Thoughts on the season now that the sun has risen

[HerdBot]

Now that the sun has risen, here are my thoughts on the season

Our team is a developmental program. That means we recruit high school kids, have them learn the offense at an advanced level and then let Kramer turn them into men. By the time they are Juniors and Seniors, we have 22-23 year old men who understand our team and kick the fuck out of everyone. Klieman used to preach retention with very little attrition.

This year due to covid we did no have that.

We lost 2 starting O-lineman, one in the NFL. We lost an NFL QB and unfortunately, we didn't have a veteran with athleticism to take over. We lost Jabril Cox. We lost our starting running back do to a transfer. We lost Matt Biegler our starting senior DT. We lost our starting shutdown corner midseason. I probably forgot about a few too.

Then to make matters worse, those Seniors we spent years developing were suddenly gone. Howieson and Quin Alo likely would have been starters on the O line. Same is true with guys like Mercadel, Beau Pauley and Trevor Heit.

Haven't even gotten to injuries yet. We lost Seth Wilson week 1. We lost Kobe Johnson and Bussey so we ended up starting a fullback with a bad shoulder and a true freshman in Gonella. Since our Fullback is now our starting running back, we had to move a player to the position for the first time

Throw in injuries to key players like James Kaczor, Dawson Weber, Phoenix Sproles and a late transfer by Hayes forced us to play freshman. That's not how we win.

We got Quincey Patterson poised to be the next stud QB. We got a great transfer running back. We got all these injured players coming back. Young players or first time starters are going to look really good next year. Guys like Jake Rock, Mason Miller, Zabel, Jalen Sundell, Wisniewski, Eubanks, Dom Jones, Gonella and all these younger players gained the most. Give them the summer with Kramer, time to watch film and we may have ourselves a heck of team

Point is despite all of this, we were still good enough to make a playoff run. These young guys are only going to get better and we're set up pretty good now.

As far as future recruiting goes, we got 3 NFL Draft picks, a brand new Indoor Practice Facility and coaches and players who may have needed a little humbling. And yes, I still think Tyler Roehl really sucked this year.

[heffray]

Well said. There is good reason to be optimistic about next year and many years to come.

[Kevin]

Agreed completely but I need at least one more day to be angry.

[tjamz]

Now that the sun has risen, here are my thoughts on the season

Our team is a developmental program. That means we recruit high school kids, have them learn the offense at an advanced level and then let Kramer turn them into men. By the time they are Juniors and Seniors, we have 22-23 year old men who understand our team and kick the fuck out of everyone. Klieman used to preach retention with very little attrition.

This year due to covid we did no have that.

We lost 2 starting O-lineman, one in the NFL. We lost an NFL QB and unfortunately, we didn't have a veteran to take over. We lost Jabril Cox. We lost our starting running back do to a transfer. We lost Matt Biegler our starting senior DT. We lost our starting shutdown corner midseason. I probably forgot about a few too.

Then to make matters worse, those Seniors we spent years developing were suddenly gone. Howieson and Quin Alo likely would have been starters on the O line. Same is true with guys like Mercadel and Beau Pauley.

Haven't even gotten to injuries yet. We lost Seth Wilson week 1. We lost Kobe Johnson and Bussey ended up starting a fullback with a bad shoulder and a true freshman in Gonella. Since our Fullback is now our starting running back, we had to move a player to the position for the first time

Throw in injuries to key players like James Kaczor, Dawson Weber, Phoenix Sproles and a late transfer by Hayes forced us to play freshman. That's not how we win.

We got Quincey Patterson poised to be the next stud QB. We got a great transfer running back. We got all these injured players coming back. Young players or first time starters are going to look really good next year. Guys like Jake Rock, Mason Miller, Zabel, Jalen Sundell, Wisniewski, Eubanks, Dom Jones, Gonella and all these younger players gained the most. Give them the summer with Kramer, time to watch film and we may have ourselves a heck of team

Point is despite all of this, we were still good enough to make a playoff run. These young guys are only going to get better and we're set up pretty good now.

