I'm actually very optimistic about next year.

Hudson the Center was a holding machine...believe he got flagged twice for holding against UCF. He was flagged a bunch throughout the season as well. He was bigger than Struyk, but Struyk will be a senior with experience. So the OL should be better, which with the stable of RB's, should be able to hold their own for Benkert better than they blocked for Carden this year (and kept putting Carden in long yardage situations). Benkert also has a stronger arm than Carden, which is likely to stretch the field more.

On Defense you return Brunson and Stanley, two starters that didn't play. The rest of the D was young and you have Bigger leading the way, along with Overton. That D will be fast, faster than this year's D. Secondary can only get better.

(12-06-2014 02:08 PM)HP-TBDPITL Wrote:  I'm actually very optimistic about next year.

Hudson the Center was a holding machine...believe he got flagged twice for holding against UCF. He was flagged a bunch throughout the season as well. He was bigger than Struyk, but Struyk will be a senior with experience. So the OL should be better, which with the stable of RB's, should be able to hold their own for Benkert better than they blocked for Carden this year (and kept putting Carden in long yardage situations). Benkert also has a stronger arm than Carden, which is likely to stretch the field more.

On Defense you return Brunson and Stanley, two starters that didn't play. The rest of the D was young and you have Bigger leading the way, along with Overton. That D will be fast, faster than this year's D. Secondary can only get better.

I believe Zeke and Montese will be great leaders on this defense. They will set the tone that we have lacked in regard to "hitting" people. I think we will see a defense that regains its chip.

While we may not be a top 5 offense next year we should still be pretty good my guess would be a top 30 total offense. From everything the fans have heard from coaches, players, and media Kurt Benkert should be the starting qb next year and has been killing it in the weight room, in practice/spring game, and as a team leader since he got here.

Our OL will be better next season we lose our worst OL and 3 of our guys who couldn't participate in last years offseason program will be able to this season.

While most of you haven't been able to see Trevon Brown a true frosh in action since he missed most of conference play with an injury he is Big, fast, and strong and averaged 18.86 yards per reception and 4 td in 7 games. Can really stretch the field vertically. He might play in the bowl game.

My only real concern is the DB's it is the only position that has not really gotten any better since ruff has been here but a lot of that has to do with not getting our DB recruits into school. There are two guys who might be able to help plus some guys already in the program but we will have to wait and see.

(12-05-2014 04:59 PM)oldtiger Wrote:  I'd never noticed this before, but ESPN's roster for all universities has a sort feature on their columns, so this was easy to obtain:

2 Justin Hardy WR 6-1 188 SR Vanceboro, NC
4 Detric Allen DB 6-1 200 SR Norwood, NC
5 Shane Carden QB 6-2 221 SR Houston, TX
7 Lamar Ivey DB 6-1 196 SR Mebane, NC
9 Cam Worthy WR 6-3 220 SR Blair, SC
14 Warren Harvey PK 5-11 225 SR --
23 Desi Brown LB 6-2 220 SR Webster Groves, MO
24 Brandon WilliamsLB 6-1 230 SR Rock Hill, SC
25 Breon Allen RB 5-8 190 SR Daytona Beach, FL
35 Greg Robinson DB 5-11 202 SR Fayetteville, NC
45 Jake Geary LB 6-3 250 SR Hillsborough, NC
48 Maurice Falls LB 6-3 247 SR Belmont, NC
54 Terry Williams NT 6-1 353 SR Loganville, GA
60 Charlie Coggins LS 6-3 200 SR Albemarle, NC
74 Taylor Hudson OL 6-5 285 SR Greenville, SC
93 Chrishon Rose NT 6-4 303 SR Washington, DC
95 Terry Biles DE 6-2 278 SR High Point, NC

I would say the bolded players are arguably the best 5 on the team. There are certainly other players you could put up there but none of them are going to be easily replaced. That's a significant amount of offense and 2 players from the middle of the defense that we are losing.

I think the biggest improvement of the offense from last year to this year was out ability to hit the deep ball. With Worthy gone that aspect is going to take a hit.

We don't have another Terry Williams who was a huge part of our run defense. Carden looked all world at times and like a product of the system at others. Our receivers will obviously be way less experienced and consistent next year but might be more athletic and explosive.

