Post
by The Football Fan » June 24th, 2013, 10:37 pm
I'll stand by my thoughts before.
Pundits and media have a reason to rank us last. Other teams may have issues, but they have something going for them too. When we lost Thad Lewis, I didn't think we'd miss a beat...but we did. I could be wrong, but if I'm not mistaken, we're losing the most highly touted QB we've had in 40-50 years. He was really good. We are losing a player that didn't come in with tons of stars, but left breaking college records of NFL stars.
In basketball, If Clemson gets to the sweet sixteen of the NCAA tournament on the strength of an incredible point guard and he leaves for the NBA. Even if they've still got a shot blocker down low and a lights out shooting guard, it's reasonable to say...but can they really consistently beat top ACC b-ball programs? You'd go down the list and say, where are those wins going to come from.
Still, I drink the kool aid. I think we're better. I think in any individual game, we could've had a better chance of winning if we ran the ball more. I also don't think coach is stupid. I think he understood that he didn't have the depth to do it the whole year and that we'd probably struggle against top teams with tons of defensive line talent. Plus, he had some great tools in the passing game. He's talked all along about liking a 3 star guy in his 5th year as a redshirt senior a lot better than his 1st year out highschool. To get the full value in the 5th year, those guys had to be healthy getting there.
Regarding VA....yeah, Bob, you're right...they've got issues. QB is critical and they're lost at sea for the moment, but I'm a big proponent of good coaching. We got 4 wins with Coach Cut's first year. That was pure coaching. With Tom O'Brien and 2-3star QBs and 1-4 star QB, they'll be okay. Yeah, they'll make some errors, but with several 4 star DL and a few 4&5 star linebackers, their defense should keep them in some games. Plus, their strength on offense is with their WRs. To me it's always about the differential. Their QBs won't be great, but will they be much worse than what they had last year. The pieces around them are better and the coaching got an upgrade.
I'm just saying, I understand the media picking them ahead of us. I'm enjoying this off season following a bowl game. There's some lively discussion on here that's great. Still, I'm looking forward to the season too. Of note, the pundit I put the most stock in (Phil Steele), doesn't officially rank us dead last and has us tied with Va and Pitt. That's very positive as he's got a good record of being right more than most!
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It's nice to see at least one writer give us some deserved respect.