2018 roster

[bennyl08]

A lot of talk on here about what could happen next year. So, I thought it would be worthwhile as the season hasn't started yet to take a sneak peak into the future.

*Disclaimer, this isn't a "maybe next year" thread. I'm fully excited about this year and you can read plenty talking about why I think this is our year. Another disclaimer, is that from what I remember about looking at next year, I remember liking our odds for a 10 win season this year better than next, though I will try to look at this roster with an open mind.

Offense: Lets start with what we will return. Barring any early departures, we will again be returning 4/5 of our OL with Jackson at LT, Froholdt at LG, Gibson at RG, and Wallace at RT. Rogers is a heckuva OL player in his own right and should see playing time this year and fill in nicely for Ragnow at center. At WR, we return everybody but Cornelius, so we should be plenty stacked there. Running backs will return everybody including fullbacks but David Williams and McPherson. TE's will return everybody. The losses: The big one here is the loss of Austin Allen. Other losses are Cornelius, Ragnow, and David Williams along with some depth losses with Raulerson and Ramirez along the OL and senior walkon Conner McPherson at RB. The only one we could lose on offense to the NFL early IMO would be Froholdt. He's from a foreign country, is here to go to the NFL, and is already on the preseason outland trophy watch list. If he plays well enough to be drafted, he could bolt.

Whoever the new qb is will be stacked with a great OL, WR group, RB group, and TE group. So, who will the backup be, and how will that impact our team? Barring a major surprise, it will likely be either RsJr Ty Storey or RsSo Cole Kelley. The good, both will have been here for at least 3 years. It will be Ty's 4th spring practice and Kelley's 2nd but he'll be going into his third season. They will both have a lot of help and worst case if Enos is gone, will have had two+ full seasons being coached by him. Austin came in and did very well as a RsJr. Similarly for Tyler Wilson. The bad, we lose Austin Allen and will be breaking in a brand new qb.

We know that Ty has a very good arm, solid size, decent mobility but less than the Allen bros and more like Tyler Wilson. He's one of the smartest qb's we have and among the backup qb's, he makes the best decisions, but is criticized for being a bit too cautious. His competitor and good friend, Cole Kelley, has a great arm, incredible size, less mobility than Ty, but is nimble enough to move around the pocket (both Cole and Ty were among the leading rushers for the HS teams, but watch the tape and it is clear that neither of them will be major yardage threats in the SEC) a la Mallett. In contrast to Storey who is too cautious, Kelley, like many rocket armed qb's before him, has a bit too much faith in his arm and isn't as careful.

If Ty wins the battle, picture an offense a bit more similar to what we saw under Brandon while if Kelley wins, picture a AA's first season mixed in with some Mallett deep balls but also with the picks.

Defense:

What we return: On the DL, we return everybody but our current starting NT. At LB, we return all but 2 including 3/4 starters. Secondary is where we return very little, especially if we have any underclassmen leave as Pulley is the other junior that is a real threat to declare early. Assuming that doesn't happen, we return 1 starter at CB and S. What we lose: Bijhon Jackson at NT. Historically he's struggled with conditioning so there's a good chance that the NT's we do return will get a good amount of playing time. We lose Eugene who's been a backup his first two years but really came on strong last year and projects as a starter this year as well. The other guy we lose will be Roesler who early in camp was projected as an OLB starter but has fallen here towards the middle of camp. Still, he should be a guy in the rotation so losing him will hurt a bit. At the secondary, we lose Toliver, Liddell, Coley, and Richardson with a real possibility of losing Pulley as well.

Our defense is going into it's 2nd year of the 3-4 and should be much more well versed in the scheme than they will be this year. We should return an absolutely stacked front 7, but our secondary will be obliterated. Luckily, Calloway, Curtis, Brown, and Curl were all studs and other guys like Micah, Tutt, Dalton, and McClellion are good players as well so we will have talent to work with, but they will be lacking in experience. The benefit is, that our front 7 should be able to make it very hard on the qb's and keep many running plays from getting to the secondary.

