QB - Martinez should make a massive jump forward next year, I'm anticipating an A 1st Team All B1G selection. Guys generally make the biggest jump from year 1 to 2. Vedral and Bunch will give us good depth and McCafferey can put on the weight he desperately needs to, McCafferey would have made Gebbia look chunky.
RB - Washington will hopefully be beefed up to about 185 (he played at 170 this year) I'd like him at 205 but the plan is to take it slow on his development because they don't want him to lose a step. Dedrick Mills should be able to fit in nicely. I have less concerns with him than I did with Bell because Mills has played power 5 football before and done very well. I like them as a nice 1 2 punch. Mazour could play in some packages as well. I expect a lot of attrition from this group, I get the feeling Jaylin Bradley will probably be moving on to a JUCO. He didn't see a lick of playing time this year after having a good impact as a freshman.
WR - We are losing a lot of production with Stan graduating we definitely need some of the young guys to step up. With Stan and JD in the games at the same time they were match up nightmares. Once JD got dinged teams were able to double Stan. I was impressed with the improvement over the course of the year from this group. They looked awful the first 3 games. Lots of drops and no desire to block downfield. funny story actually, I was watching some old cut ups of Chip's offense back when he was at Oregon and was super impressed with how well the receivers blocked in the run game. I can remember thinking, 'Gee why didn't Frost hire that receiver coach? He's way better than Walters' Well it turns out Scott did hire that wr coach, it was Scott Frost. Stories aside I was impressed with the emergence of Warner but we need to add some play makers here. Walters has not shown an ability to recruit to the level Verduzco and Held can, although in fairness he did land Dominick Watt, he just fell through academically.
TE - You want to hear something crazy? Mike Riley thought Jack Stoll would make a better college Tight End than Noah Fant. That alone should get a man fired. Stoll was awful to begin the year, couldn't block to save his life. Luckily for him both Austin Allen and Kurt Rafdal are worse blockers than him. Bitterness about Fant aside, there's a lot to like with this group. Austin Allen and Rafdal can both be NFL tight ends and I expect both of them to pass Stoll by next year. Stoll is solid but athletically he's not on the same level. Look out for McGriff going forward as well. I originally thought it was a stupid decision to move Jurgens inside to OL but there are a lot of young guys in front of him that are much better fits for this offense.
OL - Sweet Jesus what a difference having a good O line coach makes. Really impressed with the improvement from this group. Greg Austin moved mountains this year, replacing Conrad with Farmer and sliding in Boe Wilson at guard made a world of difference. We probably win that Colorado game if they had made the switch sooner. God Conrad was awful. Gerald and Tanner will be missed, but Gerald easily had to be the most penalized player on our team. Sounds like the plan is to put Bland at Center, will they work on Jurgens for the long term and put either Raridon or slide Will Farniok into Left guard if we can land a JUCO tackle or Benhart is as good as advertised. Looking into the recruiting targets. Scott wants to give Barry Alvarez a run for his money on having the biggest offensive line in college football.
DL - This group had a ton of depth this year, mostly because Riley recruited to a 4-3 for 2 and a half years but he did land one huge piece in Damion Daniels. He needs to get a little stronger but having Daniels in the middle with the Davis twins at the ends next year will be an improvement. I have a lot of admiration for Stoltenberg but he was 3-4 DE playing Nose because we had no one to play it last year. If he gets a shot in the league it'll be at DE in a 3-4 scheme. Freedom did a nice job for being a converted TE and had a good career all things considered. It's too bad Stille isn't just a step faster because he was easily our best pass rusher on the line. Speaking of which we need pass rushers yesterday. Hopefully Scott can pull a rabbit out of the hat and grab Chester Graves from IWCC but Saban is calling so it looks bleak. There is no bigger need on this team right now than a pass rusher and we have to address this before signing day.
LB - If there was a position group where we just don't have the horses it's linebacker. With the exception of Mo Barry we don't have anybody that can play in a 3-4. That's one of the reasons I'm not a huge fan of this defense because outside linebackers that can get after the quarterback and defend in the passing game are nearly impossible to find. Hell NFL teams struggle to find those guys. Dedrick Young got a lot of flack that wasn't really deserved, the kid was a running back out of Arizona that never played much linebacker before getting to Lincoln, all things considered he did a nice job and I can assure you Colin Miller and Weinmaster were much much worse. Tyrin Ferguson is a hoss, I'd like to see him moved inside to Buck but we are so damn thin at Will and Sam that he's probably gonna have to stay there. Honas was just getting his feet under him after struggling quite a bit early in the year before getting hurt, hopefully he bounces back and has a big time senior campaign. Heinrich Nelson and Hannah are probably going to get early looks next year. I like what DeWitt and Ruud have coming in. Linebackers are HARD to find but I think we've got the coaches to go out and get us some good ones.
CB - Word on the street is that Lamar Jackson is leaning heavy on declaring for the NFL draft, yes you heard me correctly. Best of luck to him if decides to leave, A team could take a flyer on him as a project. He was decent in press coverage and has NFL size and speed. He just doesn't have any interest in tackling. Cam Taylor I think could fill that role should Lamar forego his senior season. DiCaprio Bootle has the potential to be the best corner we've had since Alphonso Dennard, teams had no interest in throwing at him and wanted to take their shots against Lamar. Chinander and Fisher like big corners and safetys. You probably won't see another corner under 6 foot going forward.
Safety - We are losing a lot at Safety, Antonio Reed, Aaron Williams, and Tre Neal. None of these guys were world beaters but we are going to be tested a lot on the back end next year. I like what Deonte Williams showed me and Marquel Dismuke and JoJo Domann showed flashes. This group has plenty of potential it would just be nice to retain a DB coach for awhile.
