I know many fans & media types seem to think wide receiver is our strongest position group on the team this year but the more I pay attention the more I think it’s going to be our running back room. We have four guys in Chandler, Jordan, Banks, and Gray that could be hot on any given Saturday. That’s having options. Having our QB, O-Line, and running backs on the same page is I think going to do wonders for our offense. The two most defining elements of being successful in the SEC is the ability to run the ball on offense and the ability to stop the run on defense. It’s the reason behind the oft cited descriptor, “line of scrimmage league.”
We’ve heard a lot of good things about Gray. He’s mature. He has a tremendous work ethic. He’s a true professional. He has tremendous talent. When he was recovering from shoulder surgery in the spring he was spending time before and after practice working on learning protections, the playbook, and recognizing and understanding his keys. His work ethic in particular reminds me of Rondale Moore, Freshman all-American at Purdue last year that amassed over 2,000 all-purpose yards as a true freshman. Big 10 freshman of the year.
Earlier this week, Bituli talked about how To’oto’o convinced the coaches to get the linebacker room to set up a group chat so he could start learning the defense while he was still in California. After the spring game Darnell Wright bemoaned the fact that he hadn’t taken the early enrollee route.
Justifiably, most folks will want to temper expectations for true freshmen, but from what I can see, from the enthusiasm of Jeremy Banks to almost every other single level of our football team, the younger guys and guys who have sort of been lost on the depth chart are pushing the older more established guys and they are pushing hard. Morris, Calbert, and Wright are pushing the offensive linemen, Brandon Johnson, Tyler Byrd, Jordan Murphy, and Jacquez Jones, even Ramel Keyton are pushing the older receivers. Emerson, Simmons, and Bumphus are pushing the guys on the D-Line. To’oto’o, Crouch, Harrison, & Reid are pushing the linebackers. Burrell and McCollough are pushing the defensive backs.
We have two young QBs pushing each other and according to PFF a returning QB that is one of the best in the conference. Almost everyone praises Guarantano as being smart and tough. Last year it was said he was handcuffed with kid gloves. Ainge said earlier this fall that an OC is fortunate if he gets 60% of his play calls correct. With a good smart QB able to switch the play after he comes to the line of scrimmage, even if he is only right half of the time he boosts the OC’s percentage numbers up to 80%. Guarantano spoke this week about the improved communication between him and the offensive line, an obvious necessity if he’s changing plays and we want everyone to be on the same page.
If you total up all the “effort” time in a football game it’s going to come out to around 7 minutes on each side of the ball. (Remember Freak’s cut ups of game films with a video showing all offensive plays and a separate video showing all defensive plays). Those 7 minutes are going to come in about 70 bites of approximately 6 seconds each. Callaway explained in his interview this week that in regards to consistency we don’t have a problem with the first 30 or 40 bites of that 7 minutes but it’s being able to sustain our focus on doing things the right way when we get a bit banged up or tired that is going to define how consistent and how mentally tough we are as a football team. I would suggest that having fresh guys (depth) that we can roll out there in every position group during a game without expecting a drop-off in performance is also likely going to make us more consistent.
ESPN, Phil Steele, and Bill Connelly, among others, expect us to be one of the most improved teams in all of college football this year. While those analysts are basing their expectations on the tangibles they can capture with their prediction models, my expectations are only reinforced by the intangibles we are discovering with this team, from the younger guys, to the almost forgotten guys, to the quality changes that have occurred with our staff since we last were on the field. ESPN, in explaining their FPI, states that humans and pollsters have a hard time divorcing themselves from prior won-loss records. Pruitt, his staff, and his players refuse to talk about last year. This is a new team and the energy is real. I can feel it and I hope you can too. jmo.
