They may have ranked us too high.
Yea. It's hard to argue. For the first time in decades we don't return one starter that is a household name. Not one established star player on either side.
Offense is a HUGE question mark right now.
QB - at this point is not close to being settled. Cole would be an awesome story, but he really hasn't shown IT yet. Now he was thrust into action in very tight spot and it's hard to have expected him to just turn into his dad. I'm not ever sold that he had full support from the staff because we saw Cam come back.
Braylon Braxton was hurt when he was replaced, Parachek is a walk-on that has never posed any real threat to taking over and this kid from North Texas that just came in (Stone Earle) was benched after just a couple games. He did have one decent season at Abilene-Christian.
So here are the choices for QB.
Complete career NCAAF stats for Marshall Thundering Herd Quarterback Cole Pennington on ESPN. Includes scoring, rushing, defensive and receiving stats.
www.espn.com
Complete career NCAAF stats for Marshall Thundering Herd Quarterback Braylon Braxton on ESPN. Includes scoring, rushing, defensive and receiving stats.
www.espn.com
Complete career NCAAF stats for Marshall Thundering Herd Quarterback Stone Earle on ESPN. Includes scoring, rushing, defensive and receiving stats.
www.espn.com
Also for the first time in forever we don't have an established RB that has produced at a high level. The closes we have is Ethan Payne. While he doesn't suck, I am not sure he's an every down type of back. Those we've never really seen him out there long enough to see how he plays with momentum. There are a couple guys like the NCST transfer, but no guy we can hang our hat on like we could in seasons past.
WR and TE are both question marks as there isn't one established threat that is consistent enough to warrant singular attention from opposing DCs. There are some transfers with P5 on their old jerseys, but that doesn't automatically mean anything. Time will tell.
OL has been a mess since South Bend.
Could all those offensive questions with the fact that we are rolling out there with yet another first time OC calling the plays. Yes he could be really good and he could also struggle.
Defensive might be a little better off, but we still don't have any big time carry overs from last season. Our best players from the last season have graduated, declared, or hit the portal.
Kicking is a nightmare.
Oh and out HC is a lame duck that has allegedly let it be known that he's leaving no matter what.
I hope we have a good season, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if we miss a bowl. People got all over me last year for saying we'd finish between 4-8 and 8-4 and we struggled mightily to get to .500 and finished with a bowl loss and a sub .500 record. This year has more questions than last season.