Special Teams: We will be replacing our snapper, Robert Decker. He's been a good one and knock on wood, it's been a long time since we haven't had a solid long snapper.

Overall verdict: It really comes down to two things for me. First, how talented are Storey/Kelley? No matter what their talent level, our offense should be just fine, but the answer to that question will determine if we will have a great or an average offense just because the qb is so freaking important. Second question is how good are our front 7 players really? Agim is the only guy on our DL with any starts. They had some great HS tape and the coaches and other players have spoken well, but we really don't know how they will perform come saturdays. We have some more experience with the LB's with Greenlaw and Eugene having starts but other players haven't had extensive playing time. Do we have anybody who can get to double digit sacks in our LB group? Cover TE's? We return a lot of players from that front 7, but will they be players we are actually excited about returning? I believe so, but it isn't guaranteed. Lastly, the schedule does come into play. We get vandy in the east next year which is good. We get our toughest games at home and the easier games on the road. Which begs the question, is that good or bad? Depends on whether Bielema will coach here in 2019 or not. This year, we haven't broken that hump, so having our winnable games at home is a good thing. Hopefully, this year, we break that hump and next year, we shouldn't lose much if any momentum. So, if next year goes according to plan, playing teams like CSU, MSU, Mizz and such on the road shouldn't be a hinderance to our ability to win those games and we should have a reason to believe that getting Bama and LSU at home gives us a good chance to win them.

[onebadrubi]

Next year in typical fashion, I expect us to be one piece away from
Having "that" team.  Similar to losing Portia in basketball, we just get ALL the stars to align right.  If the starting QB steps up we will be predicted to be a contender imo. It will hurt us also if we lose smith or Enos, which I think could happen sooner rather than later

[MS_HogFan]

Nice work benny.

[redleg]

Offense:
QB - rsoph. Cole Kelley
FB - sr. Kendrick Jackson
TB - jr. Devwah Whaley
WR - soph. LaMichael Pettway
WR - soph. Deon Stewart
TE - jr. Austin Cantrell
LT - jr. Colton Jackson
LG - sr. Hjalte Froholdt
C - rjr. Zach Rogers (hopeful Bielema redshirts Rogers in 2017 to get him two years as the starting Center)
RG - sr. Johnny Gibson
RT - sr. Brian Wallace

Defense:
DE - jr. McTelvin Agim
NG - jr. Austin Capps
DE - jr. TJ Smith
OLB - sr. Randy Ramsey
ILB - jr. DeJon Harris
ILB - sr. Dre Greenlaw
OLB - jr. Gabe Richardson or jr. Jamario Bell
CB - sr. Ryan Pulley
CB - soph. Chevin Calloway
SS - sr. Santos Ramirez
FS - rfr. Montaric Brown

[bennyl08]

Offense:
QB - rsoph. Cole Kelley
FB - sr. Kendrick Jackson
TB - jr. Devwah Whaley
WR - jr. LaMichael Pettway
WR - jr. Deon Stewart
TE - jr. Austin Cantrell
LT - jr. Colton Jackson
LG - sr. Hjalte Froholdt
C - rjr. Zach Rogers (hopeful Bielema redshirts Rogers in 2017 to get him two years as the starting Center)
RG - sr. Johnny Gibson
RT - sr. Brian Wallace

Defense:
DE - jr. McTelvin Agim
NG - jr. Austin Capps
DE - jr. TJ Smith
OLB - sr. Randy Ramsey
ILB - jr. DeJon Harris
ILB - sr. Dre Greenlaw
OLB - jr. Gabe Richardson or jr. Jamario Bell
CB - sr. Ryan Pulley
CB - soph. Chevin Calloway
SS - sr. Santos Ramirez
FS - rfr. Montaric Brown

FIFY