Here are my takes on why I think this team will be better than the past two years.
1. More experienced talent. Two years ago, we lost 40+ players off a highly successful team. It is difficult to replace that, so a lot of talented players had to play before they were ready. They should now have the experience to add to the talent.
2. Our defense should be extremely fast, but more importantly disciplined and focused on stopping the run. What I enjoyed most about our run under Napier was how good of a tackling team we were.
3. The OL has more talent and depth than at any time under CMD. We will run the ball better, my main question mark is around pass blocking. Even under Napier, I never thought we were a great pass blocking team, LL did some amazing work back there to avoid quite a few sacks.
That's it, those three things, but those three things mean a lot when you look at how many one score games we won under Napier and conversely lost the last two seasons. Forget the opponents, tell me our record in one score games this season and I can tell you how good of a season we are going to have.
2022, 0-4 in one score games, go .500 and we are 8-5 losing 40+ players
2023, 2-5 in one score games, go .500 and we are 8-5.