DiderotsGhost
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South Carolina
Either Texas A&M is about to become an even bigger offensive threat in the post-Manziel era or South Carolina's defense is going to struggle a lot this year. Probably a mix of the two, but I certainly would lean a bit more towards the latter right now.
There have been some huge red flags in the offseason. Tough to ever doubt Steve Spurrier, given his past success, but all the reports about the "new defense" this year were very unusual to me. SC is implementing a hybrid between the 4-2-5 (what it's run for awhile) and the 3-4 this season. It seems odd given that those two defensive schemes are not very much alike. I'm not a coach and don't claim to be an expert, but it's one of the most unusual defensive schemes I've ever encountered. It also appears that South Carolina is desperately struggling to find a pass rush in the post-Clowney era (which might be part of the reason it's trying to switch to the 3-4).
A&M scored touchdowns on 7 of 12 drives. 2 of those 12 drives were at end of halves, so throw those out, and A&M scored TDs on 7 / 10 drives, a FG on another, and only had to punt twice. They also ran up 511 passing yards. Tough to win if you can't stop anything.
It's Game #1 and you can only tell so much from that, but my initial impression is that SC's defense may have some big-time struggles this season and that it's going to be difficult to fix them quickly.
Ole Miss
Ole Miss / Boise State is more difficult to draw interferences from. It was a turnover-fest, and Ole Miss probably won't force 4 turnovers in too many games the rest of the season; nor will they turn the ball over 3 times.
The biggest takeaways for me:
(1) Ole Miss is very good,
(2) They appear more reliant on the passing attack
The latter may be good news for us. Remember that the teams we struggled against the most last season where the ones that ran it all over us (e.g. Auburn, Oregon, etc) in the spread. We also struggled with mobile QBs that could beat us to the edge (e.g. that backup QB from Florida that sucked against everyone but us).
Our secondary and linebackers are our biggest strengths on defense. It's the D-line that there are more question marks about. All in all, I'd argue that Ole Miss is a reasonable matchup for us. They should be favored and it won't be an easy game to win, but it's do-able, and it doesn't seem to present quite as big of a matchup nightmare as the Auburn game last year.
Vanderbilt
In my SEC prediction thread, I said that I thought A&M would be good, but would struggle versus the rest of the SEC. And I said I thought Vanderbilt would be the team that falls the most this year. Well ... after one game, I'm looking OK on one of those.
Vanderbilt is another team switching to the 3-4 this year. Their recruiting has also fallen off a cliff since Coach Mason took over. Mason knows defense, but we've repeatedly seen how these transitions to the 3-4 can create a rough year, since most teams lack the personnel to run it effectively immediately. But forget about that ... the bigger problem seems to be that without Franklin, Vandy's offensive mastermind, the Vandy offense is struggling big-time.
This team will get better as the season goes along, but I'd definitely disagree with the sportswriters that have Vandy listed as a favorite against us. This is a team that's lost a lot of talent, lost it's best coaching staff in the past 80 years, and it undergoing a major transition on D. They will be fighting to avoid being the bottom team in the SEC this year.
Chattanooga
Nearly beat Central Michigan. Yeah, it's Central Michigan, and the Chippewas hardly inspire fear. But this is one of those "don't look over it" games for us. We're obviously much better than them talent-wise, but if we write them off, they could give us headaches. Oh, they also have a mobile QB.
RANDOM BONUS
Wake Forest
We don't play Wake Forest this year, but it's interesting since our old OC Dave Clawson is the coach there now. Unfortunately for Wake, Dave's offense struggled about as much as it did in his one year in Knoxville. I obviously didn't watch the game, but check out this horrendous stat-line:
John Wolford, QB, 12/22 for 97 yds, 0 TDs, 1 Int; 11 carries for -40 yds
This was against Louisiana-Monroe mind you. The entire Wake offense produced -3 rushing yards. A lot of that was likely due to sacks, but that's U-G-L-Y nonetheless.
Clawson has been a successful program builder, and given time, he'll improve Wake, but his first season start is looking a lot like that disastrous first (and only) season at UT.
Overall
I'd hold off on any real dramatic assessments till we see UT play a couple of games, but I do think the SC game is looking more winnable, and that Ole Miss will be a tough game for us, but match-up wise, we can be competitive. The Vandy game is also looking more winnable, but personally, I never thought otherwise.
