This whole thought started because I was thinking about how Snyder has left a lot to be desired and garnered a lot of criticism..........so i compared the 2001 defense to this years.....D'Antonio wasn't setting the world on fire in 2001 and neither was that defensive unit.........i found that the similarities are incredibly striking, atleast in my humble opinion.......maybe Snyder needs a year to work with these guys and grow in his role, much like D'Antonio?........check out the similarities of we have now, compared to what we had then, as well as what we had come back for 2002 compared to what we should have back next year.........i'll point out some offensive similarities, as well as overall performance.......the only glaring difference would be Nugent being gone, but maybe his predecessor will work hard to fill that void and surprise us?
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what i feel to be striking similarities between this year's and that year's defenses:
Young, talented, developing defensive line: 3 sophomore starters with playmaking ability, and a senior that had no real impact.........no consistency and sometimes was pretty disappointing......the bonus here? we have more quality depth NOW....although no superstar like Smith, I expect the unit to be comparable to 2004 as a whole
Linebackers: Wilhelm in his jr. year/Hawk in his jr. year, Hawk is better.........Cooper and Carpenter are extremely comparable, Carpenter will be better in '05 than Grant in '02.......Bullard/D'Andrea/Schlegal - definite ability but impact player? Dare i say D'Andrea/Schlegal MUCH better than Reynolds in 02?.............looking good here!
CB's - Derek Ross/Fox - solid upperclassmen, although Ross made more game changing plays, Fox is just as good in his own right...........Cie Grant/Underwood/Youboty - YIKES!!! <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :\ -->
<!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> , maybe one of the current guys steps up to fill a gamble type roll in '05, or one of the young studs (Ginn maybe, O'Neil even?).....won't be too hard to have someone fill the same shoes as Fox did in '02........possible bonus here too: MUCH more depth and competition
Safeties/Nickel: Fox&Allen were Nickel guys/Tyler Everett/Youboty - solid nickel guys still developing, plenty of potential.........Salley/Nickey - Jrs., solid, but have been the goat, Salley has potential to be a LOT better than Nickey..........Whitner/Doss - hmmmm? Whitner just might be the next Doss, just a year behind...........again we have plenty of Depth and comp here, who pushed Doss and Nickey and Allen in '02?
pretty amazingly similar if you ask me, even more so than I originally thought when I thought up this idea
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about the offense.......not quite as similar, but defenses win championships anyway, especially with Tresselball!...but you know what? it may be even more promising
O-Line - very young in '01 with Olivea, Step, Bishop, Clarke........this year's guys are definitely young, and probably not as talented, but they'll be back, a year older, with no shortage of competition, 2 will be Srs. next year, one migh los his job!......some of these younger guys may just step up and dominate next year (yes this is assuming we can get the most out of them, how great would THAT be?)
QB - can't really compare Zwick or Smith to Bellisari, but consider this........what if Krenzel in his RS Soph. year was the full-time starter? would we have gone through the same pains? possibly? probably?.........next yr. (whoever emerges as the starter) will be a RS Jr. like Krenzel was, with a year starting under their belt, if someone could just step up (or be given the chance to step up) and produce atleast as much as he did
RB - Ross/Wells.......departing seniors, Wells produced of course, and Ross isn't, but look at next year and compare......2 freshman coming back that seem to have some nice potential, and hey we're in on some bigtime RB's, could Stewart have the impact that Mo had? can we land him? we can dream right?...........at FB Martin was in a class of his own and was probably 30% responsible for the successful rushing attack that year, our FB situation next year CAN'T be worse than it was in '02 with Schnittker, White, and Johnson
WR - one playmaker/go-to guy Jenkins/Holmes in their So. yr.........01 had another strong option with Vance, no Vance this year.....but looking at next yr. expecting Holmes back can, he can be just as deadly as Jenkins, I can't imagine Hall or another young guy not producing atleast as much as Gamble in '02........bonus here??? you bet!!! NO DEPTH in '02, we'll have Hall, Lyons, Dukes, Ginn(?), Gonzalez, Jordan fighting it out, someone will have to step it up, and the depth should be stellar
TE - Sanders/Hamby, very comparable........but we'll have Hamby back for his Sr. yr., Hartsock was in his Jr. yr. in 02, maybe a Sr. Hamby is better than a Jr. Hartsock?.......there was absolutely no #2 TE threat in 02, Hamby was a frosh in there almost full-time!.......another bonus!! have to believe Nicol as a Soph. will be better and provide a viable option
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In conclusion, i'm actually really glad I decided to put this together..........when you really think about this, it's my opinion that '05 looks even MORE PROMISING than '02......the similarities are are eery and as I pointed out the depth and returning players could/should be better..........also if you think about it and compare '01 to this year, doesn't this team appear to be WORSE in many areas????? especially the offense: in '01 we had a productive RB, a super FB, 2 viable options at WR, a Sr. QB who produced a lot more than Zwick is so far, and the o-line was MUCH better....so why would we EXPECT much different than '01? There were horrid and disappointing outings in '01 too - UCLA!! Illinois, PSU, Wisconsin........hell we even had less than impressive games against Akron, Indiana, SDSU.......we weren't embarrased like we were against IOWA, but how bout those comebacks we allowed, were they any better??? and guess what? WE BEAT MICHIGAN!!! at the big house nonetheless!!
to have a similar season in '05 it will come down to 4 things
1.) QB play - can they produce at atleast the level of Krenzel?
2.) RB's - can anyone step up or burst on the scene like Reecie?.......if you think about it, he was missing for a lot of the year, and we had to win the tough ones without him anyway.......what games was he the REAL DIFFERENCE IN? WAZZU/MICHIGAN, and MIAMI b/c of that one play but not from a rshing production standpoint
3.) Leaders - will leaders emerge like in '02? I think Doss and Wilhelm's leadership can't be measured
4.) Special Teams - hard to replace Nugent and Groom
You know what??? Things look VERY BRIGHT IN MY EYES.....and I HONESTLY wasn't sure I could find anything bright or positive to pull out of this current MESS, I wasn't even trying to do so but it kind of evolved into that
Obviously things still need to change, and changes on the offensive side on the ball would be like a gift from heaven, but even if they don't, I feel there is no reason not to believe we can make another run in '05 JUST LIKE '02
Wow that was long, if you lasted this long, thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed it
compare to 2001, NC in 2005??? (more reason to believe)
