not a loss, and fb is covered
Miller will, but james will be ten pounds lighter, clements shows a burst and duke will get touches
 
As usual, you are both right. Next year could go either way, but my sense is, the second year will show a lot of improvement.
 
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Write up an actual 2-deep for each unit and I think you might come around. You might even have a problem filling in some spots. Again, just about HALF our scholarship players next year are going to be designated as freshmen, will have never, ever played a down of football (outside of the rare instance of a kid who played a few downs this year and still keep his shirt).

Depth is so important over a full season.

Edit: FYI I am not saying we will be a worse football team next year. I think having a 2nd year in the system and continuity will help. But we're talking about improving from 6-6 which is no great shakes. We sucked this year. We had 3-4 players, total.

We could actually be a much better football team but not see much of an improvement with the record due to just a couple of key injuries because of our striking amount of youth, complete lack of depth, and lack of upper clansmen leadership.

I am serious. Draw up a 2-deep. We did it, but on paper and it was ugly.
 
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Write up an actual 2-deep for each unit and I think you might come around. You might even have a problem filling in some spots. Again, just about HALF our scholarship players next year are going to be designated as freshmen, will have never, ever played a down of football (outside of the rare instance of a kid who played a few downs this year and still keep his shirt).

Depth is so important over a full season.


I actually wrote a 2-deep a while ago, but I'm sure the post has dropped off the board.


Defensive depth is going to be a mess, but I think the starters will perform better, and there will be more familiarity with the scheme. The key to next year's team will be improved physicality in the trenches.
 
whats wrong with Freshman playing if they're good. USC is a top 10 team right now and they have freshman starting all over the field. Are you saying that AJ Legett or Deon Bush wont be an upgrade over Mike Williams?
 
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Think what bomb is noting isn't the skill set of the youngsters
Its the double factor of experience and a long and physical season
we may be more talented on the two deep, but with 60% or more contributing 19 & 18 years old, expect poor execution, foolish mistakes and wearing down
We've bee here due to poor classes, where young players were not allowed the year or two to physically develop, but we also saw it with butchs cleansing classes led by Clements, but culminating with edgerrins UCLA game
Took two years to cleanse, two years to recruit, two years to coalesce
 
The thing is


At least 40 current players won't be here next year. Being shown the door
 
Think what bomb is noting isn't the skill set of the youngsters
Its the double factor of experience and a long and physical season
we may be more talented on the two deep, but with 60% or more contributing 19 & 18 years old, expect poor execution, foolish mistakes and wearing down
We've bee here due to poor classes, where young players were not allowed the year or two to physically develop, but we also saw it with butchs cleansing classes led by Clements, but culminating with edgerrins UCLA game
Took two years to cleanse, two years to recruit, two years to coalesce

Precisely. There is an adage in CFB coaching... you lose a game for every freshman you start. Now that's an antiquated sentiment to some extent as it goes back to the days when almost everyone redshirted, but you obviously get my point. It's a long season and you want freshmen to compliment your starters, not be them. Chick is a monster, and he's been excellent for a freshman, but he's disappeared a lot this year. I think we ALL love Perryman, but look how long it took for him to get comfortable in the system and see the field. And if he had gotten on early, then we'd have the physical and mental wear and tear of a CFB season on kids who have been here a month or two... a semester if you're lucky.

Big depth problems. We has it.
 
I think we'll be more talented next year, barring injuries. Depth will be an issue but we'll have a lot of talented young guys vying for time.

OL shouldn't be worse, and should be better in fact. WR should be solid with streeter, Hurns and dorsett. TE should be improved as we have several talented youngsters there. RB depends on Miller in part, but duke johnson may be he best rb we've had since gore. QB- should be no worse as Morris has a year to progress and Williams is supposedly okay also.

On D, we'll miss Spence but buchanon comes back and perryman's stepped up amd we'll have more new kids at LB. The unit should hopefully be better. DT will be better if only because of health and most guys back. DE probably improves with Chick in his second year. Safeties are back, so can't be worse. CB is the Q but is wasn't good his year. A LOT rides on whether the young DBs we bring in can see the field. If so, it will help a lot. If not, our options shrink and we may see a replay of this year's defensive schemes.

ST hopefully will be improved again, with more athletic youngsters to prove they deserve time.

We also lost 5 close games this year. I think we should look better and see a couple games improvement next year. But until we can compete physically on the LOS with the tougher teams we face, we aren't going to be back. That will take a seasonor two past next year, unfortunately.
 
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I think we'll be more talented next year, barring injuries. Depth will be an issue but we'll have a lot of talented young guys vying for time.

OL shouldn't be worse, and should be better in fact. WR should be solid with streeter, Hurns and dorsett. TE should be improved as we have several talented youngsters there. RB depends on Miller in part, but duke johnson may be he best rb we've had since gore. QB- should be no worse as Morris has a year to progress and Williams is supposedly okay also.

On D, we'll miss Spence but buchanon comes back and perryman's stepped up amd we'll have more new kids at LB. The unit should hopefully be better. DT will be better if only because of health and most guys back. DE probably improves with Chick in his second year. Safeties are back, so can't be worse. CB is the Q but is wasn't good his year. A LOT rides on whether the young DBs we bring in can see the field. If so, it will help a lot. If not, our options shrink and we may see a replay of this year's defensive schemes.

ST hopefully will be improved again, with more athletic youngsters to prove they deserve time.

