ESPN 2023 projection

[BambooRdApp]

Everyone has access to the portal....even the top teams in country...so everyone can improve their weaknesses if they so desire...
I like our coaching change on defense. Feel like OC may have been an even exchange as I liked last year OC.. felt like he may have been constrained at some points in the season. Not an insider..just fan watching on TV and what I viewed. I like the S&C hire. We shall see how it plays out on the gridiron. I like our team, however, I feel we are one year away from being back to what we are accustomed to as fans. I hope we are one year ahead so 2023 is a little bit of a pleasant surprise.

[Wally]

or it might just be that JMU beat us.

What hurts me most about this statement is that, yes JMU did get that win, but nobody will ever convince me that without the botched interference call App would have gone on to win that game. Man I hope we pay them back this year!

[AppGrad78]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

[AppSt94]

The numbers don’t lie. We have struggled with our recent recruiting efforts in the trenches. Here’s the thing about evaluating and developing talent. It’s not as easy has teaching them what you want them to do. When talking about a high school kid, you are evaluating current skill and size to what it “could” be through the proper training and tutelage. That part falls squarely in the coaches and S&C program and the leaders of that area. What you can’t measure is heart and desire of the athlete and the accountability to do the work to get better. Some of our misses have been due to guys getting injuries that prevent them from getting on the field. That stuff happens, But as it was put to me last week by a current player, you can get away with a lot of stuff in high school just by being bigger and stronger. College is different because you need to put in the work both on and off the field. Some kids just don’t want to and unfortunately, you don’t find that out until they get on campus.

[Stonewall]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

They proved it , all season , but I do think we win the game if we get that call.

[spacemonkey]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

They proved it , all season , but I do think we win the game if we get that call.

The JMU loss did not bother me near as bad as the Coastal loss. We were the better team at Coastal...we got out coached. The JMU program was/is a good program. Georgia Southern loss was piss poor as well.

[AppStFan1]

The numbers don’t lie. We have struggled with our recent recruiting efforts in the trenches. Here’s the thing about evaluating and developing talent. It’s not as easy has teaching them what you want them to do. When talking about a high school kid, you are evaluating current skill and size to what it “could” be through the proper training and tutelage. That part falls squarely in the coaches and S&C program and the leaders of that area. What you can’t measure is heart and desire of the athlete and the accountability to do the work to get better. Some of our misses have been due to guys getting injuries that prevent them from getting on the field. That stuff happens, But as it was put to me last week by a current player, you can get away with a lot of stuff in high school just by being bigger and stronger. College is different because you need to put in the work both on and off the field. Some kids just don’t want to and unfortunately, you don’t find that out until they get on campus.

The statement by the player is pretty much common sense to anyone who has been around the game and something that players say every year. A player or even a fan would have to be pretty naive not to realize that when you just watch the difference in speed and size from a typical high school to college game. Obviously the reason is the fact we are talking about 15-18 year olds in high school with most of them lacking the size to play in college. In college everyone was the biggest on their high school team and is now much more developed at 20-23 years old. You can be the best DT in high school if you can move and are 6'3 285 pounds because you are going up against a lot of 6'0 240 pound players. You can't get by with that in college because everyone is comparable in size.

We can talk about the struggles with S&C and players putting in the work but the simple fact here is that college coaches often, like NFL teams, take chances because they think they can fix it. It is like with Satt taking the QB Brown. He knew he had issues but was willing to take the risk. When our staff takes a 6'5 250 pound OT they know there is a risk he won't be able to put on the weight and move and so on. They take him because they think they can develop him. No staff is going to be right 100% of the time but our staff has only hit on about 20% of the OL they bring in since 2017. That is staggering.

The bottom line is that several teams in our league have done a better job of hitting on these players and developing them than we have in the trenches. We have missed badly on the high rated players and had a few projects that just could not develop. We have a new OL and DL coach so we will see how it goes but the fact is that until we do a better job on the OL and DL that we will not be a 12 win team. Shawn did a much better job when he was the OL coach than the OL coaches we have had since he became HC. I'm hopeful we see improvement with the new coaches.

