Originally Posted by
jkm, the stolen pifwafwi
odds and evens (offense)
QB race
its very similar to the hybl/white race of 2001. the more experienced QB is playing it safe, not making mistakes while the youngster is going hog wild. talent level favors the youngster but decision making favors the vet. of course, there is one wild card here and that is that the vet is a gamer, not a practice player while the youngster seems to be the opposite. the youngster can sit back and just torch the defense in skelly drills but then presses way to much in the scrimmages. what is the verdict? personally, i think it will be the UCLA game before we have a legit starter. why is that? because i think 2001 still haunts stoops, especially after watching hybl progress the next year. personally, i don't think he cares who wins but he wants each QB to rub off on the other - he wants thompson to be more aggressive and he wants bomar to be more careful with the ball. keeping the competition open into the first couple of games will help that.
the biggest question marks that i have about thompson are does he have the vision to see the wide open guy and can he be accurate enough to hit the short slant in stride. strange, these were hybl's biggest weaknesses too. in this offense, with AD there is always going to be someone open. the ability to find that guy and allow him to do his thing is the major difference between a 24 ppg offense ans a 36 ppg offense.
the biggest question marks about bomar are decision making and memory. does he have the ability to be patient for the wide open guy or does he take the first available decent option? the latter is what gives young QBs trouble because they think they have the talent to squeeze the ball in there and instead it gets picked. why is memory in here? because you can't lose confidence in yourself no matter how bad of a day you are having. from reading between the lines, bomar presses during scrimmages and then gets frustrated when something bad happens. just like a shooter in basketball, the last pass, no matter how ugly it was, has to be a completion in your mind. just like white before him, he is struggling with both of these early in his career.
i think the one advantage that thompson has, and it will be his biggest asset in games, is his ability to fake the ball, whether in the zone read, play-action or in the open field. why? because guys who are deceptive are incredibly hard to stop in the college game. a player can be deceptive in many ways - he can be deceptive athletically like brad smith or barry sanders or he can be deceptive optically like paul seems to be. from what i've seen he is just good at with the zone read, but if he adds a pump fake and perfects his play-action fake he very well could be one of "those guys". for anyone who has played football you know the guy i'm talking about. the guy who is 10 yards past the LOS and pumps his arm like he is going to throw and you join the parachute club. you know he can't throw, you know its a fake, but your body jumps anyway. he does a play action fake and the cameraman gets you dizzy trying to find the ball.
as far as talent level compared to the 2001 team, i think that thompson and hybl are about the same right now (thompson less passing, but more running) and bomar is a little behind white(white had an extra year for the decision making). however, i think that both QBs should progress faster than white and hybl (who were injury plagued all year) if they can stay healthy.
OL
in 2001, we trotted out romero, duncan, carter, skinner, and jerod fields. this year we are trotting out joseph, chaisson, bush, chester, and millington.
romero > joseph (both are injury prone so watch out)
duncan = chaisson
bush >>>>> carter
chester = skinner
millington ~ fields (conventional wisdom says he'll be better)
moses >>>>> tsmith (blocking only)
are we as good as last year? no. are we better than we were in 2001, yes. i'd compare this OL to 2002 or 2003 which bodes well for a running game.
WRs
2001 we had fagan, norman, woolfolk, tsmith with mackey and savage rotating in. this year we are going to have wilson, rankins, kelly, moses, and some other freshman rotating in. wilson is the best receiver out of the bunch and it isn't close. he can run any route, can catch the ball in traffic, and while he doesn't have breakaway speed he can still hurt you after the catch. rankins is a huge question mark for me because while he has some skill he has yet to play a 1/2 of a season without getting hurt. the freshmen are also a big unknown. i just don't think any of us would be able to handle both of them dropping the winning TD pass like texas's highly touted freshmen did.
running backs
AD makes everyone better than what they are. every key for the defense starts and ends with AD. the question is whether chuck utilizes this fact to give an advantage to the other offensive players against the defense or whether we try our current brute force attack. if we just line up and try smash-mouth, i'd be shocked if AD lasts throughout the season.
punt returner
this position needs to be open until they find someone who has a knack for it. by knack i mean consistent 10+ yards per return.
overall
as you can see, our offense is a conundrum. yes, we lost a lot of talent, but on the other hand we have a lot more talent returning than we did in our worst offensive campaign under stoops (2001). of course, the 2001 offense also enjoyed a bunch of defensive points and short fields. although i won't know for sure until after i see some of our newbies in action, i'm thinking ~30 ppg
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