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Jimbo 2023: Watch.The.Tape.


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44 minutes ago, bizzle said:

tl:dr - there's a lot of fucking talent here and a really solid defensive staff. floor is really high. qb, left side of ol play along with jimbo's playcalling will be difference between 9 wins and a playoff run. my heart says 10 wins, my head says 9, so fuck it, we go 10-2, lose to arkansas and bama and everyone is relatively happy. fin.

for those that deal in specificity: 

qb: haynes king has played like 5 quarters of college football. anyone saying he's great or sucks has no idea, and we'll see what happens this fall. supposedly there's a bit more rpo options and easier throws, but we've heard this from jimbo before. i think he can be competent, but a. can he stay healthy, b. what does competent get you? max johnson is a jag, although a far better backup situation than last year. staff is really excited about weigman, we'll see how much run he gets early, which could be interesting. 

rb: achane is awesome. smooth, really good at avoiding big hits, great hands, he's going to have a monster year. lj johnson and daniels are ok, le'veon moss is the prize here - there's a reason bama was all over him. there's also a reason they backed off as he needs to get his head on straight. he's either going to turn into the backup at some point this year and breakout, or will be off the team by november never to be heard from again. coin flip. 

wr: hope is a dangerous thing, but between having an actual position coach and a large influx of talent, there's a chance we can be close to league average here, which would be incredible. evan stewart is a fucking witch, he works his ass off and makes the room better. anias smith is overrated but will be competent in the slot, and chase lane is a nice guy that works hard at the z. guessing noah thomas and chris marshall get more snaps as the year goes on, they're just so much more talented than anyone else on the roster. 

te: probably the largest delta between what the start of the year looks like and what could be happening in november. max wright and blake smith have been in the system a few years and know where to be, jake johnson and donovan green haven't, but they're just superior athletes. somehow, neither are on the level of theo ohrstrom who has a size / speed combo that really doesn't make sense, however i just have a hard time thinking he's going from essentially 8th grade football in sweden to competing this year. will be interesting to see how those guys are worked in.

ol: the degree to which you believe in steve addazio is probably related to the ceiling you think this team has. the guy can coach a run game and seems locked in with jimbo in a way josh henson never was, however we'll see what happens. right side of the line will be fine. fatheree is a first round guy, layden robinson needs some work as a pass protector but great run blocker. other 3 spots will be interesting. sounds like wykoff is going to start, bryce foster doesn't really love football and that pisses jimbo off. i would assume he'll be back starting by conference play, but it's not crazy that he's not on the team by that point either. wykoff isn't a huge dropoff here. i have doubts about zuhn's strength at left tackle, however he's miles better than jamir johnson (i still don't understand why he started all last year), and either aki or moko should be passable at guard. decent depth at guard, not a lot of options at tackle. pj williams and kam dewberry are going to be players. 

defense: we're going to be more multiple, we're going to play more single high, we're going to press more, we're going to force more turnovers, and we're going to give up more big plays. elko loved to sit back and slowly dial in, durkin is going to bring the fight much earlier, both have their good and bad. still can't believe we didn't take a transfer linebacker. 

dl: i can see 12 guys in this room spending time in an nfl camp. just an absurd collection of athletes that needs to translate to production on the field quickly. at dt mckinley jackson is healthy, in shape and in a contract year. raikes is really solid, but shemar turner is just too good to keep off the field. walter nolan and gabe dindy were both dinged up most of camp, they'll arrive by conference play. marcus burris and albert regis would have been our starters at dt for most of the past 20 years and been fine. tunmise adeleye and fadil diggs will start at de, but anthony lucas, overton and malick sylla really started to look good at end of camp. still not sure if there's a guy that can really bend the edge which will be the difference in extremely solid and elite. i have faith in terry price and elijah robinson to keep this group motivated, but that's a lot of guys to keep happy. 

lb: easily weakest position on the team. helped by playing behind what should be a very good dl, but we're at least 1.5 guys short. edgerin cooper will make a bunch of highlights, but still runs himself out of plays, and can't weigh more than 215. andre white looks incredible in pads, and just doesn't process fast enough. there's a bunch of other guys, none are playmakers. the freshmen might be in time, but they're at least a year away. we'll only play 2 most of the time, but any injuries here and we're fucked. 