[AtlAppMan]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

They proved it , all season , but I do think we win the game if we get that call.

The JMU loss did not bother me near as bad as the Coastal loss. We were the better team at Coastal...we got out coached. The JMU program was/is a good program. Georgia Southern loss was piss poor as well.

By the end of the season, the accumulation of all of the above just proved to me that we had many problems. Even though most of the losses were razor thin, there was not a single point of failure. We stunk on defense, we were out S&Ced by opponents, our Oline had failures, etc. Some of the results were in the making for several years but they pushed us over the edge last year.

What I am hoping and trying to be positive, is that all these SC adjustments do payoff. I like all the moves as was listed above. SC is a young coach still figuring out his way. He is a very smart guy with a ton of heart. Part of the puzzle is for SC to continue to mature as a HC and make better decisions. But there is no way to know if it all comes together until the games are played. It is very possible they all work and we are golden.

[mike87]

To me it's all S&C. At 21 years old, 3 or 4 months off proper training can change a man. I think our position coaches are marginally improved, but Greenhalgh is going to make some players who will run through walls. That's what we didn't have last year. I don't think it's misses on the recruiting either. They whiffed on the offseason so when someone punched us in the mouth we quit.

[T-Dog]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

App scored all 28 points in a 7:35 period. Adding on the four minute drive to score the first touchdown, App was offensively poor the other 48 minutes of the game.

JMU looked good on their first drive when they kicked a FG, which I thought at the time was a mistake on their part (turned out to be the difference), collapsed for that 11 minutes, then rebounded and looked good the rest of the game.

[T-Dog]

To me it's all S&C. At 21 years old, 3 or 4 months off proper training can change a man. I think our position coaches are marginally improved, but Greenhalgh is going to make some players who will run through walls. That's what we didn't have last year. I don't think it's misses on the recruiting either. They whiffed on the offseason so when someone punched us in the mouth we quit.

The most encouraging thing to me so far as Clark's comments about S&C being way further ahead than at any point in his tenure as head coach. S&C has been a miss going back to Drinkwitz IMO. Before he left, there was talk that Drinkwitz would have made a S&C change had he stayed. Heck, walking back to my car in Statesboro last November, two different people messages me about the S&C change (plus Dale Jones).

In 2014, Mike was hired as S&C coach in (I believe) mid April. Players were throwing up during his warmups after the failure of the previous S&C coach. He said it would be six months before the players really started benefitting from his program. Six months later was mid October, when the team was 1-5, and then went 17-2 through the next season and a half.

[appfanjj]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

App scored all 28 points in a 7:35 period. Adding on the four minute drive to score the first touchdown, App was offensively poor the other 48 minutes of the game.

JMU looked good on their first drive when they kicked a FG, which I thought at the time was a mistake on their part (turned out to be the difference), collapsed for that 11 minutes, then rebounded and looked good the rest of the game.

Believe they will miss that QB more than they think.

[AppSt94]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

App scored all 28 points in a 7:35 period. Adding on the four minute drive to score the first touchdown, App was offensively poor the other 48 minutes of the game.

JMU looked good on their first drive when they kicked a FG, which I thought at the time was a mistake on their part (turned out to be the difference), collapsed for that 11 minutes, then rebounded and looked good the rest of the game.

Believe they will miss that QB more than they think.

QB, top RB, and 4 of their top 5 WRs. That’s a lot of production gone.

[BambooRdApp]

When it was 28-3. I told our seat neighbors that we need to not take foot off pedal near the end of the half...i wanted 35.....yes, they scored a number of points in the 2nd half...but we played "not to lose" on offense in the 2nd half as well in my opinion....

[Black Saturday]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

They proved it , all season , but I do think we win the game if we get that call.

