No matter what I think best case scenario we crack the top 15. The Troy loss is still in the minds of the voters.
So will, some won't. The voters are a group of how many, a couple of hundred individuals all with their own agendas. Do the math.
Again it’s academic we know that some shit heads will hold us down and give us the ranking we deserve. Like I said from the beginning of the year we are at least a top 15 team. Frankly I think we are a strong 11 or 12.
The Florida game last year which gets us into the Sugar Bowl and the Troy loss this year is probably what divides a large majority of fans from totally embracing Orgeron as the head coach of this team. He could have conceivably been 18-3 right now with a Sugar Bowl win and two consecutive teams ending up in the top ten. And what are we talking about, Guice making one wrong move and one God awful decision on an opening drive of a ball game? Thin line between good and great.
I think O is still learning on the job. This is obvious I think. He said, if we remember, he was going to get good OC's/DC's and let them do their job. I think he did that. At times to his downfall; think Troy. This team was very young and grew up. I think O gets a lot of credit from me for not accepting the shit show that was Troy. Really turned it around. This next year is all on him. No excuses. He should have learned what he needed too. Needs to bring in a haul in recruiting to set the tone. The bowl game will tell us a lot as well. I still like Aranda, but we dont have the DB's, sadly, to play man as much as we did last year. However, they seem to be worse in Zone. Need some Dline recruits.
When we were struggling vs A&M I threw out a grade for Orgeron of C+. With the win I think I bump it up to B-. With a good bowl win and recruiting class I could see maybe B+. I agree that it will be hard to accept excuses next year, but we’ll have a green qb (ala Miles not creating enough of a point spread to get the backup reps), green WRs (not sure about the WR coach), green RBs, probably more defections on D than there should be, and a tough schedule. If Eaux can kill recruiting and stave off heedless defections to NFL, maybe he can sneak up to A- (potential like Wade). Excuses are for losers, hope we don’t need a ton more excuses moving forward.
I give Oeaux a B overall. Can't erase the Troy/MSU debacles, but, like in life, it's how you respond to mistakes and adversity. Since Troy, they have responded big time. The real issue is recruiting. If this class ends up being mostly 3 stars, with some 4 stars, I fear we will not have the horses to hang 2-3 years from now. Oeaux will not survive long-term if he doesn't recruit. The good news is, they are focused on positions of need and the lines, which is the life-blood of competing in the SEC, so maybe stars don't matter as much this particular year as it normally does.
Stars don’t matter as much. It’s about getting the best players for what we need. 3/4/5 stars don’t mean anything if they don’t translate into what we need in our system.
