Last week I was poking around SC fan sites and, as was the case leading up to fall camp by analysts outside of SC, their fans seem to have coalesced around the consensus that they’re not going to have much of an offense. They correctly are concerned about their offensive line, one of these least talented group of linemen in the entire conference. They’re concerned about not having a single proven running back and they’re very much down on their receiving corp. They’re not sure they even have a quarterback which I agree with. Ryan and Luke would be starting out in year one of Bobo’s system so that is a huge disadvantage and Collin who came with Bobo from CSU is not an SEC QB. There’s not a single other team in the SEC where Collin could get on the field, not even Vanderbilt. Collin’s one claim to playing time is that he sort of knows Bobo’s system. jmo.
Pruitt returns a ton of production on his defense. These are guys who have proven that they know how to play in his defense, they know the right way to do things, and they have developed a pretty good understanding of why they need to play the way Pruitt and Company teach. I don’t think missing some practices is going to be as big a deal as some SC fans think it might be for us. It makes a whole lot more difference if you are missing practice with a lot of young guys who don’t know anything yet or if you’re trying to install a new system in that year. We’re doing neither. By some measures we’re returning 18 starters on both sides of the ball so it’s obviously not exactly the same.
We’re returning at least 10 offensive linemen who already know our system and they’re one of the top 2 most talented groups at that position in the entire conference. We return our top 2 running backs, and Brandon Johnson and Josh Palmer are 2 returning guys with lots of starting experience. We have a lot of young talent to supplement those guys at the receiver position. I think TE will be by committee and I think we’ll be better at QB, while SC will likely struggle at QB for many of the same reasons we did last year.
SC’s pass defense was 12th in the conference last year and having lost the interior of their defensive line I’m not expecting them to be world beaters at stopping the run this year, not right out of the gate, and most especially not against our offensive line. Tracy Rocker said in a recent media appearance that the biggest issue with their defensive line right now is they are having to coach effort so in rebuilding that unit they are on first base.
As a bonus, Bill Connelly of SP+ fame, on September 1st downgraded the SC offense from #79 to #81, I think after 2 of their better candidates for WR elected to opt out of the 2020 season. And while Gibbs disappointed many here, myself included, his decision didn’t have the same effect on us. In fact Connelly bump our offense up a few notches, from #56 to #50. Connelly also bumped up our defense to now 6th best in the nation.
It’s just my opinion but I continue to think Florida will struggle this year. I think Auburn will struggle on offense. I think LSU is going to crash this year. I’m not sold on A&M or Kentucky. Connelly dropped the Alabama defense to #19, 8th best in the conference. I think Georgia will likely struggle on offense for all the obvious reasons. Most of all I think our offense will likely turn out to be underrated coming into kickoff, owing mostly to the fact that we have continuity at the offensive coordinator position, something a number of our opponents are lacking. Even with the loss of practice time for some of our guys, I think we have enough returning experience to take care of the first couple of cupcakes on our schedule, South Carolina and Missouri, and we should be in pretty good shape by the time we head into Athens on 10/10. jmo.
Lord may this work, but His will be done.
