So Joey over at Schembechler Hall this off-season's first blogpoll roundtable up. This is just a way of bunch of crazed college football bloggers to keep coming up with interesting pigskin related posts we can keep feeding people who are starving for college football during this horrid, long, drawn out off-season (no I can't get fired up for the Lakers or following baseball). If you have more questions on blogpoll and our roundtable here is the 411 from MGoBlog.
So Joey has 3 questions. Here are my answers. If you have different responses or thoughts please share. I am going to post the link over at Schembecler Hall:
1) It's early, but thus far, which offseason change or changes in college football are you most excited about?
I am looking forward to a college football season without having to read another article about the Ball Room Dancer.
No seriously ... I have been so busy following the basketball season last few weeks (almost hour by hour) that didn't have a lot of time to closely follow the off the field developments during college football season. I know UCLA had its spring practice ridiculously early with the spring game being on the same day Pac-10 tournament final. So perhaps that was a Dorrell ploy to take the BruinsNation's focus of his lackluster football program? Who knows.
2) With spring practice underway, what are the three concerns about your team that are causing you the most anxiety? (USC fans can't just list the departures of Reggie Bush, Matt Leinart, and LenDale White.)
As mentioned above - for some bizzarre reason KD decided to have the "spring" game during the winter quarter in Westwood right when March Madness hysteria was taking over BruinsNation. So spring practice is over and done with. But the concerns about next year's squad remains. Here are some of my worries:
*First the obvious one. With Spencer Havener and Justin London gone who the heck are going to be their replacements as our LBs? Here is the current depth chart. So we have John Hale a soph. at SLB, Christian Taylor at MLB (who frankly did not look all that impressive during his appearances last season, and Eric McNeal (a blue chip recruit who came in as a safety) as WLB. And the kids who are backing up - Bosworth twins and Reggie Carter. This could be a disaster.
*Second the running game. RB position is a concern. Of course everyone is going ga ga over Markey and Bell's glorious Sun Bowl performance. But I am going to wait and see how these guys perform against quality competition.
*Lastly, I am worried about the OL. Cable was a terrible OC, but he was a decent OL coach. And I am not really all that excited about the guy who replaced him - a retread from NFL who got fired from ND and Purdue. Plus we also lost our four year starter at Center - McCloskey. Sure Chai stepped in him for him last season, but my impression was the running game was just not the same without McCloskey. Those are just some worries I can list right off the bat. Of course everyone knows about the concerns re. the coaching abilties of Karl Dorrell. That's a topic worth of few hundred posts (and yes we will write them).
3) Care to take a stab at a preseason top five?
Here is my preseason top-5:
1)Ohio State
2)LSU
3)West Virginia
4)Notredame
5)Florida
Again Dorrell's program is not even getting a whiff at the top-25 because he is doing such a great job bringing respectability back to UCLA football.
But on a postive note - despite all the worries listed above and the questionable coaching abilities of Karl Dorrell - we do have this guy:
Photo via adakbruin
And word from the spring practice was that he looked sharp and ready to go. And if you want more sun shiny feel good kool-aid here is the spin from Morgan center. Remember those Morgan center releases made Steve Lavin look like the next Coach K. So there you go. There will not be any room for excuses this upcoming seasons. 9 wins and must beat SC.
If you have thoughts, vehement disagreements, please fire away and make me look like some kind of "Pundit."
GO BRUINS.
Filed under: