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Schlabach's Way Too Early Top 25

WoadBlue

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Aug 15, 2008
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No surprise, UGA #1.

FSU is #4. Notre Dame is #14. Clemson is #15. UNC is #21.

And that is it for the lowly ACC. Pitt is the only ACC team in the group Just Missed the Top 25.

IN 2023, UNC faces only a single team that makes Schlabach's ranking: Clemson.
 
QB play is the biggest factor in wins and we certainly have one of the best.

Theoretically the O should be equally good. Lose two starting OL, one good, one not really good. Lose a great WR duo... but the rest of the team will be a yr bigger, faster, smarter on paper, plus some WR xfers could help.




Buuuuut is there any reason to believe the D will be any better?
-DL We lose Chris Collins and obviously Noah Taylor - so we kinda need to reboot the Jack position unless Kaimon winds up there. Amari Gainer could help, but he's undersized.

-Secondary. We lose two starting cb, one starting safety. Transfers Armani and Huzzie might help, but it is hard to image them being huge difference makers, especially when our scheme is allowing guys so much room off the line of scrimmage. Conley is a question mark imo just cuz he didn't get a single rep this yr... hard to tell how recovered mentally and physically.

-LB. LB will probably be a little better just due to depth and experience.

My keys to the D being decent:
-Amari Gainer remains a speedy athlete even after adding at least 15 pounds. Big ask IMO
-Conley returns and hasn't lost his athleticism, plus plays with better discipline and decision making (maybe from maturity or a yr in film room?)
-Huzzie the FCS xfer proves he's a stud at FBS level.
-Shaw loses some weight and actually looks like a 4* recruit.
-Every other DL gets healthy, plays with better technique and finds and inner dawg.
 
QB play is the biggest factor in wins and we certainly have one of the best.

Theoretically the O should be equally good. Lose two starting OL, one good, one not really good. Lose a great WR duo... but the rest of the team will be a yr bigger, faster, smarter on paper, plus some WR xfers could help.




Buuuuut is there any reason to believe the D will be any better?
-DL We lose Chris Collins and obviously Noah Taylor - so we kinda need to reboot the Jack position unless Kaimon winds up there. Amari Gainer could help, but he's undersized.

-Secondary. We lose two starting cb, one starting safety. Transfers Armani and Huzzie might help, but it is hard to image them being huge difference makers, especially when our scheme is allowing guys so much room off the line of scrimmage. Conley is a question mark imo just cuz he didn't get a single rep this yr... hard to tell how recovered mentally and physically.

-LB. LB will probably be a little better just due to depth and experience.

My keys to the D being decent:
-Amari Gainer remains a speedy athlete even after adding at least 15 pounds. Big ask IMO
-Conley returns and hasn't lost his athleticism, plus plays with better discipline and decision making (maybe from maturity or a yr in film room?)
-Huzzie the FCS xfer proves he's a stud at FBS level.
-Shaw loses some weight and actually looks like a 4* recruit.
-Every other DL gets healthy, plays with better technique and finds and inner dawg.
The defense improved over the season. Should be even better or not as bad, however one wants to put it, next season, and maybe even decent to pretty good, imho.
I think we have a pretty good shot at being very good next season. The OL needs to get it done, and we need a RB who can consistently get extra yards after contact.
 
Buuuuut is there any reason to believe the D will be any better?
It certainly couldn't get any worse. I have to believe that there will be at least a little improvement. There also might be some addition by subtraction in the locker room.
 
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It certainly couldn't get any worse. I have to believe that there will be at least a little improvement. There also might be some addition by subtraction in the locker room.
Disagree. Oregon is normally a high scoring offense. We held them to 28 pts which was more than enough for us to win had our offense been clicking and the coaches made the right play calls.
 
Disagree. Oregon is normally a high scoring offense. We held them to 28 pts which was more than enough for us to win had our offense been clicking and the coaches made the right play calls.
Disagree with what? The locker room comment? It's not a secret that there were some issues there. Those types of issues can spill onto the field.
 
SI has us at 16. I think the 16-21 range is not unreasonable.

If we beat SC in the opener (I believe), we will be ranked even if we aren't in the preseason.

As always, the key for an ACC team being worthy of even the fringes of the national stage is going through an SEC team. Lose to SoCar, and and even a 10-2 finish will be seen as proof not of a good team but of just another ACC team that would befoul its own bed in the SEC every weekend.

I think FSU may have its killer instincts back, and Clemson could have them back this coming season as well. But grandpa Mack keeps making moves that are too little too late and suggest that if he knows the situations, he is OK with being mediocre as long as he does not get fired.
 
Disagree with what? The locker room comment? It's not a secret that there were some issues there. Those types of issues can spill onto the field.
Not disagreeing with the locker room comment. Just the sentiment it could not get worse. We did actually play decent defense against Oregon.
 
Disagree with what? The locker room comment? It's not a secret that there were some issues there. Those types of issues can spill onto the field.
Those kind of issues, whether they originate from among players or the staff, always end up on the field unless they are squashed very early.
 
where'd you have us finishing this yr?
I didn't think too much about it since there were too many unanswered questions pre-season like our QB spot.

Had I known Maye was that good, I may have predicted a top 10 or 15 finish. Did not expect the defense to be as bad as they were, and late season did not expect our offense to weaken as it did.

I think losing Caleb Hood had a bigger impact than expected. Just getting a little extra yard or yards after contact would have done wonders for this offense.

The truth is I think with better play calling and coaching decisions, we'd have won against Oregon and picked up another win earlier in the season somewhere and finished ranked.
 
This. No way this program performs like a top-20 program.
Look, had we just made a few better coaching decisions in our play calling, we'd have won 2 more games, imho, and with that after beating Oregon, which we should have, we'd likely finish in the top 20.

Kicking a field goal rather than going for on 4th and 2 or whatever it was, changed the momentum of the game. Really boneheaded move.

We get it and bet we would have, then we win. If we don't, we still likely win based on their extremely poor field position.
 
Not disagreeing with the locker room comment. Just the sentiment it could not get worse. We did actually play decent defense against Oregon.
we couldn't stop anyone when it counted. Every game was a shootout, a few were ended by the D getting an INT but it is universally known that INTs mostly come from two things a) luck, b) passrush. We had no pass rush, and a typically horrid pass D, meaning we were lucky to get turnovers during team's final march against us. The coinflip shootouts could easily have gone the other way for a much worse record.
 
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I didn't think too much about it since there were too many unanswered questions pre-season like our QB spot.

Had I known Maye was that good, I may have predicted a top 10 or 15 finish. Did not expect the defense to be as bad as they were, and late season did not expect our offense to weaken as it did.

I think losing Caleb Hood had a bigger impact than expected. Just getting a little extra yard or yards after contact would have done wonders for this offense.

The truth is I think with better play calling and coaching decisions, we'd have won against Oregon and picked up another win earlier in the season somewhere and finished ranked.
Where did you have us finishing?
 
we couldn't stop anyone when it counted. Every game was a shootout, a few were ended by the D getting an INT but it is universally known that INTs mostly come from two things a) luck, b) passrush. We had no pass rush, and a typically horrid pass D, meaning we were lucky to get turnovers during team's final march against us. The coinflip shootouts could easily have gone the other way for a much worse record.
The Oregon game was NOT a shoot-out even though most predicted it would be.
 
I didn't. Didn't think enough about it to predict because there were too many unanswered questions preseason. Was that not clear in my prior response?
At the end of this yr, after uga beat tcu, where did you have us ranked out of the 131 fbs teams?
 
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