Next year's defense and STs...

[IronHorseSooner]

If GK, Beal, and Travis Lewis all leave (I don't think Dom will), as well as if RR and the staff decides against his med-redshirt year, I still like the talent replacing them (two-deep):

DE: Alexander (R-SO) King (R-SO)
DT: Taylor (SR) McGee (R-SO)
NG: McFarland (SO) Walker (R-SO)
DE: RJ Washington (R-SO) Chaisson (R-FR)
WLB: Box (R-JR) Ibiloye (R-SO)
MLB: Wort (R-FR) Bird (R-FR)
SLB: R. Lewis (SO) TJ Franklin (R-SO)
CB: Franks (SR) L. Harris (R-SO)
FS: Carter (SR) Nelson (SR)
SS: Proctor (R-JR) Trice (SO)
CB: Hurst (SO) Lynn (R-FR)

This is looking at the worst case scenario, but I think there as darn good ones there. After 2010, we will lose only 4 out of the 2 deep, and that's not counting some other talented young guys in the secondary (J. Harris, Brent). Add to that all of the kickers are either Freshmen (Way) or Sophomores (O'Hara, Stevens, Moreland, Brenley), and there should be some continuity.

I'm not even going to predict the offensive lineup, because I'm not sure what will happen. I know that only Brandon and Jeffries are seniors next year on the OL, and in the WR corps, Caleb, Kenney, and Madu are seniors. However, none of those guys are playing much to any right now. It wouldn't shock me if Haywood and Millard aren't getting significant time at TE & FB next year. What has also hurt at TE, FB, and OL this year is that the staff decided to RS some guys who they deemed as "projects" or a true frosh that they figureed that they could give a year to adapt.
TE: Project- Johnson (6'7" 250 former QB)
Frosh- Ikard
FB: Project- Crow (even though he played in mop-up time)
Frosh- Musil
OL: Project- Vinson (big Phil size, but needed to get into shape)
Frosh- Alandoye (same size as Duke)
I think the staff looked at what they had coming back and thought they could afford to have this luxury.

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

the only place that i really worry about our defensive talent is at DT. shipp has never shown that he can get that one guy who can just clog up the middle which ends up making our interior run defense a lot weaker than it should be.

DE - chris wilson at this point is the only coach bringing in wave after wave of talent. so while i expect a dropoff from beal (who i think is an amazing college player), i think we'll still be elite level (top 15 in the nation) here.

LB - i cannot put into words how much i hope lewis leaves. he reminds me of texas's roy williams - if its about him, he'll get it done and sizzle like bacon after he does it. if its about someone else, he doesn't do his job and just slacks off. heck, they were pulling him off the field against tech in passing situations and leaving ryan reynolds out there if that tells you something. that being said, based on watching special teams, venables went out and got some firebreathing talent at linebacker. we may not have a standout star outside of lewis on the field, but as a unit they should be 100x more effective than what we are putting out there right now because they tend to play as a unit and not as 3 individuals.

the secondary - one thing that i stated about BJW when he took over the secondary way back when - our talent will be iffy until he figures out his player template. once he figures that out he will recruit tenaciously to it like he did at DE (where we have a stockpile of elite talent). what we are beginning to see is that template being applied - hurst, proctor, nelson are all incredibly solid college players with hurst being a budding superstar.

all in all, i think we are a road grader in the middle from being a great defense.

on offense, i think we are setting ourselved back by a couple of years with the injuries. we are being forced to play guys who are not physically ready and they are getting hurt. and honestly, they are never going to get over those injuries. i just don't see us having an all-pro left tackle on the offense like we did in 2001 when this happened.

[rawlingsHOH]

FS: Carter (SR) Nelson (SR)
SS: Proctor (R-JR) Trice (SO)
nelson > proctor

[Soonerman08]

the only place that i really worry about our defensive talent is at DT. shipp has never shown that he can get that one guy who can just clog up the middle which ends up making our interior run defense a lot weaker than it should be.

DE - chris wilson at this point is the only coach bringing in wave after wave of talent. so while i expect a dropoff from beal (who i think is an amazing college player), i think we'll still be elite level (top 15 in the nation) here.

LB - i cannot put into words how much i hope lewis leaves. he reminds me of texas's roy williams - if its about him, he'll get it done and sizzle like bacon after he does it. if its about someone else, he doesn't do his job and just slacks off. heck, they were pulling him off the field against tech in passing situations and leaving ryan reynolds out there if that tells you something. that being said, based on watching special teams, venables went out and got some firebreathing talent at linebacker. we may not have a standout star outside of lewis on the field, but as a unit they should be 100x more effective than what we are putting out there right now because they tend to play as a unit and not as 3 individuals.

the secondary - one thing that i stated about BJW when he took over the secondary way back when - our talent will be iffy until he figures out his player template. once he figures that out he will recruit tenaciously to it like he did at DE (where we have a stockpile of elite talent). what we are beginning to see is that template being applied - hurst, proctor, nelson are all incredibly solid college players with hurst being a budding superstar.

all in all, i think we are a road grader in the middle from being a great defense.

on offense, i think we are setting ourselved back by a couple of years with the injuries. we are being forced to play guys who are not physically ready and they are getting hurt. and honestly, they are never going to get over those injuries. i just don't see us having an all-pro left tackle on the offense like we did in 2001 when this happened.

I am unsure of where this came from? :confused: If it wasn't for Shipp we wouldn't have had Granger, McCoy, Dvoracek, Harris, and McFarland.

Granger was a beast when he was in, but medical issues have hampered him. McCoy is always double or triple teamed and I am not sure of what you want him to do in that situation?

[jkm, the stolen pifwafwi]

it comes from watching our games. there is only one guy in that list that plugged the run and it wasn't granger. shipp's specialty is that athletic 3 technique, but we have struggled to find fire plugs that just clog the crap out of the middle.

an example of what i'm talking about in college is that 5'5 north texas DT from a few years back. you couldn't run up the middle on the guy because it was just a stone wall. that keeps all the trash off of the linebackers and they can flow to off-guard/tackle. right now there just isn't anything keeping guards from chipping into the linebackers.

[Frozen Sooner]

Booger McFarland the guy you're talking about?

[rawlingsHOH]

Well McCoy and Harris played almost entirely '3' technique over their careers. Dvoracek played '1' opposite Harris most of the time, but moved to 3 as a senior. Granger played both also, and I think he was great at the 1.

[VA Sooner]

Our defense won't miss a beat next year. Two great freshman linebackers to fill in for the veterans with good technique and ball-hawking abilities. Great safety in Nelson who has done enough this year to impress. Hurst will be a beast who has good speed and is a headknocker.

We'll be fine on D next year.

[IronHorseSooner]

Yeah, I wrote this to put some perspective on the D for next year. We should be fine. They have recruited to back fill for the losses of the guys who would leave in 2010, which, IMHO, they are taking a 2-year approach to this. Ensure that for a couple of years, there will be a steady two and three deep at every position on the D. The only exception to this is with DT. To keep a nice rotation, and replace Taylor when he leaves next year, they do need another DT, most likely a JUCO guy. The kid from Blinn, Jonathan Mathis, comes to mind.