re: Alabama and LSU next year outlook

quote:

---

Is this like giving up 440 on the ground?

---

Ouch lol

quote:

---

MagillaGuerilla

---

Cool...that was gonna be my question whether Jones could play center.

Who do you like at the LB spots?

Does Eddie Williams play S or WR you think when he arrives?

We will have Mett next year and this guy as our dual threat:


Jerrard Randall is the real fricking deal. LSU's future at QB.

On the dline Mingo plays just as much or more than Adams. Brockers, Logan, freak, rasco, everyone will be back in the interior. The Eric Reid, tm7, tharold, loston will be back in the secondary. Linebacker we lose baker and Francois are gone but oh well, not losing a lot.

RR will be back along with shep, ob33, Jarvis, and the others. Mett is very talented, and ford, ware, and Hilliard will be back.
It's very safe to say we'll be improved next year.

Holy shite. How has this thread gone 4 pages without an Arkansas fan chiming in.

We lose some important cogs on defense that will be hard to replace. The 2 most important are MLB Jerry Franklin and S Tremain Thomas. Those 2 guys have played just about every snap at their positions for the last 2 seasons, and in Franklin's case - 4.

MLB scares the hell out of me. Franklin has racked up stats for 4 years there, but he's not a true MLB. He's better suited for OLB in my opinion. He doesn't move particularly well in traffic. So the fact that we've had no one else log significant PT at that position is troublesome. I know some people think Alonzo Highsmith might move inside, but he too is a bit light for that position IMO. We've got plenty of guys on the depth chart that were recruited for MLB (Atiga, Haman, Kelly-Thomas, Lake, Braylon Mitchell, Terrell Williams), but outside of Williams none of them have played a snap of meaningful action. And his few snaps have been less than impressive.

Replacing Thomas might not be as hard, just because his production this season has dwindled. I'm hopeful that Daunte Carr is healthy because he looks the part. Other than him we have a walkon that's played well and a couple of lightly recruited guys with good athleticism. Who knows if they're players. Scared about replacing thomas.

LB Nelson is loved by fans, but underperformed immensely this year. Hence him sharing time with JR LB Ross Rasner. I feel good here. Rasner's gotten tons of experience this year and, IMO, looked better than Nelson.

DE Bequette will be hard to replace, no doubt. But he's an up and down player. He's got immense highs, but tends to take plays off from what I can tell. True freshman Trey Flowers has been a much more consistent player, with lower highs but higher lows. I think he's going to be a very, very good player for us. We also will still have Tenarious Wright, who's a very experienced guy that's been out most of the year. He was better than Bequette last year, IMO. Hate that we didn't have them both for 90% of this season. DE should be about the same or better depending on how much better Flowers gets after 1 off season.

Those are the only significant losses on defense. No one else is worth mentioning, IMO. We lose a couple of CB's, but neither has ever been know as a great player.

Offensively, we're going to lose some skill players in Childs, Adams, and Wright. Fortunately, WR in BP's offense will never be a concern of mine. Including walk-ons, we have 16 WR's on campus that aren't seniors. The ones that have actually contributed are Cobi Hamilton, Marquel Wade (Joe Adams clone), Julian Horton (Just about every catch he's had this season has been acrobatic - excited about him), Javontee Herndon (nothing jumps out at me about him), and Maudrecus Humphrey (nothing jumps out).

So the top 3 will be Hamilton (if he doesn't come out early, which I think is unlikely based on his lack of targets this season), Wade, and Horton. I think Quinta Funderburk (highly recruited) has the best chance to crack the rotation as a redshirt freshman given his size. We'll need a bigger receiver (6'4") to complement the fast guys. But the guy who is the most exciting of the bunch, to me, is Keante Minor. He's got great speed, is physical, and according to Petrino - challenges Hamilton for best hands on the team.

