(07-01-2016 07:02 AM)nj alum Wrote:  For the regular season, if the offense is a scoring machine like Jimmye's teams from the 90's, I'm not worried about the defense.

For the playoffs, there will come a game where the defense will need to step up. They have the entire regular season to get ready for that.

And once again, like practically every summer in Jimmye's tenure, we look forward to a football season full of potential. Not many college fans can say that about a program, and a coach, over the last 36 years. Quite remarkable!

Playoffs? We wanna talk about playoffs?!

Barring injury, and something freakish ... this is a playoff team.

(07-01-2016 08:54 AM)nj alum Wrote:  Barring injury, and something freakish ... this is a playoff team.

I'm convinced we have playoff caliber offense and special teams going into the season. I'm going to need some convincing that we have a playoff caliber defense. We lost our three best defenders off a middle-of-the-pack CAA defense. Even with the loss of Houston Carson, I think we'll have a strong secondary. The concern is with the front seven. Can we stop the better rushing attacks in the league? Can we consistently pressure the QB? The front seven on defense will likely determine how far this team goes.

(07-01-2016 09:53 AM)WMTribe90 Wrote:  

(07-01-2016 08:54 AM)nj alum Wrote:  Barring injury, and something freakish ... this is a playoff team.

I'm convinced we have playoff caliber offense and special teams going into the season. I'm going to need some convincing that we have a playoff caliber defense. We lost our three best defenders off a middle-of-the-pack CAA defense. Even with the loss of Houston Carson, I think we'll have a strong secondary. The concern is with the front seven. Can we stop the better rushing attacks in the league? Can we consistently pressure the QB? The front seven on defense will likely determine how far this team goes.

Agreed, our defense was awful the last 5 games of the season.

C'mon guys!

It'll be like penalty kicks.

We only have to stop them once while we score every time!

:-)

Predictions for 42 points a game is probably unrealistic, but I don't think it's unwarranted. We already had some great players on offense and just added a guy from one of the better SEC schools that was recruited by the likes of Ohio State, Oklahoma, and Clemson. Not sure if we've ever brought in a guy like that. Similar to other posters, I'm also concerned about the defense, particularly the front 7. Looking at last year's stats, we gave up over 150 yards per game rushing even with 2 guys that went to the NFL (those games against Richmond were painful watching our rushing defense). Hopefully things get shored up so teams don't just run at will on us to keep our offense off the field.

(06-30-2016 06:17 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Wow, one player and we'll score 42+ points a game. If so, we'll probably go 10-1 in the regular season and seriously contend for a game in Frisco.

Injuries, especially for smaller speedy players, can throw a big monkey wrench in formulas.

If our offense can stay healthy, this can be a dynamic group but I'm not sure one player--other than a great QB--can improve an offense by 2 TDs/game.

Look at you being so gosh darn negative by bringing reality into the equation.

(The offense ain't scoring 42/game unless Cluley takes a huge leap forward and the offensive philosophy reverts back to the old days.)

Are you guys suggesting that the offensive numbers, and the number of wins, are going to be worse than 2015?

http://www.tribeathletics.com/schedule.a...h=football

(07-01-2016 10:59 AM)nj alum Wrote:  Are you guys suggesting that the offensive numbers, and the number of wins, are going to be worse than 2015?

http://www.tribeathletics.com/schedule.a...h=football

Suggesting the offense will almost certainly be improved, but that may be more than off-set by a drop off in defense. Yet to be determined if the net result is more wins or a better squad. If we can improve on defense over the course of the season and bring young guys along we could be in for a special season.

I know we'll be competitive. At the end of close games, I'd rather have a kick-ass defense than a prolific offense. Like someone else said, our offense can't score from the sidelines.

Not trying to be negative, but I think some of the preseason ranking are a bit inflated and expectations may be running a bit high. The CAA as a whole will be improved over last season. I could see us ending up anywhere from 6-5 to 9-2. Biggest determining factor again will be ability of front 7 to stop the run and pressure the QB.

Overall, good time to be a Tribe football fan.

(07-01-2016 10:47 AM)Rocco Wrote:  

(06-30-2016 06:17 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Wow, one player and we'll score 42+ points a game. If so, we'll probably go 10-1 in the regular season and seriously contend for a game in Frisco.

Injuries, especially for smaller speedy players, can throw a big monkey wrench in formulas.

If our offense can stay healthy, this can be a dynamic group but I'm not sure one player--other than a great QB--can improve an offense by 2 TDs/game.

Look at you being so gosh darn negative by bringing reality into the equation.

(The offense ain't scoring 42/game unless Cluley takes a huge leap forward and the offensive philosophy reverts back to the old days.)

Cluley doesn't need to take a huge leap forward for this team to go far. He was an all-conference QB that had a great season with the exception of the UR games and he's not the only player that struggled against the Spiders.

He's improved every season. I suspect we'll see measured improvement again for his senior campaign.

From a toughness and leadership perspective, I wouldn't trade him for anyone.

(07-01-2016 11:30 AM)WMTribe90 Wrote:  From a toughness and leadership perspective, I wouldn't trade him for anyone.

I totally agree with you.

I also agree on your projection for the final record, because, historically, under JL, we do better coming out of nowhere than we do when we go in as a pre-season favorite.

