Athons preseason All-ACC
Yesterday Mark Ennis spent considerable time on this article as it applies to Brohm's first edition drawing some comparisons to TCU's out of nowhere run into the BCS Title game being led by a couple portal guys in Duggan at QB and a WR who eventually went in the middle of the 1st round of the draft. He sold me on a number of things, but one thing I am not sold on is I have pinged back my expectations on this season based on what this list from Athlon's tells me...we don't have talent where we need to have it to be a team playing in the ACC Title game. I think in the secondary we do and it was ironically bolstered by two people who aren't on this list--Duck and Kelly who actually were Second Team all-ACC--but Quincy Riley and MJ Griffin should have hit the board somewhere on the 5 preseason all-ACC lists from Athlon. Ennis' argument was for Louisville to get to that 10 win plateau this year Plummer and the WRs in particular have to hit big as All Conference caliber players. I can't argue with that, but I think it requires scrutiny at other places where I need to see talent.
My hesitance remains with the O line as a driver; Hudson hits the board as a 1st teamer but to get to an ACC Title game we need multiple 2nd team or up caliber O line performers. We need a Becton and Eric Wood caliber; we're going to see that against Notre Dame who might have the best O line in College Football. When they are that good in tandems you can get exotic in your run blocking schemes on the interior; you can pull a Center as we did with Wood, you don't need help on the backside OT against a high caliber DE. You can have your TE peel off into the 2nd level rather than sealing on the edge. Four yard runs become first downs. You get the thrill of seeing a Florida State defensive end get pitched aside with one arm by a Becton on draft night highlights. I'm sure some in this thread are reading it and saying "C'mon Hack, Becton and Wood were different level"...and I'd argue different level is what we are going to have to block. We didn't block Clemson at all last year. The 8 positions that Athlon listed in the front seven are saturated with FSU, Clemson and MIami defenders...meaning you have to block some high level people in the trenches. We're going to have to prove we can deliver against a very high level ND front seven and like it or not prove for the first time in five plus years we can run the football on Kentucky.
Yesterday Mark Ennis spent considerable time on this article as it applies to Brohm's first edition drawing some comparisons to TCU's out of nowhere run into the BCS Title game being led by a couple portal guys in Duggan at QB and a WR who eventually went in the middle of the 1st round of the draft. He sold me on a number of things, but one thing I am not sold on is I have pinged back my expectations on this season based on what this list from Athlon's tells me...we don't have talent where we need to have it to be a team playing in the ACC Title game. I think in the secondary we do and it was ironically bolstered by two people who aren't on this list--Duck and Kelly who actually were Second Team all-ACC--but Quincy Riley and MJ Griffin should have hit the board somewhere on the 5 preseason all-ACC lists from Athlon. Ennis' argument was for Louisville to get to that 10 win plateau this year Plummer and the WRs in particular have to hit big as All Conference caliber players. I can't argue with that, but I think it requires scrutiny at other places where I need to see talent.
My hesitance remains with the O line as a driver; Hudson hits the board as a 1st teamer but to get to an ACC Title game we need multiple 2nd team or up caliber O line performers. We need a Becton and Eric Wood caliber; we're going to see that against Notre Dame who might have the best O line in College Football. When they are that good in tandems you can get exotic in your run blocking schemes on the interior; you can pull a Center as we did with Wood, you don't need help on the backside OT against a high caliber DE. You can have your TE peel off into the 2nd level rather than sealing on the edge. Four yard runs become first downs. You get the thrill of seeing a Florida State defensive end get pitched aside with one arm by a Becton on draft night highlights. I'm sure some in this thread are reading it and saying "C'mon Hack, Becton and Wood were different level"...and I'd argue different level is what we are going to have to block. We didn't block Clemson at all last year. The 8 positions that Athlon listed in the front seven are saturated with FSU, Clemson and MIami defenders...meaning you have to block some high level people in the trenches. We're going to have to prove we can deliver against a very high level ND front seven and like it or not prove for the first time in five plus years we can run the football on Kentucky.
Last edited:
