Hello everyone, had the pleasure of speaking with two of the players today and I’ll give a quick rundown of my questions for them and their general responses.
1. on how Linguist and the coaching staff are doing: they seem to love the staff, linguist in particular. Practices have been tough and competitive but fair. They believe the staff will do a great job as the season rolls around.
2. Shape of the team: Both believe the team is just as strong as last season and are convinced they can upset Nebraska and Coastal, both will be tough but they’re confident. They also believe that even with the transfers, they have depth to cover the losses. Both expect a few true freshman to get some game time, especially WR Jamari Gasset, was compared to Nunn in ability to catch balls. Another player they believe could come in and contribute is Juco WR Chandler Baker, said he had incredible speed and route running ability.
3. concerns: while confident they seemed to talk about the OL when I brought up their worries. Especially the Center position, they did not have a true backup center last season and will have to rely on a non true center to take the job, Bence Polgar was the consensus belief for new center. Still with a possible inexperienced group of OL’s they believe they will get the job done, the OC and strength coach have pushed them really hard.
4. on new players (transfers, not freshman): the CB we got from Texas tech should be an instant starter same with Josh Rodgers, the D-linemen, forgot where he came from. The WR from Eastern will take Wilson’s spot as our deep threat. Both said the JUCO guys especially Tra Wilkins, could be instant contributors.
general thoughts by myself: I love the optimism from these two guys, they also told me the rest of the team feels the same. I’m not worried or believe that this is going to be a reset year, as few may think. They generally feel like we are going to take off from where we left last season, one of the top dogs in the MAC.
we did have in depth talks about other factors/situations and please let me know what you would like to hear as a fan base. I have connections with few of the players. 1 special teams player, a new WR and a returning readshirt WR. They are willing to talk to me because they’re my friends and I personally know them outside of their college football careers
appreciate it if you read this far, sorry for any spelling or grammar errors