cb: this is my biggest question mark - lot of injuries during camp and i don't think anyone knows what we have. chappell remains the best cover guy, but i'm worried about jaylon jones continuing to start on the other side. myles jones can't stay healthy. denver harris and smoke bouie are going to be good, but how soon? the kid out of georgia is a stud, but he may not see the field this year. gotta stay healthy and play up to talent. 

s: went from a weakness to strength real quick the last few classes. durkin has demani richardson way more involved in the box, which is where he should be, and both jardin gilbert and jacoby matthews will be huge improvements over leon. the coaches think matthews is an all american at some point. antonio johnson might be an all american already and bryce anderson can play pretty much every safety postion. this will be a great group, and will need to be if the cb's don't hold up as anticipated. 

st: punter and kicker are very good. how much do you risk achane returning kicks? no idea. 

gonna be a fun year. copy and paste when we go 6-6. 

 

 

Fun write-up. I mentioned some things a week or so ago on this thread from folks who have been to the practices a bunch. I was told Chappell was dinged up in ways that were impacting his ability to hang even close with Stewart. You got that?

Antonio Johnson is already an AA. I don't remember which service had him as such after last season, but at least one did. 

You are too bullish on your WR coach. He hasn't been one in years. Is your contention that Craig just literally didn't do any coaching? 

I didn't realize you guys were that concerned about Moss being a shithead. That's fun news. People I trust who have watched LJ Johnson have also come away saying that he was overranked. 

The big thing you didn't address in your write-up is the legitimate difficulty of the schedule this year. I don't see how you can make a record prediction without taking that into consideration. Specifically, ATM goes App State, Miami, Ark @ Dallas, @ MSU, @ Bama, off week, @ Scar, Ole Miss, UF, @ Auburn over a 10 week stretch. Have you ever beaten both Mississippi schools in the same year? I think this schedule alone manufactures 3 losses, minimum. 

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Thank you @bizzle. I look forward to this post every off season. Almost as much as I look forward to bumping it when ATM ends up 8-4. 

1 hour ago, bizzle said:

defense: we're going to be more multiple, we're going to play more single high, we're going to press more, we're going to force more turnovers, and we're going to give up more big plays. elko loved to sit back and slowly dial in, durkin is going to bring the fight much earlier, both have their good and bad. still can't believe we didn't take a transfer linebacker. 

Is Durkin really going to play like this? I was under the impression that they were going to try to keep continuity from Elko. I don't know that the high pressure / high risk-reward style meshes well with what Jimbo wants to do on offense. Complementary football, as the saying goes. Jimbo is just about the most conservative coach out there. 

In any event, I would like to wish you good luck on the season. I mean, I would like to, but it would be insincere.

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It is always fun to see Bizzle's write up. I have no doubts that King can take a big leap from last year, but you have to admit last year he was atrocious before he got hurt. I think your season goes as the O line and secondary goes. If King is running for his life all year, then he is going to be a turnover machine most likely. If you guys can be had over the top, I just don't see a world where Jimbo can keep up in a shootout game. 

My prediction is 9-3, but if you suffer any injury to Achane or in the back 7, then 8-4.

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13 minutes ago, Mitch Cumsteen said:

Thank you @bizzle. I look forward to this post every off season. Almost as much as I look forward to bumping it when ATM ends up 8-4. 

Is Durkin really going to play like this? I was under the impression that they were going to try to keep continuity from Elko. I don't know that the high pressure / high risk-reward style meshes well with what Jimbo wants to do on offense. Complementary football, as the saying goes. Jimbo is just about the most conservative coach out there. 

In any event, I would like to wish you good luck on the season. I mean, I would like to, but it would be insincere.

i don't know if i'd say high pressure / high risk, i just think it will be a noticeable uptick from elko, who really tried to stay away from anything remotely approaching his deeper bag of pressure tricks until absolutely necessary. 

40 minutes ago, closetojumping said:

Fun write-up. I mentioned some things a week or so ago on this thread from folks who have been to the practices a bunch. I was told Chappell was dinged up in ways that were impacting his ability to hang even close with Stewart. You got that?

Antonio Johnson is already an AA. I don't remember which service had him as such after last season, but at least one did. 

You are too bullish on your WR coach. He hasn't been one in years. Is your contention that Craig just literally didn't do any coaching? 

I didn't realize you guys were that concerned about Moss being a shithead. That's fun news. People I trust who have watched LJ Johnson have also come away saying that he was overranked. 

