That doesn't mean anything about this year. O' Connell played at an elite level in 2021 and also very good last year.
No no.. I’m saying I predicted how bad we’d be the two years BEFORE Oconnell started the bulk of games. I actually also predicted 5-7 in 2021, which we would have been had Oconnell not come out of nowhere to replace plummer.
This is very true, but let’s look at the bad from last year, an 8-4 team (that probably goes 6-6 with this years schedule).
> Dale Williams was a horrifically bad offensive line coach. There were a ton of career ending injuries to offensive linemen early in brohm’s tenure, but the ones who didn’t get hurt rarely got much better, Eric Miller was always bad, and even the good ones like Hartwig and Holstege were really good pass blockers but didn’t get much push in the run.
> They had no outside wide receiver opposite Jones. When Wright was ineligible, they tried to rely on mershawn rice, Broc thompson and Yaseen opposite Jones on the left side. Thompson got hurt again, as did Yaseen and rice just wasn’t very good. Outstanding WR coach Jamarcus shepherd Moved on to be Washington’s OC and his replacement royally sucked.
Because of this, they moved their best slot guy, TJ sheffield, along with another slot guy, Deion Burks, to the left side. Neither could contest passes on the outside.
> Devin mockobee was awesome, but he only got a chance to be the full time guy near midway through the season. And if you go back and watch, most of his impact his runs were to the outside and of his own making. It was a terrible run blocking OL.
> the secondary was atrocious. Brohm rarely recruited DBs who played, and those who did were rarely that great. Cory trice said he didn’t feel 100% till midway through the year. They never had a corner who was that great opposite trice Sanoussi Kane was getting comfortable at SS. Chris Jefferson went mental and left the team after the Maryland game. Their biggest problem was that Ron English’s strategy was to go press man single high. This put way too much stress on cam Allen. He could play center field. He couldn’t do that and make open field tackles in an ocean.
> Jalen Graham missed a bunch of games and the rest of the linebackers were eh.. our two MLBs were very slow. That’s fine when karlaftis is wrecking shop and the entire offense is compensating for it. When he was gone they were just abused. I’d never want to get hit by fakasiieki or Douglas, but I just might be able to outrun them and definitely could have at that age.
> The defensive line didn’t have one guy who could get pressure if the defense focused on him. Sullivan couldn’t get pressure against one on ones. He was slow for a 3T. Deen was skilled and a great leader, but undersized without the explosiveness to make up for it. The NT position was good.
Why 8-4 this year? Walters has already flipped the roster and if you look at the defense, other than Purdue, Michigan and Mississippi state, every team either failed to run or pass at all against Illinois last year. He mostly does well against teams whose identity is to run the football. Illinois biggest problem last year in losses like Indiana is that they just couldn’t score, but that had nothing to do with Walters. Bielema’s offense sucks and it’s why Illinois is going 5-7 this year.
So look at the preseason.
Fresno state - they have the offense to beat walters, but those schools all have a problem now.. if a kid like Evan Williams establishes himself as a good young player there, now he just transfers to Oregon, which is exactly what happened. New QB, new RB.
Virginia tech and Syracuse are run heavy teams who can pass on you if they set up the run first. Walters slams the door on the run, which means you need to have an operator like Oconnell back there.. someone who can operate even if his team isn’t running the ball a ton. Neither have that.
Indiana and northwestern have their own problems. Oh man does northwestern lol. So that’s five.
And between Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois plus upset factor in the rest of the schedule, I think we get 3 more. I’m also a believer that this years Ohio state may be more 2004 Ohio state than some juggernaut. Ohio state 3-5 in their last 8 in West Lafayette
I’d love to hear your breakdown of your team. I read up on all the teams in Phil Steele and athlon so I have some familiarity. Your defense may deliver bad news to some boilers who have low expectations. QB is the question