Football this year will be an enigma -- probably more of one than even last year.
We have the tools on offense. Durant is primed to have a monster season if he stays healthy. Out of Pollock, Mitchell, Rumley and all the other receivers we have coming back -- plus Bowman, Mason, and Holley -- we should have a solid receiving corps. Blizzard will give us one of the best tight ends in the league. TB will have a lot of depth between Scott, Lewis, Parker, and McGill -- it's just a question of who will rise above the rest. I think they're listing James Gibson at FB right now... but Rikki Cook will probably end up there and be a good one.
The OL has always been a ? over the past few years, but I think we may have a solid one this year. We have a lot of experience between Jeb Terry, Jupiter Wilson, Skip Seagraves, and Willie McNeil. Jason Brown has a year under his belt and I look for him to shine and be a leader for years to come on the OL. Kyle Ralph also got some good PT last year and should be a force soon. It's not the depth that you want to have on the OL, but it's pretty close and a lot better than we had last year.
If everyone can stay healthy, I think our offense will come together and produce for us. I think we'll have a passing game equal to last year's and a better running game.
Defense and special teams are going to be what makes or breaks this team. I think we'll be strong in the secondary -- Cedric Holt looked like a beast at the spring game. Waddell has something to prove after a less-than-stellar year last season. I've heard a lot of good stuff about Jacobi Watkins too. Dex Reid will of course be a tackling machine again at free safety. Michael Harris, Tommy Richardson, Mahlon Carey, and Rashad Tindall should also give us a ton of depth at both safety positions.
The front seven is the real enigma. At the ends we've got Dumas, Davis, Blizzard (the other one), High and Hedgecock -- whose been thrown just about everywhere. It sounds like we're finally going to leave him in one place, so maybe he can get some good work in drills and learn the defense better for next year. Our tackles are really going to have to step it up to keep the opposing OL's push up the middle in check. I'd really like to see Puff Thomas get some PT there, but he might not this year.
The linebacker position has a lot of potential, but who knows? Melik Brown looked great in the spring game. Doug Justice had flashes of greatness last year, but there's a lot of question about his speed. I've heard a lot about Gaddy, Longhany, Roberson, etc. -- but none of them have proven anything to me. I think we're going to have to rely on something out of the freshmen (Sparkman, Edwards, Kedra, Gedin), which is going to put us behind in experience again and kill any effort at redshirting some of those studs.
Orner should again be solid at kicker, but there's a big ? at punter. I hope Woolridge is good enough to supplant Lafferty -- because we'll be giving up a lot of field position again this year if he's not. Also, we need to get some good returns going to give our offense better field position.
I guess there aren't many predictions in there -- more of an analysis. I'm not much of the predicting type... but I will say that I think we're going to take some lumps early on, and then make a vast improvement over the season. I don't look for us to be vying for the conference championship or anything, but I think we're going to surprise some people. If you put a gun to my head, I guess I'd say that I think we'll end up 5-7 or 6-6.
-JD
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