The big thing you didn't address in your write-up is the legitimate difficulty of the schedule this year. I don't see how you can make a record prediction without taking that into consideration. Specifically, ATM goes App State, Miami, Ark @ Dallas, @ MSU, @ Bama, off week, @ Scar, Ole Miss, UF, @ Auburn over a 10 week stretch. Have you ever beaten both Mississippi schools in the same year? I think this schedule alone manufactures 3 losses, minimum. 

i think chappell will be ok, but his injuries have lingered longer in camp than anybody thought, which is concerning. and none of our guys can stay with stewart, that's either good or bad or both.

i am bullish on coley as i think he's a solid coach (as well as having a fire lit under his ass ever since being demoted at georgia from oc) but it's also true craig completely sucked at anything remotely involved with the wr's after recruiting them.

lj looks great, but rarely makes people miss. he was the same in high scool. 

the schedule's tough, but we should be more talented on paper than every team we face other than bama. we'll know a lot about this team after the app st - miami - ark - msu run. we drop 2 there and things could go south quick. 

but i think we'll fucking win. 

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8 minutes ago, bizzle said:

i don't know if i'd say high pressure / high risk, i just think it will be a noticeable uptick from elko, who really tried to stay away from anything remotely approaching his deeper bag of pressure tricks until absolutely necessary. 

i think chappell will be ok, but his injuries have lingered longer in camp than anybody thought, which is concerning. and none of our guys can stay with stewart, that's either good or bad or both.

i am bullish on coley as i think he's a solid coach (as well as having a fire lit under his ass ever since being demoted at georgia from oc) but it's also true craig completely sucked at anything remotely involved with the wr's after recruiting them.

lj looks great, but rarely makes people miss. he was the same in high scool. 

the schedule's tough, but we should be more talented on paper than every team we face other than bama. we'll know a lot about this team after the app st - miami - ark - msu run. we drop 2 there and things could go south quick. 

but i think we'll fucking win. 

I also appreciate your write-up. I rarely agree with your assessment, but most people over here are pretty far off of their assessment of y'all (and us, for that matter), too.

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1 hour ago, bizzle said:

tl:dr - there's a lot of fucking talent here and a really solid defensive staff. floor is really high. qb, left side of ol play along with jimbo's playcalling will be difference between 9 wins and a playoff run. my heart says 10 wins, my head says 9, so fuck it, we go 10-2, lose to arkansas and bama and everyone is relatively happy. fin.

for those that deal in specificity: 

qb: haynes king has played like 5 quarters of college football. anyone saying he's great or sucks has no idea, and we'll see what happens this fall. supposedly there's a bit more rpo options and easier throws, but we've heard this from jimbo before. i think he can be competent, but a. can he stay healthy, b. what does competent get you? max johnson is a jag, although a far better backup situation than last year. staff is really excited about weigman, we'll see how much run he gets early, which could be interesting. 

rb: achane is awesome. smooth, really good at avoiding big hits, great hands, he's going to have a monster year. lj johnson and daniels are ok, le'veon moss is the prize here - there's a reason bama was all over him. there's also a reason they backed off as he needs to get his head on straight. he's either going to turn into the backup at some point this year and breakout, or will be off the team by november never to be heard from again. coin flip. 

wr: hope is a dangerous thing, but between having an actual position coach and a large influx of talent, there's a chance we can be close to league average here, which would be incredible. evan stewart is a fucking witch, he works his ass off and makes the room better. anias smith is overrated but will be competent in the slot, and chase lane is a nice guy that works hard at the z. guessing noah thomas and chris marshall get more snaps as the year goes on, they're just so much more talented than anyone else on the roster. 

te: probably the largest delta between what the start of the year looks like and what could be happening in november. max wright and blake smith have been in the system a few years and know where to be, jake johnson and donovan green haven't, but they're just superior athletes. somehow, neither are on the level of theo ohrstrom who has a size / speed combo that really doesn't make sense, however i just have a hard time thinking he's going from essentially 8th grade football in sweden to competing this year. will be interesting to see how those guys are worked in.

