Got a nice player visiting this week.
If we offer, he’s a Coog by the weekend.
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Just because a player was on a G5 team doesn’t mean they weren’t P5 talent. I will put it this way, all of those former G5 players that are starting in the NFL could have probably started on a P5 team but they were overlooked or just chose to play on a G5.
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Duarte jumped the gun and got it wrong
QB: you lost Tune but gain Smith. We probably are a little worse off here, maybe. Donovan Smith has every NFL tool.
RB: lost no one. Add back Run AMc and 4 star, Parker Jenkins. This room is ridiculously good. Alton, Sneed, Campbell, and Jenkins. Yeesh.
WR: Lose Dell. Add MHP, Johnson, Cobbs, Wilson, and Banks. This room is loaded. Golden, Brown, MHP, Johnson, Cobbs, Manjack, Wilson, Nelson, Sawyer, and Banks.
TE: lost Trahan. Add O’Laughlin. O’Laughlin (if healthy) is an NFL TE. Throw in Matt Byrnes and Logan Compton. A nice trio. But if the TE isn’t a major part of the offense, no biggie. Look at the RB and WR rooms.
OL: of significance, you lost Cam’ron Johnson. Depth pieces that you lost are Sylvester and Robinson. But you have added Garth, Hobdy-Lee, and Banes. And still in the hunt for Hudson. And Dunn. I think this room is a lot better this season.
DL: lost Parish, Jones, and Bankston. Add Ugwoegbu, Hunt, and Benton. Ugwoegbu, Sedrick Williams, Nwankwo, and Caesar is a hell of a front four. And then you have Justin Beadles, Caldwell, Hunt, Garfield Lawrence, Strong, Tucker, Holmes, Asi, and Benton. A lot of bodies here. Really good room.
LB: lost Mutin. Add Ish and Hypolite. Get back Robinson from injury. Robinson, Hypolite, Morris, Cheeks, Willis, Garner, Harris, and Payne. Fantastic room.
CB: you lost Art Green. Added Hamilton, Fleming, and George. Hamilton, Fleming, George, Alexander, Hogan, Ugo, Emery, Friend, and Patterson. This room should take leaps forward.
Safety: lost Owens. Sent Hypolite to the LB room. Add Haulcy and Gaston. And a ton of freshman. Haulcy, Gaston, and Brooks are the 3 I would be comfortable with. Probably would like to see us add 1 more guy here.
Looking at the above. Is there any position room that we take a step back versus last season? QB, maybe? Defensive line? I would have said yes, but Parish was hurt the majority of the season. I think we are better there. With good health. I think every other room is upgraded. Except for OL. But we still have plenty of ships. And targets, that if we land, will make the room better than last season.
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Coaches room is most of our issues lol
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I’m more optimistic than a lot of people about next year, but I would very surprised if we don’t take a step back at QB. Clayton threw for 4,000 yards and 40 TDs. That’s a lot to replace. Plus, I get the sense we want to lean on the run game more next year.
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Makes sense when you have 1 or 2 NFL RBs to hand the ball to.
But Tune never had this many weapons on offense.
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Only thing I’m truly skeptical about is QB and coaching. I think the rest of our team is good enough to win 8 games in big 12. If we have good QB play and coaching I think we can make some noise. But that’s a big if
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Agreed about the weapons.
We have 1 NFL back if he stays healthy (Alton). Are you suggesting Jenkins is also on that level? Hopefully someday but he’s so young.
Smith played against P5 teams mostly, Tune did not. I love me some Tune, but Smith has the tools.
Sneed.
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Make no mistake. Tune was far and away better than Smith last year, do not underestimate the loss of Tune. If we had him next year people would have us winning 8+ games. I 100% believe smith has the tools to be great. But he has to be put together. There are very few QBs that can carry a coach. We need better than ok QB play to make noise. If we had the same roster but better coaching I think we would won 10+ games last year. Tune had to play out of his mind to even win 8 games. That’s why I’m saying coaching and QB play are why I’m skeptical about next year. If those 2 things are above average we can be really good. (As most teams)
Clayton threw 10 picks last year. Smith threw 8 in less that half the passing attempts.
I hope you’re right. He’s got great vision.
So many new faces. The biggest issue is gelling as a cohesive unit. Let’s hope we win the first two games and develop some confidence and take it from there.
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Smith played behind a P5 line with P5 skill players, Tune did not. Let’s put things in proper perspective.
Also, let’s not just give the starting gig to Smith; he still has to beat out Coley.
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I don’t think he has committed anywhere. I doubt he would take Temple over UH though. I think he may have a conditional offer, if he is even offered, and waiting on decision by other players we are recruiting to see if spot will be open.
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Donovan is an awesome guy and was probably the only backup QB in the Big 12 to be named a captain by his teammates last year.
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Donovan is a tremendous athlete who excels in the designed QB run game and will make you pay when his first read is open.
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Donovan played behind the worst OL Tech has had (and there have been some bad ones) in the past decade.
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Donovan sometimes struggles to get the offense into the right play, if Dana gives him the keys you’re guaranteed to see him yelling at Donovan on the sideline at least a few times this year.
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Donovan lacks awareness in the pocket. Where you might be used to seeing Tune slip away from a rusher, or step up in the pocket at just the right time, Donovan struggles to do that, and will get sacked more often than he should.
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Donovan can get a little lackadaisical at times, doing things like sidearming a quick screen throw without checking to see if the CB is jumping the route.
There’s good to go with the bad. He’ll wow you on one series and on the next he’ll leave the entire stadium in an extended surrender cobra.
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Exactly! Which is on the coaches
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Yup. Awesome assessment. And what I’ve seen. The decision making has to get better. But if it does. Look out.
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