08-23-2011, 08:42 AM
Redrum:
You left out free safety. Mike Thomas returns, which makes that spot a plus.
I think the article raises a deeper point that is impossible to measure: it's not only the quantity of returning starters that matters, it's also their quality.
On defense we return four of our top six starters from last season (Fua, Chase Thomas, Skov, Michael Thomas, Howell, and Sherman).
We also return four of our top six starters on offense (Luck, Marecic, the tailback by committee, Decastro, Martin, and Beeler).
This team seems to me like sort of the inverse of our 1993 team. Others may recall the details better, but that year I believe we had something like 11 or 12 starters returning from the Blockbuster Bowl team. Preseason expectations were pretty high. But on defense especially, key guys like John Lynch and Ron George were gone. And we couldn't stop anyone.
You left out free safety. Mike Thomas returns, which makes that spot a plus.
I think the article raises a deeper point that is impossible to measure: it's not only the quantity of returning starters that matters, it's also their quality.
On defense we return four of our top six starters from last season (Fua, Chase Thomas, Skov, Michael Thomas, Howell, and Sherman).
We also return four of our top six starters on offense (Luck, Marecic, the tailback by committee, Decastro, Martin, and Beeler).
This team seems to me like sort of the inverse of our 1993 team. Others may recall the details better, but that year I believe we had something like 11 or 12 starters returning from the Blockbuster Bowl team. Preseason expectations were pretty high. But on defense especially, key guys like John Lynch and Ron George were gone. And we couldn't stop anyone.