Shemar is the only linebacker we have that is a proven linebacker. Wingo has been here a minute and has not proven to be a stand out as of yet. I hope he has a great year this year because we are going to need it. If The linebacker core is weak. It’s hard to play good defense.
Lol... "riddled with potential" is an interesting way to put it. Because our defense was riddled quite often last season. Our LB coaches were not getting the most out of that bunch last year. But a new year, and new positions coaches later, with the added bonus of more talent on the field makes me feel much better about that defensive position this year. It's the coaches that make our defense work properly. The players are just the parts in the system so it's up to the coaches to make them better than the sum of their parts. There is a lot to like about the talent we have in that LB room lets just hope our coaches get the best out of them and we have few or no injuries this coming season.
Hope James comes back 100% and improved. Maybe Howard will resemble Spikes. And Chiles and Graham looking like veterans sooner than later.
We're definitely coming in under the radar this coming season. No one but some Gator fans are expecting us to do well.
Howard is more athletic than Spikes. Don't know if he has the same instincts. Spikes seemed to sniff out the play before the ball was snapped. His legs ran a 4.8 40 but his brain ran a 4.4.
True. Experience, poise and football IQ are all talent enhancers. Wuerffel and Leak weren't known for strong arms or running ability, but they won.
Don’t need any real LB in the 4-2-5! Hopefully we can get solid coached up players who excel at the basics and worry about the resume building blitz packages a bit later. Round pegs in round holes please.
I agree 100% with the first sentence. I sort of agree with the second sentence. The "sort of" comment is because the players are more than "just parts in the system". Hopefully our current parts are striving to be the best players in the country. The coaches can do the best job of leading them to the water. At that point, it is up to the players to drink that water. In other words, both the coaches and the players have to be 100% committed to be the best. I agree with your third statement that there is a lot to like about the talent. It has been a long while since UF has had that much talent. Especially talent that has played together for at least one if not two seasons. This lack of togetherness/continuity has impacted both the defense and the offense.
What I mean is that even the best players in college football need good coaching to become their best version of themselves. With great coaching you get great players... at least as far as a player's natural talent takes him. And... we have talent, so it's on the coaches to bring that out in our players. Even talented players without proper direction can perform no better than a collection of street-ball athletes.. Proper coaching is vital. As I said before... we have a team of very talented individual players. But we need great coaching to bring that out... to become a great team.
Pup and Shemar and then two incoming freshman is a talented group. Shemar lost a lot of development time with injury. You can see the talent in the room or roster improving. Very young team. A year perhaps away IMO
We are going to lose Shemar before those young guys peak. 25 or 26 even is when those young guys will be ready to be at their best. I love our last class but realistically, they will show their true worth in 26 or 27. I hope Chiles and Graham get some good snaps this year and are ready to take a lot of snaps in 25 but we will see.
