Just observing how prep recruiting went and now the portal, tells me a lot how about how Coach Elko and staff feel about the program and what they see they need to do going forward into next season. First of all, Coach Elko, like all major football program coaches, understands he has two large undertakings in his job...build a sustainable program and rebuild his team year to year to compete for Championships. The changes to recruiting, the portal and thus retention have made roster construction beyond challenging. Essentially, every year, staffs have three buckets to recruit. It was always this way but never to this degree. So, I want to take a closer look at these buckets based on what I'm seeing from my lay-z-boy...at least thus far...and how this team is being built for next year...

• Retention - You can tell a lot by who they let walk and who they fight to keep. Some of that you get from the Coaches' reactions in press conferences and such when players announce they're staying. But most is in the quietness of who is or isn't sought in the portal outright. Now, some of that is a waiting game on who becomes available later. But generally, if a staff is happy with its core group at a position, it is more judicious with its offers. You can see it clearly with how we are attacking some position groups and not others. Still, retention can change on a dime if players leave. Right now, I'd say the staff is probably fairly content with who they've kept pending a few decisions. So, having a good solid core back, what are the expectations? With another year together, better O Line play. Barring no further injury, a return to a top shelf running game. On defense, a return to fundamentals and more connected play from an Elko based system.
• Recruiting - Keeping the cupboard stocked is the lifeblood of any good program. I think the staff has done a good job to this point. The big question is...can we get a few key contributions from the fish while we're doing it? The hope is always yes, but we don't want to be unreasonable about it. Some kids I think could make some plays are Myles, Sims, Sanders, Rink and Armstrong. But you never know the learning curve of any of them. I really like the fact that we went and got some WRs so Myles can be brought along. Armstrong just seems like a matchup nightmare from jump if he can grasp the college game. Perhaps some target snaps from the fish along the D Line. In the secondary, we recruited a lot of speed and length, but it would be great if we didn't have to push them to play out of need. Same with the RBs and O Line.
• Portal - Our portal season, to this point, has screamed a few things from the staff...lack of explosiveness outside, need to block better (catch) on the edges, D Line help and more secondary depth. We all knew it. These were all obvious holes that had to be filled. The experienced QB was a good hedge. Frankly, I was surprised we could get some willing to come in for that. I'm still all over us having more experience brought in at D Line, but we'll likely have to wait. The tackle we have visiting is interesting. I'm unsure if he's hedge against a loss or desire for better play (RT?). The moves at TE have me curious. The TE from Nebraska is decent. Would've thought we'd go big time there.

Bottom line, chips are in on Marcel. Running game, downfield passes and better defense are the way we are building this team. Run game to take the pressure off 10 and surrounding him with number of explosive playmakers on the outside are the focus. Coach Elko is working on getting his "type of guys" on defense. We're not there yet. Need some more difference makers on D.

Gig'em!!!