SouthKnoxVOL
100% piped in crown noise
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Let's look at our probable starters this year:
Josh Dobbs- 3 star
Jalen Hurd- 5 star
Josh Malone- 5 star
Preston Williams- 4 star
Josh Smith- 3 star
Ethan Wolf- 3 star
Drew Richmond- 5 star
Jashon Robertson- 3 star
Coleman Thomas- 3 star
Dylan Weisman- 3 star
Chance Hall- 3 star
Aaron Medley-3 star
Defense:
Derek Barnett-4 star
Danny O'Brien-4 star
Kahlil McKenzie-5 star
Corey Vereen-3 star
Jalen Reeves-Maybin-4 star
Darrin Kirkland-4 star
Cam Sutton-3 star
Justin Martin-4 star
Malik Foreman/Emmanuel Moseley-3 stars
Todd Kelly-4 star
Rashaun Gaulden-4 star
Matt Darr- WO
That's a star studded stacked defense and an offense that proves the staff has a great eye for talent.
I'd love to see some good ole boys do it as well but it can't be done. Give me one example. We had a small group of 3* starters last year and we went 9-4. Should have been 11-1, but anyways this year we will only have 4-5 3*s starting and we should win the natty.
Let's look at our probable starters this year:
Josh Dobbs- 3 star
Jalen Hurd- 5 star
Josh Malone- 5 star
Preston Williams- 4 star
Josh Smith- 3 star
Ethan Wolf- 3 star
Drew Richmond- 5 star
Jashon Robertson- 3 star
Coleman Thomas- 3 star
Dylan Weisman- 3 star
Chance Hall- 3 star
Aaron Medley-3 star
Defense:
Derek Barnett-4 star
Danny O'Brien-4 star
Kahlil McKenzie-5 star
Corey Vereen-3 star
Jalen Reeves-Maybin-4 star
Darrin Kirkland-4 star
Cam Sutton-3 star
Justin Martin-4 star
Malik Foreman/Emmanuel Moseley-3 stars
Todd Kelly-4 star
Rashaun Gaulden-4 star
Matt Darr- WO
That's a star studded stacked defense and an offense that proves the staff has a great eye for talent.
I think most of us can safely go ahead and ignore this thread.
Then what thread would VN addicts post in during the last 24 hrs? I've never understood the negativity towards off topic recruiting threads, rival posters, and nega-vols. They probably provide half the responded content on this site... which we all enjoy.
Ellis was our starting H-back, a former walk on.
Hurd and Kamara are RB. We use an HB here also.
Thought Dobbs was a middle of the road 4*.
Did Kirkland and Martin get beat out for starting jobs at any point? If they did, the numbers stand. Martin was a 3* out of HS, by the way.
Quite a stretch to call Ellis our " starting H-back". Ellis was essentially our second string tight end behind Wolf.....didn't make a single start last year on the way to 8 catches for the season. He was a great story was a walk on contributed a lot in a secondary role. But it's not right to somehow suggest that he was in there as a starting H-back ahead of 5 star running backs Hurd and Kamara IMO.
I agree that we had 3 stars on both sides of the ball, but I disagree that they made up a majority of our players/starters. I count 14 4 and 5 star players who, when healthy, were on the field a majority of the time, not counting 5 star Kyle Phillips who also got some snaps early in the season before his shoulder injury.
Also, Medley was considered one of, if not the top placekicker in the country coming out of highschool.
That's not a small group of 3*s, man. Realistically, 14 of our 22 starters on offense or defense were 3*s and we went 9-4. We did well. Those are good ole boys. You are right we should have been 11-1 with roughly 64% of our starters being ranked at an unacceptable level according to your arbitrary scale of prepared for CFB. Also, Michigan State and Mizzou have historically been perfect examples of teams that do more nationally with less perceived talent. Others include North Carolina, Stanford, TCU, Utah, Iowa, Wisconsin, Nebraska, the list goes on.