Team Needs

#1

Johnnyreb#VFL

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#1
CJP said first we have to recruit our own players. With that being said and assuming all of our guys stay and get healthy, what is the biggest team need as far as position grouping to improve our team the fastest? What is the one area you think CJP is going to go after the hardest out of the gate? OL, LB, DL, other?
 
#3
#3
1. LB
2. LB
3. OL/DL
4. FB
5. LB
6. O "skill"/D "skill"

Do we know anything about DKJr? Is he coming back and will he be healthy? If I’m Coach, I wouldn’t put too much stock into him being able to play a full season. Not trying to be mean, just is what it is.
 
#6
#6
O-line and D-line. This is where the game starts.

Having your lines do their job is a mandatory step 1 before anything else can happen.
 
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#7
#7
The question is will he convert current players at the DE spot to LBs or to DTs? Are we fast enough currently at the DE position to transition to OLB, or big enough to transition to DT? Is it better to keep LBs at the OLB position, but beef them up?
 
#8
#8
CJP said first we have to recruit our own players. With that being said and assuming all of our guys stay and get healthy, what is the biggest team need as far as position grouping to improve our team the fastest? What is the one area you think CJP is going to go after the hardest out of the gate? OL, LB, DL, other?

I think it's a toss up between LB and OL. After that I would say WR and DL.
 
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#11
#11
Do we know anything about DKJr? Is he coming back and will he be healthy? If I’m Coach, I wouldn’t put too much stock into him being able to play a full season. Not trying to be mean, just is what it is.

I think he’s shown he’s just never gonna be healthy. Hate it for the kid, not his fault, but we just can’t make plans and count on him.
 
#12
#12
Without a doubt the DL is the biggest need right now. Our DL is atrocious.

The offensive line has a lot of talent on it, just needs to be coached under a proper scheme.
 
#13
#13
he said it yesterday. line of scrimmage. we need depth and more talent on both lines.

and LB is not too far behind that, if at all. i think we have players at most all the skill positions. and DB and SAfety could be fine, especially if Byrd moves to DB to go alongside Shamburger.

i think Butch was finally trying to get to the point we were an inside/out type of team, but it was just too late, and we never established the depth needed inside.

while our recruiting was better than average under CBJ, the issues on the LOS, be it recruiting and/or development, left us with that as the biggest need on this team still.

ol, dl, lb

that has to be priority 1 a,b, and c.
 
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#14
#14
The two most glaring needs right now are OL and LB. After that we're short on numbers at WR, especially if Byrd moves to defense.

Completely agree with OL and LB. And I will throw in DL too.

An entire upgrade is needed, but we've got to shore up our line play on both sides of the ball and work our way out from there.

This isn't going to be easy, folks. We had maybe 3 or 4 players on our entire team that would have even played meaningful minutes for Alabama. Getting some guys back from injury will help, and having a coaching staff in place that can actually develop them will help even more, but don't kid yourselves - this is a rebuild.
 
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#16
#16
Upgrades at EVERY position.

Agree, outside of running back, wherever Trey Smith is playing and safety, assuming Warrior and Gaulden (yes, I know he’s been a nickel) are there.

I think Bituli can play and I think DarrellTaylor is very talented and has the right attitude/mindset, just has poor technique.

At WR, Callaway can play and Johnson is a good possession receiver.....and that’s about it. JG has potential but needs some actual D1 QB coaching to get him where we need him to be.

Pruitt has some serious work to do with this roster. Perhaps there are several diamonds in the rough we haven’t seen yet since Jones had no earthly idea how to develop what talent he did bring in.
 
#17
#17
I think we are in need of mental toughness more than any specific position. We have too many marshmallows that will have to toughen up or GTFO of town.
 
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#18
#18
Agree, outside of running back, wherever Trey Smith is playing and safety, assuming Warrior and Gaulden (yes, I know he’s been a nickel) are there.
TKjr comes back as well at Safety. i'm curious though if Gaulden goes pro. we'll see.

I think Bituli can play and I think DarrellTaylor is very talented and has the right attitude/mindset, just has poor technique.
i think this is going to be interesting. we didn't really do a lot of thinking outside the box when it came to moving players around the roster (Rb to lb, lb to safety, ol to dl or vice versa) so i'm curious what they see when they start evaluating and what type of moves may be possible, just by shuffling some folks around.

At WR, Callaway can play and Johnson is a good possession receiver.....and that’s about it. JG has potential but needs some actual D1 QB coaching to get him where we need him to be.
also curious to see how they handle JJ. agree with you on the WR. we have some pretty good ones, but no one really that can take the top off.