As far as future recruiting goes, we got 3 NFL Draft picks, a brand new Indoor Practice Facility and coaches and players who may have needed a little humbling. And yes, I still think Tyler Roehl really sucked this year.

I tend to agree with all of this. I'm sure I could find things to bitch and obsess about that I have no control over, but like you I'm going to focus on the future.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

[bstark28]

100% agree with the above....couple other points to mull over.

1) With Cordell already saying he'll be back in the Fall (assuming everyone is healthy), we'll go Cordell, Nash, Sundell, Zabel, and Rock/Mauch across the front....I can live with that OL all day long and twice on Sunday.
2) Transfer portal entries.....hate to even think about it, but just have to assume that this is going to be another element we need to deal with going forward. Any names that people are worrying about as possibly bolting?
3) I know Charlie brought it up in another thread....but, I've heard the same from multiple people, as well, that there are locker room issues that need to be addressed. Don't have any specifics, but makes you wonder as to what the hell is going on behind closed doors.

[THEsocalledfan]

100% agree with the above....couple other points to mull over.

1) With Cordell already saying he'll be back in the Fall (assuming everyone is healthy), we'll go Cordell, Nash, Sundell, Zabel, and Rock/Mauch across the front....I can live with that OL all day long and twice on Sunday.
2) Transfer portal entries.....hate to even think about it, but just have to assume that this is going to be another element we need to deal with going forward. Any names that people are worrying about as possibly bolting?
3) I know Charlie brought it up in another thread....but, I've heard the same from multiple people, as well, that there are locker room issues that need to be addressed. Don't have any specifics, but makes you wonder as to what the hell is going on behind closed doors.

Watson is the fear in my book.....he has P5 talent. Cox type situation again, and honestly, maybe even bigger deal for him if he want to play in the League.

[Kevin]

Watson is the fear in my book.....he has P5 talent. Cox type situation again, and honestly, maybe even bigger deal for him if he want to play in the League.

It helps that there's a 50% chance he's not going to catch it. Guy is an amazing talent but somehow catches passes he shouldn't catch and drops the passes he should.

[EC8CH]

Watson is the fear in my book.....he has P5 talent. Cox type situation again, and honestly, maybe even bigger deal for him if he want to play in the League.

Absolutely. This feels inevitable unfortunately.

[Professor Chaos]

My glass is half full... I think this team will be better in the fall due to the games and reps this spring.

Offensively if Zabel and Rock are able to come back healthy they'll have a fantastic O-line but they need to shore up their pass blocking. RBs with Gonella, Luepke, and Bussey are already set but SMU transfer Tamorick Williams coming in and Kobe Johnson coming back will keep that position loaded. TEs are studs. Watson is a stud. The only missing piece to make this a dominant offense again is a QB and that'll be by far the biggest question mark heading into the fall.

Defensively the d-line is so solid and deep with the emergence of guys like the Mostaerts, Brayden Thomas, and Pierce to go along with Waege, McCormick, etc (hoping Barty Ogbu can get back into the fold as well). LB is a bit of a concern especially trying to match up with pass catching RBs but they've got a lot of young talent with guys like Wisniewski and Weerts to complement the starters. In the secondary I thought Talbert took a huge step forward this spring and Eubanks looks like he could be an all-conference type player very soon. The safeties are loaded with the addition of Dom Jones along with Weber and Tutsie.

Basically the only question marks I can see are QB (which is a huge one) and LB. Shore those up this fall and this spring will end up being nothing more than a little bump in the road.

[EC8CH]

It helps that there's a 50% chance he's not going to catch it. Guy is an amazing talent but somehow catches passes he shouldn't catch and drops the passes he should.

Doubt that's enough though. Especially with the QB position in flux holding onto top talent WRs is going to be a challenge.