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T2003 Offline
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Post: #1
Biggest concerns / question marks?
What are your biggest concerns / question marks going into the season?

Troy
Defense
I was pretty confident knowing that so many starters would be back from last year. However, losing 3(!) DEF starters to the transfer portal (2 DBs, 1 LB) will be hard to compensate, esp since all of them were either 1st or 2nd team All-conference.

QB
We should be fine but since Sawyer Smith decided to transfer to Kentucky, we don’t have much experience at this position (other than starter Kaleb Barker). If Barker goes down, we might be in trouble...

WR
We have to replace a ton of experience. We signed a couple of highly recruited JCs who had multiple Big12 offers or even decommitted from P5 schools to sign with Troy. However, JCs need to adjust to FBS ball and this might take at least 5-6 games.

Bye-weeks
Bye-weeks will most likely hurt us. Right after game1 and before game2 (vs Southern Miss) is the worst time for a bye week IMO. This early in the season, players need to play. USM will roll into Troy right after having played Miss St + an FCS team...while Troy will only have played an FCS team.
Another bye-week that concerns me is right before the Mizzou game. Missouri will have a bye-week before playing Troy and this should give them extra time to prepare for us.
(This post was last modified: 06-09-2019 02:44 AM by T2003.)
06-09-2019 02:36 AM
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WinstonTheWolf Offline
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Post: #2
RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
OL
stAte's shortcomings have been OL for a while. Knighten was fast enough to make the read option and scrambling work. Always about the OL and being able to run the ball when everyone knows that's what the Red Wolves are going to do.

QB
Not that worried about Bonner. Depth could be an huge problem if Bonner gets dinged up. Goes back to the OL. If stAte can run QB will be fine because he has the best set of WRs in the league to throw to.

LB
Can't seem to catch up on linebacker depth in year 6 of Anderson. How long should it take a new coach to get to 85 scholarships? Anyone?

APATHY
Seems that the fan base is tired of broken promises of next level greatness and underachieving . . .
06-09-2019 07:18 AM
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TroyFootball05 Online
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Post: #3
RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
Troy

1. Chip Lindsey is a head coach for the first time, QB coach, and the defacto leader of the offense. That's a lot to manage if you've never been a head coach. For context, the OC Chip hired (Ryan Pugh) has never been an OC, and did not run this style of offense at his last job, BYU, where he was OL coach. This likely means Chip will be pulling triple duty for a while. Ryan Pugh is also the OL coach here at Troy while he learns how to be an OC. This is my main concern, and it's a big one.

2. Our new DC (Brandon Hall) has no experience at the FBS level being a DC, and replaces Vic Koenning who has 15+ years of experience at this level, including lots of P5 experience where he did really well. Brandon is running a very similar defense, but play-calling and in-game adjustments may not be as "seasoned" as Vic's. The silver lining is that Hall was a terrific DC at Jacksonville State, and spent last season on staff with Vic.

3. Keleb Barker is recovering from his second ACL tear. He is known for being extremely mobile. He is a dual QB threat to a "T". Sometimes, though, ACL tears don't heal 100%, and either mentally or physically, the player isn't the same. It's also a concern whether or not Chip lets Kaleb run wild in his offense after his injury, and now that our clear #2 QB has transferred to Kentucky. The offense largely depends on his running ability. He can throw, as he was one of the SBC's top passing QB's last season, but running hog wild adds a lot more opportunities for the offense to score. Receiver talent is possibly as a high as it's ever been, but cohesiveness and experience are low.

TLDR: Experience, both on staff, and on the field are a lot lower than what Neal and Co. were. During Blakeney's last seasons, I always thought "If we ever get a great DC and a great OC here at the same time, watch out." We had that with Vic Koenning and Neal Brown. That staff was the Dream Team in my opinion and we were lucky to have them. Wins over LSU, Nebraska, and many, many top dogs from our G5 neighbors proved that. Chip and Co. have some really big shoes to fill.
(This post was last modified: 06-09-2019 09:16 AM by TroyFootball05.)
06-09-2019 09:12 AM
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Bobcat2013 Offline
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RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
You know, a lot of us are confident about our defense, but the more I think about it the more nervous I get. Y'all know the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.". Well it ain't broke, but we're changing it.

Hopefully I'm worried about nothing.
06-09-2019 10:24 AM
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Bobcat87 Offline
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RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
(06-09-2019 10:24 AM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  You know, a lot of us are confident about our defense, but the more I think about it the more nervous I get. Y'all know the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.". Well it ain't broke, but we're changing it.

Hopefully I'm worried about nothing.

