Nico ee-ah-MAH-LAY-ah-va
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...however, the consensus I am gathering here is that we are not sure if we are a great team yet. We have the pieces: strong culture, athletes in positions of need across the field, and a smart coach.
Areas of concern are the OL, the QB position, and the defensive secondary. Nothing is new across these positions, but here are my observations:
OL: we are only as good as our tackle play. OU has one of the best defensive fronts we will see this year, but Bama, and UGA are also good here. We need to get the Heard situation figured out and rest up this weekend. This is tricky because it is a developmental position and you cannot expect a freshman to come in and compete with fully grown men on the other side of the ball. They have to bulk and get stronger. I fear we will live and die by our tackles this year.
QB: Let me get one thing straight: Nico is a star in the making. He is not a star yet though, regardless of the media hype and SEC freshman of the week accolades. He has a lot to learn, and just got a good lesson against a really good OU team that loves to scheme to confuse young QBs. However, he cannot keep getting strip sacked. That is also on the OL, but if OU had a competent offense, those two fumbles would have been TDs or FGs. Offensive staff will to uncork that arm against Bama as they are stacked on the front end but weaker in pass protection. UGA will also scheme to confuse him and he will need to be better as they can score on those turnovers we saw at OU.
Defensive Secondary: I still do not think they have been tested, mainly because our DL has just dominated to the point where opposing offenses cannot get their downfield attack going. I like what we have seen from this group, but can we say for certain they have seen a dynamic air attack yet? No. McCall was a bust and so was Arnold. The Arkansas QB isn't great at throwing either, so think this group will not be challenged until we see Mertz at Florida. Mertz isn't a world breaker, but he can throw little dinks and dunks into soft coverage spots that chew into our secondary. Florida isn't great but we will need to fire on all cylinders on the defense. We need to prove in the first quarter we are not going to let them dictate the pace of the game by chewing clock and hitting us with little dinks all over the place.
Areas of concern are the OL, the QB position, and the defensive secondary. Nothing is new across these positions, but here are my observations:
OL: we are only as good as our tackle play. OU has one of the best defensive fronts we will see this year, but Bama, and UGA are also good here. We need to get the Heard situation figured out and rest up this weekend. This is tricky because it is a developmental position and you cannot expect a freshman to come in and compete with fully grown men on the other side of the ball. They have to bulk and get stronger. I fear we will live and die by our tackles this year.
QB: Let me get one thing straight: Nico is a star in the making. He is not a star yet though, regardless of the media hype and SEC freshman of the week accolades. He has a lot to learn, and just got a good lesson against a really good OU team that loves to scheme to confuse young QBs. However, he cannot keep getting strip sacked. That is also on the OL, but if OU had a competent offense, those two fumbles would have been TDs or FGs. Offensive staff will to uncork that arm against Bama as they are stacked on the front end but weaker in pass protection. UGA will also scheme to confuse him and he will need to be better as they can score on those turnovers we saw at OU.
Defensive Secondary: I still do not think they have been tested, mainly because our DL has just dominated to the point where opposing offenses cannot get their downfield attack going. I like what we have seen from this group, but can we say for certain they have seen a dynamic air attack yet? No. McCall was a bust and so was Arnold. The Arkansas QB isn't great at throwing either, so think this group will not be challenged until we see Mertz at Florida. Mertz isn't a world breaker, but he can throw little dinks and dunks into soft coverage spots that chew into our secondary. Florida isn't great but we will need to fire on all cylinders on the defense. We need to prove in the first quarter we are not going to let them dictate the pace of the game by chewing clock and hitting us with little dinks all over the place.
