Obviously no one knows what will happen but there are more than a handful of teams ahead of us we will be better than. I could just be seeing things with purple glasses but I feel we should be a top 10 team*. The few holes and questions we have should be filled.
Yes, the secondary will be young but the front 7 should be very good and deep and will mitigate some secondary issues. Also, guys like Kelly, Beaver, Baker were highly recruited. Its not like the new guys are some 3* guy with only UW, WSU and OSU offers.
I like Price but Miles is going to add the run dimension we didn't have. Plus Miles already played @OSU, @UCLA and BYU. He has great experience. After the first 4 joke games, people will talk about him as a dark horse Heisman guy because he will have huge numbers.
Coons is a big loss but with Petersens coaching I think Van Winkle will be an adequate replacement. Punting is a concern though.
I expect Dwayne Washington to be good and they'll fill in with Shaq and Coleman. We'll see how much of a drop off there is after Sankey.
Lastly, Petersen is a damn good coach. If you give Sark credit for the bowl win then he coached a top 13 metrics team yet bungled things frequently. Now you have 17/22 starters returning, an easier schedule, stronger depth and a proven championship coach. Its a recipe for a top 10 team, even w/o String, ASJ & Sankey.
Comments
*if Van Winkle stays healthy