6 more months

[jesterondirt]

just a little off season chatter because I'm bored and don't feel like going outside.

I saw quite a bit of talent offensively from some underclassmen last season. I think the new staff will evaluate and find that out quickly.

Lucas will probably benefit the most from the coaching change. It was so sad to see his talent almost wasted last year. I couldn't help but watch Arizona Cardinals every week and compare their situation with Fitzgerald to KL.


Although our defense needs improvement it's hard to point fingers when they were on the field 60+% of the time and put into some bad situations with awful turnovers. We need another beast at MLB.

I think we can get to 7 wins off of just improved play calling alone. I don't have the stats, but I would bet that on first down last year we were worse than 100 or more teams.

I think we have the talent to reach 8 or 9 wins with a freshman qb, but if the o-line doesn't step up we probably shouldnt expect too much for Monty's first season.

I'm not saying Dane won't be the starter, but, I'm pretty sure everyone else saw the same games I did last year. He should and will get every opportunity to compete, but there is just way too much talent he's going to be competing against IMO.

Maybe I've been spoiled by damaris Johnson, but our lack of speed on PR's and KR's was obvious. That speedster that we passed on offering this class was mind boggling. His speed alone was worth and offer.

 

[Li'l Eric Coley]

I think we can get to 7 wins off of just improved play calling alone.

Agreed. Man, I'd talk these jagov Union sympathizers last year telling me they thought Bill should get another year. I was like, HAVE YOU SEEN THE GAMES?!?! We're bad. Real bad. Of course they hadn't watched even a down.

 

[TU_Landman]

I definitly think we will make a bowl this season based on what should be much improved coaching, preperation, schemes etc. Im curious to see how the offensive line shakes out, there could be some quiet battles going on there in the spring and fall.
I think the defense will be leaps and bounds better. I think Coach Young will be able to put our guys in better positions to be succesful. Do need to find some LBs and for someone to step up at DE opposite Alexander. We need a better pass rush than we got last year.

 

[TU_BLA]

Lucas was recently timed at 4.45 in the 40. Pretty darn quick. Now he needs to learn catch first, run second. I expect he will have 100 catches and 1300 yds this season.

Don't sleep on Javon Thomas. I think he comes in and has a chance to play right away. Another big fast physical back.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[mvccane]

You normally have no speed on punt returning when you assign a 4.85 guy as your returnee. Some of the coaching decisions made last year make absolutely no sense. Kinda like a 6-7 250 lb TE as your holder. You can't make this stuff up.

We should be better offensively simply because we return everybody - to include two (Lucas. Garrett) that have playmaking potential. Of course, our play calling has to be better than last season.

Defensively we were on the field 60% of the time because we couldn't make stops. We got absolutely thrashed on big plays via the run game. There is only one guy (Mudoh) on the LB/DB level I have any trust or confidence with. The DL should be okay.

 

[youngblood223]

Originally posted by mvccane:
You normally have no speed on punt returning when you assign a 4.85 guy as your returnee. Some of the coaching decisions made last year make absolutely no sense. Kinda like a 6-7 250 lb TE as your holder. You can't make this stuff up.

We should be better offensively simply because we return everybody - to include two (Lucas. Garrett) that have playmaking potential. Of course, our play calling has to be better than last season.

Defensively we were on the field 60% of the time because we couldn't make stops. We got absolutely thrashed on big plays via the run game. There is only one guy (Mudoh) on the LB/DB level I have any trust or confidence with. The DL should be okay.

Mudoh reminds me of a pretty solid safety for the bad late 90s teams... Think his name was Burgess. He was a really sure tackler, and he had to make a lot of tackles (because our point of attack run defense was atrocious).

 

[canefansincerhome]

TU staff will "coach them up" but they can't turn this around in one season with the dismal recruiting classes we got the last two seasons. We will be headed in the right direction soon but we need more thoroughbred studs we used to recruit, not plow horses. Dane is going to have real competition this season, I like Dane but hes going to have to improve big time if he wants to be the starter.