ol: the degree to which you believe in steve addazio is probably related to the ceiling you think this team has. the guy can coach a run game and seems locked in with jimbo in a way josh henson never was, however we'll see what happens. right side of the line will be fine. fatheree is a first round guy, layden robinson needs some work as a pass protector but great run blocker. other 3 spots will be interesting. sounds like wykoff is going to start, bryce foster doesn't really love football and that pisses jimbo off. i would assume he'll be back starting by conference play, but it's not crazy that he's not on the team by that point either. wykoff isn't a huge dropoff here. i have doubts about zuhn's strength at left tackle, however he's miles better than jamir johnson (i still don't understand why he started all last year), and either aki or moko should be passable at guard. decent depth at guard, not a lot of options at tackle. pj williams and kam dewberry are going to be players. 

defense: we're going to be more multiple, we're going to play more single high, we're going to press more, we're going to force more turnovers, and we're going to give up more big plays. elko loved to sit back and slowly dial in, durkin is going to bring the fight much earlier, both have their good and bad. still can't believe we didn't take a transfer linebacker. 

dl: i can see 12 guys in this room spending time in an nfl camp. just an absurd collection of athletes that needs to translate to production on the field quickly. at dt mckinley jackson is healthy, in shape and in a contract year. raikes is really solid, but shemar turner is just too good to keep off the field. walter nolan and gabe dindy were both dinged up most of camp, they'll arrive by conference play. marcus burris and albert regis would have been our starters at dt for most of the past 20 years and been fine. tunmise adeleye and fadil diggs will start at de, but anthony lucas, overton and malick sylla really started to look good at end of camp. still not sure if there's a guy that can really bend the edge which will be the difference in extremely solid and elite. i have faith in terry price and elijah robinson to keep this group motivated, but that's a lot of guys to keep happy. 

lb: easily weakest position on the team. helped by playing behind what should be a very good dl, but we're at least 1.5 guys short. edgerin cooper will make a bunch of highlights, but still runs himself out of plays, and can't weigh more than 215. andre white looks incredible in pads, and just doesn't process fast enough. there's a bunch of other guys, none are playmakers. the freshmen might be in time, but they're at least a year away. we'll only play 2 most of the time, but any injuries here and we're fucked. 

cb: this is my biggest question mark - lot of injuries during camp and i don't think anyone knows what we have. chappell remains the best cover guy, but i'm worried about jaylon jones continuing to start on the other side. myles jones can't stay healthy. denver harris and smoke bouie are going to be good, but how soon? the kid out of georgia is a stud, but he may not see the field this year. gotta stay healthy and play up to talent. 

s: went from a weakness to strength real quick the last few classes. durkin has demani richardson way more involved in the box, which is where he should be, and both jardin gilbert and jacoby matthews will be huge improvements over leon. the coaches think matthews is an all american at some point. antonio johnson might be an all american already and bryce anderson can play pretty much every safety postion. this will be a great group, and will need to be if the cb's don't hold up as anticipated. 

st: punter and kicker are very good. how much do you risk achane returning kicks? no idea. 

gonna be a fun year. copy and paste when we go 6-6. 

 

 

Nice write-up. My take? Too many kids named Johnson.

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3 hours ago, bizzle said:

i don't know if i'd say high pressure / high risk, i just think it will be a noticeable uptick from elko, who really tried to stay away from anything remotely approaching his deeper bag of pressure tricks until absolutely necessary. 

i think chappell will be ok, but his injuries have lingered longer in camp than anybody thought, which is concerning. and none of our guys can stay with stewart, that's either good or bad or both.

i am bullish on coley as i think he's a solid coach (as well as having a fire lit under his ass ever since being demoted at georgia from oc) but it's also true craig completely sucked at anything remotely involved with the wr's after recruiting them.

lj looks great, but rarely makes people miss. he was the same in high scool. 

the schedule's tough, but we should be more talented on paper than every team we face other than bama. we'll know a lot about this team after the app st - miami - ark - msu run. we drop 2 there and things could go south quick. 

but i think we'll fucking win. 

Your starting QB is made of glass & a turnover machine in limited action. Maybe he'll be good, maybe he'll be serviceable, but based on his senior year & limited college experience he'll be injured trying to make a tackle on an INT return. Also, the coach that apparently sucked at coaching WR is now coaching your QBs so... that's fun. Achane is a good RB but your questions across the OL will hurt his productivity this year. Smith is a serviceable slot & Stewart has the potential to be a day 1 pick but the offense doesn't cater to WRs so I'm not sure it's going to matter & I personally can't wait until Stewart isn't getting the touches he should be getting & starts griping (I'm guessing it starts happening during the bye week). The much more important TE position is filled with only question marks which won't help the questions that exist along the OL as well as the passing game that relies on the TE. Speaking of OL, with Foster ready to go it looks pretty decent, but with Foster out & maybe not interested in playing your decent looking OL suddenly looks questionable. Considering just how much your offense needs a good OL to succeed this should be the biggest worry on the team even with a good right side. DL should be the strength of the team again which should help cover some other holes on defense but the moment y'all play a good OL or an OC good enough to mitigate the DL your defense will be asked questions that I'm not sure it'll be able to answer. 

