yeah, there's a reason why the majority of guys on offense are either freshmen or redshirt freshmen. we can only get better. and as bad as our record is i really don't think we're THAT bad. we barely lost to Utah, spotted ND a quick 21 points and mad a respectable comeback, was up early vs. ILL, PSU, state, and Purdue (lets not talk about Toledo, that should've been a win). But looking at that if we had executed throughout the entire game our record would've been much better.

 

so as bad as our record is i dont' think were actually 3-7 bad. we just havent been consistent and most of our guys were playing HS ball this time last year. we'll be fine.

 

GO BLUE!

And I hate to bring this up, but another one of our freshman was a LONG SNAPPER that Lloyd committed resources to. Why???

Since mgoblog loves comparisons and statistical analyses... maybe TomVH could do a quick look just at the Big Ten during this week to see what the percentages are across the league, where we reank, and what the StDev is just to see how far behind the curve we really are... I'd love to see how we compare in this to Penn St (high unexpected success), Northwestern (middle about where people thought), and Indiana (low where people thought) especially.

Easy to see how we got so thin when it is laid out like that.

Other info - Are 40 yard dash and/or shuttle times available for the past few classes and the kids that are committed? It would be interesting to see if RR is coming through with the promise of speed.

Is it really fair to list Antonio Bass in the Bust section? I mean, yea he never contributed, but that's due to injury, not really being a "bust". Just saying.

Here's a stat that I think is really interesting. Our 11 TD passes have gone to nine players: Mathews (2), Minor (2), Stonum, McGuffie, Koger, Shaw, Savoy, Hemingway and Moundros. That's a really broad distribution (and oddly, it doesn't include our leading receiver, Odoms). To put that in perspective, last year our 25 TD passes went to just four players (Manningham, Arrington, Mathews and Butler). You can read into this a couple of ways. On one hand, it can suggest that we've had a tough time finding the right combination of players to throw out there (and may help to explain why our passing game has been out of synch so much at times). But on the other hand, it shows that we've had a lot of different guys pitch in and make some contributions. And every one of them will be back next year - as will every player who has rushed for a TD.

We barely lost to Utah, spotted ND a quick 21 points and mad a respectable comeback, was up early vs. ILL, PSU, state, and Purdue (lets not talk about Toledo, that should've been a win).

I think we're a little better than our record indicates, but let's not get too carried away.  We're not very good.  Utah outplayed us pretty clearly and it was their own mistakes, really, that allowed us to come back.  ND, Illinois and Purdue are 5-4, 5-5 and 3-7, respectively, and we lost to all three.  (Honestly, that 25-point home loss to Illinois is looking pretty embarassing right now.)  PSU and MSU are quality teams, but in the 4th quarter of both games we were completely owned.   Those two have had a lot of unimpressive wins, so I don't know how much we can pat ourselves on the back for losing by 29 and 14, respectively. 

I basically see us as a team that could be 5-5 right now if everything had broken right.  That's not that bad given our youth, but it's still well below our norm, and shows that we've got a lot of work to do this offseason.  

TomVH, I love your work, but I think you are missing a few things. I think our recruiting hasn't been as bad as this looks. 14 is the number who are good right now if you exclude Tim Jamison, Will Johnson, Morgan Trent, Mark Moundros, Jonas Mouton. That is just the guys who I think are actually good. If you add the people who contribute, you have to include John Thompson, Stevie Brown, our O-line. I agree that we have had some issues with recruiting and attrition/injuries, but I think Lloyd did a fine job. Don't forget, we could have had Mallet, Arrington, Boren, Manningham here still, which would have made this year a bit different, I think. Also, I think 2004 recruits should be included. I have great hope for the future, but I don't think our past is completely responsible for our present.