My preseason hot take is that this will be Bronco’s best team, but the schedule is really brutal. Most of the toss up games are on the road and some very tough ones at home. Best team doesn’t necessarily equal best record as I think 2019 ACC was weaker and the schedule set up favorably.
ESPN Bowl predicts are up, they’ve got UVA in either the Gasparilla Bowl (vs Troy) or the Fenway Bowl (vs Memphis. Wait, the what?). So, I’m guessing they’re expecting right around 6 wins.
I don’t think it’s the 2019 team. Bryce was special and we had some real impact guys on D but it unraveled when Hall went down
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What would you say Bronco’s best team has been (before this season) if not 2019? Maybe I misread.
Definitely missed a couple of words in there
I played golf with Ravin Caldwell a couple years ago - he went to Arkansas but said Nebraska was the coolest visit with best facilities. Man, they’ve fallen off the map since the Osbourne years.
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Hard to predict this year but this thread seems kinda down on this team. I’m pretty excited. Think this is for the most part the best team of the Bronco era. Only spots holding them back are running back and the secondary. Running back maybe Hollins has cured his fumble issues and can overtake Wayne once real games begin. And hopefully with Blount healthy and everyone back to their normal positions at least the safety portion of the secondary problem has been solved.
If someone had beaten out Nick Grant and if we faced a normal level of difficulty schedule I’d have us going 9-3. But Grant appears to have won the job so that’s a huge red flag. And our schedule is though this year. Notre Dame and BYU OOC. And Illinois isn’t supposed to be good but still has P5 athletes. Tough stretches on the conference slate too. Put it all together and I hope for 7-5 with a win over Tech to keep the program moving in a positive direction.
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The secondary is honestly what continues to worry me. I feel like it has to be better than last year because how could it be worse? But that said, it’s probably not going to transform in one year. But we’ll see. There were times last year when I wondered why the opposing team literally ever bothered to run the ball. Three shots at our secondary and they were guaranteed 15-20 yards.
All that said, am definitely looking forward to this year more so than past years. Should be fun!
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I’m hoping for two things this season:
•A secondary that doesn’t make me dread third and long
•Coaches remembering that we are also allowed to run the ball on offense
If those two things happen then I suspect I’ll be pretty happy with the results.
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Since Keytaon Thompson’s position is FBP, I would like petition to be on the depth chart this year as NFBP… do you think Bronco would go for that? Everyone on LRA support me on this?
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I think the secondary is cause for concern. No one able to unseat Cross and lack of depth in general
I think there is a strong fan base contingent that thinks Hollins should start over Taulupapa. Someone even made the analogy of Papa = Kihei and Hollins = Reece which gave me a hearty chuckle before a nod in controversial solidarity. Also the inherent-ness of any UVA sports discussion boiling down to basketball pg play.
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With Taulapapa versus the other backs, it just feels like the staff seems to value the consistency of Taulapapa over the potential dynamism of other guys. Taulapapa will almost always get you two to three yards because he is built like a wall, and sometimes he’ll get you eight yards. But he’ll almost never break off a 20 yarder. Whereas with the other guys, it does feel like they’re more likely to get stopped at the line to scrimmage, but they might actually pick up a big chunk every now and again.
I personally would tend to side with the more dynamic back because those big plays can have such a big effect on the game. Would still love for Taulapapa to be a goal line and short yardage back, but his upside otherwise is just so limited. That said, I don’t really know what I’m talking about (even less than when I talk about basketball) and coaches are watching them day in and day out. We’ll see.
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I agree re: Cross, but I do feel better about him at Safety than at Corner. IIRC he played a lot at Safety in 2019 and I don’t have any strong memories about it. In 2020, Cross played a lot of Corner because of injuries and boy do I ever have strong memories about that.
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My concerns are generally the same as Phoney’s. When it comes to the backs, I think all 4-5 listed on the depth chare are solid backs. I haven’t seen game changing potential from any of them to this point. My bigger concern with them is how they are used. With Armstrong soaking up up 12 runs a game that leaves about 30ish carries getting cut up by potentially 4 backs a game. No one can get in a rhythm in that scheme. Plus Anae is apt to pull the plug and call 3 QB draws when they are up 5 with 4mins left in the fourth.
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To give credit where its due, Taulapapa (and the OL) were terrific at not giving up TFL. There’s a lot of value in being 95% sure you’ll convert that 4th and 1.
On the other hand, yeah, he’s had one 20+ yard run in his career.
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Cross has been a good safety. He graded similarly on PFF to NFL draftees in 2019 iirc. He’s just not a corner. Grant on the other hand…
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Oh, sure. But I think the issue last year was our corners were, for various reasons, disastrous, and our safeties were below average to poor. I think the ceiling for our corners this year is below average (and potentially much worse). But if our safeties are at least average it’ll help a lot of other areas.
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Concerning the running backs I’m sure Taulapapa will start but I hope Hollins gets the chance to show what he can do. I can only remember him fumbling once but it was a terrible time for it. Didn’t play much after that. He played enough to get me excited. I love having that kind of back and UVA has had some great ones but not lately
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It’s wild and extremely concerning nobody could beat out Grant and Cross after how they played last year
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