Does this years team look better, worse or about what you envisioned?

[JuscAUse! 1,500]

Our offense may be worse than some envisioned, but it hasn't been worse than last year IMO. While the former  coach was here. Not Caddy.  I may change my mind after tomorrow, but considering the coaching staff hasn't been here for a whole year, we have 40+ new players, and a brand new offense......I probably won't be too hard on the staff either way. 

[cole256 17,084]

We are about where I figured we'd be. I've always said we need a serious talent upgrade and now everybody is seeing it. Look forward to upping our talent level.

[AU120289 380]

Q) Does this years team look better, worse, or about what you envisioned?

A) Yes - better, worse, and as expected so far  

It’s been pretty vanilla through 3, but I hope that changes this weekend. Time to drop the hammer and see what we really have. You are a road dog with nothing to loose - unlike Jimbo. 

[gr82b4au 5,568]

We are exactly where I thought we would be with 40 new players, new coaches, and new plays. Considering the important offensive players that did not even go through spring practice and are starting, how would anyone realistically expect anything different? 

These guys are all learning a new scheme, with new play calls, with new coaches, in a new environment. 

I’m just happy that I get to watch them and that the coaches are trying to build quality depth with recruiting. This is a huge uphill battle but in a few years we will be good  

 

[Old fan 47 775]

Honestly to me, I just don’t think it looks that much better. I know HF came in well behind the eight ball and did manage to get some really decent transfers and keep some previous signees. I think our DL appears slow, as it has for a few years and we still truly don’t have a true pass rusher that’s special. Of course, it doesn’t help that the strength of our D, the secondary, is dropping like flies, just as we enter the real schedule. The O is really not performing very well and so far the creativity I expected, just isn’t there. If AU manages to go in and keep it close game vs TAMU against a team with better talent at home, I will take that. If we get beat by more than 14, I can only think, that the plan may be in place, but that we may be 4 or 5 years away from fruition. Technically, I believe we are not necessarily any further along than last year at this point. We are about to find out though. War Eagle. 

[WDE_OxPx_2010 5,322]

20 hours ago, alexava said:

Had no expectations. Still don’t have an opinion. 

That's some Earth shattering feedback right there.

[WDE_OxPx_2010 5,322]

We lead the SEC in rushing. 4 fewer turnovers and the offensive situation would look much differently. I'm feeling good there if we can fix the mistakes and not put the D in bad situations so often.

DEFENSE has been surprisingly good. I love the attacking concepts. I just hope it holds up for a full year.

Ask again tomorrow evening.

[JDUBB4AU 5,138]

21 hours ago, alexava said:

Had no expectations. Still don’t have an opinion. 

Nailed it. Zero feelings or emotions . Just a wait and see kind of feel. I do believe the team will make a bowl game. 

[HAYinthemiddleoftheBARN 204]

Great question! Tough question too since we're at a rebuilding state with new coaches and players. The expectations most of us have is to immediately be better than the Harsin era. We're spoiled by our past. Remember the 2009 - 2013 years right? I don't expect this year to match 2013. I do believe we're in the beginning stages and heading towards a more solid, steady, rock solid powerhouse team that will out-perform the current leaders of this conference in the near future. That dang microwave oven that gave us instant gratification with "hot food now" in the 1980's sparked a generation of impatience. We don't wait for much. Our phones are now that "microwave". It's hard to be patient and enjoy the process when we so often get instant gratification now without having to wait very long.

OMG How did I ramble so much!?!

I think our team looks BETTER 

[Dual-Threat Rigby 8,819]

I think our QB performance is prob about what I expected, in the scenario where the running game wasn't getting 300 YPG. I think our RB group as a whole is better than I expected, although Jarquez is worse. I think our offensive coaching has been pretty incompetent for the most part. Defense didn't play anybody particularly worthwhile, but they showed some real heart in that Cal game and looked better than I would've guessed they would based on the front 7's size. Special teams are dreadful

 

I'll have an idea on if we're where I expected after tomorrow's game 

[AU-24 3,119]

On 9/22/2023 at 12:25 PM, Mikey said:

About what I expected. My pick was 7-5 and I see no reason to change that.

As someone noted above, offense is a little worse than expected and the defense a little better. The overall team is close to what I expected.

Good points. As was noted above without the fumbles AU had in the Cal game, I think the O would look totally different and we would’ve won that game with room to spare. I mean, you can’t take the turnovers away because they happened but without them, I think we are all singing, a different tune about our O.

[gr82be 14,510]

So far I'm seeing what I hoped for overall. I don't like turnovers because you can beat yourself with those but otherwise I see improvement. Almost everyone on here agreed that this would be a major rebuild that would take a few years to complete. I remember most saying that 6-6 or 7-5 would be pretty good under the circumstances. Then Freeze and Co had a better than expected haul in the Portal, flipped a couple of 5* players and has an impressive recruiting class going and optimism increased. I think many had their expectations rise based on those things while forgetting the fact that half of the team never played a snap with any of the rest of the team in a game situation. That's a tough thing to make look seamless for anyone. Freeze has us on the right track but the patience must be there or we're going to continue to be a frustrated fan base. I was hoping for a team that played hard and continued to improve every game so that we had a chance to win.  So far that's exactly what I'm seeing and that's been a long time coming in my opinion. We're in good hands and if we lose to A&M we will still be in good hands. 

[WillMunny 1,384]

I expected 3-0 at this point, but with a more impressive win over Cal.

Jarquez Hunter is not as effective as I expected.

Our WRs aren't as effective as I expected.

Way more QB swapping than I expected.

I've been overall disappointed in the offense, but the coaches haven't put their best cards on the table yet.  That starts today.

In NFL terms, the preseason is over.

Edited September 23, 2023 by WillMunny

[ArgoEagle 1,831]

I was reserving judgement until we played a good team.  Our D is good enough to keep us from getting blown out, but Thorne is definitely not the QB I thought he was & we all know what Robbie is about.  So we are a 6-6 team at best I believe from here on out.😞

[TexasTiger 13,138]

Much Worse on O. Better on D.

[shabby 1,958]

21 minutes ago, TexasTiger said:

Much Worse on O. Better on D.

That about sums it up

[weagl1 1,789]

With all the talk about the O line being so much better I thought we would see improvement but it’s just not there.  They were simply manhandled today.  No different from last year. 

[fishepa 1,911]

Worse. However now I see the problem was my expectations. 

[EagleEye67 1,945]

1 hour ago, TexasTiger said:

Much Worse on O. Better on D.

IOW, rinse and repeat

[AUGoo 2,666]

3 hours ago, weagl1 said:

With all the talk about the O line being so much better I thought we would see improvement but it’s just not there.  They were simply manhandled today.  No different from last year. 

I think the play calling did not help anyone out today.  

Even I saw a blitz coming that PT did nothing to cover or counter that worked for a sack with the DB untouched.  I don't think the OC gave our guys any ways to counter the pressure being put on PT. He also stunk it up when he did have opportunities.  I'm ready for Geriner to take his lumps and we'll move on.

Can we get our PT NIL $$$ back?  Is there a production clause in  his contract? There should be!

[PUB78 1,365]

After the A&M game, our defense has been better than I thought and won the Cal game for AU and kept the team from being embarrassed today.

RB play is better than I thought, but the QB, O-line and play calling is much worse than I thought it would be.

Montgomery needs to get going soon or AU will have a new OC .

[sevenlee36 1,654]

Worse. I thought Hugh would work some kind of magic and we’d have a decent offense.