Nice write up. Very fair.
Heres what I’d tell you:
I’m glad your DL is so good. As you know, our OL is somewhat inexperienced and it will be nice to be tested early.
Heres what I’d say about the OL. First, Harding may be the best OL coach in the country. What he has done with recruiting and development is outstanding. 4 guys to the NFL? Unheard of.
Next, we bring back Faleamaka, who started a game at C before being hurt. We bring back Barton who has played a ton and started games. Finally, we have Uhatafe, who is a stud and will be drafted.
With Harding and the experience we do have, I think our OL will be better than expected. I am more inclined to believe Taylor when he says the OL will be the offense’s strength.
At QB, we will be fine. Hopefully the best we’ve been since 2008. We have a bonafide QB coach now and tons of talent.
At RB, we will be fine. We are a RB factory. Our last three RB’s are playing professionally. We have Shyne and Moss who played a ton last year and were really good. Not Joe Williams good, but above average P5 good. Also, Devontae Henry Cole looked great in spring. Shyne is coming off a big injury though, so he may be limited at first.
All of our backs are big hitters but still fast.
WR – this is the question mark. We’ve always had talent (I think we have six WR’s in the NFL) but they haven’t produced. I’d assume we still have talent on the team. But we’ve always had a lot of drops.
I worry because Taylor has said WR is the toughest position to learn in his offense and we’ve been so subpar there recently.
DL – This is our strength. Lotulelei, Fitts and Mokofisi will all be drafted. Maybe even all three in the first three rounds. Anae is a true sophomore who was a stud as a freshman. And our four backups? They might be the third best DL in the PAC-12. We are stacked there. Your OL will have nightmares of them for the rest of their lives.
LB – Kavika Kuafatasaga is a SR. he started slow but was a monster the last three games of the year. Our other LB’s are Tauteoli and Barton. But we run a lot of 5-1 fronts and 4-2 with safeties playing LB. Chase Hansen is a monster and will be a 1-2 round draft pick in 2018. Ballard and Blair will move up to LB as well at times.
CB – we are replacing everyone. But Shareef Shah is an amazing coach. He’s had CB’s drafted every year as a position coach, I do believe. We have Smith, a huge WR converted to CB. Blackmon who looked really good in spring. We also have Johnson, maybe the best high school recruit to ever sign at Utah, Guidry and Lewis coming in, all 4 stars.
We may not be amazing, but I’d bet at worst we are average.
S – we are stacked here. Hansen is a potential first rounder. Ballard has been very good as well and looks to have an NFL future as well.
P – best in the country.
K – along with WR, our biggest question mark. Right now, we have nothing. A kid just joined the team but we will see.
If WR and kicker pans out, we will win 9+ games and end up ranked top 15. If they don’t, we probably end up with 7-8 wins.
I’d expect this game to be a 35-10 type game.
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