I regularly spend entirely too much of my time each day surfing the various Dawg Blogs and message boards (I should seriously get another hobby) and I find some of the comments disturbing to say the least. Not to beat the proverbial dead horse but I do think that CMR's past performance has earned him the right to have a down season every once in awhile (having said that I honestly believe that we will end up 9-3 or 8-4 if you consider that a down year). We as fans have unrealistic expectations for our teams that need to be tempered with a bit of rationality. Last year we were hyped as preseason #1 and were supposed to roll all the way to Miami.

Well that didn't happen for a plethora of reasons that have been debated ad nauseum here and on every other Dawg site on the interwebs. Couple that with what has so far been a disappointing 2009 and I completely understand how we all can get upset and miss what is right in front of us. We have an enormous amount of talent on this team that are mostly underclassmen. David Hale wrote something to this effect a few weeks ago, but it bears repeating now when the wailing and teeth gnashing have reached a fever pitch.

Projected Line up Offense 2010

QB-Logan Gray (RJr) or Aaron Murray (RFr) or Zach Mettenberger (RFr)

RB-Waushan Ealey (So.), Caleb King (RJr), Richard Samuel (Jr)

FB- Shaun Chapas (Sr), Fred Munzenmeir (Sr)

WR- AJ Green (Jr), Tavarres King (RSo), Marlon Brown (So), Rantavious Wooten (So)

TE-Aron White (Jr), Orson Charles (So), Arthur Lynch (So), Bruce Figgins (RJr)

LT-Trinton Sturdivant (RJr), Cordy Glenn (Jr)

LG-Chris Davis (Sr)

C-Ben Jones (Jr)

RG- Justin Anderson (RJr)

RT-Clint Boling (Sr)

9 Returning Starters (IF you count Mike Moore as a starter which technically he isn't)

 

Defense

DE-Justin Houston (RJr)

DT-DeAngelo Tyson (Jr)

DT-Abry Jones (So)

DE-Demarcus Dobbs (Sr) or Cornelius Washington (RSo)

WLB-Rennie Curran (assuming he doesn't go pro) (Sr)

MLB-Marcus Dowtin (Jr)

SLB-Darryl Gamble (Sr)

CB-Brandon Boykin (Jr) Vance Cuff (Jr)

CB-Sanders Commings (RSo) or Branden Smith (So)  Both in the Nickel

SS-Baccari Rambo (RSo)

FS-Makiri Pugh (RSo)

This is assuming Reshad Jones goes pro and Rennie stays-8 Returning Starters

 

This doesn't include Ogletree (Safety) or Rodgers (6'2 204 WR) who will probably see some time next year. How awesome will it be to have 3 WR's over 6'2 on the field at the same time?

The schedule backs off a bit next year so you have to think that 2010, 2011 and even 2012 could be a great run for the program. This is a young team that makes mistakes and will hopefully learn and get better as a result of them as the year goes on.

Even if we go 7-5 this year and play in Shreveport I'll take it over being a Jorts wearing Mullet lover from Florida.

Go Dawgs!