2024 early starting lineup forecast and returning starters question

[AUwent 3,754]

This has been a burning question on my mind for the last month, so lettuce discuss...

A lot of us seem to have the consensus that 2025 will be our leap forward, some even saying we shouldn't realistically expect any better than 2023 for 2024 (note that I'm not talking about people who inherently believe CHF will fail, I'm talking about those who think that 2024 will be just like 2023 and then 2025 will be where we start seeing the rebuild bear fruit--the War Rapprt guys for example).

Here's the problem: it's very possible this will be a heavily senior laden team, which inevitably means we'd be young in 2025. We could have as few as eight returning starters next year. I know it's extremely early but that's what spec threads are for. But if we're starting as many seniors as we could, that does increase the pressure on the staff to win two more games than 2023 rather than just one more as is my goal. I get that the days of having >15 returning starters is probably over for everyone (most of the time at least) thanks to the TP, but if we're not going to go 9-4-ish, and CERTAINLY if we don't actually win any more games, then we'd better be playing a lot of guys who will be back in 2025 to get the most out of it.

Here are my way-too-early guess at the starting lineup:

QB--?

RB--Jarquez Hunter, Sr

WR--Robert Lewis, Sr.

WR--Cam Coleman, Fr

WR--?

TE--Rivaldo Fairweather, Sr

OT--Percy Lewis, Sr

OT--Izavion Miller, Sr

OG--Dillon Wade, Sr

OG--Jeremiah Wright, Sr

C--Connor Lew, So

 

DE--Keldric Faulk, So

NT--Trill Carter, Sr

DT--Gage Keys, Jr*

Jack--Jalen McLeod, Sr

MLB--Austin Keys, Sr

WLB--Eugene Asante, Sr

CB--Kayin Lee, So

CB--Antonio Kite, So

S--Jerrin Thompson, Sr

S--Caleb Wooden, Jr

Star--Keionte Scott, Sr

 

K Alex McPherson, So*

P--?

*RS

Edited January 24 by AUwent

[GreenTiger 1,006]

Oh man. Lots of seniors on the OL

[TeamZero77 1,784]

2 hours ago, GreenTiger said:

Oh man. Lots of seniors on the OL

If Payton Thorne is our starter at QB and my math is correct, 14 of our 22 starters will be seniors if AUwent's starting roster is right. Just from what we've seen in 2023 on the field and the portal guys we've signed recently, this list looks about right. Dang, that's alot of seniors. 

Edited January 26 by TeamZero77

[AUwent 3,754]

Ok, apparently Wright (+ Muskrat) are juniors?

EDIT: Also, if I'm being perfectly fair, the median number of returning starters last year in the SEC (not counting the new guys) was 11.5. So by and large, the days of returning >15 starters are over

Edited January 27 by AUwent