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Football Needs

Finding a Whatley type back will be important. We return most of our skill players on offense.

We need DB's but it looks like that has been addressed. We need interior lineman on both sides unless we have some red shirt freshman ready to step up. Hopefully getting Evans back from injury will help the DL if he is as good as advertised.
 
In a general sense, I think the team needs a superstar player. Nobody really stands out to me as a top talent and I think they are overdue for someone to step up and be a strong leader and dominant player. When I think of this team, I think of several good players, but nobody special.

My wish list would be a stud QB (why do we struggle to get a good QB every year?) , stud WR/TE and a dominant DL, DE or LB.

Anybody good on the recruiting radar?
 
Special teams should be okay. We get Rooker back from an injury and of course we have Clark back. Word on the street is that we have a commitment from a punter as well.
 
Offense we graduated:

Marcus Henry, Chris Perkins, Devin Clarke - receivers. Henry is leaving some big shoes to be filled.. Batties is returning.

Patrick Hughes, William Wilson graduate from the OL. Most of the starters were sophomores and Freshman. O-Line should be pretty damn good next year.

We Graduated Whatley - - Is Thomas a speed guy? I can't think of anyone that is anywhere close to Reggie's speed - especially kickoff returns.

So offense - should have a pretty strong run game - a lot of receivers graduated so pass game could be questionable.

Defense we graduated:

Bastien, McNeil?, Henry, Sharpe, Burke

Correct me on McNeil - did he somehow get another year?

Corners pose the biggest question mark for me. We signed a JUCO CB - I guess to replace Akons? We saw Howard, Frost-Dixon play some this past year. I think Singletary returns and that leaves Minter, Randolph, Alex Dale, and the Juco competing for CB spots. Some of those guys are young, so may be some talent that we just haven't seen yet.

Linebackers, we had Watt, Wafford Barber, Luckett we saw play. Any young guys in the LB department that may shine?

Some of the players have spoken pretty highly of the younger guys that we haven't seen on the field.

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As far as comments about AG - he will do a damn good job at QB. For comparison sake Rakeem Cato 182/304 - 59.9% 2059 yds 15 TDs and 11 interceptions. QB rating of 125.8. That was his first year as a starter in 2011. Austin 221/338 65.4% completion % 17 TDs 2231 yds, 12 interceptions and a QB rating of 138.4 as a first year starter in 2014.




This post was edited on 12/31 12:23 PM by MidTnBlues
 
Originally posted by MidTnBlues:



As far as comments about AG - he will do a damn good job at QB. For comparison sake Rakeem Cato 182/304 - 59.9% 2059 yds 15 TDs and 11 interceptions. QB rating of 125.8. That was his first year as a starter in 2011. Austin 221/338 65.4% completion % 17 TDs 2231 yds, 12 interceptions and a QB rating of 138.4 as a first year starter in 2014.





This post was edited on 12/31 12:23 PM by MidTnBlues

If Stock/Faulker actually let him throw the ball as part of the offense.

My biggest beef with this year was the fact that we didn't get better (didn't even try) at passing the ball as the season went on. We actually reigned in the passing attack.
 
Originally posted by RaiderDoug:
Originally posted by MidTnBlues:



As far as comments about AG - he will do a damn good job at QB. For comparison sake Rakeem Cato 182/304 - 59.9% 2059 yds 15 TDs and 11 interceptions. QB rating of 125.8. That was his first year as a starter in 2011. Austin 221/338 65.4% completion % 17 TDs 2231 yds, 12 interceptions and a QB rating of 138.4 as a first year starter in 2014.





This post was edited on 12/31 12:23 PM by MidTnBlues

If Stock/Faulker actually let him throw the ball as part of the offense.

My biggest beef with this year was the fact that we didn't get better (didn't even try) at passing the ball as the season went on. We actually reigned in the passing attack.
All QBs included
2011 509 passing attempts - Buster took over as OC halfway in the season
2012 344 passing attempts
2013 403 passing attempts (includes 33 passing attempts in the Navy bowl game)
2014 343 passing attempts
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Austin individual 2014 passing attempts/completion %
Savannah State - 17/ 88.2%
Minnesota - 38/ 57.9%
WKU - 28/ 60.7%
Memphis - 35/ 68.6%
ODU - 30 /83.3%
Southern Miss - 26/ 80.8%
Marshall - 37 /67.6%
UAB - 19 /31.6% (a lot of dropped passes in that game)
BYU 32 /50%
FIU - 33 /63.6%
FAU - 27 /74.1%
UTEP - 16/ 56.3%- Austin ran for 12 carries/106 yds. I didn't watch this game so not sure if those rushes were scrambling or designed run plays. Over all we had 358 yards with 259 of them coming from the run game.













This post was edited on 12/31 1:26 PM by MidTnBlues
 
Like I posted in another thread:


30 passing attempts in the first 4 CUSA games.

23 attempts in the last 4 CUSA games.

We had something around 80+ more ypg in the first four CUSA games as well.

We need a balanced offense. We can run over someone occaisionally, but we'll need Grammar (or Stockstill) to be able to run a passing game that's used for something other than picking up 3rd and longs if we want to break through from the 6-8 win territory into the conference title chase.
 
Just posting the numbers. To each their own on coaching philosophy, but since I am the cause of derailing this thread, I would like to put it back on track and get this back to the returning players for next year. We've had enough coaching opinion threads.

This post was edited on 12/31 1:49 PM by MidTnBlues
 
I know you want to talk about players, but it hard to tell is its the players or the coaches.

For instance, take at DT position. We finally played a rotation of guys that were 300 pounders - it made zero difference in our ability to actually stop the run.

I think we have plenty of skill players - we always have receivers show up.

What I mostly want is a D linemen that can rush the passer and stay in on run plays - in the mold of our guys that are in the NFL.
 
Our offense was balanced enough (averaged 217.5 ypg passing and 213 ypg rushing), AG completed 65% of passes (which tends to be the benchmark of spread offense QBs). However, we turned the ball over too much, we weren't good on field position (net punting), we had too many penalties (ranked #85), we weren't good in the red zone, and our overall defense stunk.

If we improve on defense and take care of the small things (penalities, turnovers, special teams), then this team can make great strides in 2015.
 
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