Okay, seriously? Are you freaking kidding me?
You walk into a situation where you have the following:
4 QBs who have nearly no experience whatsoever, 4 QBs who none of the home state teams offered, and 3 QBs who had never taken a snap, and 2 QBs who last year were playing high school. Not knocking the QBs, but that's what it is.
5 RBs (Lane, Hill, Neal, Smith, Summerhill), only two of which had taken any meaningful snaps. Neal is a senior who was injured most of last season, and Lane was not present for most of spring practice. Smith had no experience, Hill had no experience, Summerhill had no experience. Pickett would have helped, but he doesn't get to plan on him either.
Your 3 best WR went to the draft (Hunter, Rogers, Patterson). Therefore, you're left with Dallas, who had 9 receptions in 12 games in his career. You have Drae Bowles who has not had a single snap, nor did Jason Croom, who was coming off of a redshirt and injury. Pig Howard has done well this year, but was not a big part of the offense last year, so it was a unknown if he would be able to take a leadership role. Devrin Young moved to WR this year, but of course, he's now injured. Johnathan Johnson was a solid addition by Butch at the last minute, but of course, he too is now injured. Paul Harris has yet to be seen, except for one catch. North has been as good as advertised, but the point is, zero experience at WR, and nearly all of the "experience" is hurt right now or brand new at the position.
Your best TE was drafted (Rivera), and you're left with a Volleyball player who is still learning football at this level, a guy who can't stay healthy since he's been there (Meredith), a true freshman in Branisel, and then Brendan Downs, who has performed pretty well, having 2 TDs already. Also very unexperienced at TE.
Your OL is the one thing you can seemingly rely on, but outside of that front 5, that still can't seem to get a nasty streak about them, everyone else is unexperienced as well. We saw that full well in the AP game.
Your DL is now hurt with the loss of Mo Couch, something that you didn't have a thing to do with. You've lost Vereen for a few games, Smith was out for 2 weeks, and you're having to rely on true freshmen like Jaylen Miller and Jason Carr. Saulsberry has stepped up, but apparently he's banged up now too. You're most likely pleased with D-line, but the ones who should be making a difference aren't, and you aren't in the backfield as nearly as you'd like to be.
Your LBs were hurt when Maggitt wasn't 100%, and still isn't. Not sure when he'll be back. Johnson has sucked in pass coverage, which has allowed you to get burnt across the middle, since he's a good run stopper, and teams are going to the passing game. Sapp got banged up yesterday, and Christian Harris and John Propst just aren't SEC caliber linebackers at this point.
Your secondary is a pretty talented group, but not deep either. You have a sophomore starting in McNeil, a Freshman starting in Sutton, the JUCO you brought in to help in Jones is hurt, and you're having to rely on walk-ons and true freshmen to bear the load. Thankfully, Coleman and Randolph are playing well, and Sutton is a pretty awesome prospect, but you still don't have the 2 deep you'd like to have to run a hurry up offense (meaning your D will be on the field more).
Palardy has done a great job at special teams, but he's having to wear himself out doing it all. When your offense can't extend drives, they're not just killing the defense, they're killing Palardy as well.
Vincent Dallas has done a good job returning, no qualms about him.
So, given all of that, you tell me how Butch Jones is in over his head, when half of his recruiting class wasn't even his, when 1/3 of his team had never made a road trip before, and how he played the freaking #2 best team in the country on the road.
Just idiotic to say. After one big game, that NOBODY sincerely thought we had a chance of winning.
We have no depth. No speed. And we have a senior class who has been through 4 different coordinators and 3 different head coaches.
Give me a break. This board is amazingly ridiculous.
