Top 5 concerns for 2009?

[tburns]

What are they?

1-Oline: A lot of talent but will they come together as a unit.

2-Grothe: Which Grothe will we see this year.

3-Dtackle: It seems we are 1 injury away from being very thin on the inside.

4-RB: Will someone emerge as the go to guy.

5-Coaching: How will the players adapt to the new staff.

[twillybull]

1-Oline: A lot of talent but will they come together as a unit.  - This is the biggest ? of the offseason.  We loose a ton of experience but the upside looks pretty darn promising.

2-Grothe: Which Grothe will we see this year. It's his senior season, no excuses for bad decision-making.  Thankfully, there are some talented options to push him.  Competition can only be good.

3-Dtackle: It seems we are 1 injury away from being very thin on the inside. I think we'll see some shifting around on the d-line with the influx of talent we're about to see, but this presents the same challenge as concern #1... good upside, but unproven.

4-RB: Will someone emerge as the go to guy. Hopefully the injury bug gets off our (running)backs this season.  We were set to go into last season with a pretty good stable, but early season / preseason injuries to Ford, Samuels and Taylor really cut out the development of a single go-to-guy.  I sure hope we have a standout this year.

5-Coaching: How will the players adapt to the new staff.  As maligned as he was here, Gregory was a breath of fresh air compared to the previous coordinator.  He just should never have thrown Grothe under the bus after the WVa loss.  Hopefully we'll continue to get better under the Canales regime.  As far as the D, I think Tresey will do just fine.  Burnham was a heckuva technique guy, but his game-time decisions were a little questionable.  He seemed a little too hesitant "roll the dice" so to speak.  That was no more evident than in our turnovers and lack of a pass-rush at times.  I think that's something we don't have to worry about with Tresey as his last school only lead the BE in turnovers.  After watching the spring game, I thought our secondary looked a little more confident this year (and a bit more likely to jump the pass routes).  I'm just concernd and hopeful our development of LB's can continue at the level that Burnham established.

[windbane]

I agree with 4 of your 5 but I don't think we are thin at DT.  We have McClain and Grissom as starters right now.  Stirrups and JPP can be the 2 deep, and Hill, Powe, or McCaskill might develop.  We should have 4 guys ready to play DT and Harris could always move back even if he's lighter now.

[tburns]

We do have some options inside which is nice. Hopefully Hill is ready to give some quality time this year and I think Stirrups will be a force, he looks liike a solid 280. Last I heard Powe was on the oline but i have a feeling he will switch back to the dline,

[BigEastBeasts]

2-Grothe: Which Grothe will we see this year.

I am a huge Grothe fan and supporter, but one might argue that we've only seen one Grothe the last 3 years.

'06 - 622 net rush yds (180 loss) 9 TDs; 2576 pass yds 15 TD/14 INT

'07 - 872 net rush yds (266 loss) 10 TDs; 2670 pass yds 14 TD/14 INT

'08 - 591 net rush yds (239 loss) 4 TDs; 2911 pass yds 18 TD/14 INT

He'll make the highlight reel plays that'll make you yell "How'd he do that!!!" as much as he'll make the head-scratching plays that'll make you yell "Why'd he do that???"

Could this be because he hasn't had a standout #1 RB behind him and has been relied upon to provide 85+% of our offense? This very well could be. I can never take anything away from Matt as an athlete, a competetor and what he has done so far for the program, but a 1:1 TD to INT ratio for 3 straight years has to be a concern.

With experience coming back at WR and RB and Canales shifting to a "true" spread offense, it'll be interesting to see where Matt's numbers lie at the end of the season.

[usfbullcpa]

I agree with the OLine being the biggest question mark.  I just hope we can put together the raw talent that has come in to build a wall for Grothe and the running backs.

The flip side to this, is I think sometimes Matt plays better with some chaos in the backfield.  He is truly best at making something happen when the defense collapses and they run through their lanes.  So, we should see a more mature Grothe, but if the OLine isn't strong, we may see that rookie scrambler that made big yards on the ground.

I think the coaches will be a positive this year, as posted above,  Tresey built a strong D, and imagine him getting a healthy Selvie who wants to get back to the top of the stats...

[Guest hm101]

mine:

1 - middle of the year schedule (pitt away, wvu home, rutgers away)

2 - lack of o-line experience

3 - away conference games after playing 2 of the big 3

4 - unestablished & unproven running OTHER THAN grothe

5 - coaching changes - can these guys teach our players to not underestimate the opponent?

[LakeBull]

DL looks good to me.  There is more concern from me about our LB's, but reallly I think this could easily be a top ten D.  The OL is a concern, but even there you have to like the upside of the talent that is coming in.    If Ford or Jamar can't run after big Carlos opens a hole we need to look for some running backs.  Love to see the damage that pair can do if they are running in the secondary.  Come on FSU DB's - Lets see you take on these guys.    Don't forget all the speed that is coming in.

It will be interesting to see how our WR's do.  They have to share some of the blame along with the OL for Grothe's problems.  QB's look much better when the OL gives them time and they have lots of open receivers.    Grothe has spent too much time running for his life with everyone covered up and the other teams D knowing who they have to stop.

[smazza]

ol-we are in trouble again.leavitt cant seem to get this right.we should be 2 deep in oline

grothe-we will see same qb we have over course of career.tremendous plays followed by poor ones

dt-we should be ok

rb-  no one great will stand out.rb by commitee rarely works

coaching- another disappointing year

[gobulls83]

Barring massive injuries, I have no concerns at all about anything on defense. I think we have one of the best defensive minds in the Big East in Tressey - two if you want to count Leavitt - matched up with one of the most talented defensive units. Joe Tressey will prove to have been a MASSIVE steal, I predict.

And I'm optimistic about the offense under Canales, but that's almost entirely based on Matt Grothe's apparent excitement. I have the same concerns everyone has about the offensive line, but it's quite apparent it's just not going to be that great. Hopefully it will be good enough to handle whatever the offense looks like under Canales.

I think we have great coaches in place. I'm much more excited and optimistic about this year than I was last year.