Yeah, with a whole new coaching staff there are plenty of questions surrounding this team. But on the whole, even with changes, I think we’re pretty safe defensively.
Sooooo many other questions though: the offense, kicking game, special teams, play in the trenches.

Overall, we should be improved. The “how much” is debatable.
06-09-2019 11:02 AM
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Hemi Man Offline
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Post: #6
RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
(06-09-2019 02:36 AM)T2003 Wrote:  What are your biggest concerns / question marks going into the season?

Troy
Defense
I was pretty confident knowing that so many starters would be back from last year. However, losing 3(!) DEF starters to the transfer portal (2 DBs, 1 LB) will be hard to compensate, esp since all of them were either 1st or 2nd team All-conference.

QB
We should be fine but since Sawyer Smith decided to transfer to Kentucky, we don’t have much experience at this position (other than starter Kaleb Barker). If Barker goes down, we might be in trouble...

WR
We have to replace a ton of experience. We signed a couple of highly recruited JCs who had multiple Big12 offers or even decommitted from P5 schools to sign with Troy. However, JCs need to adjust to FBS ball and this might take at least 5-6 games.

Bye-weeks
Bye-weeks will most likely hurt us. Right after game1 and before game2 (vs Southern Miss) is the worst time for a bye week IMO. This early in the season, players need to play. USM will roll into Troy right after having played Miss St + an FCS team...while Troy will only have played an FCS team.
Another bye-week that concerns me is right before the Mizzou game. Missouri will have a bye-week before playing Troy and this should give them extra time to prepare for us.


It’s June 9th. You can expect more shakeups in the lineup between now and August 31st. It happens every year, whether it’s the portal or something else.
06-09-2019 11:50 AM
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_x_ Offline
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RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
(06-09-2019 11:02 AM)Bobcat87 Wrote:  
(06-09-2019 10:24 AM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  You know, a lot of us are confident about our defense, but the more I think about it the more nervous I get. Y'all know the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.". Well it ain't broke, but we're changing it.

Hopefully I'm worried about nothing.

Yeah, with a whole new coaching staff there are plenty of questions surrounding this team. But on the whole, even with changes, I think we’re pretty safe defensively.
Sooooo many other questions though: the offense, kicking game, special teams, play in the trenches.

Overall, we should be improved. The “how much” is debatable.

I'm concerned about regressing on D also simply due to coaching to be honest. Filling out most of our defensive staff from Texas Tech doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. We have the personnel, just need to make sure our defensive staff doesn't screw it up. I have far more concerns defensively long term though that I do for this upcoming season.

Most of the concerns are on offense. Though I feel pretty confident we'll see big improvement on that side of the ball pretty soon with this new staff.

Another long-term concern I have that's growing every day is recruiting. Our 2019 class was not good. And it's June 9th and we still don't have a 2020 commit yet. I'm starting to get concerned on the recruiting front.
06-09-2019 12:18 PM
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USAJag2011 Offline
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Post: #8
RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
Concerns: Everything
Question marks: Everything
06-09-2019 12:19 PM
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EigenEagle Online
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Post: #9
RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
OL - On one hand, we lost our top two players on the line. On the other hand, they'll be more experienced and they've only had actual college-level OL coaching for one season and one of the better starters who missed all of last season should be back.

Backup QB - if Shai Werts is hurt we're going to have to either rely on a redshirt freshman with one college snap (that was a fumble) or a true freshman.

Schedule - How will we handle trips to Boone, Jonesboro, and Troy?

All in all, a lot more things to be excited about than question marks.
06-09-2019 12:19 PM
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Bobcat87 Offline
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Post: #10
RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
(06-09-2019 12:18 PM)_x_ Wrote:  
(06-09-2019 11:02 AM)Bobcat87 Wrote:  
(06-09-2019 10:24 AM)Bobcat2013 Wrote:  You know, a lot of us are confident about our defense, but the more I think about it the more nervous I get. Y'all know the saying "If it ain't broke, don't fix it.". Well it ain't broke, but we're changing it.

Hopefully I'm worried about nothing.

Yeah, with a whole new coaching staff there are plenty of questions surrounding this team. But on the whole, even with changes, I think we’re pretty safe defensively.
Sooooo many other questions though: the offense, kicking game, special teams, play in the trenches.

Overall, we should be improved. The “how much” is debatable.

I'm concerned about regressing on D also simply due to coaching to be honest. Filling out most of our defensive staff from Texas Tech doesn't exactly fill me with confidence. We have the personnel, just need to make sure our defensive staff doesn't screw it up. I have far more concerns defensively long term though that I do for this upcoming season.

