Way too early SEC FOTY prediction.

is mecole not starting out on defense?

From everything Kirby has said, it sounds like Mecole will play DB but may get some touches on offense and special teams. Probably very similar to Branden Smith.

Were Greene and Murray 5*s?

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Freshmen are more game ready coming in than they were 5 years ago

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I'm not sure there's really anythign that woudl prove this. I mean 5 years isn't really a big difference compared to like 20 years or something

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Look at Josh Rosen for UCLA last season

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Ok cool...how bout all the other freshmen QBs?

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The 6-7 record definitely was not Murray's fault

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here's an excerpt from a post I made about murray's record against ranked teams, for which he was so widely lambasted for

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2010- Freshman

@#24 SC- L, 6-17 14/21, 192 yard, 0/0
Our defense game up 182 yards and 2 touchdowns to Lattimore. His numbers weren't great, but it was his 2nd game ever. Our run defense really let us down, but he could've done more.

#12 Arky- L, 24-31 15/27, 253 yards, 1/1
Ok yardage. However, our defense gave up nearly 400 yards to Mallet including giving up the GW touchdown with under a minute left. Once again, this loss falls heavily on our defense.

@ #2 AU- L, 31-49 15/28, 273 yards, 3/0.
By comparison, Cam had 148, 2/1. Murray played great this game and put us way ahead early. However, the defense gave up 460 yards and we committed 10 penalties. We rushed for 81 yards. He was basically forced to try to win the game himself...against the best team in the country and eventual national champ at their place.

#25 UCF- L, 6-10 21/38, 198 yards, 0/2
This is the only game his freshman season where you can really say he stunk up the joint. This was just such a lackluster game in all phases it's still mind boggling to think about.

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It's really a shame that one of the 2 or 3 best QBs we've ever had played with such monumentally bad defenses for half his tenure.

If we got a repeat of Murray's freshman year, I would be all in for that. But unfortunately, need to remember he redshirted leading to a lot more experience than Eason is going to have come September.

EE is becoming the closest thing to a redshirt you'll get for most 4-5* athletes... careers seem to be getting shorter in the NFL (sometimes by choice - I envision more Calvin Johnson type decisions coming in the future)... couple that with the lower rookie salary, there's not as much of a benefit to going in the 1st round as there used to be, so returning for that last year tends to happen more with guys who are questionable on making it into the league at all.

ETA: I don't believe Calvin will retire this season, but I do believe that more players will start thinking about it. Get in, get paid, get out... if football isn't your life, this is not a bad strategy.

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I saw where Marshon Lynch is thinking of retiring. Article said he has lived off his endorsements and banked/invested the $49.7 million he's earned in the NFL. Smart guy.

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Absolutely! Were I an immensely talented RB, this would be my plan as well... they already have a shorter career prospect compared to other positions, simply given the abuse and "mileage" they put up. He's at the point now where he could keep playing for minimum or close to minimum contracts (no one is paying top dollar for a RB over 30 really)... or since he was smart with his money he can peace out, go out as an elite RB and do whatever he wants... be that coaching or something entirely not football related. (Note: I left commentating out simply due to his personal relationship with the media... or lack thereof )

Obviously, stats can be pretty screwy and not tell the whole story... but let's initially just compare Rosen's season stats to an established upper classman random QB who will remain nameless for now...

Rosen:
Avg Cmp %: 59.96
TD/game: 1.77
INT/game: 0.85
Avg Adj QBR: 64.8

Random QB:
Avg Cmp %: 63.28
TD/game: 1.00
INT/game: 0.17
Avg Adj QBR: 64.35

While you like the TD upside to QB 1, the completion percentage and lower risk of interceptions makes QB2 look pretty comparable, right? Obviously I wouldn't have done this exercise if it wasn't to make a point... so if you didn't piece it together already, unknown QB is Greyson Lambert from 2015.

I was curious what happens if you take out the biggest outlier from both (positive and negative - Lambert USC/UA, Rosen BYU/UVA) and here's what I got:

Rosen:
Avg Cmp %: 58.97
TD/game: 1.73
INT/game: 0.73
Avg Adj QBR: 67.68

Lambert:
Avg Cmp %: 61.84
TD/game: 0.90
INT/game: 0.10
Avg Adj QBR: 66.36

Biggest two things that stand out are:
Longer throws for Rosen - 5 games with a long completion under 40 yards vs Lambert's longest completion being over 40 only twice. In trying to account for this, I took a look at yards per attempt and the numbers actually are slightly in Lambert's favor 7.7 to 7.5.


Larger sample size of throws for Rosen, as they threw it nearly twice as often, but I don't envision a fun and gun style offense with a freshman QB anyways, so would expect a relatively low total pass count from Eason in his Freshman year as well.

Also noteworthy is that Lambert didn't play in the UF game, so it took one of the 3 most challenging defenses off of his schedule.

Anyways, this was just a for fun comparison, but I really think it's interesting that with some of the worst O-line play we've seen in recent years, Chubb going down for the season, and what many of us would call some of the worst QB play in the Richt era, Lambert and Rosen's stats are not dissimilar. The key for Eason will be minimizing the big mistakes. Not all interceptions are created equal. RZ turnovers or turnovers inside your own territory obviously can be killers. I think we most likely finish the regular season with 8-9 wins, but wouldn't call it the ceiling. I don't believe it's outlandish to think that Eason could play better than Lambert, while we do add a more challenging OOC in UNC (replaces the Ga Southern game in my mind), we get Tennessee at home (hopefully with a healthy Chubb - which should also help with UF) and replace Alabama with Ole Miss (albeit on the road). While I wouldn't call it a significantly easier schedule, I do think it turns a bit in our favor which may give us some room for optimism.

ETA: With a 1.5-1.75 TD/game and .75-.85 INT/game stat average... we honestly could be in better shape than you would think assuming the running game is as stout as we'd expect.

Yeah, I had run that one as well, it seemed like it would have just been beleaguering the point in my post. :) Ultimately, I feel like if we see marginal improvement at QB and WR - which we rightfully should, it really could provide some surprising results. My concern is that it will come down to OL play. Eason won't be able to do shite if he's running for his life.

From a sheer talent perspective:
QB - ^
WR -^
OL - v

If we're able to pick up Catalina or another graduate transfer who would be serviceable at LT, I feel pretty good about piecing together a 2 deep for the other 4 positions. If we miss out, gotta hope that Cleveland works well with Pittman and maybe projects to tackle rather than guard. It's going to be tricky, but if we can improve the OL performance, I like Eason's chances to have a better freshman year than many would anticipate.