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Spring Game 2017


Balsy

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Jamal Davis is still with the team.  He was just a little banged up so they held him out of the Spring Game.  Idk why he's not currently on the roster.  He's gonna be our starting MLB & will play DE in some packages.

 

Our starting LB's have the potential to be pretty amazing. 

Edited by Blue & Gold
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1 hour ago, Dr Z said:

I saw Stewart the week before, he looks the part, and caught everything thrown his way. He stood out. The receivers will benefit when Woodson starts playing again. Playing against the Zips secondary in practice is going to make the receiving corp better too, they won't play against too many better groups this year. 

Thanks for the encouragement. When it comes to football we need all we can get. I am worried about this team even breaking .500. Keep the good news coming Doctor.

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1 hour ago, LZIp said:

Dang this is concerning hearing this from you. We return a lot and the fact that Brennan Williams was named most improved is encouraging for the D-Line. Apparently losing J Davis probably hurts, but King looked solid. The D backfield should be solid. Gilbert will be back for fall AFAIK, I find it pretty hard to believe that we won't be improved at all from last year. Who do you have pegged as up and coming talent?

 

This is what is concerning to me. We're going to be asking many of the same people who stunk up the joint to be big time contributors on defense. We then are down arguably our top 4 offensive players from last year (Lane, Jojo, Tuley-Tillman, and Woodson to start the season). I'd feel much better if we had a healthy Woodson and if we landed 1-2 grad transfer DE to help sure up that D-line that got manhandled last season.

Edited by kreed5120
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21 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

Jamal Davis is still with the team.  He was just a little banged up so they held him out of the Spring Game.  Idk why he's not currently on the roster.  He's gonna be our starting MLB & will play DE on some packages.

 

Our starting LB's have the potential to be pretty amazing. 

thanks for the clarification. good to hear.

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7 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

This is what is concerning to me. We're going to be asking many of the same people who stunk up the joint to be big time contributors on defense. We then are down arguably our top 4 offensive players from last year (Lane, Jojo, Tuley-Tillman, and Woodson to start the season). I'd feel much better if we had a healthy Woodson and if we landed 1-2 grad transfer DE to help sure up that D-line that got manhandled last season.

Agree DL is still a big concern. I guess I'm just hoping the players have continued to develop as they should. Would feel much better about Woody being healthy too, but I don;t think he is going to end up missing a game where his play would be the deciding factor. Lets hope we can bring in a D-Lineman who contributes more than Jelani Hamilton did last season.

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Concerning the defensive line in 2017, we do have a large contingent of 7 DL and DE coming in from our recruiting class with Matther Hanson (DE 6'3 245 reportedly offered by Iowa State, Southern Miss and Western Kentucky) looking like someone that might be able to contribute right away. We will need a couple of them to be ready to compete for playing time this Fall camp as I am not sure we will picking up any DL transfers (hope so but have doubts). We do have great coaches on defense so maybe they can pull together a decent line by the start of the season with what we know we have. It will be fun to watch.                   

Edited by UA1987
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3 hours ago, UA1987 said:

We do have great coaches on defense so maybe they can pull together a decent line by the start of the season with what we know we have.

I think you look at our situation with rose colored (or Zip colored) glasses. The coaches who handle our D line have a lot to prove as far as I am concerned. Their work during last season was poor. When injuries hit they could not find " the next man up". That does not lead me to regard their competence very highly. Make no mistake in what I say. i want to believe they are the very best, but performance tells me otherwise. Amato is not among those I question. He is a good coordinator. I'm focused here strictly on the coaches of the D line.  

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7 hours ago, UA1987 said:

Concerning the defensive line in 2017, we do have a large contingent of 7 DL and DE coming in from our recruiting class with Matther Hanson (DE 6'3 245 reportedly offered by Iowa State, Southern Miss and Western Kentucky) looking like someone that might be able to contribute right away. We will need a couple of them to be ready to compete for playing time this Fall camp as I am not sure we will picking up any DL transfers (hope so but have doubts). We do have great coaches on defense so maybe they can pull together a decent line by the start of the season with what we know we have. It will be fun to watch.                   

I hope you're right, but I never hold my breath anticipating a true freshman to contribute on either line, offensive or defensive.  These guys almost always require a year of eating and lifting weights.  Can anyone remember a true freshman who was a real contributor on the D-line?  I can't, but I'm sure someone has to be slipping my mind.

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5 hours ago, 72 Roo said:

I think you look at our situation with rose colored (or Zip colored) glasses. The coaches who handle our D line have a lot to prove as far as I am concerned. Their work during last season was poor. When injuries hit they could not find " the next man up". That does not lead me to regard their competence very highly. Make no mistake in what I say. i want to believe they are the very best, but performance tells me otherwise. Amato is not among those I question. He is a good coordinator. I'm focused here strictly on the coaches of the D line.  

 

We'll see what happens this year.  I had this conversation with Chuck at a luncheon.  There is only so much that any coach can do with that group of positions if age, maturity, size, strength, etc., to be productive at the D-I level just isn't there yet, as Blue and Gold points out above.    But to the contrary, I do expect guys like Moore and Boxen to really start to assert themselves this year.  Maybe that will produce some of the difference we're hoping to see this year.  

