UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

[06panther10]

Are we legitimate contenders next year? I really think we can be. I say we get the hype going for next year.

[TravelingPanther]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

more legitimate than we were this year, so you would think so. I'd like to think Grace spends a lot of times with his WRs this year and gets more accurate. He would be the best FCS player in the country if he could manage that.

[UNIAlum95]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

Clearly the offense should be potent. I would hope to be scoring like we did in '07 next season.

QB - Grace / Davis - I don't think you can go wrong there. Given Farley's tendencies, the job is Grace's baring injury. He goes with the upperclassmen almost exclusively.
RB - Law/Brookins/Anderson - I don't see a feature back system next year. I see a lot of split carries. Farley is very high on Anderson.
WR - Hoard/Turner/Collins/Herring/Eyman - Are there enough balls to go around. Talented and deep just like this year.
TE - Oordt/Mahaffey/Gilson - Good blockers in Mahaffey & Gilson and great hands in Oordt.
OL - Teply/Steichen/Howard/Fiacco/Zlab/Limbaugh/Tecklenburg (6'8 330 R-Fr) - We're okay here.

Defense is a question mark. The line looks like it could reload as there is talent and some depth available depending on some shuffling and how some of the young recruits develop. Ruffin will need someone opposite him to throw off the double teams but I look for him to line up all over next year to confuse the offense.

DL - Ruffin/Herrig/Boothby/Kinney/Lane - Need to identify some depth here with underclassmen and or JUCO.
LB - Thompson/Mahoney/Fort/Cason - I'm hoping Mahoney decides to do graduate work next year and return. Otherwise we've got two big holes to fill. The staff is high on Fort. Need some underclassmen help for depth.
CB - Wow. Where do you start here. Criag James, Terrell McBride, Joe Johnson, Andre Martin, Garrett Scott, etc are all unproven commodities. This will be priorty one in finding a transfer. Would be good to get one shutdown type corner in the mold of Benny Sapp so the safety can cheat the other way.
S - Canady/Scott are unproven as well. The secondary will be a complete overhaul.

Special Teams. Hallgren and Black are back for kicking duties. Collins and Herring will continue to excite us with their return abilities.

We'll need to work on the defensive side of the ball for a few new players. Can't wait to see what this all starts to look like in the spring.

[06panther10]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

I think we need to try to build the hype for next year to have good attandance for the whole season. A good showing at Iowa would do wonders for that.

Next year's team has big-time potential in my opinion.

[BCPanther]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

You can also throw Rayon Simmons into the RB mix as well. R-FR that was player of the year in Missouri 5A football his senior year.

OL wise we also have Mike Thornton. He is a JUCO transfer that ended up being able to redshirt. I see he, Tepley, Tecklenberg, and Herrig fighting it our for the LG and RT spots.

Secondary wise I have heard rave reviews about Nico Watson for his work on scout team. He will be in the mix to start at corner come next spring...

[06panther10]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

We have a ton of high school player of the year kids on our team.

[Panther Cat]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

Offense will be better this year. We lose Cory Lewis, but he was not himself all year with some injuries he was battling, so the drop off won't be too big. Law is a good back and Brookins and some of the younger guys have should some potential.

The big questions will be with the defense. They have some decent young talent but they are losing a lot of solid starters. I like some of the younger guys so I'm confident they will step in.

I'm not banking on this, but I'm hoping Farley and the gang can pull in a few transfers to help shore up some holes on the defense.

[CR Panther]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

Our field goal kicking was not as sharp as it should be for a team that spends half of its games indoors with no wind kicking off of carpet. I'd like to see some others fighting for that role with hopes of a better % of completion.

[TravelingPanther]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

You can also throw Rayon Simmons into the RB mix as well. R-FR that was player of the year in Missouri 5A football his senior year.

OL wise we also have Mike Thornton. He is a JUCO transfer that ended up being able to redshirt. I see he, Tepley, Tecklenberg, and Herrig fighting it our for the LG and RT spots.

Secondary wise I have heard rave reviews about Nico Watson for his work on scout team. He will be in the mix to start at corner come next spring...

Was Simmons in camp this fall? I don't recall seeing him.

[BCPanther]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

He is on the roster...

[Kyle]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

Look for Anderson to be the next Johnny Grey. He is probably the second fastest guy on the team (behind Herring).

[TravelingPanther]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

Look for Anderson to be the next Johnny Grey. He is probably the second fastest guy on the team (behind Herring).

Craig James is pretty quick, too.

[Kyle]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

It's too bad we lost Craig Ralls. He looked like he could have an immediate impact his R-Fr year.

Anybody know where he ended up going? I heard he's at IAWCC, but I can't find anything about him on their website. Hopefully we will see him in a couple years.

[Panther Cat]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

There may be a chance we end up getting some of ISU's recruits now. Just a possibility on a few of them. I haven't heard any comments from them or anything, just throwing out an opinion.

[Tango Charlie]

Re: UNI fooball '09 = National title contenders?

Look for Anderson to be the next Johnny Grey. He is probably the second fastest guy on the team (behind Herring).

Anderson had a faster 100m time in high school than Herring