Playing a lot of freshman = Lots of losses

#1
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norrislakevol

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#1
Three true freshman starting on the offensive line.....lets start with that. How many real success stories have we really heard like that? Answer: none. These are high school kids trying to block a player that has had in many cases, several years in the college weight room. A mans true strength grows as he ages. Most men that train their muscles are their strongest in their 30's and even early 40's. An 18 year old kid vs a 20 or a 21 year old man on sheer strength is not much of a contest. Also it's the experience factor and the time spent in a system. On the field experience is great, but so is practice experience because that is how you learn to play your position. The more experience you have at one or preferably both greatly enhances your chance of success.

Bottom line is that we are simply too young to expect miracles. We are not going to be very good at all this year because of youth. Next year we should be quite a bit better particularly if the QB situation shapes up good. We knew this would take a while and I am still steamed about losing to the damn Gators....AGAIN, but once again....patience.
 
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#4
#4
norrislakevol said:
Three true freshman starting on the offensive line.....lets start with that. How many real success stories have we really heard like that? Answer: none. These are high school kids trying to block a player that has had in many cases, several years in the college weight room. A mans true strength grows as he ages. Most men that train their muscles are their strongest in their 30's and even early 40's. An 18 year old kid vs a 20 or a 21 year old man on sheer strength is not much of a contest. Also it's the experience factor and the time spent in a system. On the field experience is great, but so is practice experience because that is how you learn to play your position. The more experience you have at one or preferably both greatly enhances your chance of success.

Bottom line is that we are simply too young to expect miracles. We are not going to be very good at all this year because of youth. Next year we should be quite a bit better particularly if the QB situation shapes up good. We knew this would take a while and I am still steamed about losing to the damn Gators....AGAIN, but once again....patience.
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Well said. Another problem is seeing all of the blitzes and stunts coming at them has to have their heads spinning.
 
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#5
#5
norrislakevol said:
Three true freshman starting on the offensive line.....lets start with that. How many real success stories have we really heard like that? Answer: none. These are high school kids trying to block a player that has had in many cases, several years in the college weight room. A mans true strength grows as he ages. Most men that train their muscles are their strongest in their 30's and even early 40's. An 18 year old kid vs a 20 or a 21 year old man on sheer strength is not much of a contest. Also it's the experience factor and the time spent in a system. On the field experience is great, but so is practice experience because that is how you learn to play your position. The more experience you have at one or preferably both greatly enhances your chance of success.

Bottom line is that we are simply too young to expect miracles. We are not going to be very good at all this year because of youth. Next year we should be quite a bit better particularly if the QB situation shapes up good. We knew this would take a while and I am still steamed about losing to the damn Gators....AGAIN, but once again....patience.
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Also, before anyone points to Ole Miss and Miss State saying Freeze and Mullen inherited less talent and are doing more with it than CBJ:

Do you remember when the media broke those stories of how players would skip workouts all the time under Dooley?? (If not, I suggest a quick google search.) Dooley's recruiting classes may have been higher rated, but a lot, if not most, of that talent was never developed.

We're not only playing the most freshmen. We're also playing some of the most under-developed upper classmen.
 
#8
#8
Expecting to beat a bad Florida team at home after they commit 3 turnovers, 7 for 20 on 3rd down conversions and put up only 232 yards is "expecting a miracle"?
 
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#9
#9
FEARinSEC said:
Excuses, Excuses...... We WANT TO WIN NOW!!!!!!!!
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No, realism.

It is better than the fantasyland many live in where they think a "good coach" can win without any regard to personnel issues.

We have some really, really good young players. But, young players make mistakes. Our future is bright. We also have a lot of holes on our Swiss cheese roster. We just need to endure this last stretch of misery.
 
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#10
#10
The freshman crap has to stop. If we would've won these last two games, the ones that are saying "we're too young" are the ones that would've spun it as "our freshman are ahead of schedule". It's easy to say "we're young" in defeat I guess. If we're that bad off because we have a "bunch of freshman", then we would've been blown out in these last two games. This team SHOULD be sitting at 4-1 and a "bunch of freshman" are not the problem. I can say that with absolute certainty.
 
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#11
#11
EZE said:
No, realism.

It is better than the fantasyland many live in where they think a "good coach" can win without any regard to personnel issues.

We have some really, really good young players. But, young players make mistakes. Our future is bright. We also have a lot of holes on our Swiss cheese roster. We just need to endure this last stretch of misery.
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You mean like James Franklin at vandy or Stoops right now at UK, who are one play away from being 5-0?
 
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#12
#12
At least 2 of the TOs that ultimately cost us the game were attributable to the OL..

Obviously the fumble where Worley got absolutely leveled. Then, the one where he was being hit as he threw it into the endzone. That was a dumb throw - he should have just thrown it away since it was 1st down.. But still, if he has just another split second to actually follow thru, it's probably a TD or at the worst an incomplete pass.

IIRC, the INT at the end was all on Worley.. That being said, you know he was probably a little rattled after having been sacked 6 TIMES and hit numerous others. Can't blame the guy for being a tad shell-shocked with as much as he was knocked around...

