I realize the prevailing opinion is that we'll struggle at quarterback--and to some extent, as a team--because of our lack of experience there. And Richt's career body of work would support that opinion strongly, as a matter of fact. Roe likes to point out that we've had lesser seasons by far with first-year starters (unless they were named D. J. Shockley).
I may well be too optimistic (my preseason gut feelings have about zero accuracy) but I see it this way. The QB situation looks worse than it is because they all basically look decent--not great, but decent. Bauta was 16 for 25 at G-Day, though he didn't throw downfield much. Ramsey threw much less in general (9 passes??) but had two completions longer than any of last year.
Personally, I really did believe Park was going to break through, but we know by now that he's just too far behind. Anyway, I submit the Belk Bowl as a template for our games moving forward. We ran, ran, ran after Mason went out. Eventually Chubb began to break off longer gains in the second half. But meanwhile, our defense was taking up the slack. We didn't need to score 45 points because the defense wasn't giving up 44.
Louisville, however anyone feels about Grantham, had a very good Charlie Strong-built defense, though not too much O. It was roughly equivalent to a decent SEC defense. We'll be much better prepared at QB rather than sending in a raw kid who hasn't even warmed up and has one working eye. But we don't need a gunslinger. A powerful offensive line and excellent running backs will get it done, as long as the defense does what we believe it's going to do in Pruitt's second year.
This doesn't mean I'm predicting any championships, because we've been too inconsistent for that. I'm just saying that, in general, things may be better than they look. Our QBs are inexperienced, but they have high ceilings. The running game and an aggressive D will allow them to get comfortable the first few games. All we have to retain from Hutson is his success at avoiding mistakes.
I may well be too optimistic (my preseason gut feelings have about zero accuracy) but I see it this way. The QB situation looks worse than it is because they all basically look decent--not great, but decent. Bauta was 16 for 25 at G-Day, though he didn't throw downfield much. Ramsey threw much less in general (9 passes??) but had two completions longer than any of last year.
Personally, I really did believe Park was going to break through, but we know by now that he's just too far behind. Anyway, I submit the Belk Bowl as a template for our games moving forward. We ran, ran, ran after Mason went out. Eventually Chubb began to break off longer gains in the second half. But meanwhile, our defense was taking up the slack. We didn't need to score 45 points because the defense wasn't giving up 44.
Louisville, however anyone feels about Grantham, had a very good Charlie Strong-built defense, though not too much O. It was roughly equivalent to a decent SEC defense. We'll be much better prepared at QB rather than sending in a raw kid who hasn't even warmed up and has one working eye. But we don't need a gunslinger. A powerful offensive line and excellent running backs will get it done, as long as the defense does what we believe it's going to do in Pruitt's second year.
This doesn't mean I'm predicting any championships, because we've been too inconsistent for that. I'm just saying that, in general, things may be better than they look. Our QBs are inexperienced, but they have high ceilings. The running game and an aggressive D will allow them to get comfortable the first few games. All we have to retain from Hutson is his success at avoiding mistakes.
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