Just an update from my early spring notes -
I have a good bit of optimism for Nico this year but recognize his early performance likely improves with experience. I’m not sure about the receivers but we have numbers so that may be in our favor. We also have talent at TE but in our scheme, no proven experience. We’re almost always running against a lite box so we should be good at RB whoever gets the carries.
I think the OLine is the key and I’m cautiously hopeful they will be a bit better against elite fronts this year. I don’t think any of the returnees were going to get drafted last year. Hopefully they’ll perform with that in mind this year as this is it; there’s no coming back in the cards right now. We need more power from those guys especially in the redzone and more discipline all the time. Anyway, that’s where I’m at on offense. As I noted in the pre-spring I’m not sure we can know what we can really do this year until we get to the first bye week. jmo.
Nick Saban noted at SEC media days that we have a QB-centric offense. Maybe so. He didn’t give any details. The one thing I figured out with Johnny Majors was that anyone could probably play QB for him because he always seemed to have an elite offensive line. I think that has been Georgia’s style under Kirby. Bennett and Beck were not highly coveted QB prospects but they were operating behind an elite OLine. I think over the last couple years (24/25) we’ve caught up to the Dawgs in OLine recruiting and may inch ahead. We’ve improved and Georgia has regressed, at least on paper. jmo.
Here’s the thing. Georgia has to replace two offensive linemen coming into this season. Their long time center, drafted by the Bills, a top 100 HS prospect, is slated to be replaced by a 3-star. So going from #60 in the composite to #450. At RT they’re going from Mims, the #8 HS prospect in his class to the #215 prospect in the class of his replacement. I would not be surprised if their OLine regresses a bit this year while it’s entirely possible that ours improves, especially with the added experience and of course our new 5-star left tackle. jmo.
On defense we’ll need the guys in the backend to gain confidence fast. They are the key and Grayson McCall and Jackson Arnold are more than good enough to show where we’re at early on. 247 recently ranked position groups for all SEC teams. They have our front 7 on defense at #2 in the conference behind only Georgia but they have our secondary at #12. I really don’t think #12 will be good enough against our schedule, meaning the maybe 5 teams that can beat us, so we may end up with 8 or 9 wins but if we can get up to speed with our new DBs sooner rather than later I think we could have a legitimate shot against anybody, including Georgia. jmo.
Generally, the biggest thing that gives me a bit of pause for this year is our overall lack of experience (returning production). In his May update Bill Connelly has us ranked second to last in the SEC, just ahead of Miss State and right behind Alabama. Kentucky is ranked first and Florida is ranked 3rd in the conference. Experience breeds confidence which is why it is so important. jmo.
One well respected analyst I have followed over the years that has written a lot about Heupel’s offense is Ian Boyd. Boyd works for the Texas On3 site now and this is a screen shot of his SEC predictions for this year.
View attachment 667471
I miss SaS.
www.sportico.com
UE rant time...