The JMU loss did not bother me near as bad as the Coastal loss. We were the better team at Coastal...we got out coached. The JMU program was/is a good program. Georgia Southern loss was piss poor as well.

Getting outcoached was habitual.

[AppStFan1]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

They proved it , all season , but I do think we win the game if we get that call.

The JMU loss did not bother me near as bad as the Coastal loss. We were the better team at Coastal...we got out coached. The JMU program was/is a good program. Georgia Southern loss was piss poor as well.

Getting outcoached was habitual.

I think we got out coached some, especially being too conservative. Shawn has to be more aggressive. You can't just sit on a 28 point half-time lead or third quarter lead. Until we are up by 40 with less than 10 minutes to go I don't think you can always feel safe.

I do think our biggest problem was the S&C program. If what is being said is true then I think we should see major improvement.

[AppStFan1]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

App scored all 28 points in a 7:35 period. Adding on the four minute drive to score the first touchdown, App was offensively poor the other 48 minutes of the game.

JMU looked good on their first drive when they kicked a FG, which I thought at the time was a mistake on their part (turned out to be the difference), collapsed for that 11 minutes, then rebounded and looked good the rest of the game.

Believe they will miss that QB more than they think.

QB, top RB, and 4 of their top 5 WRs. That’s a lot of production gone.

It does leave questions until they actually get on the field but with the portal a team can overcome a lot of lost production in one off-season.

[AppStFan1]

To me it's all S&C. At 21 years old, 3 or 4 months off proper training can change a man. I think our position coaches are marginally improved, but Greenhalgh is going to make some players who will run through walls. That's what we didn't have last year. I don't think it's misses on the recruiting either. They whiffed on the offseason so when someone punched us in the mouth we quit.

The most encouraging thing to me so far as Clark's comments about S&C being way further ahead than at any point in his tenure as head coach. S&C has been a miss going back to Drinkwitz IMO. Before he left, there was talk that Drinkwitz would have made a S&C change had he stayed. Heck, walking back to my car in Statesboro last November, two different people messages me about the S&C change (plus Dale Jones).

In 2014, Mike was hired as S&C coach in (I believe) mid April. Players were throwing up during his warmups after the failure of the previous S&C coach. He said it would be six months before the players really started benefitting from his program. Six months later was mid October, when the team was 1-5, and then went 17-2 through the next season and a half.

I agree with you guys. I think that was a huge difference. It sounds like we should see major improvement there. It is unknown until we actually play so I understand why the media is down on us but I could see us winning 8 or 9 games even though we have a new QB and a lot of new faces. We will see though.

[mike87]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

They proved it , all season , but I do think we win the game if we get that call.

The JMU loss did not bother me near as bad as the Coastal loss. We were the better team at Coastal...we got out coached. The JMU program was/is a good program. Georgia Southern loss was piss poor as well.

Getting outcoached was habitual.

S&C, training, recruiting...it's all coaching so technically I'd agree. Good play calling is when you get lucky and all the before comes together and is successful. I don't think play calling on gameday is bad unless you just say well it didn't work so had to be bad. Which is naive.

[Saint3333]

This won’t be a popular opinion but I thought James Madison was a decidedly better team than we were last season and, if not for the 14 points the Dukes spotted us in the first half, the outcome would have been more lopsided. Yes, we were victimized by a bad no-call, but that happens in almost every game. We do ourselves (and JMU) a disservice to say we got hosed.

App scored all 28 points in a 7:35 period. Adding on the four minute drive to score the first touchdown, App was offensively poor the other 48 minutes of the game.

JMU looked good on their first drive when they kicked a FG, which I thought at the time was a mistake on their part (turned out to be the difference), collapsed for that 11 minutes, then rebounded and looked good the rest of the game.

Believe they will miss that QB more than they think.

QB, top RB, and 4 of their top 5 WRs. That’s a lot of production gone.

So App will be favored?