How Rank Will This Year's Offense Be?

[gatorev12]

If he goes 9-3 that will tell us what? That he can't beat teams with equal or better talent, that he sucks as a recruiter, at building a staff, and at building or managing a roster, and that there's no chance of competing for any championships as long as ol' numbnuts is in the HC's office? I can tell you that already. Next.

I very clearly stated that the post was going to be more optimistic...;):D

Yours is the realist response: Mullen is a terrible recruiter and while he's slightly better than most coaches at schemes/development, he's always going to have a low ceiling because of that fact.

I'd take 9-3 or 10-2 as an alternative to 7-5 or 6-6 though: we finish with that record and we're likely a top 10 to top 15 team. That's where we need to stay at in order to even stay within striking distance of where we want to be.

 

[soflagator]

Reasons for optimism:

We have the QBs Mullen needs to make his offense work in Jones and AR15. Franks was functional, but nowhere near elite as a running QB and Trask was a pocket passer.

The run-blocking game generally did better when Jones was in and running plays vs when Trask was in and handing it off. Obviously, the more mobile QB gives defenders extra areas of responsibility/things to think about; and that'll help next season.

Our RB room is STACKED. Pierce, Davis, Wright, and Bowman are all studs...and there's 5 star Lingard in the mix too. Wright and Bowman are the two I'm most interested to see (Wright seems to have Pierce's aggressiveness and Davis' pass-catching abilities in one package); but one thing's for-sure: we have talented guys in this dept.

WR/TEs will take a step back, but there's talent there too. One thing working in our advantage there is we have size--and in redzone packages, that'll be helpful for our QBs, who won't be as good as Trask throwing into tight windows, but can toss it up and let the WR go up and get it.

I get the reasons for being pessimistic. Mullen's performance last season and this offseason have left much to be desired. Our recruiting is inconsistent at best with glaring holes in the trenches. Truthfully, we'll learn a lot about Mullen this season: if he goes 9-3 (or better), then perhaps he's truly more dialed-in and competitive than we give him credit for. If he turns in his worst season to-date and comes back with a 6-6 or 7-5 record, then he's exactly the coach everyone thought him to be: a middle-of-the-pack, mediocre SEC coach.

Going 9-3 with this schedule is nothing impressive at all, especially considering it's year 4. I'm not as down as others and think we could be very good. But 3 losses would mean we lost to all equal/beter talent or beat one and stumbled elsewhere in a game we shouldn't.

All of this is very much situational as well. We were totally willing to see 3-4 losses in 2007 following a title year and loss of experience. In other years we've tolerated a bad season knowing that we were getting very talented young players needed reps and we could take solace in the fact that out recruiting was soon to pay dividends. For that matter, few scoffed at 9-3 in 2018 because of the disaster JM left and it being his first year. The problem is none of those scenarios apply here. There just isn't any excuse for not being really good this season. And any and all that you could manufacture have to be laid at the feet of Mullen himself.

 

[MidwestChomp]

Interesting way of writing the question. How rank? Could be really stinky I guess.

 

[TheDouglas78]

Going 9-3 with this schedule is nothing impressive at all, especially considering it's year 4. I'm not as down as others and think we could be very good. But 3 losses would mean we lost to all equal/beter talent or beat one and stumbled elsewhere in a game we shouldn't.

All of this is very much situational as well. We were totally willing to see 3-4 losses in 2007 following a title year and loss of experience. In other years we've tolerated a bad season knowing that we were getting very talented young players needed reps and we could take solace in the fact that out recruiting was soon to pay dividends. For that matter, few scoffed at 9-3 in 2018 because of the disaster JM left and it being his first year. The problem is none of those scenarios apply here. There just isn't any excuse for not being really good this season. And any and all that you could manufacture have to be laid at the feet of Mullen himself.

Anything less than 10 wins, isn't good enough. The schedule isn't impressive, Tennessee, FSU, etc are all down. Only LSU and Georgia have better talent, and honestly we should go 50/50 with a HC that is being paid in the top 10.

 

[neteng]

68th.

If I may quote Gail from Letterkenny..."How about we do a 68, you go down on me and I owe you one"

 

[jdh5484]

Going 9-3 with this schedule is nothing impressive at all, especially considering it's year 4. I'm not as down as others and think we could be very good. But 3 losses would mean we lost to all equal/beter talent or beat one and stumbled elsewhere in a game we shouldn't.

All of this is very much situational as well. We were totally willing to see 3-4 losses in 2007 following a title year and loss of experience. In other years we've tolerated a bad season knowing that we were getting very talented young players needed reps and we could take solace in the fact that out recruiting was soon to pay dividends. For that matter, few scoffed at 9-3 in 2018 because of the disaster JM left and it being his first year. The problem is none of those scenarios apply here. There just isn't any excuse for not being really good this season. And any and all that you could manufacture have to be laid at the feet of Mullen himself.

Diddo.