Of course, we really won't see the team start to coalesce until Spring Practice and the 2nd portal window, but we can start winnowing some thoughts together about what we think we'll need to be successful in 2024...
Feeling Much Better & Wishing Y'all A Blessed Gig'em Saturday!!!
- Good to Great Quarterback Play - Been saying it forever and it gets more true every year, need it, gotta have it, period! Now, that we've seen we have three QBs who can sling it a little we are in good shape. Truthfully, I want to be able to go through the season seeing only Conner. I think he's that special. No disrespect the others. They can play, too, and we may need them. Overall, as painful as 2023 was to get through, it really helped our QB room grow.
- Sack/Pressure the Opponent's Quarterback - College is mirroring the NFL in a lot of ways these days, good and bad, and one of the idioms we are following is the importance of "Protect the Quarterback/Sack the Quarterback." That is why our retaining our own guys like Hicks, Dindy, Turner and Stewart were so crucial, in addition to adding Scourton and Howell. Last year, we saw what could happen with a weak secondary and the line could not get there. It cost us games. It's not going to get any easier this year. More high power passing attacks are coming and it's going to take a bit for our back 7 to gel. More about that later. Say about what you want Nolen's off field antics, his presence and production will be missed. Personally, I think Jackson was the more effective player in keeping guys of the backers. I say all this to state that I think we can be more effective rushing the passer, but we are still a little thin at tackle, imo. And it's very hard to be as good against the run as were losing Jackson and Nolen. I will say I was really impressed with Dindy playing some limited snaps on the nose in the bowl. As a group, love the mix of holdovers and transfers. Still want more at DT, particularly NT.
- Protect the Quarterback - Can I hear a big Amen?! (side note: if I were listing in order of need for the offense, I would list offensive line blocking 1a as a priority by itself) As I said above, most college teams are following the NFL model...which means (1) Franchise QB (2) Franchise LT and (3) Franchise Edge Rusher. There's fourth position of need which I'll get to below. Bottom line, we got pressured more successfully than any team around last year. We were eventually going to make mistakes and opponents knew it. It's a big reason (special teams, anyone?!) why we lost games and why we lost quarterbacks to injury. It CANNOT HAPPEN in 2024 and expect to compete at the highest levels! The Return of Deuce is really a story I want to happen this year, but the staff has brought in competition to cover its bases. You just have to. But over to Trey Zuhn. How much was on Addazio? How much on the S&C coach? How much the player? At times, looks like a solid SEC LT to me. At others, overwhelmed. Still, we have to have quality starters at both tackles and all across the line. New coach. Improvement. New S&C. Improvement. Rest of it? We'll see. I do know we cannot get pushed around physically and mentally like we have the past few years and expect to succeed, so I like the changes. Hopefully the competition that's been brought in will light a fire under these guys come gameday.
- Cover - Well, I guess this one's pretty simple since we didn't really do it last year. Okay, that's not really fair. We were really erratic because we were (1) thin (2) young (3) oft injured and (4) marginally coached. I mentioned above a fourth position of need and that would be a shutdown corner, if we can sort one out amongst all the numbers. Coach Elko's experience with working with the secondary has made this transition I believe the easiest for him to analyze, breakdown, target kids and reconstitute. If I were to sum his efforts thus far in a word, it would be "versatility." He knows what he likes in terms of skill sets in his defenses, particularly the back 7, as he has worked with Coach Bateman before. I'm sure he wouldn't have hired him having conflicting philosophies. Still, It's not all just numbers. There is a combination of experience, youth, size, speed...yeah, pretty much everything you can think of. Will they all work out?! Nah, some will head out the door faster than Hailey's Comet, but that's college football these days, is it not?!
Feeling Much Better & Wishing Y'all A Blessed Gig'em Saturday!!!
