There is a lot of doom and gloom on this forum. Some of it is rightfully out of concern for the injuries we've sustained on defense. Some of it is also rightfully out of despair at how our OL has looked so far. I understand both of those concerns, but I guess I'm an optimist, so here goes...
Last year we ran all over Florida with both Dobbs and Hurd. We were able to do that with virtually no passing game. Jauan Jennings nearly out-passed Dobbs for the game with his 1 throw on the trick play. Our WRs this year I believe are a definite upgrade over what we had last year in the Florida game (of our actual WRs, Josh Smith led the group with a whopping 6 receiving yards). If Malone can continue to show he can move the sticks, it will keep Florida off-balance just enough.
wtm, have you even watched the 1st 3 games?
I sure did - well, actually I had to listen to the Ohio game on the radio, but I am up to speed on how we've looked so far. For whatever reason, especially in the App St and Ohio games, it's like we just mailed in the gameplan and just said, ok we'll just out-talent these guys and move on to the next week. I believe our scheme doesn't work if you remove even 1 cylinder from the engine. Some teams with big, powerful OLs can just overwhelm weaker opponents by just running up the middle. Our offense depends on misdirection and timing to be effective. I don't agree with Butch's decision to play it like that because it's not like teams don't have film of last year to go by, but we clearly weren't showing much against Ohio and App State.
wtm, if Chance Hall can't go, Florida's DL will destroy Dobbs and Hurd.
I really hope Chance can go this Saturday, but you know who didn't start last year against Florida? Chance Hall. Our OL from left to right was Kerbyson, Robertson, Thomas, Wiesman, and Kendrick. I think the OL will magically start looking better once we fire up all the cylinders in the gameplan. Are they great? No. But they're not as bad as they've looked so far this year.