ManO'War;963175 wrote:We were talking about just defense.
The 06 offense ranks up there with the best Big Red has ever had. 06 special teams were average.
That's what made 05 so great...all 3 phases of the game were outstanding.
Oh, yes... In terms of defense, I would probably rate this squad above the '06 team. Despite a wealth of talent, that defense was not dominating. I guess replacing so many important pieces, especially on the defensive line, took its toll on the 2006 defense.
Good post, Mooney44Cards. My biggest gripe about this particular message board has been the lack of actual football talk and the abundance of meaningless smack talk.
Unfortunately, I've only been able to see Big Red twice this year (Ursuline and Massillon), so it is difficult for me to go into great detail about how the team has grown and where our weak spots are.
One thing that really surprised me from Week 5 to Week 9 was the improvement at the quarterback position. Prather has really come into his own. He looked so much more comfortable in the pocket and going through his reads. You could also see that the coaching staff has gained a lot of confidence in him and they are giving him more options when he drops back to pass.
Our passing game has come a long, LONG way over the course of the last couple of seasons.
Our running game is strong, as usual, with a smallish, quick line. JoJo Pierro and LeShawn Luke can really wear on a defense. We have a homerun hitter with Najee Murray, who will line up all over the field.
It is a good, balanced offense that seems to be getting better and better.
Defensively, this is a team that could make its mark at Big Red, as we have previously discussed in this thread. A lot of it will depend on how well we do in the postseason, obviously, but when we are having conversations about the 2005 team in comparison, you know it has a lot of potential.
William Houst is an absolute monster and Najee is obviously a BCS caliber talent.
Our special teams scare me a bit. We have a pretty good kicker this year who can put the ball in the endzone and also kick an occasional FG (he is money on XPs), but our coverage makes me hold my breath at times. Then again, kick coverage is always a little scary on the high school level, regardless of who you are.
It should be a really interesting game between two programs that know one another well.
RRR