A&M always does the opposite of what I feel like they'll do so I'm fully expecting them to get off to a nice start & right when I start to worry that this may actually be y'alls year you'll blow it & end up 9-3 or 8-4 again after losing 1 or 2 WTF type of games that it seems y'all are good for. Don't take that as a jab either because I'd love to only have 1 or 2 WTF types of losses this year as it would show a drastic improvement over the last 12 years for us.

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It's funny. Bizzle's write up reminds me of many of the posts on Hornfans back when Mack was putting together great classes. I got so tired of "if we do X we could run the table." The leap from potential to arriving is far greater than we were imagining. 

We edged up to regularly winning at least 10 games a year but neither winning the conference nor playing for the national championship. A four team playoff would have likely included us a few of those years where we lost to OU. Still, we weren't really in that thin air of national championship contenders until we had 5 or 6 years of great recruiting and two excellent QBs back to back.

Making that step is fucking hard. It's especially hard when you have a national monster on your schedule every year. For us it was OU. For you it's...well, you know who it is.

One of the things you've got to be able to do is overcome a couple of tough situations. Our Okie State games back then were remarkable comebacks that only a great team can do. You've got to be able to come back if not playing your A game has got you in the hole.

Are the Aggies resilient and deep enough to come back if they get behind a Mississippi school by three scores? Something like that will happen. It always does.

A&M is better for sure. I just don't think they're anywhere near chalking up the wins week after week. It's not a slam. It's just the anticipating is usually way ahead of delivery.

Thanks for your thoughts, Bizzle. Post more.

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33 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Making that step is fucking hard. It's especially hard when you have a national monster on your schedule every year. For us it was OU. For you it's...well, you know who it is.

 

FIFY...

In a way, all of us has an El Guapo to face. For some, OU might be their El Guapo. For others, a lack of quality QBs might be their El Guapo. For you, El Guapo is a big, dangerous, Alabama team who wants to kill you. 

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On 8/4/2022 at 12:51 PM, Tex Pete said:

Weird. Why am I on your mind? I have been very involved in HS football in the past, not as much these days, and I almost never discuss Xs and Os on here.

Neither do I, but Bizzle is one of the aggy rubes who think Devon Achane is better than Bijan 

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I watched the game with a group of aggies.  The homers made excuses that it was early and that King was definitely the guy to take them to an 11-1 record. Have to trust Jimbo because he’s the QB whisperer.  It was hilarious. The logical Aggie played QB under Jackie Sherrill and he’s in the same boat with me.  He agreed that King sucks, the OL is a problem and they are looking at 7-5 this year.  He pointed out his slow gait on King’s throw.  He also pointed out that the 3 TD’s were throws any D1 QB could make. A slot receiver on a LB running a seam?  Easy throw.  He was not impressed with his inability to hit an intermediate throw on the run.  
 

I enjoyed it. It was everything you expect from a delusional fan base 

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24 minutes ago, MonkeyDoughnut said:

King's biggest issue is he visually checks his receiver progression presnap in such an obvious way he tells who he's going to throw to as he's already decided at that time.

He will improve on that if he doesn’t get hurt again. He’s not a bad player, but he isn’t who they think he is.
 

When he was still in HS, I called him a point guard. That’s who he is. He just hasn’t adjusted to the speed of the college game yet. With their deranged, unreasonable fan base, I’m not sure he’ll have the time to do so. 

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1 minute ago, Tex Pete said:

He will improve on that if he doesn’t get hurt again. He’s not a bad player, but he isn’t who they think he is.
 

When he was still in HS, I called him a point guard. That’s who he is. He just hasn’t adjusted to the speed of the college game yet. With their deranged, unreasonable fan base, I’m not sure he’ll have the time to do so. 

It's his 3rd year in the program. If he hasn't adjusted by now he's not going to.

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