Yeah, online was frustrating for sure. I can’t think of the last time they looked that bad, which is so tough to see. It’s like my golf game, once one area improves, another drops off. Ford gets beat, then Daniels gets beat, then moala looks immobile. I don’t get it how we looked so bad tonight.
Oregon exposed us on not having a kicker. They made some big stops on 4th and we sputtered. Credit to them.
As for recruiting, I too believe we need to do better having won the south two years in a row. I will withhold judgement until this class is over and we typically sign guys later. Better recruits typically push for time earlier, which means they contribute more and gain more experience, making them impact players for longer amounts of time. This minimizes a whole rebuild.
Why is our defense elite this year? It’s mostly seniors, a huge transfer with Francis, and three guys in Burgess, Lloyd, and Nurse who were luckily developed in one offseason. Jav and Jaylon were recruits that started as freshman and were defensive anchors.
Next year – we don’t have much returning production with experience. The stars happened to align for this year, and we will still develop and have a serviceable defense next year. We just don’t have enough Javs and Jaylons to minimize the rebuild. Transfers and development help here, it’s just not at a fast enough rate, or long enough tenure, as the elites. We are elite at player development and stopgap recruiting, but need to turn the corner. We have some guys leaning our way and hope we can finally get them this year.
Utah @ 
Baylor 
.
