Buford T. Justice said:
Is it working out? No.
The way that you respond to my posts, I take you for a fool. You are really eager to respond with a lot of bravo. Give me a solution.
Real simple.
Injuries to the OL.
Go look at the Top 10 teams and they are loaded with 4th yr players.
We had mostly young players. We lost 2 upperclassmen to medical retirement this summer and Foster got Mono to start the season. 3 starters (including Foster) were lost mid-season to season-ending injuries.
Our OL:
RS Fr, Fr, RS Fr, RS Jr,
So, FR (TE)TCU OL: RSJr/Tr, RS SR, RS Sr/Tr, RS Sr, RS Jr, Sr/Tr (TE)
Tenn OL: RS So/Tr, Sr, Jr, Jr, Sr, RS Sr, RS Sr/Tr (TE)
Bama OL: RS Sr/Tr, Jr, Sr, RS Sr,
So,, RS Sr (TE)
Clemson OL: Gr,
So, Sr, Jr,
Fr, Sr (TE)
We have 1 player that has at least 3 years of college experience. Inject a new OL Coach and there is a learning curve.
Bama has 1 player with less than 3 years experience and Clemson has 2. TCU and Tenn have zero.
Add that we lost ASmith, King, Johnson and are starting a True Freshman at QB and it makes for terrible outcomes.
Two years ago... Jimbo finished #4 in the country playing an SEC only lineup. He had mostly upperclass OL and an experienced QB.
Injuries happen. They aren't an excuse, you play the players you have and it may just be that the other team has better, more experienced players and you got beat.
Should Jimbo raid the Transfer Portal?! Probably not. It'd be nice to pickup a guy, maybe.
Getting Foster back and with Fatheree and Robinson we should both have some anchors.
JSM (RS So) and Ogunbiyi (RS So) will hopefully be back
Zuhn, Wykoff, and Crownover have gotten some good experience. All will be in their 3rd year.
We could have next year:
LT: Ogunbiyi (RS Jr)
LG: Moko (RS Jr)
OC: Foster (Jr)
RG: Robinson (RS Sr)
RT: Fatheree (Jr)
With a ton of experience behind them.