I suspect that one of the problems with trying to have more 'physical' practices and trying to toughen up the team is that we are so thin at so many positions that injuries will KILL us. We are effectively too thin to risk injury practicing what we need to practice. A half dozen pre-season and practice injuries to starters and we are facing an uphill battle against most of the teams we play. We are simply too thin to be gambling. I think the first 5 or 6 games we survived with the injuries we had vs the competition we faced. Our lack of depth meant we weren't able to freely substitute and wear our opponents down as quickly, hence the 4th quarters where we did have more success and sort of pulled away at that point.
By the middle third of the season, as the bumps and bruises and sprains and etc accumulated across more and more players, our depth evaporated. Playing one third stringer here or there for parts of games can be sort of worked around or hidden or abided, but as one or two became 5 or 6, it took its toll. The opponents got better and we were in trouble. We managed to play with Wisconsin, perhaps, because I seem to recall they were also having some injury fatigue as well. We also had the unbeaten team 'expectations' and as much confidence as we've had in years. But the loss of Tommy A, Westy, Cethan, linemen and so on just was too much to handle. Then we hit Ohio State who has a three deep chart that dam few of our guys could make on their best day. Between injuries and a 59 point beat down following the disppointment of Wisconsin was just all the fragile team could handle physically and mentally. The season finish, looking back, should have been obvious. We recovered some by the bowl but still played with out about half our team captains and several 3 or 4 year starters. Frankly, it is rather surprising in a way that we managed to have any glimmer of hope vs Tenn. We ran out of gas and the result is not unexpected.
The key for next year is can we find about 15 very good, hard nosed, strong willed, confident players to step into major roles while some of the young guys grow up big and strong and fast? Maybe it will take 20?
Oddly enough, this actually give me a little more hope because, it suggests that while the cupboard is bare when the starters on on the field, atleast most of the starters are able to give a decent showing vs most opponents. We just need a bunch more and they don't all need to be 4 and 5 star guys to get us back into the hunt for the West division and from there, we can claw and scratch and recruit our way back to serious contenders. We are NOT bottom feeders and it doesn't have to take a decade. We are not a bottom twenty program and we have a fighting chance. Finish this class off with some more good and a couple greats and have most of the last couple classes pan out well and we can get there from here. It is NOT hopeless nor will it have to take three more head coaching hires to restore the order.
