Patience with Pastner paid off last year. He gets to prove himself further moving forward. I’ve been rather patient with this football staff, but my expectations started lower than some on this board. I’m rather disappointed with our performance and staff this year but I’m always comparing back to where I thought the team would be at different position groups in terms of progress in yr 3.
Starting with offense:
QB- Ahead of expectations - I ignore 2019 because the returning talent’s strengths weren’t going match up with the scheme, and all were doomed to struggle behind the OL. I’ve always felt that Sims wasn’t a polished QB coming out of high school to start his freshman year, but had to play out of necessity. I believe we are getting more production out of QB now than I thought we would in year 3 but plenty of room for growth.
OL - Slightly below expectation. Depth and skill sets on our OL was an issue at the start of the transition. I don’t grade this more harshly because our health along the 2 deep has been a problem and we are patching the depth issue with transfers. I think this group is a couple years out still but I hope Franklin, Pendley, and Williams lead this group to success long term.
WR - Slightly ahead of expectations - Kyric is the main reason I list this as ahead. He’s been a great transfer. I felt this group was below average at the transition, and recruiting has been pretty good but experienced some tragedy and injuries.
RB - Ahead of expectation. This was the best group for the transition and we added explosive players and depth through recruiting.
TE - Below Expectation - This group didn’t exist under the previous regime but we haven’t used the tight end in the passing game much.
Overall - Meets expectation but am concerned the OL could prevent further improvement next year. As a fan, I’m hoping the continual transfers and injuries is what has hurt continuity on the OL. In 2020, penalties and turnovers hurt drives. In 2021, still some turnover issues and inconsistent red zone results. I’ve seen a lot of complaints about play calling, but I’ve also seen people complain opposite sides of the same argument (Example, we should run mason on 3rd and 4th then when shouldn’t have run mason on 4th and 2). I admit there are a few play call head scratchers, but execution always helps play calling. I’ve seen enough improvement where I wouldn’t put CDP on the hot seat.
Defense:
DT: Meets Expectation - This group had very little depth in the transition and was going to be the toughest over haul. We’ve added bodies but needs improvement. Our DT personnel is probably more suited to a 4-2-5, but my expectations weren’t high for this group in year 3.
DE - Meets Expectation - This group hasn’t generated the pressure consistently which isn’t different from the previous regime, but it has more depth now. Overall I believe the team has been generating more sacks the last few years than the previous regime.
LB - Meets Expectation - This wasn’t a deep group in the transition and I believe we are building depth and using transfers to fill upper class men voids.
CB - Well Below expectation - At the start of the CGC era I expected improvement here. I feel like the group has regressed even with what would appears to be an increase in talent.
Safety - Well below expectation - I’ve never believed our safety’s were great in coverage, but with the experience I expected solid play.
Defense: Overall this group hasn’t improved and may actually be regressing in the secondary. I had higher expectations by year three than I did on the offense. This was also supposed to be the strength of our head coach. In my opinion, the DC and secondary coaches are more on the hot seat than the offensive side.