(07-01-2016 11:30 AM)WMTribe90 Wrote:  

(07-01-2016 10:47 AM)Rocco Wrote:  

(06-30-2016 06:17 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Wow, one player and we'll score 42+ points a game. If so, we'll probably go 10-1 in the regular season and seriously contend for a game in Frisco.

Injuries, especially for smaller speedy players, can throw a big monkey wrench in formulas.

If our offense can stay healthy, this can be a dynamic group but I'm not sure one player--other than a great QB--can improve an offense by 2 TDs/game.

Look at you being so gosh darn negative by bringing reality into the equation.

(The offense ain't scoring 42/game unless Cluley takes a huge leap forward and the offensive philosophy reverts back to the old days.)

Cluley doesn't need to take a huge leap forward for this team to go far. He was an all-conference QB that had a great season with the exception of the UR games and he's not the only player that struggled against the Spiders.

He's improved every season. I suspect we'll see measured improvement again for his senior campaign.

From a toughness and leadership perspective, I wouldn't trade him for anyone.

Pretty sure I've said similar things. I'm not sure how much better he's going to get unless his midrange accuracy improves. Some games he had it (Towson, JMU). Other games (Richmond twice, Delaware) he didn't. Even if he doesn't get any better he's a good fit for the run-and-go-deep offense they've used the last two years with his cannon for an arm and good decision making.

It's playoffs or bust for me. I'm too excited about our offense to entertain any other thoughts. And our defense doesn't need to be good it just has to be good enough. We still have a great secondary and big Isaiah Stephens in the middle of that front 7 ready to monster mash his way to the QB. I really hope the d focuses on creating turnovers this season and sets up our sure to be prolific offense with some short fields.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

My concern is still the defense. We could not stop the run against UD when we knew all they were going to do was run. I had to listen to JMU fans a few years ago when we lost up there when they did not complete a pass!! The line and LB's have to be able to stop the run, and put pressure on the QB's. Last year we did not pressure QB's enough. In the first round of the playoffs we gave up a long TD pass on the first play of the game, let it happen again to go down 14-0, and were lucky to pull that game out. I hope coach Andrews has been working on schemes and or personnel packages for this year.

I'm not at all concerned about our defense. We have a stud secondary and a few front 7 guys have waited a year or two for their chance to rip someone's head off. I think we'll see marked improvement by our DEs off the edge and some timely blitzes to force runs inside. It's the sweeps that have killed us so let's stop those and hope the biggins' on the interior line make plays.

Think we will see Battle in games this year? McKee saw a little action last year. We have tons of skill players (and now the addition of Christian) and need to figure how to get them in the games. Britt & Funderburke looked good in the Spring.

I agree with Tribal that we have young guys who want a chance (we have a crop of touted players that are now RF) and I hope they can mesh into a solid defensive unit. Lots of DE's, not as many DT's. Folks seem high on Murray at DT (perhaps at games we should dress like Carl from Caddyshack), I hope Donald is healthy and Davey is ready. IMO the defense has slipped every year since '13. Of course in '13 we all wished for offensive production. Hope Andrews has fresh plans for the squad.

Its just going to be an exciting year of Tribe Football

(07-01-2016 03:00 PM)Rocco Wrote:  

(07-01-2016 11:30 AM)WMTribe90 Wrote:  

(07-01-2016 10:47 AM)Rocco Wrote:  

(06-30-2016 06:17 PM)Tribal Wrote:  Wow, one player and we'll score 42+ points a game. If so, we'll probably go 10-1 in the regular season and seriously contend for a game in Frisco.

Injuries, especially for smaller speedy players, can throw a big monkey wrench in formulas.

If our offense can stay healthy, this can be a dynamic group but I'm not sure one player--other than a great QB--can improve an offense by 2 TDs/game.

Look at you being so gosh darn negative by bringing reality into the equation.

(The offense ain't scoring 42/game unless Cluley takes a huge leap forward and the offensive philosophy reverts back to the old days.)

Cluley doesn't need to take a huge leap forward for this team to go far. He was an all-conference QB that had a great season with the exception of the UR games and he's not the only player that struggled against the Spiders.

He's improved every season. I suspect we'll see measured improvement again for his senior campaign.

From a toughness and leadership perspective, I wouldn't trade him for anyone.

Pretty sure I've said similar things. I'm not sure how much better he's going to get unless his midrange accuracy improves. Some games he had it (Towson, JMU). Other games (Richmond twice, Delaware) he didn't. Even if he doesn't get any better he's a good fit for the run-and-go-deep offense they've used the last two years with his cannon for an arm and good decision making.

I feel like consistency definitely improves over time, so I think his midrange accuracy will be more consistent, at a minimum.

Doc in the past has had a relatively slow release in his passing motion. Consequently, good, attentive db's/lb's are able to get a good read and jump on where he is going in his midrange passing. Richmond was all over that in both games, and like him or not, Al Groh zeroed right in on that weakness during his TV commentary. I would hope and expect that is an area that Rogers and Cluley focused on this past off season. If he shows improvement there it will be a big difference maker.

Tribe roster has already listed Christian with assigned number 2.

Barring injury, watching numbers 2 and 11 (Dedmon) all fall should be something to see. Hope we see them
both on the field at the same time....should drive opposing teams mad!