Karl H
Posts: 608
Joined: 9/24/2007
Status: offline
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Although some don't agree, I think after 3 games we have a pretty good idea of what kind of team we have. With that, here's my assessment so far… Overall I’m actually just a bit disappointed. I thought we would be at least this good and expected 3-0 to this point (although possibly 3-1 after next week). The spots I thought we would be better: Gray’s passing. He was at around 55% passing last year, and is at 59% right now. That’s just not good enough versus the teams we have played. Run blocking. Yes, we start 2 JR’s, 2 SO’s and FR, but we’re not where I hoped. At times, we’ve struggled against teams we shouldn’t struggle with. Defensively against the run. Again struggled at times. Punting. Couldn’t get much worse than last year but the improvement isn’t what I had hoped for. Penalties and general miscues. Just too many for a Kill coached team. QB: Again, I expected that Gray’s passing would have greatly improved but haven’t see it yet. I’ve heard that QB’s in Kill’s system make a big jump in year 2. Hopefully that’s true with Shortell & Nelson. RB: Kirkwood seems to have firmly grabbed the #1 spot. Not sure many folks expected that. Gillum hasn’t had much success the last 2 weeks. WR: This group has been a pleasant surprise. And not because of the true freshman. Unless something significantly changes, it looks like McDonald wasted a redshirt year. Too bad, he probably could have been huge as a 5th year Senior. At least we should have Harbison for 5 years. TE: About as expected. Nothing fantastic but solid. OL: Still a work in progress. Pass blocking has been excellent at times. Nobody will graduate but I’d look for a change in this group next year. Probably Bobek at Center. DE: Wilhite has been a major surprise with the pass rush. He’s been the main guy (with Hageman) getting pressure. Perry, Amaefula, and Cochran have been rather quiet. DT: What can you say about Hageman? He can be a total beast. At 6’6” he sometimes plays too high and ends up downfield (not by design). But he can simply dominate at times. Botticelli, Johnson, and Ekpe have been serviceable. Haven’t seen a lot of Jacques or Legania, which is a bit of a surprise. LB: I guess they’ve been about what I expected. A pretty average group IMO. CB: I think we’ve gotten decent play from Stoudemire, Carter, and the b/u’s. I actually think Carter is our best cover corner. S: I’ve been fairly happy with their play. Wells is really good vs the run. Has a ways to go with the passing game but he’s young. This is going to be a strength the next couple of years. ST: Well, they haven’t cost us a game….yet. I expected better all around play here. Biggest surprise: Has to be AJ Barker. He easily leads the team in receiving and pretty much came out of nowhere this fall. He reminds me of Wisconsin’s Jared Abbrederis. Both are home state walk-ons, both are redshirt Juniors. Both around 6-1 or 6-2. Both around 190. Honorable Mention goes to defensive guys Wilhite, Manuel, Carter, and Wells. Before the season I predicted 5 wins for this team. Maybe 6 if things went well. What I didn’t expect was how weak the conference is turning out to be. I believe we are capable of playing any team on the schedule right down to the wire. That’s not to say, however; that we won’t get pasted a time or two. We probably will. But everyone (including us) have shown weaknesses. 3 & 6 the rest of the way gets us bowl bound!
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