Blackshirt83

I had a part about the Offense and Defensive lines as a focus and the importance of line play and in the Big Ten at the end but I didn't think it fit right at that point and wasn't the point of what I was saying in the thread so I cut it. Guess I missed a bit. I think the fact that they were right the first 20 times, the one flipped name at the very end wasn't going to confuse anyone. Thanks for finding the error and making a post about it though. Fixed it.

Last year we had historically bad OT play, pitiful special teams and a QB that couldn't throw in the redzone. Fix one of those things and you are bowl eligible. Fix 2 and you win 8-9 games. All three? you win 10 plus with a legit shot at all of them. And that was a very tough schedule. They 100% fixed special teams bringing in an elite punter in Brian Buschini, A 5 Star kicker in Charlie Weinrich who turned down scholarships to walk on here. and an electric return man in Trey Palmer. And an actual special teams coach. They almost definitely improved redzone scoring. We went to the redzone 53 times last season. We scored on 41 of those and scored a TD on 35. 28 rushing 7 passing with 6fg. We had about a 53% chance at rushing for a touchdown, otherwise we were as likely or more likely to end up with zero points vs a passing td or fg. And it's not like we didn't try. Martinez was 9 for 22 40.9% with 7 tds and a pick in the redzone. Texas went to the Redzone 47 times last season with 19 rushing td's and 16 passing tds and 9 fgs. fwiw. Thompson completed 63.9% of his passes in the redzone for 13 touchdowns and 1 interception. (our D gave up just 17 Touchdowns on 34 redzone tries. and averaged 28ppg vs 23ppg given up. fwiw. ) Put Thompsons numbers with our improved ability to run and create redzone scoring opportunities and you were a fringe playoff team. they very likely upgraded OL play. Guard play should remain very good, OT play can't be worse, so as long as center play doesn't take a huge dip - and I don't expect it will, OL play will be better. Significantly better? IDK but honestly out of the 3 this is the one that least impacted wins and losses and that's strange to say when it's literally the offensive line. The backbone of any good offense. HERE's the problem. We aren't going to be as good on defense. Especially in the redzone this year most likely. They have done a masterful job in the secondary and the Linebacking corps will likely stay basically the same. Do they have a replacement for JoJo? no. But they have an overall improvement in talent and depth, MLB is extremely solid and will be much better at taking the ball away this season. The one big issue is the D-Line There is good news, Starting with Casey Rodgers. After missing the first 5 games due to an injury during fall camp, Rogers ended up as our best run stuffer on the DLine. So I think Rodgers will have a big year. I also like Jordan Riley. think he will be a solid starter. And that's basically all the good news. Last year coach Tuioti rode a really strong 4.5man rotation of Stille, Robinson, Daniels, Thomas and once healthy Rogers to a really good year, especially against the run. Unfortunately, while Robinson and Rogers return, Stille, Daniels and Thomas are not and just like Tuioti didn't recruit a single one of those 5 guys and he also didn't recruit anyone to replace them either. thomas - parella daniels- parrella Robinson - Dawson Stille - Parrella Rogers- Dawson At least Dawson recruited the two returning players from last year's rotation. So they will be familiar with each other. Unfortunately Ty Robinson was not great last year. In fact you could have replaced him with Nate Hutmacher and be better in virtually every measurable statistic last year except experience. Those guys will likely battle over the other DT position early on. So we have this: DT NT DT Robinson Riley Rogers Hutmacher ?? ?? Here's the problem. None of the players I mentioned are good pass rushers at all. So your starting Line is not going to generate much of a pass rush, at all. And though Dawson will be a very good recruiter going forward, Tuioti didn't bring in anything to bridge the gap Dawson better be one of the best DL coaches in football or we are going to have an extremely poor defensive line. Maybe we can bring in Parrella from his HS coaching job in Cleveland. Might as well see if three part time nfl coaches can do something instead of just two. He wasn't a bad recruiter. LOL