IIRC, Bo made a comment last year about the B1G changing to us and not the other way around. It would appear, that on both sides of the ball, Bo is changing us to match the B1G. I hope we will not become a big slow plodding team.
Yes, Bo did make statements about last year on how the B1G will adjust to us and we will not adjust to the B1G. That made me smile with hope when he said that, but you are right, it seems we are trending away from that. I do like the fact though, that we are very fast at receiver, probably one of the most explosive units at that position we have seen in years might be over the next few years, starting this fall.
My fear for this program, is that we are going to be stuck in neutral. I fear we will go dive down into the 1987-1992 years where we are a decent team but get destroyed in bowl games because we are big and slow.
We have got to get faster on defense [linebackers, defensive ends] and we either have got to blitz more or get some penetration from our front four so we can play coverage behind that. On offense, I don't want to see power back strictly, unless they are mixed in with other all-purpose backs.. I want to see either balanced backs or speed backs. When we won National Championships and many conference titles, we were not a slow team. We had guys who could break tackles but could also take it to the house. Anyone could get the ball and make something of it. You never knew who it was going too, and sometimes you did know but you couldn't stop it. We were very multiple [yes I said it] on offense, but we were fast and tough. I don't think our offenses or defenses are tough anymore and hopefully we get that mentality back on both sides of the ball.
When I think of big backs, I see Ron Dayne, Jerome Bettis, Mike Alstot. We need running backs who were like Ahman Green, Lawrence Phillips, Brian Westbrook, Danny Woodhead type of running backs. We need guys in that 200-215 range who can do a lot. But then we need bigger backs [perhaps even a full back....] to take a hammer at the defense.
Our offense looks to be like Burkhead being and Cross the balanced backs, Abdullah being the slasher, and then Marrow as the hammer of the backfield.
On the Aaron Green story, I believe he left because he wasn't happy with playing time. Just my opinion, no inside sources, his dad said himself he is not a patient guy.
With that said, I still think we are going to attempt to be a very balanced team, but I don't want to become so big that we are so slow from 1987-1992 that we get KILLED by SEC teams.
It was only when we made recruiting changes [recruit speed], and defensive philosophy changes [5-2 to 4-3, blitz more] until we became team of the decade with all of our success. Not saying it will happen again or overnight, but I believe that's the philosophy we need to take and let everything else fall where it may.
For some silly reason they think "power & size" are also very, very important.