We also lost 5 close games this year. I think we should look better and see a couple games improvement next year. But until we can compete physically on the LOS with the tougher teams we face, we aren't going to be back. That will take a seasonor two past next year, unfortunately.

1- Our best safety this year is graduating, JoJo. So I wouldn't say the "safeties are back."

2- Yes, our CB play was horrific, but 2 of our 3 best (****, we basically only had 3 CB's this year, and I use the term CB generously) are gone. I know we are all psyched to see marginal players move on, but its not about whose leaving, its about whose lining up next year. Again, give me your TWO DEEP at CB. And you should probably list 5 or 6 CB's for nickel.

3- And this is 10x as important as the first two items... I agree with most of the parts of your post above that are accurate. The trenches, (again, broken record, two deep:) scare me. But lets get down and dirty and again, talk TWO DEEP. People get hurt. People get suspended. People don't pan out. People need breathers. Re-do your post, and except this time instead of just top line starters, give me that 2-DEEP! Its scary as ****.
 
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Virginia Tech figures out a way to be in it in this **** conference year in and year out. Younger or old it 9-10 wins.

I dont expect us to be a national power next year but he should win 9 games if we are holding him to a higher standard than Randy Shannon or Coker who set the bar pretty low.
 
Virginia Tech figures out a way to be in it in this **** conference year in and year out. Younger or old it 9-10 wins.

I dont expect us to be a national power next year but he should win 9 games if we are holding him to a higher standard than Randy Shannon or Coker who set the bar pretty low.

As far as I can remember, VT never had to fire their coach for blowing two straight years of recruiting and leaving them with the need to blow out their roster and sign 35 kids. That's why the aforementioned Coker and Shannon were fired, and why Gobble basically has tenure.
 
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Virginia Tech figures out a way to be in it in this **** conference year in and year out. Younger or old it 9-10 wins.

I dont expect us to be a national power next year but he should win 9 games if we are holding him to a higher standard than Randy Shannon or Coker who set the bar pretty low.

As far as I can remember, VT never had to fire their coach for blowing two straight years of recruiting and leaving them with the need to blow out their roster and sign 35 kids. That's why the aforementioned Coker and Shannon were fired, and why Gobble basically has tenure.

This is a terrible conference. If he is better than what we have had, he will be able to bridge that gap with coaching and put together a nice year in his 2nd year, his system and schemes already entrenched, development of current players on the roster and a full recruiting class under his belt.
 
Virginia Tech figures out a way to be in it in this **** conference year in and year out. Younger or old it 9-10 wins.

I dont expect us to be a national power next year but he should win 9 games if we are holding him to a higher standard than Randy Shannon or Coker who set the bar pretty low.

As far as I can remember, VT never had to fire their coach for blowing two straight years of recruiting and leaving them with the need to blow out their roster and sign 35 kids. That's why the aforementioned Coker and Shannon were fired, and why Gobble basically has tenure.

This is a terrible conference. If he is better than what we have had, he will be able to bridge that gap with coaching and put together a nice year in his 2nd year, his system and schemes already entrenched, development of current players on the roster and a full recruiting class under his belt.

I love the attitude, but you can't snap your fingers and wish it. 50% freshmen. No depth. No upperclass leadership.
 
I'll wait till signing day for the two deep, but I don't see anyone outside of possibly Miller leaving early (although he really shouldn't leave early). If you would have asked me mid-season I would have said he's gone but his tentative nature and the way he seemingly wore down in a 12 game college season, just don't think he's ready. Either way, simple addition by subtraction while actually bringing back most of the most productive players on the team (outside of Spence) tells me this team should be better. Add what should overall be a consistant staff going into next year and another year of strength training (by far the biggest weakness on the current team) and I see no reason why this team won't be better. Maybe even considerably better.
 
Virginia Tech figures out a way to be in it in this **** conference year in and year out. Younger or old it 9-10 wins.

I dont expect us to be a national power next year but he should win 9 games if we are holding him to a higher standard than Randy Shannon or Coker who set the bar pretty low.

As far as I can remember, VT never had to fire their coach for blowing two straight years of recruiting and leaving them with the need to blow out their roster and sign 35 kids. That's why the aforementioned Coker and Shannon were fired, and why Gobble basically has tenure.

This is a terrible conference. If he is better than what we have had, he will be able to bridge that gap with coaching and put together a nice year in his 2nd year, his system and schemes already entrenched, development of current players on the roster and a full recruiting class under his belt.

I love the attitude, but you can't snap your fingers and wish it. 50% freshmen. No depth. No upperclass leadership.

I understand the depth isnt great right now but you have to develop whats on your roster as well. You cant just wait for 2-3 recruiting classes to see improvement. Again, I dont expect us to be relevant nationally until about 2014 but next year should be significantly improved.

All the upperclassmen will have had 2 off seasons with him going into next year as well as some of the freshman from this year.

I want to see guy like Clements and Mike James take another step, Hurns and Dorsett to break out, Walford to take a step, Porter, Chick and Perryman to break out, finnie and the young dbs get better and not have to rely on chalking them up to recruiting misses by Shannon. VT and Ray Ray get killed by cane fans a lot and rightfully so, but they are also players with a lot of ability. I want to see those types of players better. Just develop and improve whats there and it should at least have you as a serious contender for the coastal.

If they can just clean up the bone headed mistakes and have the dbs and linebackers play their assignments consistently, then the team will improve dramatically on that alone. I dont think the task of getting them to being a serious contender in the coastal race and winning 9 games is that monumental. In it for a national title? 3 years from today at minimum and a long haul which is ifne.
 
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