with the loss of only one offensive starter (which is the center) this fall, our offense should be pretty stacked. even more stacked then last year. our defense should be pretty good, except one area of concern in our secondary. with the losses of bryan kehl, kelly poppinga, kayle buchanan, and ben criddle, we have some big holes to fill. but we are returning jan jorgensen, david nixon, kellen fowler and we are bringing in some guys and have some young guys that should be good. bronco and coach hill are doing fine. i think if we keep our guys healthy it should be a great year. we're stacked. hopefully this is the year to make a bcs run.
That's what's great when your HC is Bronco Mendenhall. Yeah the Cougs have some big shoes to fill in the secondary, but Bronco will make sure that who ever is the starter to step it up.
I agree with ya joe- the Cougars are stacked, what's even great is that were stacked on both sides of the ball. Plus seeing the kind of talent that Bronco is bringing for this year's freshmen class is amazing, and the majority of them can make an impact right away before leaving for there mission.
Both of you are right on. I'm honestly not worried at all about our defense in '08. Why? Once again, it's the Bronco Mendenhall factor; I see in the Cougars--more than in any other team--a seamless unity between all three units (offense, defense, and special teams). Coach really knows what he's doing. He's not perfect, and neither are his players, but they're on the right track in the quest for perfection. He understands what it's going to take to go undefeated next season. More importantly, however, is that he knows how to get the whole team on the same page. Yeah. I feel good.
...there. I went an entire post without singling out any individual players. There was no need to. Nevertheless, we've got some guys that can PLAY. Straight up; Harvey Unga, Max Hall, Austin Collie, Dennis Pitta, Jan Jorgensen...
Harvey for Heisman! ('08 and/or '09). Who's with me?
Something that makes a coach great, and maybe even sets him apart from the rest, is an ability to get the best out of his players even when he may or may not have the most talented bunch. It amazes me how well the Cougs do despite not landing the great recruits that the big schools get. That says loads for Bronco.
A perfect season seems possible this year. There are a few games that I am interested in seeing how the team comes out against; Northern Iowa, UCLA, Washington. I worry about Utah because it's a rivalry game and you cannot predict how those will turn out; I mean, who would have imagined that 4th and 18 play?!
I like your thinking russamarou. Harvey for Heisman, but how about this - Harvey for the Doak Walker and Hall for the Heisman. Now that would speak volumes for this program.
Yeah if the Cougars can go undefeated this year that would be amazing, then either if Max Hall, Harvey Unga, or Austin Collie could win an award of some sort would just be icing on the cake. But more than anything it's how the team overall performs.
Of all the offseasons leading up to the season for like 7 or 8 years this one makes me the most excited with all the talent and knowing what bronco can do with any kind of talent not to mention with our stacked team we have this year. Should be exciting!
You couldn't help but notice Harvey last year. The best part is he was a freshman. I am anxiously awaiting a Heisman run in the next few years. Good Things. Mazel. GO Y!
As far as the secondary, I am curious to see what Bronco has in store for us. Our secondary has had it share of troubles lately (do I have to remind you about Tulsa), but a new year brings new things.
One thing we need to keep in perspective is that Bronco and his two coordinators are all very young. Bronco himself is still learning and gaining experience as to what makes a great head coach. He is still an up and comer, and while he needs to hold himself up to the standard of an established great coach (such that he can set goals and improve), we as fans need to remember there will be growing pains (much like the Tulsa game last year).
We flat out were not prepared for what Tulsa threw at us. Tulsa was an enigma, as no one outside of their program knew the style of offense they had installed. That was great coaching on their part, to conceal their entire playbook before they played us (It was also bad coaching on their part to reveal their entire playbook when they played us, but that was their problem for the rest of the season).
But that's where being a young and new coach comes into play. Bronco did learn from that experience, as not a single other team was able to convert a trick play last year. And you could tell in his remarks made late last season that he learned his lesson from a preparing standpoint, where if we know a team has installed a completely new and unknown offense, then he needs to do everything in his power to find out what it might be and prepare for everything.
One glaring area, imo, that Bronco needs to improve on is half time adjustments. I know, since we're usually ahead that he doesn't get much practice, but last year's bowl game was yet another perfect example of a failure to make appropriate half time adjustments. If the running game is stuffed and they're blitzing like crazy, it's time to let Harvey loose on a screen pass. In the Tulsa game, it was glaringly obvious throughout the first half that their offense would wait until our defense was set before calling a play. In the second half, whenever Tulsa would look over to the sideline for a play, we could've been switching up the defense. We needed to do something to throw their rhythm off.
I HOPE YOU ARE RIGHT. I WOULD LOVE TO SEE BYU AND FLORIDA PLAY FOR THE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP. IF THEY HAVE ONLY LOST ONE PLAYER ON OFFENSE, THEY SHOULD BE A REAL POWERHOUSE. HOPE THEY DON'T START SLOW LIKE LAST YEAR. &nbs p; &n bsp; &nbs p; &n bsp; &nbs p; &n bsp; &nbs p; &n bsp; &nbs p; &n bsp; &nbs p; &n bsp; &nbs p;
THE DEFENSE GAVE UP A LOT OF POINTS IN SOME GAMES LAST YEAR. THE OFFENSE SHOULD NOT HAVE TO SCORE 40 POINTS TO WIN A GAME. WE NEED TO GET A BETTER DEFENSE, IF WE WANT TO BEAT THE BIG BOYS IN A CHAMPIONSHIP GAME.