Pruitt has some serious work to do with this roster. Perhaps there are several diamonds in the rough we haven’t seen yet since Jones had no earthly idea how to develop what talent he did bring in.

lol. yeah, i think we'll see some of this. plus with new staff, comes different ways of teaching, so who knows what they'll find when they start actually working with these guys and see what differences in their skill sets emerge.

in the end, i do think there's a lot to work with on this roster. i also think we'll see a few kids moved around to take advantage of what they just may be better suited to do.

and as always, be ready for some kids to say "this ain't for me", and just go away. it'll happen. and the staff will have to adjust and find other answers.
 
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#19
#19
WR - priority I mean they was blocking on a flea flicker plus can't run routes correctly or win 50/50 balls

LB - need more depth and talent there for sure

Oline - given we had injuries here but UT is lacking here . If Pruitt get Mayes plus that #1 judo T then were fine
Dline - ??? He may run 3-4 but if not we need someone to get in the backfield like barnett
 
#20
#20
Without a doubt the DL is the biggest need right now. Our DL is atrocious.

The offensive line has a lot of talent on it, just needs to be coached under a proper scheme.

O-line is the biggest need by far. What proven talent is there besides Trey Smith? And there is absolutely no depth. D-line, IMO, is one of the best and deepest units on the team. Did they under-perform the last 2 years? Absolutely. But you have Phillips, Kongbo, Tuttle, Taylor, McKenzie, and Picou back. Alexis Johnson, Deandre Johnson, Butler, Crosby, and Bennett provide depth. Not to mention Lawless, Litaker, and Emerson on the way.
 
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#22
#22
WR - priority I mean they was blocking on a flea flicker plus can't run routes correctly or win 50/50 balls

LB - need more depth and talent there for sure

Oline - given we had injuries here but UT is lacking here . If Pruitt get Mayes plus that #1 judo T then were fine
Dline - ??? He may run 3-4 but if not we need someone to get in the backfield like barnett

Mays and Jahmir Johnson are long shots at this point. We just lost 5 OL and only have 2 OL commits. Not to mention Hall and Calbert are coming off of knee surgery.
 
#24
#24
TKjr comes back as well at Safety. i'm curious though if Gaulden goes pro. we'll see.

i think this is going to be interesting. we didn't really do a lot of thinking outside the box when it came to moving players around the roster (Rb to lb, lb to safety, ol to dl or vice versa) so i'm curious what they see when they start evaluating and what type of moves may be possible, just by shuffling some folks around.

also curious to see how they handle JJ. agree with you on the WR. we have some pretty good ones, but no one really that can take the top off.



lol. yeah, i think we'll see some of this. plus with new staff, comes different ways of teaching, so who knows what they'll find when they start actually working with these guys and see what differences in their skill sets emerge.

in the end, i do think there's a lot to work with on this roster. i also think we'll see a few kids moved around to take advantage of what they just may be better suited to do.

and as always, be ready for some kids to say "this ain't for me", and just go away. it'll happen. and the staff will have to adjust and find other answers.

We disagree a little bit Jake on the roster. I think there are some talented pieces that we’ve SEEN, perhaps there are others we haven’t. God knows Jones seemed allergic to putting his most talented players on the field. But right now, I think I only see, from a fan’s perspective, a handful of guys capable of playing at a high SEC level. Kelly, Chandler, Smith, Callaway, Warrior, Bituli, Gaulden, JG (with some good, actual QB coaching)....I feel confident these guys can really play at a high SEC level, but I think that’s about it. Hopefully young kids like Butler, Bumphus, Jordan, Bennett, Crosby, Ignont, Reid, Palmer, etc, prove to be similarly talented, and can play at a high level here

But, of course, the wildcard is the utter lack of coaching and player development by the previous staff. Just hard to know, imho, how much of what we witnessed last season was a lack of talent not commensurate with what the recruiting rankings told us.....or just a severe discrepancy in coaching/scheme/player development/poor culture. I just know that I saw time and time again that virtually none of our guys on the DL and OL (outside of Trey) could just line up and beat the guy across from them, whether we were playing UMass, Vandy or Alabama. At some point, if we have 4 and 5 star guys lining up across from 2 and 3 star guys, shouldn’t they just be able to “out physical” those guys every once in a while, no matter how badly he was “coached”? And that virtually never happened.

I agree we’ll see some natural attrition, especially from some upperclassmen, who aren’t ready to commit to what Pruitt is about to ask/demand of them.
 
#25
#25
Without a doubt the DL is the biggest need right now. Our DL is atrocious.

The offensive line has a lot of talent on it, just needs to be coached under a proper scheme.

We only have 9 returning on the OL. That's not nearly enough bodies to play in this league, especially the physical style of play he's talking about.
 

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