I would expect out rush defense to be a little worse, our offense to be a lot less consistent and our pass defense I have no idea but it can't get much worse.

(12-06-2014 04:37 PM)TheEastisPurple Wrote:  

(12-05-2014 04:59 PM)oldtiger Wrote:  I'd never noticed this before, but ESPN's roster for all universities has a sort feature on their columns, so this was easy to obtain:

2 Justin Hardy WR 6-1 188 SR Vanceboro, NC
4 Detric Allen DB 6-1 200 SR Norwood, NC
5 Shane Carden QB 6-2 221 SR Houston, TX
7 Lamar Ivey DB 6-1 196 SR Mebane, NC
9 Cam Worthy WR 6-3 220 SR Blair, SC
14 Warren Harvey PK 5-11 225 SR --
23 Desi Brown LB 6-2 220 SR Webster Groves, MO
24 Brandon WilliamsLB 6-1 230 SR Rock Hill, SC
25 Breon Allen RB 5-8 190 SR Daytona Beach, FL
35 Greg Robinson DB 5-11 202 SR Fayetteville, NC
45 Jake Geary LB 6-3 250 SR Hillsborough, NC
48 Maurice Falls LB 6-3 247 SR Belmont, NC
54 Terry Williams NT 6-1 353 SR Loganville, GA
60 Charlie Coggins LS 6-3 200 SR Albemarle, NC
74 Taylor Hudson OL 6-5 285 SR Greenville, SC
93 Chrishon Rose NT 6-4 303 SR Washington, DC
95 Terry Biles DE 6-2 278 SR High Point, NC

I would say the bolded players are arguably the best 5 on the team. There are certainly other players you could put up there but none of them are going to be easily replaced. That's a significant amount of offense and 2 players from the middle of the defense that we are losing.

I think the biggest improvement of the offense from last year to this year was out ability to hit the deep ball. With Worthy gone that aspect is going to take a hit.

We don't have another Terry Williams who was a huge part of our run defense. Carden looked all world at times and like a product of the system at others. Our receivers will obviously be way less experienced and consistent next year but might be more athletic and explosive.

I would expect out rush defense to be a little worse, our offense to be a lot less consistent and our pass defense I have no idea but it can't get much worse.

Well...we know Benkert will replace Carden. We'll see how good he really is as a Soph (which is when Carden started).

I have confidence Brown can replace Worthy. And Brunson can replace Williams. We also know Stanley is a really good defensive lineman...different than Williams.

Hardy you don't replace. He was the best player in the conference, IMO. But the WR position is deep and the ball will be spread around more. I'm thinking Jimmy Williams moves back to Inside WR.

We have a lot of solid players that are graduating this year. But I really feel that most are replaceable. Not saying we instantly reload but we may upgrade in athleticism but lack a little in experience.

QB - Shane Carden's accuracy is his biggest asset. That will be missed. But his most likely replacement Kurt Benkert could have more drive. He has a bigger arm, I hear is very talented, and they call him the "angry quarterback" because he has a lot of fire. I like that in a QB. I felt we were missing the urgency from Carden at times.

RB - I think we will be better off. Breon Allen was a good "gitter bug" type running back but we have a lot more size and speed on the roster. We finally have some good RB depth. My biggest question mark in the running game is our coaches. Why were we putting Breon Allen a 5'8, 180 pound back in on 3rd and short???? I feel like our coaching staff doesn't do a very good job with our personnel at times.

WR - We cannot replace hardy. He wasn't the fastest or most athletic but he got open ALL THE TIME. especially on third down. But, we have a lot of quality WR depth.

O-line - improvement. Like has been said before. Our 2 Juco's will have a year in our strength and conditioning program and we will be better.


Defense

D-line. Terry Williams can be unblockable at times. We lose him. We have depth but no super stars on the line. I say we take a step back next year.

Linebackers - Our linebackers are a very solid group. We lose williams but Bigger and Overton will be seniors next year. Still a very solid group.

D-backs - ????? bad this year. Who knows next year.

Special Teams - Bad. Besides our bad FG kicker the rest lies on our special teams coach.


