Hey Carl,
Usually you can tell opening game.
Its on Shirreffs and the trust the staff has in him. Looking forward on how he will be used. Didn't show much in Spring Game but wary about scoring again. Continuing reducing the number of negative plays(sacks, tfl, turnovers and penalties) will help.
They seem more fit for the task at hand at least. Was watching Levy and he didn't seem to tire until much later from last year.
Hope/need to get more from that hybrid DE/LB.
I think they will play cleaner football.
Cleaner? I don't know. Based on what I saw, I'm hoping it was just yet another OC. The procedure, time between whistles, subs on offense didn't seem so clean to me. Hopefully with a flipping starting lineup decided upon, that will get cleaned up before fall.
Fumbles? Ball security? Interceptions. I saw at least one fumble. I saw at least one interception. I have no idea if we will actually be catching punts this season.
I think we will see improvement from the D, and I agree that hybrid position is up for grabs. Nobody standing out. Who does stand out are the DL's. We can play a very strong 3-4 defense with the DL's we have stacked.
We're going to find out what kind of coaching staff and players we have on D though, with Army and Navy back to back at home.
THey do seem more fit. And to #20 - Brandon wore it, Carl Bond wore it. I expect when #20 takes the red shirt off this year, that he starts playing with authority on D.
As for offense - it's always about the OL. Shireffs can move the offense, and we'll need to keep him healthy. We have more depth now than we've had recently, other than that - we will find out against Villanova where we are at, for sure.
Thanks for responding Duncan. I'm hopeful, that come end of November, December this year - we are playing a meaningful game again.
