I decided to take a look at the conference on a whole and see where I think we have the talent to play in the AAC, "bonafide D-1 football players" to use CWF's term and where we are lacking. Tell me what you all think.
QB - I think J. Banks is a mid-tier AAC player. He is competitive, a good enough runner and he seems to be improving as a passer as the year goes on. He's not Ferguson as a passer or Flowers as a runner, but he's decent.
RB - Hilliard is one of the top backs in the AAC, he does everything well. I think our other backs know their roles and on a whole I would say we have AAC talent at RB.
WR - Here's where we start to see an issue, while Mooney is improving and becoming one of our better players our WR corps is not up to par. I don't know if any of them would start at most of the AAC schools.
TE - Who really uses tight ends anyway? They are serviceable, I guess.
OL - Well now we are at the crux of the issue. Leglue is the best of the bunch and he's far from dominant, Dublin has played well for a freshman, but he's a freshman. Our biggest issues though are Briggs and whomever is playing LT. We are getting decidedly below average play from those two positions and it's killing us. I think we have a bottom 3 OLine...
DL - There is a lack of bodies and talent here, Cam Sample might be our best lineman (Sean Wilson's not terrible either). Our supposed bell cow Aruna has been non-existent, although some of that is due to his move inside I am sure. Patrick Johnson has shown flashes, and perhaps with Kennedy they are a bit better, but once again a bottom tier group.
LB - Rae Juan is solid if not spectacular and Jackson has had his moments but the LB's as a whole just haven't the talent to make plays. I would once again say a bottom tier position group.
DB's - I think we all expected this group to be a lot better than they are playing. Obviously Parry is a talent, but that's been it. We have seen flashes from Chase K., Teamer, Franklin, etc. but the inconsistency and blown coverages have been glaring. Jackson & Keyes who have the talent have been living in the training room so we have no option other than the often victimized Donnie Lewis. But how much can you put on the db's when there is NO PASS RUSH whatsoever. If I had to say by sheer talent, we are probably in the 3rd tier of the conference, but we play like the worst.
SP - We have a walk on kicker, nuff said. Block has been better, average but not outstanding, and our return units have made mental errors that have contributed to losses more often than not. We are bottom tier there as well.
So in my personal opinion we have bottom tier AAC talent everywhere but QB & RB...no wonder we have only 1 conference victory...although there should be a battle of the bottom this weekend at ECU. They have the worst run defense, we have the worst secondary...this should be interesting and frustrating at the same time.
QB - I think J. Banks is a mid-tier AAC player. He is competitive, a good enough runner and he seems to be improving as a passer as the year goes on. He's not Ferguson as a passer or Flowers as a runner, but he's decent.
RB - Hilliard is one of the top backs in the AAC, he does everything well. I think our other backs know their roles and on a whole I would say we have AAC talent at RB.
WR - Here's where we start to see an issue, while Mooney is improving and becoming one of our better players our WR corps is not up to par. I don't know if any of them would start at most of the AAC schools.
TE - Who really uses tight ends anyway? They are serviceable, I guess.
OL - Well now we are at the crux of the issue. Leglue is the best of the bunch and he's far from dominant, Dublin has played well for a freshman, but he's a freshman. Our biggest issues though are Briggs and whomever is playing LT. We are getting decidedly below average play from those two positions and it's killing us. I think we have a bottom 3 OLine...
DL - There is a lack of bodies and talent here, Cam Sample might be our best lineman (Sean Wilson's not terrible either). Our supposed bell cow Aruna has been non-existent, although some of that is due to his move inside I am sure. Patrick Johnson has shown flashes, and perhaps with Kennedy they are a bit better, but once again a bottom tier group.
LB - Rae Juan is solid if not spectacular and Jackson has had his moments but the LB's as a whole just haven't the talent to make plays. I would once again say a bottom tier position group.
DB's - I think we all expected this group to be a lot better than they are playing. Obviously Parry is a talent, but that's been it. We have seen flashes from Chase K., Teamer, Franklin, etc. but the inconsistency and blown coverages have been glaring. Jackson & Keyes who have the talent have been living in the training room so we have no option other than the often victimized Donnie Lewis. But how much can you put on the db's when there is NO PASS RUSH whatsoever. If I had to say by sheer talent, we are probably in the 3rd tier of the conference, but we play like the worst.
SP - We have a walk on kicker, nuff said. Block has been better, average but not outstanding, and our return units have made mental errors that have contributed to losses more often than not. We are bottom tier there as well.
So in my personal opinion we have bottom tier AAC talent everywhere but QB & RB...no wonder we have only 1 conference victory...although there should be a battle of the bottom this weekend at ECU. They have the worst run defense, we have the worst secondary...this should be interesting and frustrating at the same time.