I think our BIGGEST weakness can be our coaching staff at times. Sometimes I feel like they concentrate on not making mistakes and being too conservative rather than trying to go out and take games away from the other team. I think RUFF also worries way to much about being "classy" and having "sportsmanship" rather than closing out games.

(12-05-2014 04:59 PM)oldtiger Wrote:  I'd never noticed this before, but ESPN's roster for all universities has a sort feature on their columns, so this was easy to obtain:

2 Justin Hardy WR 6-1 188 SR Vanceboro, NC
4 Detric Allen DB 6-1 200 SR Norwood, NC
5 Shane Carden QB 6-2 221 SR Houston, TX
7 Lamar Ivey DB 6-1 196 SR Mebane, NC
9 Cam Worthy WR 6-3 220 SR Blair, SC
14 Warren Harvey PK 5-11 225 SR --
23 Desi Brown LB 6-2 220 SR Webster Groves, MO
24 Brandon WilliamsLB 6-1 230 SR Rock Hill, SC
25 Breon Allen RB 5-8 190 SR Daytona Beach, FL
35 Greg Robinson DB 5-11 202 SR Fayetteville, NC
45 Jake Geary LB 6-3 250 SR Hillsborough, NC
48 Maurice Falls LB 6-3 247 SR Belmont, NC
54 Terry Williams NT 6-1 353 SR Loganville, GA
60 Charlie Coggins LS 6-3 200 SR Albemarle, NC
74 Taylor Hudson OL 6-5 285 SR Greenville, SC
93 Chrishon Rose NT 6-4 303 SR Washington, DC
95 Terry Biles DE 6-2 278 SR High Point, NC

The game isn't about replacing players you lose. Nobody's gonna replace Justin Hardy just like nobody has replaced Dwayne Harris. We haven't replaced CJ Wilson, Chris Johnson,. The games about taking the next group and getting them to excel using their talents.

That's why I'm not too worried about turnover, I'm somewhat worried about the staff's ability to respond to the turnover. Riley has, however, proven himself able to change the offense.

(12-05-2014 06:03 PM)pesik Wrote:  pre recruiting class/coaching carousel stock for teams next year

ECU- down
they take the biggest hit in the league by far..almost every significant player is graduating

UCF- marginally down
loses a TON on defense, but knowing oleary they won't fall off much, lose basically every WR (if periman leaves) but return a now experienced QB and their best RB

Cincy- UP
lose 5 on D including best 2 players but they weren't exactly a defensive team, gunner kiel now with a full year under his belt, 95% of his recievers returning they probably come in preseason favorites, atleast top 3

Houston- UP
the biggest expected loses already had career ending injuries mid season, the vast majority of current starters are coming back, and with ward a year of experience under his belt or okorn beyond his slump

Memphis- Marginally Down
defense takes a major hit,and loses "current" best RB, and top Reciever..but retrun a wealth of talent including qb, best "originally" RB (who was lost to injury) and their best athlete in craft, the offense on paper should be much improved the defense is the bigger question..(could be WAY down if fuentes is lost)

Temple- UP
loses zero starters on defense, but loses their top WR and top RB and outside of that return everyone else on offense, no offense to those 2 guys but they werent anything special and will be replaceable ,the RB has semily already been replaced with thomas thomas

USF- Nuetral
return all the key players on defense, but they lose the only sign of offense they had the last few games in andre but marlon mack returns with way more experience ..and qb situation is as unsettled as ever

Tulane- Way UP
almost the enire offensive skill players were basically all freshmen, with the core of the defense returning

Tulsa- UP (depending on the coach)
a total of 2 seniors in the enitre 2 deep for the offense (22 players) from statiscally the 3rd best offense in the league (from YPG)..they lose plenty on D but their defense was HORRIFIC so it shouldnt make much a difference, depending on the coach they could have likely lost their job even if they stayed

UConn- Marginally UP
the entire team should be improved year 2 under diaco, but lose their qb and top WR's

SMU- UP
mainly becuase they cant go any lower, also neal burcham back, and davis should be more experienced so they will have options at qb

Funny every team is up or marginally down except ECU..........

