re: It’s good to be King (Haynes named starter)

Damn, that’s pretty eye opening. But also pretty irrelevant if Jimbo treats his legs like he treated Mond’s. He doesn’t like to rely on a QB’s legs and never will.

But if we wants to stay on track this year, he may not have a choice in a couple games.

I’m interested to see what the playbook looks like for King because I agree with you, read option stuff and designed runs are more a wrinkle for Jimbo than a feature.

We will need the athleticism at least early on with a new o line but I hope we fully utilize it in the playbook

Haynes has the whole playbook. Whether the OL does is a different story

I’m actually a little higher on the OL than most. I fully expect them to struggle at the start, but what gives me confidence is Jimbo’s commentary. Say whatever you want about him, he doesn’t blow smoke about what he sees in camp. If it sucked, he will not hesitate to tell you (in different words of course). But he is very pleased with these young guys so far.

OL is undoubtedly the key to this year, as it opens up everything else. Good OL allows us to unleash our elite running game. An elite running game takes a ton of pressure off our 1st year QB. It also drains clock, which gives our elite level defense rest. I know you can say that about almost every team, but it’s even more important for us given the frankly insane level of skill players we have right now. If we can give them the time to develop plays, the skill is there and we will be more than fine.

OL by itself could easily swing our season 3 games either way.

I’m not worried at all about Jimbo being willing to involve the QB on the move and in the run game. He prefers dual threat QBs…

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You know it’s not that simple. We had great RB’s last year (and a great O-line) against Bama, didn’t matter much. What was the difference? Big plays. Bama had a lot, we had none. That’s what has to change. It’s it’s all via this kids arm, that’s f***in fine by me. I just think his legs will have to play some role in games like that.

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Did you also see our QB? Mac Jones was not asked to do Najee Harris's job. He was asked to throw the ball on time and deep off a lot of play-action. And Mac did a lot of it out of the same personnel that Jimbo loves to run, a double tight end look.

You guys ran the ball and established the LOS with your backs. Your defense was a problem trying to keep up with the best offense in college football. And as Jimbo likes to remind everyone, we also had Waddle for your game. Impossible to stop.

The one difference being their weren’t any OL questions last year with Mac. There rarely ever is for Bama. Apples and oranges.

Also, the talent around Mac could not be matched, as you noted. We are getting there, but we ain’t there yet.

Sounds like Yulkeith Brown has been killing it in practices. I don't see how he starts, but I bet he makes some plays this year.

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I wouldn't be surprised to see Calzada hit the portal.

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I'd be shocked. Zach still has three years of eligibility AFTER this year. He's only play away from being the starting QB on a title contending team. He ain't going anywhere.

What's more, I think he stays and graduates. If he can graduate by the end of year 4, he could transfer as a graduate student, an A&M degree, and two years of eligibility left!.