P.S. that 4th down throw to Pig on the final drive was a GREAT throw, and he was rolling right and had to throw it across his body.. Placed perfectly.

Again, Worley is not an elite QB, but if given adequate time, he's shown that he can make the plays when he needs to more often than not.
 
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#13
#13
norrislakevol said:
Three true freshman starting on the offensive line.....lets start with that. How many real success stories have we really heard like that? Answer: none. These are high school kids trying to block a player that has had in many cases, several years in the college weight room. A mans true strength grows as he ages. Most men that train their muscles are their strongest in their 30's and even early 40's. An 18 year old kid vs a 20 or a 21 year old man on sheer strength is not much of a contest. Also it's the experience factor and the time spent in a system. On the field experience is great, but so is practice experience because that is how you learn to play your position. The more experience you have at one or preferably both greatly enhances your chance of success.

Bottom line is that we are simply too young to expect miracles. We are not going to be very good at all this year because of youth. Next year we should be quite a bit better particularly if the QB situation shapes up good. We knew this would take a while and I am still steamed about losing to the damn Gators....AGAIN, but once again....patience.
Click to expand...

You're right, I agree and if I were the coaches I would supplement every single class with JUCO linemen. OL is a position that needs to develop over time. Once in a blue moon you will have a high school kid coming out that is physically ready but a kid like that will be sought after by every major program so chances are slim that you'll get him.
 
#14
#14
norrislakevol said:
Three true freshman starting on the offensive line.....lets start with that. How many real success stories have we really heard like that? Answer: none. These are high school kids trying to block a player that has had in many cases, several years in the college weight room. A mans true strength grows as he ages. Most men that train their muscles are their strongest in their 30's and even early 40's. An 18 year old kid vs a 20 or a 21 year old man on sheer strength is not much of a contest. Also it's the experience factor and the time spent in a system. On the field experience is great, but so is practice experience because that is how you learn to play your position. The more experience you have at one or preferably both greatly enhances your chance of success.

Bottom line is that we are simply too young to expect miracles. We are not going to be very good at all this year because of youth. Next year we should be quite a bit better particularly if the QB situation shapes up good. We knew this would take a while and I am still steamed about losing to the damn Gators....AGAIN, but once again....patience.
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I agree with what you are saying, but I think we are shooting ourselves in the foot in these games. The score against the Sooner's should have been 10 points or less not a 24 point blowout, a win at Georgia, & a win yesterday with Florida. Even with this youth we have the talent to get it done.Our players are ballin & hopefully the coaches can open it up a little bit.4-1 not 2-3 :good
 
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#17
#17
checkerboards09 said:
The freshman crap has to stop. If we would've won these last two games, the ones that are saying "we're too young" are the ones that would've spun it as "our freshman are ahead of schedule". It's easy to say "we're young" in defeat I guess. If we're that bad off because we have a "bunch of freshman", then we would've been blown out in these last two games. This team SHOULD be sitting at 4-1 and a "bunch of freshman" are not the problem. I can say that with absolute certainty.
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I think we're young AND ahead of schedule. I think we'll win 6 games at least this year if not 7. We were very close to winning the past two weekends and will soundly stomp Chattanooga this weekend. Ole Miss will be closer than I think anyone will think in that our defense is really good.

I was unhappy with the results from this past weekend, but I'm not unhappy with the progress we are making as a team.
 
#20
#20
volfanjustin said:
Expecting to beat a bad Florida team at home after they commit 3 turnovers, 7 for 20 on 3rd down conversions and put up only 232 yards is "expecting a miracle"?
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No, but freshmen, in addition to being behind the eight ball in experience and conditioning are also Jekyll and Hyde. Never know what you are going to get.
 
#22
#22
wolfej said:
I think we're young AND ahead of schedule. I think we'll win 6 games at least this year if not 7. We were very close to winning the past two weekends and will soundly stomp Chattanooga this weekend. Ole Miss will be closer than I think anyone will think in that our defense is really good.

I was unhappy with the results from this past weekend, but I'm not unhappy with the progress we are making as a team.
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I agree, we're definitely making progress. I just think Jones needs to take a closer look at what's going on on the offensive side of the ball. The OL is horrible right now and the offensive staff have done nothing to at least adjust to what we have. I'd rather see a power running game with extra blockers in the backfield than to see Worley get nearly killed almost every play. If the line play is that bad, change the gameplan until we can completely open it up when they do get better or get better players in. This offense just isn't working with what we have right now.
 
#23
#23
checkerboards09 said:
The freshman crap has to stop. If we would've won these last two games, the ones that are saying "we're too young" are the ones that would've spun it as "our freshman are ahead of schedule". It's easy to say "we're young" in defeat I guess. If we're that bad off because we have a "bunch of freshman", then we would've been blown out in these last two games. This team SHOULD be sitting at 4-1 and a "bunch of freshman" are not the problem. I can say that with absolute certainty.
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So you are saying that all the defensive linemen that I have seen streaking through our O-Line and clobbering Worely are not a problem?
 
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