The QB in waiting Kurt,

http://vimeo.com/91873418

Temple has the fewest scholarship seniors in the country, with only 4: Backup QB Connor Reilly, starting RB Kenny Harper, top WR Jalen Fitzpatrick, and part time starting CB Anthony Robey, who had an inconsistent career and was replaced by a true freshman this year.

Harper was a good leader and will be missed greatly in that respect, but in terms of production, it isn't like losing Bernard Pierce. We have a lot of talent at RB returning in Jahad Thomas, Jamie Gilmore, David Hood, (healthy) Zaire Williams, hopefully healthy Jabo Lee, and a lot of RB talent in this '15 recruiting class including the best RB in Maryland in Raekwon Gray (2,158 yards, 27 TDs) and two top rushers in NJ in Ryquell Armstead (1,488 yards, 18 TDs) and Chapelle Cook (played QB, so his rushing numbers aren't as impressive as they would be at RB). In addition, Temple and ECU are fighting for a 5th year transfer RB, so there should be some news soon.

WR is a big question mark with a lot of young players. Someone will need to step up next season with Fitzpatrick graduating.

Who is the 5th year transfer RB we are fighting for? Because I don't think he will see many carries with ECU. We are loaded at RB and already have a transfer coming in from VT. If ECU has a capable QB next year, we will again be one of the top offenses in the country. One thing about the air raid is we play so many guys at WR and RB there are a lot of interchangeable parts.

Hardy and Worthy are big losses. But honestly Trevon Brown might be more talented than either when it's all said and done. With us it typically depends how capable our D is. One guy I don't hear anyone mentioning at QB is Blake Kemp. He was a recruited JUCO and redshirted this year. It won't surprise me at all if he ends up winning the job.

@UCFSports: Even though UCF graduates 20 seniors, GOL said today they're at the point where they "reload," not "rebuild." Sounded confident for 2015.

(12-08-2014 10:53 PM)oasispirate Wrote:  Who is the 5th year transfer RB we are fighting for? Because I don't think he will see many carries with ECU. We are loaded at RB and already have a transfer coming in from VT.

I can't post that info because it's subscriber info, but he's from NJ and attends a P5 school. Regardless of ECU's RB situation, he most likely will end up at Temple anyway.

(12-09-2014 01:32 AM)JHG722 Wrote:  

(12-08-2014 10:53 PM)oasispirate Wrote:  Who is the 5th year transfer RB we are fighting for? Because I don't think he will see many carries with ECU. We are loaded at RB and already have a transfer coming in from VT.

I can't post that info because it's subscriber info, but he's from NJ and attends a P5 school. Regardless of ECU's RB situation, he most likely will end up at Temple anyway.

I really don't buy we're recruiting him. I am a subscriber and have seen nothing on this. Next year we will have the following.

Chris Hairston SR 455 yards 7.3 YPC 2 TDs
Marquez Grayson SO 289 6.1 YPC 5 TDs
Anthony Scott SO 224 4.5 YPC 3 TDs
Chris Mangus JR VT transfer
Shawn Furlow FR will likely redshirt
Cory Hunter SR

We're also recruiting Bryce Love who is a four star RB from the Raleigh area. We're pretty full on scholarships as it is and are really only recruiting Love because he is special.

As UCF found out, and ECU will see next year, it's impossible to immediately replace a record setting QB. It's even harder to replace that QB and the best WR at the same time.

We were lucky this year to have a great defense returning.

I'm not sure ECU will have a great defense next year based upon this year.

(12-09-2014 07:59 AM)The Knight Time Wrote:  As UCF found out, and ECU will see next year, it's impossible to immediately replace a record setting QB. It's even harder to replace that QB and the best WR at the same time.

We were lucky this year to have a great defense returning.

I'm not sure ECU will have a great defense next year based upon this year.

One thing ECU and now even moreso with the air raid have been able to do is plug and chug at QB. I think in a system like UCF's, you have to be much more talented and have a different skillset at QB to be a difference maker. Prior to Bortles UCF really struggled to find a consistent QB. They won with the running game and opportunistic D.

Prior to Shane Carden we had Dominique Davis who put up huge numbers, we just had zero D at the time. Davis was a JUCO player who used to start at Boston College, he looked pretty average there. Here he was slinging it all over the field and was the backup to Matt Ryan for 2 years in ATL.

