As things stand at this moment, IMO, we have the talent on the offense to be competitive against most teams. One of the biggest obstacles to turning a program around is getting the high level skill position people to believe in what you are promoting and commit to that vision on belief alone. We already have several highly rated QBs on the team that appear to be excited about the new staff. The WR class last year could be dynamic and will be here for another 2-3 years minimum. We did take a hit in the RB room, but Beckwith is going to be one to watch, and Small showed flashes in the few carries he got last year. Don’t know how the JC back is going to look. OL also took a hit, but I still believe JP’s philosophy of cross training each player on 2-3 different positions really hurt their performance last year, and we could see better performance there even though less talented.
Defensively, still a lot of questions to be answered, ala HT and QC at LB. If both leave, that’s going to hurt. Hoping the new LB coach from Michigan, if hired, can recruit them back out of the portal and coach them up. Seems to be a high level recruiter and coach, so maybe he can pull one or both of them back. DL and DB will bring back a good bit of experience, so we’re not depleted there, although depth could be a concern.
Having said all of that, I think there is enough talent already in place to make us competitive right away, which will help get recruits to see the potential of this staff and be willing to come here. By competitive, that may mean 6 wins, but I don’t see the six losses as all being double digits as they were this past season. Of course, any sanctions are going to have an impact as well, but they won’t affect game day performance in 2021, and that will have just as much impact on recruiting as any future sanctions.
JMO, IMHO, TIFWIW, etc, etc, etc!