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2008 Extremely Early Pre-Season Rankings

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jimotis4heisman said:
with all do respect that was a veteran trojans offense. they had a few young guys but not much. dont you agree thomps?
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At this point it's really too hard to know what the offense will be like. We won't know whether it's Booty or Sanchez until spring. Whatever RB recruits we get in February will compete with some of the veterans (Dennis, Coleman) in fall camp. The receivers are intact and the line will return 2-3 starters.

This offense could click like the 2003 offense (when we had to replace a Heisman QB and our entire backfield) or it could just be a collection of inexperienced talent like the 2005 defense.
 
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craigblitz: "Hawk ,Carp, Schlegal - Can not de-value what these 3 youung men have done. With that said, I really think our DL did a really good job of helping them out and keeping bodies off them, but face we may never see a complete unit like that for a long time."

I think Schlegal can be replaced. He was a decent player, but he's more of a stay at home MLB who was asked to cover in this scheme. I'd expect that his replacement next year (probably D'Andrea) would be a step up in production.

Hawk & Carp are by far the biggest losses on the team. I can't say that next year's D will be anywhere close to this past season until I see that they can be replaced.

"Mangold and Simms - Losing Mangold is HUGE. The young man called the plays and pointed out blitzes that is going to be missed. Cordle is suppose to be a good one, but losing that much experince is big. Simms was along with Mangold have played since their Freshman year. I like our OL depth but these shoes will not be filled easily."

Both were great OL for us - my lasting memory of both will be their late season insertions at the LT and C spots in '02. However, that being said, I don't think there will be a drop off next season. Datish will most likely be moved to C and Boone will get one of the Tackle spots, with one of the current Tackles moving to Guard.

"Whitner/Salley/Everett - I am not overly concerned here and I am not taking anything away from these guys because I think Donte will be a star in the league, but we have some really good depth at the saftey position and I can not wait to see Jam-O on the field more."

This program churns out D-Backs. I expect next year's D-Backfield will be just as talented as this year. Not concerned at all.

"Holmes - We are deep at WR but Holmes was special. He really was and will not be replaced just like that, but again a little bit easier blow to take."

The question should be: do we keep Gonzalez as the slot reciever, or move him into Santonio's role? We'll take a slight hit in production here .. but we have the horses to still be explosive.

"Huston - Will be missed but it is me or does OSU always have great kickers latley.. Must be luck (yes it is a joke)"

Tressel clones kickers. Whoever the PK is next year, he'll be just as good as Huston.

The bottom line for me is replacing Hawk & Carp. If we can do that, then we can expect to be back in AZ next season. After all, its like we can't stay away from the Fiesta Bowl.
 
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I'd put Donte up there with Carp and Hawk as the biggest losses from the D. Whitner was a flat out stud and he pretty well always knew what was coming because of his film work.


Otherwise, I like what you've written, sloops.

I'd give a shout out to Albert Dukes to take Santonio's role (since I've heard they're the same guy more or less (which considering how good Santonio is I'll need to see before I buy hook line and sinker)) Or, if they move Gonzo, putting Dukes in the slot.
 
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We are going to lose more than half of the defense next year. I know that we have a good offense, but with a defense that will be unproven, I would start us around #10 or so. Remember, offense gets the media to love you, but defense wins championships. You never know though, we have had a lot of younger guys in our rotations, so they could come out and dominate, but right now they are unknown, so a top 5 ranking IMO is unjustified.
 
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Well the interesting thing going into next year, if VY goes, there really isn't a clear cut #1 team. Usually, going into a season, we have at least one, or sometimes multiple favorites. I was looking at some of the top teams in the early preseason polls, and I started thinking to myself that there isn't one dominant team. Next year should definately be interesting to say the least.
 
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MililaniBuckeye said:
We lose eight, and very possibly nine, starters on defense. You do the math. I'm about the biggest homer on the board, but no way do we merit starting at #2 (or #1 if Young bolts). I'd say mid-top 10 would be about right.
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Thank you Milli, couldn't agree more. That was just an out of sight linebacking crew. Any one of them would have been the featured defensive player on almost any other Div 1 team... and yeah, I'd put Schlagel ahead of Putznutz based on what I saw at the Orange Bowl.

When you throw in Kudla, Green and Whitner... well we got a ton of holes to fill. Looks like we'll be next years ND score a ton and hope to catch some breaks on defense.
 
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cincibuck said:
When you throw in Kudla, Green and Whitner... well we got a ton of holes to fill. Looks like we'll be next years ND score a ton and hope to catch some breaks on defense.
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I think thats a bad analogy.

ND's defensive woes were from a lack of talent and speed as much as anything. The kids we put out there in 2006 will be fast, athletic, hard hitters and good tackelers. Thats a given under JT.

What we will also get ,imo, is what you get with inexperienced but talented players. A lot of streaky play. They'll look very good at times, very average at times and falt out terrible at times. The worst part will be big plays given up due to break downs in assignments typically in crucial 3rd down or late game situations.

Its just part of the growing pains and the faster they can eliminate that stuff the better our chances for a great season vs just a good one.
 
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What really pisses me off about ESPN giving us a top 2 ranking is they're only doing it because they're morons who think offense is the only way to win. All they see is our offense tearing up Notre Dame but failed to see that our defense kept Notre Dame's vaunted offense under control for most of the game. Remember that History in the Making crap? If you wanted to vote online you noticed they would only compare the offensive stats which was misleading to the average braindead voter when comparing '05 USC and '02 Ohio St. ESPN is terrible at analyzing college football because all they do is drool over offensive stats and forget about special teams and defense. I think we have a good chance to go to the NC but I think we had our best shot this past year. It seems like with us, the teams that are supposed to go all the way come up short and the teams not expected to do much surprise us. It's nice to see us ranked so high but I don't really like the source.
 
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