 

[okie51]

Looking at our safety prospects for the first time in a while IMO the talent on film looks strong. Between Reed, whitfield and Robinson a young starter will rise up and maybe a spur as well. Suits at LBer looks fast enough he just did not see plays develop and looked slow as he was stuck in place making a decision then if Harding is able to play LBer will be better. Do we have an answer at corner maybe experience and coaching. Hope the young guys will come along with a mix of the upper class guys. Brubaker and Smith with experience should make the Line better. Maybe by the 4th game we will see a big difference on the defense side and the 30 yard plays will be cut down by half or more.

 

[TU_Landman]

Originally posted by mvccane:
You normally have no speed on punt returning when you assign a 4.85 guy as your returnee. Some of the coaching decisions made last year make absolutely no sense. Kinda like a 6-7 250 lb TE as your holder. You can't make this stuff up.

Man, Downing was so bad. We should be better on special teams just because he isnt coaching it anymore.

 

[rabidTU]

Originally posted by TU_Landman:

Originally posted by mvccane:
You normally have no speed on punt returning when you assign a 4.85 guy as your returnee. Some of the coaching decisions made last year make absolutely no sense. Kinda like a 6-7 250 lb TE as your holder. You can't make this stuff up.

Man, Downing was so bad. We should be better on special teams just because he isnt coaching it anymore.

Bingo! I thought if there was an asst to be let go, it would be him instead of GP. Our kick game was a mess. And there was a point when our kickoffs were consisitently going out of bounds on the 15 yd line for crying out loud. I cringed every time we face a kick situation.

 

[tuhurricane20]

I think we have the talent to turn it around now. The other defensive end will be Jermey Smith, As for Craig Suits all he did was make plays all over the field and was named freshman all- american we need a few more like him. As much talent as we have coming in I would be shocked to see a freshman QB start. Can't wait to see this coaching staff get started.

 

[Li'l Eric Coley]

It'll be nice to have more options at running back as well. I know that Dickerson was dinged most of the season, but I didn't really see any home run hitters last year.

 

[TU_Landman]

Originally posted by Li'l Eric Coley:
It'll be nice to have more options at running back as well. I know that Dickerson was dinged most of the season, but I didn't really see any home run hitters last year.

Hard to hit any home runs when you only run up the middle.

 

[Li'l Eric Coley]

Originally posted by TU_Landman:

Originally posted by Li'l Eric Coley:
It'll be nice to have more options at running back as well. I know that Dickerson was dinged most of the season, but I didn't really see any home run hitters last year.

Hard to hit any home runs when you only run up the middle.

lol, true. Hell, I'd settle for some one-yard Truck Singleton home runs at the goal line.

 

[astonmartin708]

I've never seen a guy like singleton. Was he stopped at all his senior year in short yardage situations???

 

[HuffyCane]

They will win immediately, but not to the level of the Gus Bus. There was very little tape on Gus' plays. Not much for people to prepare for. BYU got blindsided. The other teams will be able to look at Baylor's stuff to get an idea at certain wrinkles.

BB made decisions based on avoiding risk and attempting to avoid being in a position to come from behind. As far as BB was concerned, a 5.0 punt returner would have been fine, if he had the surest hands on the team. When your offense is designed to score 28 to 35 points a game, you can't have a speedster fumbling one on your 30. Same with that 6-7 kid. Im willing to bet he fumbled the snaps the least in practice, at the expense of timing and technique of the kickers.

There is enough talent plus the incoming folks to put together 8 wins. The depth in the middle of the classes will be a question mark. But the 2006 class was considered a dud by folks two years after the fact, then a lot of them looked pretty darn good after Todd/Gus got a hold of them.

