SMU by Position - 2015

[Harry]

Up until this year, we had lesser recruited players graduating and higher recruited players replacing them. This is the first year that isn't necessarily the case.

QB - Replace GG with either Burcham or Davis. Either way, with the loss of the experience of Gilbert this is probably a downgrade, especially at the start of the season.

RB - Pope, Line, Grecham, and Nlemchi is a pretty solid group. Should see improved performance, especially with how well Pope ran towards the end of the year.

WR: My guess would be Thompson, Gaines on the outside and Joseph and Lancaster on the inside. We saw significant improvements from Holman and JJ in their senior year, and we could see that from DT and DJ this season. Gaines and Lancaster may have more upside than the players they replace, but historically young receivers don't consistently perform well in this offense, so you would have to consider this a downgrade.

OL: Briggs, Myers, Lasecki, McCarty, Weeks. Briggs, Lasecki and Weeks should improve with more experience, the latter two significantly. LG will suffer compared to last year with inexperience, and McCarty's skill should be a break even with the experience of Hughes. As a whole we should see a better OL as well as better depth as the talented youth get a bit older.

DL: The starters, Wood, Wright, and Barnes all return and should be better with experience. The backups, Minor, Nabushosi and Hollie should be much better with experience. Noth of the ends will push for starting spots and if they are good enough might push Barnes out to OLB, especially on passing downs to create a virtual 4 man front. This unit should be significantly better than last year, even though there are no changes in personnel.

LB: Sanders, Nqosu, Tuiasosopo, Yenga. Yenga moves inside if the JUCO or Horton aren't ready and Seals shows everyone that he can play to his potential after a horrible last year. Ngosu was very good at Rice and probably an even swap for Rambo. Sanders played through an ankle injury and really bad turf toe last year, he should be significantly better. As for the other spots, Yenga ended the season as a starter and was solid. If Seals shows up and Yenga moves inside, the unit could actually be significantly better than last year with improvements at both OLB and the Pope spot. If Seals doesn't show up, Yenga isn't in his best position and the Pope replacement is a downgrade. The depth is rail thin after transfers and movement within the team. I would consider this group upgraded significantly if Seals shows up. If he doesn't, then the group is a downgrade or even to a group that underperformed last year.

CB: Ho Richardson, JR Richardson, Montes. Time for the kids to step up and start playing. Lots of potential here and lots of depth. The young players behind the starters also looked really good in the spring. Ho Richardson and JR looked like they took a major step forward. Going into the Fall though, you would have to consider JR a step down from Acker and HR a step down from Parks since he couldn't pass him last year. Montes was a very solid nickel corner last year and should improve. Overall you have to consider the unit a downgrade but there is a lot of potential here.

S: Four players in the mix: Greenbauer, Randolph, Justice, and Richardson. Randolph and Richardson have shown flashes and really looked good in the spring. Justice took a massive step forward in the spring. Getting Greenbauer back really helps out and should see the unit as a whole take a step forward from the way they played last season.

K: Probably worse after the graduation of Hover.

P: Could it get worse?

Overall I think improvements at RB, OL, DL, and S can be expected. I think we can expect worse performance at QB, WR, CB, and LB. That is why I have us beating UNT, Memphis, Tulsa, USF, and UCONN to finish 5-7.

That said, IF Seals plays to his potential the LB could be improved. IF the corners continue to look good, we could see a much better secondary and a pretty good defense. But the real key is at QB. If the QB is able to make the offense move consistently and the defense is solid, TCU, ECU, Cincy, UCF, and Houston are all winnable games and it could be a very good season.

Of course, if the young corners get roasted against Baylor and lose confidence, we have any injuries at LB, and QB doesn't pan out, this could be an awful season.

So I will keep things at 5-7 unless I see something really special in Fall practice.

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[Ben Gooding]

Haha, these fools keep writing us off. Sep. 6th will tell this tale. I am going to try to keep it classy that day, but my belligerence might start becoming severely obnoxious half way through the 4th. The Ball St game was a momentum changer for the season and I expect this game to be similar. GMG