Carden is our biggest loss no doubt, but I will be shocked if his replacement isn't a very productive player. We have options.

(12-05-2014 07:41 PM)pesik Wrote:  The "TF" pesik is talking about is ECU is built of the pass and their success comes from the passing spread, and the success of your team is built around the offense...

You are losing your QB for a guy with no experience that alone is a bigger hit than anyone in the league, now add the fact you lose every statistically significant WR except 1 (talking stats not how good you think they are).. And to top that off you lose your best running back...

And again ECU is a team built off offense, those are huge losses, your back up might have a stronger arm, but ecu offense isn't all deep balls, it involves a huge portion of picking apart defenses, where experience is key..

and throw on top of that you lose a decent portion of the best players in A very suspect defense to start with...

Ecu loses the most in the league in respect to what they are

Texas Tech lost QB's and skill players nearly every couple years, and just rolled in the next guy to put up NCAA records. None of them had much NFL talent either, they only marginally had a few more offensive NFL draft picks than we did over the course of the entire 10 years yet produced top 10 offenses on P5 competition.

As long as the system is in place I don't see the offense slowing down. In fact we've already replaced major impact players over the course of Ruff's tenure on offense and upgraded on NFL guys like Domnic Davis and Lance Lewis. This third generation of replacements have been groomed and weeded out for several years now, not like the rush to grab guys like Carden and Hardy when Ruff just got here. They have had years to prepare for this. If Riley leaves I think we already have his replacement on staff in Nichols, who's called plays before and been with Leach, Dykes, and Riley his entire career learning the Air Raid and other quality coaches takes on it.

(12-09-2014 08:08 AM)oasispirate Wrote:  One thing ECU and now even moreso with the air raid have been able to do is plug and chug at QB. I think in a system like UCF's, you have to be much more talented and have a different skillset at QB to be a difference maker. Prior to Bortles UCF really struggled to find a consistent QB. They won with the running game and opportunistic D.

Prior to Shane Carden we had Dominique Davis who put up huge numbers, we just had zero D at the time. Davis was a JUCO player who used to start at Boston College, he looked pretty average there. Here he was slinging it all over the field and was the backup to Matt Ryan for 2 years in ATL.

Carden is our biggest loss no doubt, but I will be shocked if his replacement isn't a very productive player. We have options.

Exactly,

Kingsbury
Symons
Sonny Cumbie
Graham Harrell
Cody Hodge

I'm probably forgeting someone off the top of my head but that's the QB's Texas Tech just rolled out and put up NCAA records and top 10 offenses with yearly, you know with all that elite NFL talent which amounts to two 3rd stringers. This system works, and it's not like you need elite NFL arms to run it to great success. We still have tons of good WR's and RB's as well and the Oline should be improved.

(12-05-2014 06:51 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  The OC needs to graduate as well. Still laughing at what I watched at the end of that game.

Yup. I've lost a lot of confidence in our staff after that debacle.

(12-09-2014 09:56 AM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(12-05-2014 06:51 PM)rath v2.0 Wrote:  The OC needs to graduate as well. Still laughing at what I watched at the end of that game.

Yup. I've lost a lot of confidence in our staff after that debacle.

The good news is that this debacle was so bad that I'm sure our coaching staff will learn the lesson from this one. We have had some poor clock management before but it never really cost us like this one.

There are really only a few areas of coaching I'm not confident on.

One is special teams and Kirk Doll. I've been very underwhelmed with our special teams basically since Harris graduated and I really think it's hurting us and playing in to our coaching decisions.

Two is offensive line, I think our offensive line is very mediocre (at best) in pass blocking. With this offense that gets the ball out quickly we can usually get away with it against lesser competition but against good defenses that can press our receivers, our O-line really struggles to get our QB time, we have just been fortunate to have 2 athletic QB's in Davis and Carden that were able to buy time with their feet.

As far as the defense goes I'm willing to give it one more year and see if Smith and company can get it together. I think we lack some talent in the secondary but I think one of the biggest areas of concern was the lack of pass rush which further exposed our weakened secondary. We did lose a lot of starters from last years defense so hopefully it is just a case of getting some good bodies on the defense and not coaching but we will have to see as this has been a recurring problem.