Agreeing with basically everyone here. In some ways I see 23 as Coach Elliott’s first year. The first year for any new HC is going to be tough and it takes some time to put things in place. Last year it was Bronco’s guys with Coach Elliott’s system. And that doesn’t even touch on the way the season ended.
I do think Coach Elliott is a great person and the way he handled that situation was amazing and I would not be surprised if many of the players gravitate to him as a result.
That said I don’t expect a bunch of on-the-field success in 23. I do expect to see a competitive team and if they can steal a win against someone unexpected that would be great.
23 has to be all about moving forward and forging a path. If the program is progressing, mission accomplished.
Honestly, look at the schedule and find a pretty sure win. We conceivably could go 0 for. If we lose big to VT to cap a winless season, I’m sure he still gets the 3rd season, but recruiting will be a nightmare as his seat will be scorching at that point.
Yup, nothings guaranteed on that schedule, but I think there are a few wins in there. It’s also way too early for me to do any real assessment on the team without knowing the roster etc. I don’t expect anything special like I said I see 23 as ground zero.
There’s a whole bunch of games in that 25-50% probability range. The amount of them we win will come down to how well our OL can hold up and whether or not our gameday execution has significantly improved (i.e. less penalties, less turnovers, more caught passes).
I hate being the optimist, but an improvement in that area will go so far. The number of drive killing penalties and/or drops last year was insane, I lost track of the dropped balls count by Week 7. Those are less coaching and more mental. Cleaning that up alone will go a long way to giving the Hoos a shot in some of those 50/50 games.
Without a competent OL (again) most DLs will live in our backfield (again) with a less mobile, but more accurate QB with little to no run game to help him. Defense will be better but I’m telling you the OL will be the downfall. I see 3-9
Unfortunately I tend to agree. Even if we take massive leaps in improving on those three factors I listed above, if the OL doesn’t also give us time to develop plays it will all be a moot point. We’ve gotta give Muskett time in the pocket and open up running lanes for our RB’s otherwise our drives will still continue to get stalled via sacks and negative plays.
100% I’m not out here saying this is going to be a great team. I put the O/U at 4.5 and took the O just for the action. Have to separate gambling from fandom 2 very different things and when confused will cost you a lot of money. I like the action because it gives me something fun to root for.
The Oline is a massive concern, I think any improvement in QB play will be a huge benefit, BA was flat out terrible for the bulk of '22. The defense held it’s own and appears to have reloaded with some solid transfers in the secondary. As @UVApride7 mentioned, if they can clean up the things they can control penalties, dropped balls, mental lapses, that will go a long way to at least giving them a shot.
Last year’s team was undermanned, under skilled, under schemed and the icing was the mental errors that shot them in them in the foot. At the very least they can control and clean that last one up and maybe give themselves a fighting chance.
I think a massive key is will the offense be/or is the offense already tailored to Muskett. Obviously, it never was for BA, but if TM has a good grasp and is comfortable with the offense early that will go a long way
Preach, I haven’t seen much of Muskett, but I think he is more suited for what I think Coach Elliott wants to do. It never felt like the staff trust BA, and I get why.
A lot of what Muskett ran at Monmouth is relatively similar to what we attempted to run last year, so that’s a positive. I think he’ll be much more comfortable on rollouts and finding his second reads than BA was, even if he doesn’t have the raw arm talent.
Yep and yep. 100% more suited for the O. Precision and timing and knowing very quickly where to go with the ball. Those are TM’s strengths. Just all about how well they translate to this level, but he’s been doing those things well since a true freshmen
The transition in speed and complexity in defense will be tough. He doesn’t get any favors by hitting the Vols week 1 and SEC speed and athleticism. They are going to have to really scheme it to make sure everyone on the offense is on the same page and the timing is in place. Getting to the 2nd and 3rd read may not be possible.
IIRC our number of penalties was almost exactly the same between last year and the season before. Halfway through the season it was right on the money both in number and yardage.
I hate to say it, because I like Elliott, but more than being undermanned or underskilled, I think the biggest problem last year was being undercoached.
Yes, we lost some OL, but the offensive skill players last year were basically the same as the year before, when we had the best offense in the conference. Elliott did not coach to bring out the best in his players. He did not make adjustments in-game or between games. He was not particularly aggressive or innovative. He struck me as a guy who is used to winning because he routinely had the best players on the field, but isn’t yet sure how to win – or even compete – when he doesn’t.
Maybe one day we WILL have the best players on the field. Maybe Elliott will grow and learn as a head coach. I’m still optimistic, and I still think he was a good hire. I don’t know how many games we’ll win, but I hope at least we’ll start seeing some clues that we’re moving in the right direction. There haven’t been many to this point.
(Important caveat: Elliott was exemplary at handling last year’s tragedy. For that reason alone, I’m glad he’s our coach.)
The noise around our football program is just very…depressing. Following the tragedy I was hoping Elliott would get a little bit more grace but unfortunately there just aren’t many silver linings. I decided to cancel my 247 subscription which I’d held for years to follow football recruiting because it just got to be too negative.
I’ve become apathetic about football and purely committed to basketball. I look at us like a Kansas or Duke where a good football year is an outlier but I expect us to be a top tier program year in and year out in hoops. Plus, following recruiting in hoops is way more fun – football recruiting is weird and half the time the players you like the most end up transferring or not contributing anyway