Most of the concerns are on offense. Though I feel pretty confident we'll see big improvement on that side of the ball pretty soon with this new staff.

Another long-term concern I have that's growing every day is recruiting. Our 2019 class was not good. And it's June 9th and we still don't have a 2020 commit yet. I'm starting to get concerned on the recruiting front.


We have sucked for soooo long it’s not even funny. The one area we’ve looked somewhat good in the past couple of seasons is defense.

To the question: biggest concerns, question marks? Yeah, with a new staff it’s ALL in the air, and somewhat relative. Could our D regress, especially with a new staff? absolutely. Could it have regressed if Withers and Co. had returned? absolutely. I’m just trying to hang my hat on the one clear area of strength this team has.

To put it another way, we have so many areas of need/concern that in terms of priority (until proven otherwise) the defense is the least of them, at least in my mind.
06-09-2019 01:00 PM
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GSUALUM17 Offline
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RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
Concerns: Most everything except QB
Cautiously hopeful: OL, RB, WR, TE
06-09-2019 01:11 PM
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moehler Offline
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RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
Secondary- must replace the two best corners in the conference. Good news is we have some real talent to feel the position, but until we see what they can do in a game it’s going to be a big question mark.

Nose tackle-see secondary remarks

New staff- feel really good about the offense, everywhere Drink goes, the offense excels, but the defense, not as confident, might take a step back.
06-09-2019 03:05 PM
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CoastalAlum2011 Offline
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RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
Coastal:

Question: Our Head Coach

Concern: Our Head Coach
06-09-2019 03:17 PM
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eaglewraith Offline
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RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
(06-09-2019 12:19 PM)EigenEagle Wrote:  OL - On one hand, we lost our top two players on the line. On the other hand, they'll be more experienced and they've only had actual college-level OL coaching for one season and one of the better starters who missed all of last season should be back.

Backup QB - if Shai Werts is hurt we're going to have to either rely on a redshirt freshman with one college snap (that was a fumble) or a true freshman.

Schedule - How will we handle trips to Boone, Jonesboro, and Troy?

All in all, a lot more things to be excited about than question marks.

I'm excited about the defense. They kept us in games a lot last year and should just get better. We also return the best cornerback tandem in the conference from last year with some young but talented guys behind them. We lost some guys up front but I'm hoping the experience from last year will show improvement. We've got some guys that were on the bench last year that should be good contributors this season as well.

As for OL, pure consistency and not having to learn a new offensive system for the first offseason since Spring 2015 will make a huge difference. Also S&C is looking great from what we've seen on social media so far.

Hopefully Werts doesn't have to play most of the season banged up like he did last year, and we have some time to get the young guys some in game experience.

Biggest concern for me is how do we handle the trip to App. The P5 games are what they are, but none of the other games on our schedule particularly concern me. Playing at Boone has always been kryptonite though.
06-09-2019 10:06 PM
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BirdofParadise Offline
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RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
Cajuns: Offense...Quarterback. Levi Lewis got some experience last year but is he ready to drive the bus? The best offensive line in the Sun Belt (by far) and the three headed monster at running back will help to ease the transition.

Defense...quality depth. The first eleven the Cajuns put on the field defensively will be better than that past few years. But I'm concerned about the two deep. Staying healthy at particular positions will be crucial.

Kicking game. Stevie Artigue missed last year because of a torn ACL. That makes placekicking a question mark.
06-09-2019 11:47 PM
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KJ Eagle Offline
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RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
As stated above, back up QB if Werts gets hurt is a crap shoot. We also can't expect to have a historically great turnover margin like we did last year again this year so we will have to see how we adjust to turnovers. OL is young, but can be good. We lost our two most productive RB's to graduation, so it will be interesting to see who steps up to take that production. We've lost a lot of WR depth, but we don't throw the ball enough to worry too much about that. If the replacements can block well enough we should be fine there.

My biggest concern is that our 5 toughest games are all on the road. We could actually be a better team this year, and still end up with a worse record. We should continue to gel and continue to correct the fatal errors of the prior coaching staff and hopefully get back to true GS football this year.
06-10-2019 08:51 AM
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sdcritter Offline
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RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
Biggest concern? Those guys wearing headsets.
06-10-2019 09:00 AM
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kevinwmsn Offline
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RE: Biggest concerns / question marks?
Biggest Concern:
1) Quarterback - Will it be Cephus or someone else and how well will they play.
2) Will line play get better this year. I know we had injuries last year.
3) What happens at the last game at Ladd when the game is over?

I think we will be fine at RB and WR. QB play will determine if we make a bowl or not.
06-10-2019 09:29 AM
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