Next Year
by JTMagnum on Nov 5, 2007 12:01 PM CST
5 comments
I think we had a better shot at winning the West this year than we will next year. What does everyone else think? We will have all of our tough games on the road next year, and we will key losses that will be tough to replace (Gillberry, Castile and Hall). As for the game this weekend. The team toughness impresses me and is greatly improved over the past several years. The fumble at the end of the game is hard to swallow. Shouldn't we have run it on 1st down to get the clock moving?
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I disagree
I see what you are saying, however I think the talent level and experience will increase next year. Bigger, faster players, more experience. The fumble sucks but we were at the point we had to play a flawless 4th quarter to sustain a lead, and we didn't.
Next year...
We have a few losses, but nothing major. All in all, we are looking at returning around 17 starters, plus the kicker and the punter. D.J. Hall will be a big loss, but fortunately the wide receiving corps has a ton of talent and we are likely to bring in Julio Jones. The only other offensive player we lose is Justin Britt, and he is a pretty average guard. Defensively, the loss of Gilberry will hurt, as will the loss of Simeon Castille -- though nowhere near as bad as many think on the latter. The loss of Carter won't hurt a bit, and while I love Mustin, McClain having another year in the system will be a perfectly suitable replacement and we won't really see any drop-off. Saunders is probably in the same boat.
Three other things really help us for 2008:
(1) Year two under Saban, which usually brings about big improvements.
(2) Another year in the S&C program.
(3) An influx of talent from one of the best recruiting classes in the country.
Beyond that, the rest of the SEC West is setting up quite well for us. LSU and Arkansas are bracing for major losses. The Bayou Bengals lose damn near every meaningful player to graduation -- Flynn, Doucet, Hester, Dorsey, Highsmith, Jackson, Zenon, Steltz, etc. -- plus they will have one or two players go pro early, and it's likely that Perrilloux will screw up yet again and get kicked off the team by the team the LSU game rolls around next year. Arkansas loses a lot of key players, the most important of which will be Darren McFadden, and that's simply something they will never replace. Ole Miss will improve a good bit next year, but they won't improve that much. MSU has some key losses, and will likely be mediocre at best. Auburn will likely be the other big team in the SEC West, and it will likely be a showdown of the two for supremacy.
I'm not saying that we are going to be headed for the NC game next year, but we will improve a good bit. Yes we have several big road games, but we also will have a senior quarterback and an experienced team, and home field advantage -- which doesn't mean much of anything anyway -- will have an even smaller effect.
Bottom line, we'll likely win somewhere between 8-11 games and possibly contend for the SEC. It should be an improvement over this year, no doubt there.
2009, as Nico pointed out, will bring good things too. The talent level is undergoing a massive upgrade, and we're going to reach a point in the near future where losses to graduation hurt us very little simply because we will be replacing existing players with much better players.
But all of that said, given all we return for 2008, there is really no reason to expect a regression from whatever we accomplish in 2007.
by outsidethesidelines on Nov 5, 2007 10:43 PM CST reply actions
Defensive Line
Dominant?
That said, it should be pretty good. The defensive line is playing pretty well now -- they did a good job of shutting down Hester and company -- and they've made massive strides to date from the beginning of the year.
Losing Gilberry won't be good, but all in all we return a ton of players, and another year in the S&C program will help. The 2008 DL will have the most depth we've had there in ages, and that's a good sign.
Washington and Motley will start at nose tackle, and Greenwood will get one of the end spots. The other end spot is up for grabs. Still though, we've got a lot of young guys developing, like McCullough, Chapman, Elder, etc. Luther Davis hopefully will step up and take the end starting job opposite Greenwood.
We've also got a good DL class coming in, and they'll help some too. If Murphy can get qualified, that would be huge. Damian Square will play some too, as will Michael Williams. All three of those guys are rated as four-stars by most recruiting services, and we're still on the board for a few other good DL prospects.
We've got a ways to go before we become dominate, but the seedlings are definitely there. It'll be dominate in a few years, and it should be pretty good next year.
by outsidethesidelines on Nov 9, 2007 2:17 PM CST up reply actions
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