2012 Returning Strengths, 2012 Position Needs

[eagledawg]

Never too early and hope springs eternal. Just a few thoughts.

Returning Strengths

RB's, O-line, PK, TE, D-line

2012 Needs

All Positions, except PK

O-line set to graduate 4 of 5 starters after 2012 (Martin, Dunaway, Sargent, Demilio

Top 2 RB's graduate after 2012 (Little, Rhodes)

Lost entire LB corps to graduation (Patterson, Johnson, Leslie)

Lost starting WR's to graduation (Perry, Leslie)

QB - All 3 QB's who saw significant reps were lost to injury at one time or another (concussions, ACL's, separated throwing shoulder). Here's hoping they all heal up and can stay healthy as a group. We need consistency at the position and we haven't been able to get it due to injury or substitution patterns.

D-line, showed spurts of brilliance but seemed to wear down in the 2nd half of many games. Depth could make this group pretty dang good.

DB's - here's hoping a year more of experience helps. Can't know whether it was scheme or inability to grasp the scheme but gave up way too many 3rd and longs thru-out the season. Front 7 did an admirable job to get to 3rd and long and yet opponents 3rd down conversion rate was off the charts.

Schedule next year is tough with a home opener against Wofford, a team that likes to run it down your throat and plays physical football. How we condition, strength train, recruit, and come out of that first game health and psychology wise will set the tone for 2012. It's football and every opponent will smash you in the mouth unless you smash them in the mouth first, often and last.

If we can employ the Vince Lombardi way as captured in his quote below, we can climb the mountain:

“Winning is not a sometime thing, it is an all the time thing. You don’t do things right once in a while…you do them right all the time.”

[elcid83]

Good summation Eagle and I agree with most, if not all, of your points. Unfortunately for those who stay behind, we graduated a lot of really good football players and they are going to be difficult to replace.

The off-season will also bring an interesting tale of what happens to our new coaching staff. While I would be tickled to welcome back all of them, we just know that doesn't happen very often. I suspect we have some coaches who came to GW as a one year job to fill in while they waited for their next opportunity. I don't believe all of our coaches have moved their families to Boiling Springs yet and that tends to send the message that they may be leaving their options open.

I will be watching with great interest to see how the coaching staff adjusts their approach to the game on both sides of the ball. I liked our run-first mentality on offense and I hope that will continue. I would like to see a FB get a handoff on a dive play in short yardage and goalline situations. We didn't see that this past year. I would also like to see a little more variety in the playcalling with some screens and other plays designed to take advantage of defenses focusing on stopping our run game.

Most important, is developing a sense of urgency at kickoff. I felt like our entire offense just sort of strolled out onto the field for the beginning of the game and then ran a few plays to kind of get the muscles loosened up and the blood flowing and then after a couple of series we started playing football. I liked the fact that our offense huddled but I didn't like watching us stroll up to the line. [watch the way Liberty does it and you will understand what I am talking about]. I would love to see us try scripting the first 10 plays of the game, perfect the execution of those plays in practice, and then run those 10 plays without regard for the defensive scheme.

[On a side note, this is my pet peeve of Coach Spurrier. It appears that he is always looking for the perfect play against the opposing defense. I don't understand why he can't just line up and play his game. I believe the players would play better if they knew what the play was and they got to go up to the line and run it. It certainly couldn't hurt to give that a try.]

I enjoyed watching our players and coaches get excited as they tried to make a comeback against VMI on Saurday. The level of enthusiasm and excitement for all was very fun to watch. Unfortunately, we didn't have the ability to make up a 21 point deficit in 7 minutes. Here's hoping the coaches and the players find a way to have that level of enthusiasm at the beginning of a game and not at the end.

I hope the athletic department can come up with some ideas to fill the stands on Saturday and help us enjoy a true home field advantage. We know that very few of our opponents are going to bring any kind of a following to Boiling Springs. Invite several local high school bands to play with our band at halftime and give them and their parents a reason to be in the visitors section. Give out free passes to local peewee football teams and get them and their parents to come enjoy a game. Make sure to bring them on the field at halftime so they have to stay at least that long. I'm sure there are other possibilities. But, there needs to be some ideas discussed to fill up the away stands.

I'm not sure what we can do to improve the defensive side of the ball. We were great against the run and terrible against the pass. I suspect we would have been more effective if both of these stats were more middle of the road. I'm not certain the DBs were to blame for the defensive woes against the pass as most of the successful passes were thrown in the middle of our defense. In any event, there is certainly room for improvement there.

With all of that being said, I am already looking forward to next year. I am confident that Coach Dickerson intends to bring our program around and I look forward to watching this happen next year.

Go Runnin' Bulldogs!

[gwebb1994]

Two excellent posts from two masters at the craft. Nothing to add, except that I'll be intrigued to see how good of a class Dickerson pulls in this time as opposed to scrambling last minute back in February this year.