Gray Skies Are Gonna Clear Up . . .

An accurate statement might be that I was less than happy after last night's beatdown. I am also less than enthused about our chances for next year, pegging them as dismal at best; my spirits, however, were greatly lifted by one omahadomer (a.k.a. the Yoda of ND fans), who had this to day about next years chances:

If we can get a new approach on defense we can very easily be a top 20, maybe even top 10, team next year.

Starting with the offense:

OL: Will be less experienced but more talented. Sullivan, Young and Duncan all played a lot and return.

RB: Good situation here with Walker, Aldridge, Prince, Travis Thomas and frosh.

WR: Big losses here but Grimes in a nice player and we have some exceptional young talent.

QB: Undoubtedly the biggest question mark but no lack of talent here.

TE: Extraordinary talent here with Carlson, Reuland, Yeatman, etc.

Defense:

Corners: Lambert and Wooden back. Walls, McNeil, Gray also. Good here with right coaching.

Safeties: We need a new approach here. If Zibby stays (and I hope he does) we need to find some role that fits his talents. Maybe safety-LB hybrid.

LB's: Smith, Brockington, Crum, young talent coming in. Has the makings of a good unit.

DT's: Law hopefully back. Other DT spot one of my biggest worries. Little depth here.

DE's: Another worry spot here but tremendous young talent.

Now, as I said, I pegged our chances at dismal. I'm still not ready to lift them much further, despite the prognostications of Omaha, who has forgotten more than I'll ever know.

I'm scared for our receivers next year. Grimes will probably max out his potential at dependable. Not good for our most experienced receiver next year. LB is in a similar situation. Crum has been steady, though not spectacular. Brockington is in the same boat. Both disappeared last night (Brockington more than Crum). Due to our lack of depth, our strategy at LB is to hope that Toryan Smith, a current freshman, will be ready to play MLB. If he is well and truly ready, our LB corps might finally be decent at stopping the run. Still, if Smith isn't ready or gets hurt, we can expect a repeat of this year.

Even more frightening is the defensive line. Omaha gets it exactly right with this summary of our DT woes, but his analysis of our status at DE leaves me wondering. Tremendous as our talent at DE might be, it's very young talent. It would be quite a stretch to call Ryan, let alone Brown, tremendous. Of Wade we haven't had so much as a sniff, understandably, since he needs to put on a good 25-30 pounds. Richardson, whom we have seen, albeit briefly, needs to add similar poundage. Trattou and Neal show every sign of being tremendous, but they are both high school seniors right now (Add Ben Martin to this category if he ends up committing.). Trattou might possibly play next year, but it's a little much to ask him to be a dominating defensive end as a freshman. Neal is a project similar to Wade.

I guess our only real option is to wait and see. I realize that I'm sticking my neck out here, but, in my defence, I "did not" rather than "tried."


I would happily play my part in this analogy.