What are you most excited for this year ? What are you most concerned about? Any bold predictions?
personally I haven't been this excited about a offense in awhile.
im most worried about our defense. Have we added Enough to play at least average and give our offense a chance to win games. Or do we have no pass rush again and give up 35+ a game..
bought tickets for the first time in 15 years. Going to see opening week. I'm ready to be hurt again..
Offense...
QB - I'm both excited and worried about this position. Ewers was the #1 prospect and had a 1.000 composite rating. Not many dudes get that. My concern is his lack of snaps over the last 2 years. His talent is undeniable though. Card has some experience and probably looks a million times better this year than last. My concern with him is that he is so frail.
RB - Excited about the depth at this position now. KRob should have a much bigger role this year than last. Bijan is a legitimate Heisman candidate. RoJo is a bull. Brooks and Blue will be nice mop up guys. No real concerns for this position other than depth. I'd feel a lot better if we had one more dude
WR - I'm most excited for this group. If Whittington can finally stay healthy, the embarrassment of riches is just stupid. Worthy and Neyor are Biletnikoff type receivers. Whitt is a chain mover, smart and sure as they come. Hall/Thompson/Alexis/Omeire/Cain as a singled up #4 receiver could be a game changer in many spots. DCs are going to have to do some real work hiding which player is getting bracketed...Worthy or Neyor. Then you have Whitt and Hall/Thompson to deal with in the slot on a slow as S or LB??? And I haven't even talked about the TEs yet. Yeah, I'm drinking the whole gallon of kool-aid on this position.
TE - Very excited here. Sanders and Billingsly are matchup problems. Sanders has WR type ball skills. Billingsly has a load of experience and had a decent Junior year...something like 15-20 catches and over 200 yards. A very good RZ threat in between the hashes. Sanders is a RZ threat sideline to sideline. And this position has depth. Juan Davis, Gunnar Helm and Brayden Liebrock would all be solid #3 options...whoever wins that job. I'm thinking Davis #3 in pass game...Helm #3 in run game. Very solid position group here.
OL - Welp...this is where my excitement slams on the breaks, lol. Obviously we are all very excited about Banks and Campbell. Those are studs that could jump in right away. What I do know is that Karic is not a LT and if he is our LT I hope we have a plan full of quick game in passing and run off the RT side. I think we'll see HUGE improvement from Angilau and Majors. Those dudes have some talent and now a lot of experience. If Flood is as good as we all think, then you will see those two play at an all-conference type lvl. Majors only problem is he is small. Angilau is a large human as they like to call them. I think he will be our most improved lineman by far. Jones might start the year at LT, which would be better than Karic, but he isn't a LT either. He would be a very good RT for this offense. Parr, Conner, Hutson, Banks and Campbell will need to fill out the rest of the OL and the depth of the unit. A lot of question marks here. I'd rather have 5 slightly above average OL that understands each other than 2 AA and 3 shit rottens on the OL.
Defense...
DT - I proceed with caution on this unit. I hope Bo Davis has done some real work with the experienced guys and their technique. Too many times last year the would get tired, play high, and get put on roller skates. Hopefully the guys have done their due diligence in getting themselves in great shape and take care of their bodies though the season. This unit starts with Coburn. He can be a real problem on the interior for other OL units, but only if he is in shape and motivated. That's been an issue with him. He hasn't been a dude that makes a lot of plays, but he is respected because he does plug stuff in the middle. We need 20 tkls and 5 tfl out of this dude this year. Ojomo and Sweat need to be a bit more disruptive as well. I don't get Sweat man. He is 6-4, 340 and often plays like he is 5-11, 200. We should see real improvement from Broughton, Murphy and Collins. I'm not sure if Collins is going to play inside or as a 4. I'm not at practice so I won't know until game 1.
Edge - What can I say. This group returns 4/5 sacks? Absolutely abysmal. Oghoufo is probably the starter here as he was last year. Only 2 sacks from the man...that needs to improve. Maybe they try Collins and Murphy here too? Maybe move Overshown down and have him rush from the edge? I don't know. If anyone is at practice that would be good info to learn. One guy I am excited about is Justice Finkley. I think he will be a shot in the arm as far as edge rush is concerned. No experience at this level obviously so he will get put down much more than he finds success, but the dude has reach and a motor.
LB - What can I say again? This unit was shit rotten last year. Can't remember the last time we had a LB worth a shit. I'm sure they're good dudes and work hard, they just can't play at this level. We got the James Madison transfer. Loads of experience at FCS level for a top 3 team year in and year out. Had like 120 tackles last year. He is small, but has a nose for the football. You know he sees things faster now with the experience. I'm sure he can run fit much better than Overshown and Luke. We can only see improvment. Overshown moving to Will is going to reap dividends in my opinion. Cut his responsibility in half and allow his arm bands to just make plays on the weak side will be an improvement. I'm excited to see Ford this year. He showed flashes last year of his ability, but lacked experience and you could tell. Gbenda, Bush, Richardson, Brock, and freshman Brown will fight it out for some depth reps. My money is on Gbenda and Richardson.
DB -
Whether we run a 3-3-5 or a 4-2-5 I think we will see 5 DBs on 90% of snaps. This is a unit that improved high end talent, but still isn't very deep. We don't have a 2 deep here IMO. There are not 10 dudes that are Big 12 ready. Any injuries and we are EFF'D. This unit is a question mark for me.
Playing the hybrid position will be Jahdae Barron, that is my guess. Dude came on late last year and showed some real talent to find the football. I think Coffey backs him up.
Anthony Cook is a dude from the 2018 class that got lost in the CB depth chart. If you remember I kept calling for him to play in the middle and just run around and make plays. For the 1st half of the season he was by far our highest graded defensive player. He is a 5th year Senior, was moved to a spot he built some confidence and now has experience! I'm very excited to see what he can do this year. His backup will be Blackwell or freshman LTG I guess.
I'm most excited for Kitan Crawford. He is another dude that was prisoner to the BJ Fosters of the world getting more snaps than he deserved. Kitan is a very explosive athlete back there and I assume will be the FS. I look for 4/5 INT this year. No clue who will back him up tbh. Brice or BJ Allen?
Ryan Watts is the tOSU transfer and the 2nd most exciting guy for me this year. He'll start and I'd assume he'll be the short side of the field corner if at all possible. He is a big dude and should lock down hash to sideline on short side of field. Ibraheem and Guilbeau will back up here I would imagine
And that brings us to Jamison...sigh. Dude is fast as hell and very athletic, but is also burnt toast. I don't get him. He is going to be the field corner and he is going to need help. Hopefully Crawford is as good as I think he will be and we can get pass rush off the edge. Jamison will need all that help. I hope he proves me wrong though, but he is the matchup issue. Freshman Terrance Brooks I guess will be the backup.
I think we go 9-3. Beat someone we "shouldn't" and lose a couple we should win. Win our bowl game and I'll take 10-3. That will add some real momentum for the 2024 class. I'm assuming we'll be playing an SEC schedule in 2024.
