I hear what you're saying, but did you read the post I was replying to? He said the defense would need to take a GIGANTIC leap to just be competitive in most Big 12 games. That is just factually incorrect.
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- Thread starter AWOL2000
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I hear what you're saying, but did you read the post I was replying to? He said the defense would need to take a GIGANTIC leap to just be competitive in most Big 12 games. That is just factually incorrect.
Mills, Knott and Seeley all had starting experience from last season. None of the 3 are atop the 2 deeps. I just listened to Coach Rhoad's discussing Knott's health very positively....so he is anything but "done".
We will have AT LEAST 5 new starters on defense, possibly 6...and we have some very positive feedback on a number of these guys (Harris and Tucker in particular). We have at least 4 guys returning who had starting experience...who are no longer listed as starting. I don't want to rain on your negativity parade...but these appear to be very positive signs to me. If you feel differently, I'm OK with that.
I sometimes think that people's memory has a tendency to gloss over reality. Point is that even J.Knott and AJ.Klein were "just okay" their sophomore seasons. It was easy to see their potential, and they were occasionally demonstrating some real speed to the ball; however, both of them bit on fakes and motion way too often. It was not till their junior year that they started playing like Big 12 linebackers. Same was true for Jeremiah George, Jevohn Miller, Jesse Smith, and so on. Give these young LBs a break. Knott's and Seeley's junior year is coming up. Mills was playing as a redshirt freshman. These guys can and will get better.....
This is probably the most accurate post in this entire thread IMO.
The OL will likely be the MOST important group on this team.... well any football team for that matter.
The OL will obviously make all of our inexperienced RB's look great. It will also make Sam look great too, as he will have time for once to look over the field and locate the open guy. And thus, it will only help the WR's as well, giving them time to run their routes and get open.
And if all the above is working well, we should be scoring some points and chewing up some clock, which will also make the defense look a lot better as well when they are playing fresh instead of completely worn out at all the time.
Nothing will really work for this team this year if the OL stinks it up. It is critical they play well.
I agree with you, but it depends how you define competitive. We were within a touchdown of 3 teams last year. We also held one team under 30 all year, gave up 34 to NDSU, and lost by 20 to Kansas. I don't think we have to have all conference performances from Tucker, Harris, and Cotton-Moya, but we need to get much more physical play from the D-line and linebackers that can actually tackle. Watch the trenches during the UNI game: if we can't get push from the OL that leads to some rushing yards and the defense can't stop a running game that no longer has Johnson, it will be a long year once we get to Big 12 play.
It will be a long year WAY before Big 12 play if that happens I'm afraid. If the OL can't push UNI back and our DL can't stop UNI, then we likely will be 0-3 in the non conference.
We were the worst defense in FBS last year. Don't try to sugarcoat it. Yes, our offense actually kept a few games somewhat close, but this defense was atrocious. Thank God that Iowa sucked so bad or it would have been worse.
Speaking of Seonbuchner, he's lost a good amount of weight from last year, hasn't he? I think he was injured last year.... so I just hope he's ok.
I'm not trying to sugarcoat anything. You said the WORST defense in college football would have to make a GIGANTIC leap to maintain the competitiveness the team had last year. I think they can be just as competitive staying at the same level.
An average leap, and they just might be able to win more of those 1-2 possession games.
Last year was such a disaster all around. More injuries than any team in all of college football...all. Couple that with a team that was prob one of the youngest...a fairly new coaching staff in many places..and a few players who were just a drain on the team are now gone and your have a reason to be somewhat optimistic going into this year. last year was last year...there will be many new faces playing for the first time come Sept 5th and that isn't a bad thing IMO but also I do think there is talent enough on this roster to win some games.
Miller was anything but "just okay" as a sophomore or junior. Watching him try to tackle UNI 2 years ago was like watching a dog try to play the piano. The difference between knott and miller as sophomores was drastic. Yes he had a couple nice games as a senior.
While I agree with your overall point, the play of Knott and Seeley was not even in the same league as Knott/Klein as sophomores. They were actually pretty darn good that year. You could see they were going to have great careers (they were true sophomores as well, so one year younger than the current crew). I didn't see anything close to that from Seeley. And Luke Knott has some good instincts but he is the size of a safety which makes it tough for him when he has to take on Big 12 OL.
You're right, that's pretty brutal...and I'm a fan of beagles.
[video=youtube;g_Rq9uwF4k8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_Rq9uwF4k8[/video]
That's why he's on the Chiefs who have one of the best D's in the league, and the Seahawks were also trying to get him.
Regardless of how good he was, that's an extremely loose use of "on the Chiefs".
There's like 100 people on every NFL roster right now.
This. AJ and Jake were heads and shoulders above anything we put on the field last year -as Sophs. If they made mistakes as Sophs they were playing aggressively, not back peddling at the snap and running away from the play like Chicken Little.