We'll be just fine at WR. None of this includes the possible impact that Dorial Green-Beckham could possibly have if he commits. And I know we have some other freshman coming in at WR as well.

OL-wise, I expect us to be better. We lose 2 guys that are starting for the first time in their careers who almost got beat out by freshman and sophomores this season. Cook and Freeman are serviceable at best. I expect Brey Cook will take over for Freeman at OT and Mitch Smothers will move back inside to guard. Losing OL is never good, but they're in much better shape next year than they were this season. Given Smothers' playing time this season, I expect he'll have a leg up over a usual true sophomore.

DL should be better (experience and continued depth that we've never had before)
QB should be better (experience for wilson, added packages for brandon mitchell which are starting to play out this year)
RB should be better (Knile Davis, DJ, Wingo)
TE should be better (Gragg has come on huge the last few weeks)

So I think an improved running game/OL will be the biggest factor next year. Getting Knile back is like winning the lottery. Getting to bring back 3.5 starters is the cherry on top. I expect a LOT more play action success next year. So offensively, despite the loss of some stud WR's, I think we'll be better.

Defensively? Jesus. Who knows. The DL has underperformed this season due, primarily in my opinion, to injuries. We've been forced to play some young guys. Taken some lumps, for sure. I think LB and S are the true question marks and I do not feel good about it. That opinion could change if we brought in a different defensive coordinator, but I just don't see that happening.

So better on offense and worse on defense. Special teams, which are already pretty salty, should be even better. How that translates into victories is anyone's guess. But I don't see a huge dropoff at all. Getting LSU and Bama at home will certainly help matters, that's for sure.

It's just nice that we don't go from 2 good years with Mallett at the helm back down into the gutter for 4 years. We will never, ever have a team that can match the depth of talent seen at LSU or Bama. But at the very least Petrino's making us competitive on a yearly basis. That's exciting for me, considering the ups and downs of the Nutt era. Should be another fun season in the SEC West.

:inbeforetl;dr:

quote:

---

Is this like giving up 440 on the ground?

---

More like losing by the largest margin in the series history.

4 out of the last 5. Will be 6 out of the last 7 in the next two years. Those staff raises are looking really good! Lets all pray to the lord that Chiz can recruit another Cam for the fambuly.

quote:

---

Pass that shite

---

You're either young, have a short memory, or slightly retarded. Up until 2009, Auburn always had a damn good defense. Surprise, that's when Roof was hired and everything went down the drain. If we get another decent DC, we will, once again, be at the top of the SEC in defense. We have all kinds of great talent on that side of the ball.

quote:

---

Hshhh, Rantards want tard up in here. might as well let them.

---

'Tis true, I forgot that this is the SECr and all logic should be left on the MSB...

quote:

---

You're either young, have a short memory, or slightly retarded. Up until 2009, Auburn always had a damn good defense. Surprise, that's when Roof was hired and everything went down the drain. If we get another decent DC, we will, once again, be at the top of the SEC in defense. We have all kinds of great talent on that side of the ball.

---

Next year, we will have 7 juniors returning as starters on D and 2 seniors as well as almost our entire two deep.

In 2013, we will have 7 returning senior starters who will have started together for 3 straight years and are all "4 star" players with the exception of Davis.

quote:

---

Yeah, your defense left with Tubbs...we know

---

If it was all Tubbs, why do his defenses suck dick over at Texas Tech? I was watching an interview with him and he said he lets his assistants run the show, offensively and defensively... He just likes to manage. The dude said he's done that his whole career.

quote:

---

And know yall have an "Offensive Genius" who can put up 70 points on bad defenses

---

Yea, let's forget about how bad our offense was in 2008 compared to when Malzahn took over in 2009. We went from ranked in the 100s to rankeded in the top 20. We're rebuilding right now, and I thought that was obvious. You're either too fricking stupid to know any of the above or just trolling like 95% of the other shitheads on the SECr.

Go back to rantarding on the Tiger Rant