Either Texas A&M is about to become an even bigger offensive threat in the post-Manziel era or South Carolina's defense is going to struggle a lot this year. Probably a mix of the two, but I certainly would lean a bit more towards the latter right now.
There have been some huge red flags in the offseason. Tough to ever doubt Steve Spurrier, given his past success, but all the reports about the "new defense" this year were very unusual to me. SC is implementing a hybrid between the 4-2-5 (what it's run for awhile) and the 3-4 this season. It seems odd given that those two defensive schemes are not very much alike. I'm not a coach and don't claim to be an expert, but it's one of the most unusual defensive schemes I've ever encountered. It also appears that South Carolina is desperately struggling to find a pass rush in the post-Clowney era (which might be part of the reason it's trying to switch to the 3-4).
A&M scored touchdowns on 7 of 12 drives. 2 of those 12 drives were at end of halves, so throw those out, and A&M scored TDs on 7 / 10 drives, a FG on another, and only had to punt twice. They also ran up 511 passing yards. Tough to win if you can't stop anything.
It's Game #1 and you can only tell so much from that, but my initial impression is that SC's defense may have some big-time struggles this season and that it's going to be difficult to fix them quickly.
Ole Miss
Ole Miss / Boise State is more difficult to draw interferences from. It was a turnover-fest, and Ole Miss probably won't force 4 turnovers in too many games the rest of the season; nor will they turn the ball over 3 times.
The biggest takeaways for me:
(1) Ole Miss is very good,
(2) They appear more reliant on the passing attack
The latter may be good news for us. Remember that the teams we struggled against the most last season where the ones that ran it all over us (e.g. Auburn, Oregon, etc) in the spread. We also struggled with mobile QBs that could beat us to the edge (e.g. that backup QB from Florida that sucked against everyone but us).
Our secondary and linebackers are our biggest strengths on defense. It's the D-line that there are more question marks about. All in all, I'd argue that Ole Miss is a reasonable matchup for us. They should be favored and it won't be an easy game to win, but it's do-able, and it doesn't seem to present quite as big of a matchup nightmare as the Auburn game last year.
Vanderbilt
In my SEC prediction thread, I said that I thought A&M would be good, but would struggle versus the rest of the SEC. And I said I thought Vanderbilt would be the team that falls the most this year. Well ... after one game, I'm looking OK on one of those.
Vanderbilt is another team switching to the 3-4 this year. Their recruiting has also fallen off a cliff since Coach Mason took over. Mason knows defense, but we've repeatedly seen how these transitions to the 3-4 can create a rough year, since most teams lack the personnel to run it effectively immediately. But forget about that ... the bigger problem seems to be that without Franklin, Vandy's offensive mastermind, the Vandy offense is struggling big-time.
This team will get better as the season goes along, but I'd definitely disagree with the sportswriters that have Vandy listed as a favorite against us. This is a team that's lost a lot of talent, lost it's best coaching staff in the past 80 years, and it undergoing a major transition on D. They will be fighting to avoid being the bottom team in the SEC this year.
Chattanooga
Nearly beat Central Michigan. Yeah, it's Central Michigan, and the Chippewas hardly inspire fear. But this is one of those "don't look over it" games for us. We're obviously much better than them talent-wise, but if we write them off, they could give us headaches. Oh, they also have a mobile QB.
RANDOM BONUS
Wake Forest
We don't play Wake Forest this year, but it's interesting since our old OC Dave Clawson is the coach there now. Unfortunately for Wake, Dave's offense struggled about as much as it did in his one year in Knoxville. I obviously didn't watch the game, but check out this horrendous stat-line:
John Wolford, QB, 12/22 for 97 yds, 0 TDs, 1 Int; 11 carries for -40 yds
This was against Louisiana-Monroe mind you. The entire Wake offense produced -3 rushing yards. A lot of that was likely due to sacks, but that's U-G-L-Y nonetheless.
Clawson has been a successful program builder, and given time, he'll improve Wake, but his first season start is looking a lot like that disastrous first (and only) season at UT.
Overall
I'd hold off on any real dramatic assessments till we see UT play a couple of games, but I do think the SC game is looking more winnable, and that Ole Miss will be a tough game for us, but match-up wise, we can be competitive. The Vandy game is also looking more winnable, but personally, I never thought otherwise.
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