2008 RCT Reader Year in Review...
by Owen Kemp on Dec 22, 2008 5:00 PM CST
7 comments
All right everyone, we’ve counted down the top 10 performances, we’ve read about the top 5 plays and now you have had a chance to see the entire list. This post is dedicated solely to discussion surrounding the year’s performances, plays etc. We’ve got a little basketball this week but as a whole with recruiting shutting down for the holidays it’ll be a slow one before we start previewing the bowl next week.
That said let’s hear you thoughts. Any great games I missed? Do you have a different order in your head? What are your top plays? Reminisce a little with me, this may not have been as successful a year as we all would have hoped but I for one am still happy with the progress and with the way recruiting is shaping up things are looking up.
So comment early and often let’s have a discussion about it and I would love to hear everyone else’s thoughts on the season.
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Well, I think we can look to two games that held our season back. Our narrow loss to a top 20 team (at the time) on the road in South Florida and the drubbing we took in Lincoln thanks to Nebraska. South Florida was a good game, but we had yet to develop a rythem with our ground game, and Reesing was still under the impression that he had to carry the entire team each snap. It was a tough game to lose. Nebraska was the worst loss on the year. We should have won that game easily. We got beat in all aspects. This is why we are not the Big XII North Champions.
With that said, these are some quick hitting thoughts from the season:
There is still an obvious talent gap between KU and the South powers.
Texas Tech had our fluke year last year. They won’t be that good again.
UT should win the South easily next year.
OU may not be the best team in Oklahoma next year.
KU should win the North next year.
Nebraska should finish second.
Mizzou is going to have a rough year.
I think a 3rd solid season will really boost recruiting. We are getting in early with more prospects now, and continued success and national relevance will pay off soon.
We saw Stuckey emerge into a First team All-Big XII
We saw how big an impact Anthony Collins had last year, and how tough it is to start two rFR OT’s.
We saw how hard is was initially to adjust to losing two first team All-Americans can be for a team like KU without HS All-Americans ready to step in.
We learned that Marcus Herford was not the answer, regardless of how good he is on NCAA ’08.
We learned that Desmond Briscoe will be an NFL WR.
We learned that Kerry Mier is a vital part of our success.
We will struggle to replace our three Senior LBs and our 3 interior OL.
J. Wilson further proved that our coaching staff can develop players.
Quick predictions for next year:
Big XII South:
1. Texas
2. Oklahoma State (what a scary offense coming back!)
3. Oklahoma
4. Baylor
5. Texas Tech
6. Texas aTm
Big XII North
1. Kansas
2. Nebraska
3. Missouri
4. Colorado
5. Iowa State
6. Kansas State
I'm guessing
that you assume that Bradford will make the jump. I agree with most of your assessment. You’re point about having a 3rd strong year helping recruiting should ring true. As DenverJayhawk pointed out in an earlier post, we have some strong 4-5 star in-state recruits that we MUST land. Especially since we stand to lose a boatload of talent next year. Its interesting to see how much the talent level has increased at KU, perhaps that is why Hereford was such a non-factor this year. In his 1st two years he was one of the few real athletes we had on the squad. A couple good recruiting classes later and he’s having trouble sniffing the playing field.
I’ve been impressed with Jonathan Wilson’s play all year even though he sorta disappeared there in the middle. I think he’ll be a solid contributor next season and beyond. I don’t think he’s the next Briscoe but he has dependable hands and has a knack for getting into space.
I think losing our interior line will hurt but we have a lot of quality depth at O-Line that is ready to step up.
As for our LB’s, it will hurt to lose those three but honestly, Clint Bowen doesn’t use his linebackers in the same way that Bill Young did. The importance and emphasis on our LB’s is lessened in our current scheme. Bill would often bring outside LB’s on blitzes and play solid contain on running plays. This applied more pressure at the line of scrimmage and the point of attack. As a result we had more sacks, pressures, and tackles for losses because we weren’t running our base defense on every down. Our defense now is much more passive. I would have liked to see our line run stunts and our LB’s come on many more blitzes and rattle some QB’s rather than dropping into coverage just to be picked apart by Big XII QB’s.
Sorry for my quasi-rant, but I truly fell that Clint Bowen misused our LB’s this season. Without an fear in the pocket and our CB’s playing 8-12 yards off the line you’re asking for trouble. I know our front 4 wan’t that great but that is why you bring the blitz every now and then…
This is exactly right....
but attributing our lack of one to Clint Bowen’s use of our LBs is far off base, I think.
For one thing, he got absolutely everything possible out of James Holt. We knew Holt was a solid tackler and could run, but he became a playmaker and all-Big XII this year and Clint deserves at least some of the credit for that.
As for Joe, sure we saw a regression, but that’s what happens after having knee surgery and transitioning from a schedule filled with running teams to one that featured several of the top passing teams in the country.
And finally, Mike. I think we just have to accept that he can’t move laterally. When he’s running downhill, there are few better and maybe no one I’d be more afraid of, but when he has to shift (as you do on nearly every blitz that you don’t come free) he’s just not very mobile or effective. When healthy, him and Joe are two of the better run stoppers in the league, but this year they were rarely healthy and we rarely faced a team that wanted to run.
As bad as our defense seemed this year, I think it’s been horribly inflated by our opposition. I haven’t looked up any stats for this, but if memory serves only two teams (USF and Tech) exceeded their season average against us. Considering one was our first road game and most of the damage was in one bad quarter and the other came right as we realigned our secondary, I think that’s pretty defensible.
by hiphopopotamus on Dec 23, 2008 12:25 PM CST up reply actions
Ha
I didn’t even think about it when I wrote it, but cheesy as it ended up, I still think it’s true.
by hiphopopotamus on Dec 23, 2008 5:56 PM CST up reply actions
Also, Withey’s decision will be coming over the slow holiday period. Also, the football recruits will be interesting to follow. One member from this past weekend has already commited. A nice looking, athletic DT who played DE. From Blinn CC in Texas and should be able to step into the rotation immediately.
http://theshiver.com/2008/12/commit-alert-travis-stephens/
(I put this originally in the thread about the recruits for the weekend thinking I was in this thread.)
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