The QB situation has to be the biggest difference next year. Our WR's with another year of experience will be fine....I am not in the least worried about them.
Ryan won't be able to beat our Jamarcus until summer or next fall (if at all) because he won't be practicing with the team this spring. The QB position battle is between Matt Flynn & Jamarcus Russell. IMO, it's Russell's to lose. We've all seen how much potential Russell has and alot of people have very high hopes for Matt Flynn. I think both will be much improved next season but still expect to see Russell with the nod for starting QB.
Offense WR's - same or slight improvement due to experience QB's - same or slight improvement due to experience RB's - same TE's - same OL - Question mark TE - same Defense DL's - dropoff til mid-season then who knows, could end up being better LB's - Big Question mark, I say dropoff, for sure from 2 years ago DB - drop off from 2003. Jesses Daniels is not Jack Hunt. CB's a big question mark, so I say drop off. Special teams Punter - same Kickers - can only keep improving Coverage - Same to worse. We have excellent coverage See J. Vincent, etc.-
our OL seemed to do well protecting the run. it was pass protection that gave them fits last year. if they can improve in that area, that will solve a lot of problems. also, JRs biggest problems last year were strictly academic. he appeared much more inaccurate than he really is b/c he often just took the wrong number of steps in his drop, didn't have the correct routes, etc. from what i understand, he was not very studious of the system. i think that we will be OK once he becomes more dilligent. after those 2 the running game pretty much takes care of itself. we didn't have either of the improvements that i mentioned last year and look how the RBs still flourished. they will just be that much more potent with a legit passing attack. once the QB (whomever that may be) starts getting our wideouts the ball consistently, SEC D's will be in serious trouble. it's almost unthinkable how much speed is at that position right now. i look for there to be some bigtime playmaking this fall. there is no secondary in the country that can match that corp step for step. once these guys get in any kind of groove, its only a matter of time before sh!t really blows up.
Wow, how incredibly pessimistic. You're saying that with our INCREDIBLY inexperience QB/WR's - that they will only possibly be slightly better? With an offensive minded coach and Jimbo being able to open up his schemes... only slightly better? Running backs should be a good bit better, they will look a whole lot better with a passing game - people were stuffing the box and forcing us to throw last year & Justin Vincent shall reemerge & I think they will learn to effectively use Addai. Everybody returns on the Oline. With some cohesion, that should be an excellent unit.
Pessimistic, possibly, I just don't think that russell, flynn, etc, will improve that much by next year. I hope I'm wrong. The wr's are very dependent on the QB. I did not see great blocking on a consistent basis from wr's either.
Larry Porter has proven to be a great RB coach at every stop he's made. He's developed some great running backs (Tatum Bell, Verand Morency, etc.). I can't wait to see what his influence has on JV, Addai, Broussard, RJ Jackson and A-Rob over the years!
It better be a vertical passing game OR LSU can mark a couple of L's in the win-loss column. And special teams improvement better be a "tie" with a vertical passing attack. :geauxtige