So What Does Next Years Lineup and Depth Chart Look Like?

The o-line has serious issues but the entire unit is NOT lost. Slaughter is the future at center and has shown great promise, imo. Is Leonard back? I've always liked him. Same with Gouraige. The rest? They're toast. Especially George - he's Delance reincarnated. This will be an area where we will have to pick up 1 or 2 in the portal and then likely start a freshman from the 24 class. Seaton? Hopefully. We'll need major help here.

The defense is the most glaring issue to me, and notably a complete LACK of physicality. I wouldn't be sad to see 75% of the starting secondary leave. Thankfully Mitchell is done - don't have to see him get run over anymore. But Kimber needs to go play two hand touch somewhere as he clearly doesn't enjoy tackle football. Could say the same of Marshall, while I think he's a fine cover corner, he shows a SEVERE lack of effort at times when it comes to open field tackling. Mainly, we need head hunting, KILLER safeties again. The type of guys who will come down in run stop with authority. Hill was the only one in the secondary all year who flew to the ball and he's likely gone. I liked what I saw yesterday from Denson, and hope he gets to start next year. We need more tenacity and aggressiveness in the backend. I feel like we got soft there in the late Mullen years and it just trickled into 22 and 23. Gotta fix that...

Same can be said at LB - outside of Shemar there's just no speed, no reactivity, no eye discipline, and no play makers. WE NEED DYNAMIC LBs. Urgently. You can't run stop in the SEC without them. It's impossible.

DL has size and talent but holy heck they couldn't get pressure all year. The FSU game was the one outlier where it finally seemed like they got some push, but far too little and too late. Need more depth there and gladly, its coming in 24 and being led by McCray. One or two from the portal wouldn't hurt though...

Everywhere else we're solid: Solid kicker, solid leader at QB if Mertz returns, solid backfield with ETN likely leading the bunch (Johnson likely goes pro) and Webb playing more, Wilson back with Jean and Mizell outside should bolster a speedy WR group, and Boardingham and Hanson back as dependable hands at TE... offensive talent worries me far less than the defense.

 

Which players have consistently been picked on and always come up short? Players like Marshall/kimber, George, etc. all of those type players are pre Napier besides George. And I would strongly argue that George is a guard that was forced to play tackle due to having no true tackles. None of the issue players are players that Napier got here. Like Collins,Moore,Jackson, Shemar, Wilson, Meryl, the RB DUO, etc.

 

Was honored on senior day, he’s gone