DEFENSE

[McmerleHOG]

Alright.  God loves arkansas for missouri as Jesus Lite became a tiger.  The grass may be greener in oklahoma now as they stole our Gardner, and Coach Petrino certainly didn't go to Jared.  We wanted them, we drooled over them, we thought we had them, we thought we didn't, we thought we had them again, we missed out on all 3.  We are now standing on a ledge debating whether these last few days are going to be the death of us.  But before we jump, lets step back and take a look at the big picture we call Arkansas Razorback football.

First, If I could pick any position on our team to have "weaker" players, I'd have it be the WR position.  Bobby Petrino knows how to run an offense, and a lot of the success of our WR corps is because of the system.  Who was the last guy we had on the field at WR that we thought "oh please don't throw him the ball"?  Our O gets guys open, and you don't have to be a 5 star to catch the ball for a first down; in fact, many 3 and 4 stars do it extremely well.  Shoot, our best WR went down last year (childs) and we didn't miss a beat.  Luckily, we still have a bunch of really talented guys, and even several in this class.  Will it be worse next year?  Most likely, but don't forget that it will still probably be the best in the league, and NOBODY will have a group of WRs next year like we just got done with.  Missing on DGB and losing Gardner doesn't help, but it doesn't sink us either.  Our passing game does not need the julio jones/AJ green type guys to succeed.  If we had to miss on a high profile guy at any position, I think missing on the WRs minimizes our losses. 

But all in all, offense is not our weakness.  Though it can always be better, it is going to continue to great.  We have an offensive mastermind for a HC, and he's never had a bad offense.  It was pretty salty with casey dick and co that had no experience with it.  It's the defense that needs the most improvement.  We ended number 5 in the nation with a very mediocre defense.  This is where we had an opportunity to maximize our gains.

What our team needs to compete for championships is improvement on the defensive side of the ball, and I think our defense just got a boost with this class.  We lost gardner and didn't get DGB, but we were surprised with Peters and Philon.  In the aftermath of DGB, this news went largely unappreciated.  We flipped a hoss LB from tenn and a DL from bama.  How are people not downing the champagne with this news???  We flipped hines late in the game, adding some athleticism to the defensive backfield, and we have a guy on campus whose mother was a zodiac bear (flynn).  Taiwan johnson is another big name guy we signed.  On paper, these are the kind of guys we really need... big, strong, and fast defensive players.  Missing on the big defensive guys would have hurt us far more than missing on the WRs. 

Also, do not forget THAT THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE MAKER WE RECRUITED WAS PAUL HAYNES.  I'd take him over DGB any and every day.  See what the defensive staff was able to do in the tail end of the recruiting season?  I don't know about you guys, but CPH gave us a great taste of the future with the cotton bowl performance he put on the field.  In addition, with only 2 months on campus, look at the guys we were able to land on the defensive side of the ball.  2 months.  Be excited about next year's defensive recruits: the writing is on the wall.

For diamond... that hurts.  A weakness at tackle is hard to mask.  However, we did have a great Oline class last year, and added 2 guys with the measurables to be SEC lineman this year.  While not getting diamond is tough, because of our class last year we were somewhat buffered against a down year this year. 

And remember guys, we ended this year at #5 with a bunch of "mediocre" classes if you go by the stars.  IMO the guys we signed yesterday are on par or better than each class the past 4 years (coming in), especially on defense.  and the last year we have had an unqualified DC.

So, could it have been better?  you bet.  But don't miss the forest through the trees.  IMO we had stinging losses where we could most afford them, and surprises where we most needed them.  And I also believe we got a great primer for what CPH and staff are capable of. 

So step back off that ledge for now.  Who knows, maybe this class will pan out to be the worst of all time and we can all jump together.  But maybe not.  Maybe they'll be really, really good.  Maybe, just maybe, we got better.