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9 hours ago, 72 Roo said:

I think you look at our situation with rose colored (or Zip colored) glasses. The coaches who handle our D line have a lot to prove as far as I am concerned. Their work during last season was poor. When injuries hit they could not find " the next man up". That does not lead me to regard their competence very highly. Make no mistake in what I say. i want to believe they are the very best, but performance tells me otherwise. Amato is not among those I question. He is a good coordinator. I'm focused here strictly on the coaches of the D line.  

You may want to take a moment and look at my post about the d-line at the Spring game on the 'Spring Attendance' topic and then think about your rose colored glasses comment.. My concern IS the d-line for 2017. I don't think we should abandon our posts on this part of the team, however, as reinforcements are coming, albeit mostly freshman. To me Stroud is one of the best d-line coaches we have ever had and we are lucky to have Amato, so that bodes well for position change players and freshman. We have had very strong Dline play here in the recent past, but last year we were badly hurt with graduation and key injuries (Marcus, Pittman and Boxen). This year the graduation bug has hit again, but Boxen is back. Problem is you need to be two deep on the Dline as these big guys chase the play and need to rotate out. I think it is possible to raise expectation later as some on the two deep like Reinke could surprise and maybe a true freshman can fit in (someone like Hanson) but t is a real weak spot on the team as things stand today.            

Edited by UA1987
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4 hours ago, Blue & Gold said:

I hope you're right, but I never hold my breath anticipating a true freshman to contribute on either line, offensive or defensive.  These guys almost always require a year of eating and lifting weights.  Can anyone remember a true freshman who was a real contributor on the D-line?  I can't, but I'm sure someone has to be slipping my mind.

It happens - Sewell is one and didn't Boxen play some as a true freshman. Grice was moved from fullback to NT when Stroud and Amato came in, but played right away as we were thin on the d-line. Unless we pick up a good transfer, we may see freshman on the two deep this year.      

Edited by UA1987
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6 minutes ago, UA1987 said:

It happens - Sewell is one and didn't Boxen play some as a true freshman. Grice was moved from fullback to NT when Stroud and Amato came in, but played right away as we were thin on the d-line. Unless we pick up a good transfer, we may see freshman on the two deep this year.      

You're right.  Sewell came in and contributed right away.  Good call!  I do think, though, that Boxen redshirted his true freshman year.

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4 minutes ago, Blue & Gold said:

You're right.  Sewell came in and contributed right away.  Good call!  I do think, though, that Boxen redshirted his true freshman year.

Sewell's best year was his freshman year.

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The D-line is an obvious concern. But I see no way our front 7 aren't markedly better than last year. 

 

We lost no LB's from 2016, and King and Davis will be upgrades. The incumbents were young last season, and now had had a full year to adjust to the college game...and another full year in the weight room. 

 

We lost nothing on our D-line from 2016. Marcus never really played. Pittman was essentially invisible. Hamilton ditto. Venkus was a role player.

 

Moore returns after a mostly-injured 2016, as does Boxen. 

 

Like the LB's, our DL should have a bunch of young guys with a year under their belts to adjust, and get bigger/stronger. 

 

There will be an unknown or two that will step up and contribute. Marques Hayes said DeAndre Brimage has D1 strength today, and it wouldn't surprise him if he made an impact next season. 

 

So yeah, the front 7 is a concern. But we lost nothing from 2016, and the incumbents will be better. We'll have some depth and competition. We won't match up with the P5 teams on our schedule, but we'll compete fine in the MAC.

 

We surrendered 9 points and 299 yards @ OU to finish the 2016 season. Was that a mirage, or a sign the D was coming together?

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4 hours ago, Captain Kangaroo said:

The D-line is an obvious concern. But I see no way our front 7 aren't markedly better than last year. 

 

We lost no LB's from 2016, and King and Davis will be upgrades. The incumbents were young last season, and now had had a full year to adjust to the college game...and another full year in the weight room. 

 

We lost nothing on our D-line from 2016. Marcus never really played. Pittman was essentially invisible. Hamilton ditto. Venkus was a role player.

 

Moore returns after a mostly-injured 2016, as does Boxen. 

 

Like the LB's, our DL should have a bunch of young guys with a year under their belts to adjust, and get bigger/stronger. 

 

There will be an unknown or two that will step up and contribute. Marques Hayes said DeAndre Brimage has D1 strength today, and it wouldn't surprise him if he made an impact next season. 

 

So yeah, the front 7 is a concern. But we lost nothing from 2016, and the incumbents will be better. We'll have some depth and competition. We won't match up with the P5 teams on our schedule, but we'll compete fine in the MAC.

 

We surrendered 9 points and 299 yards @ OU to finish the 2016 season. Was that a mirage, or a sign the D was coming together?

Good point about the Ohio game. I thought of that game too, but Venkus and Pittman stood out in Athens on the Zips Dline and they are gone. I am in agreement with your post that we will have to hope that Akron puts together competitive MAC Dline and then the LB's and secondary clean up.       

Edited by UA1987
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Without being able to put pressure on the QB we can be picked apart, even by MAC QB's. If our returning DLine players and incoming frosh can do that then we will be much better than last year. I'm doubtful the improved LB's and DB's can compensate for a DLine that gives the QB too much time though.

 

I desperately want to have the optimism that many posters on this subject have. But for me I don't see us having an offense that can score at will which can also compensate for a D that struggles to shut down opponents. Recent seasons have me skeptical that this is a turnaround year for us. I like TB and I am rooting for him to prove me wrong.

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