This post was edited on 2/17 1:03 PM by HuffyCane

 

[Tulsafanzz]

I agree with Huffy on returning talent & BB's aversion to risk. I think BB's best recruiting class was his last, 2014. There is a lot of speed in that group. If most of those guys return for 2015 & beyond, I think many will be surprised at how good that class was.

I'm really looking forward to spring practice. I hope there will be some Saturday scrimmages open to fans.

 

[jerandlaur]

Originally posted by canefansincerhome:
TU staff will "coach them up" but they can't turn this around in one season with the dismal recruiting classes we got the last two seasons. We will be headed in the right direction soon but we need more thoroughbred studs we used to recruit, not plow horses. Dane is going to have real competition this season, I like Dane but hes going to have to improve big time if he wants to be the starter.

I think statements like this are laughable. We made a great improvement from Burns to Krags with Burns talent and you can;t convince me he knew anything about talent. Remember that he is the guy who benched Blankenship and replaced him with Gooch. Burns was an idiot and our talent pool was not good but Krags was able to pull out a pretty good year.

 

[old.guy]

Burns also buried James Kilian on the depth chart and he became a star with Krags.

 

[TU_BLA]

Jester, I find it funny you think Lucas' talent was "wasted" last year. He was the 5th leading receiver in the nation and I think 2nd in # of catches behind Hardy (another AAC guy). I posted a link about the leading receivers in the nation and Lucas is the top returning WR nationally next year in terms of catches and yards. I think Lucas will have an even bigger year this year and Monty will find different ways to get him the ball and into space. Lucas' yards were mostly YAC and he is dynamic once he becomes a ball carrier.

He reminds me in many ways of Steve Smith, not the giant WR but still physical enough to win at the point of catch, fast enough to stretch the field, and once he has the ball in his hands he becomes really dangerous.

 

[jesterondirt]

Originally posted by TU_BLA:
Jester, I find it funny you think Lucas' talent was "wasted" last year. He was the 5th leading receiver in the nation and I think 2nd in # of catches behind Hardy (another AAC guy). I posted a link about the leading receivers in the nation and Lucas is the top returning WR nationally next year in terms of catches and yards. I think Lucas will have an even bigger year this year and Monty will find different ways to get him the ball and into space. Lucas' yards were mostly YAC and he is dynamic once he becomes a ball carrier.

He reminds me in many ways of Steve Smith, not the giant WR but still physical enough to win at the point of catch, fast enough to stretch the field, and once he has the ball in his hands he becomes really dangerous.

I didn't say it was wasted.

 

[Li'l Eric Coley]

A lot of people got wasted last year, 'specially after the games.

 

[TU_BLA]

Originally posted by jesterondirt:

Originally posted by TU_BLA:
Jester, I find it funny you think Lucas' talent was "wasted" last year. He was the 5th leading receiver in the nation and I think 2nd in # of catches behind Hardy (another AAC guy). I posted a link about the leading receivers in the nation and Lucas is the top returning WR nationally next year in terms of catches and yards. I think Lucas will have an even bigger year this year and Monty will find different ways to get him the ball and into space. Lucas' yards were mostly YAC and he is dynamic once he becomes a ball carrier.

He reminds me in many ways of Steve Smith, not the giant WR but still physical enough to win at the point of catch, fast enough to stretch the field, and once he has the ball in his hands he becomes really dangerous.

I didn't say it was wasted.

OK, "almost wasted"

 

[canefansincerhome]

You do not win without TALENT, I don't care who the coach is or what system in implemented. Kragthorps first year was great but they were not going against the caliber of teams TU is now facing. Remember what Georgia Tech did to them in the bowl game. If TU wins seven I'll be thrilled.

 

[canefansincerhome]

I took a peek at the upcoming schedule. Against the teams next year, seven wins would be fantastic ! FAU and LA-Monroe are must wins if we can reach a 7 - 5 record. OU is a no-brainer, then Houston, East Carolina, Memphis, UCF, Cinncy and Navy are all going to be extra difficult games.