Quote:
Originally Posted by Die Hard Cards
I'd rather win with someone I don't trust than lose with someone I do.
We have the most talented offense in the country and if not the MOST, atleast in the top 2 or 3. We have some serious talent on defense too. Myles, Jackson, Heyman, Whitehead, etc. All players that could possibly play pro ball. We shouldn't be squeaking by against MTSU and losing to UK. The talent gap is incredulous. I'm not calling for K's head. He needs sometime to prove himself. But, I don't think we should give him 5 or 6 years and a chance to run this program into the ground. Everyone is talking about this team going 7-5. I'll guarantee if we go 7-5 that we will be the most talented team in history to go 7-5. There is no reason for our team to go 7-5 aside from coaching discrepancy.
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Suffice it to say I disagree or at least don't strongly agree with most of this post.
Heyman and especially Whitehead are still young, undersized players. Peanut hasn't shown the speed to get around the edge yet and isn't big or strong enough to get away from an opposing tackle once he is wrapped up. That hopefully will come with another summer of strength training and conditioning, but for now he seems like a wasted redshirt.
Myles and especially Jackson don't have the end to end speed to cover the intermediate defensive areas. They are linebackers who thrive more on coming at the QB entirely unabated, getting sacks or TFL's, and mostly because a D-lineman is commanding a double team. Without Okoye grabbing two O-linemen every down, Jackson has been rendered pretty ineffective at his specialty. Myles has done a good job stepping up as a tackler, especially in the UK game, so I'll give him that.
Folks are quick to forget just how much we lost on the defensive end of the ball, myself included. You don't just replace Amobi Okoye with Brandon Cox (who has been terrible this season, BTW) and replace Abe Brown with Preston Smith thinking everything is going to keep running smoothly. Those guys, along with Nate Harris, William Gay, and Brandon Sharp, were the leaders of that team last year. So far no one has stepped up to take the places of the players named.
Right now, this team looks to be a talented group of individuals who don't have an alpha dog to lead and guide the pack to team greatness. Especially on the defensive end, there is no one with the right mix of experience, leadership, maturity, and intelligence to say, 'I'm the man, now do what I say'. Until the team finds that guy, the defense is probably going to struggle. And you can't blame coach for that lack of an on-the-field general.
Now if that general is still missing next year or definitely two years from now, you start asking tough questions of the staff.