People need to remember years in school doesn’t mean years of experience game wise. It helps in strength and conditioning but there is still maturity to be had on the field.
For example, we like to say oh Joe Milton hasn’t figured it out in 3 years. Well his first two years he was 3rd strong behind Shae Patterson and another guy so how many reps was he getting? Then his first year as starter was a pandemic year with an abbreviated offseason especially in big ten. He doesn’t have a spring and shows up here and has 15 practices to get ready.
So with WRs poor figure running comment…. Do you expect perfection in route running from what this staff has tried to tell everyone is a young inexperienced group. Your most experienced WR was Jones and Payton and their number prior to here don’t scream veteran superstar so they too have things to improve on and staff to figure out how to use them. Jones had injury in preseason camp and staff starting to figure out best ways to use him based on last two games. Callaway is the stud playmaker of this group that needs a lot of touches in space but his fall camp injury has forced staff to be cautious with him. Still he didn’t play WR in Hs. Hyatt is an all world talent that is way too in his head right now and needs some short stuff imo to get him going then hit him deep. Tillman is old but this is his first time seeing significant action. Merril is a freshman that missed most of spring and was limited with the knee in summer. All this to say I see no reason to worry about this group yet and I see lots of playmaking potential and a scheme that can let them work if QB gets them ball.
What I would be concerned with is OL and TE blocking and RB pass protection. This OL goes as Cooper goes. Without him we become weak at G. The first two drives with him we were mauling as an OL unit. After we have been inconsistent. Carvin at G and Cooper at C makes the OL a lot better. At same time we need better pass pro from the RBs not named Tiyon. Hyatt has a TD Saturday if Wright picks up the blitz. Fant whiffed on several blocks in run game that kept backs from getting to the hole.
I’m hoping with Cooper back we see a much different OL in run game and tempo. This is a game where you really could wear down Florida after a game with Bama if you can string some
Drives together. They showed their hand vs Bama so shouldn’t be many surprises. Maybe this is when we finally connect in the deep balls lol