Just catching up on much of this thread as I hibernated since last football season. Saw some interesting comments about Tyrie - most very positive about how good he is individually, but several saying how he won't be as productive because he needs help. While it is true that WCU loses 4 starters off the O-line, we have some guys who got a fair amount of playing time due to injury. I also feel like with the scheme, we can somewhat mask a little bit of line play (ask FUBeAR what he honestly thought of our O-line the last 2 years).
As for the rest of the offense, we return 2 starters at WR in Mullen (55 catches for 600 yards and 2 TDs) and Patten (39 catches for 567 yards and 5 TDs), have a handful of new WRs who provide size (DJ Thorpe is a RS-SO, Keshaun Abel and Mahari Sterling are both RS FR - all 6'3" or taller), return the preseason all-SoCon TE in Owen Cosenke (23 catches for 261 yards and 8 TDs), and return our top 2 RBs in Connell Young (529 rushing and 331 receiving yards and 5 total TDs) and Donovan Spencer (506 yards rushing and 142 receiving yards and 4 total TDs). We also signed the highest rated RB signee in the SoCon per Hero Sports (#4 overall) with Syheam McQueen. Between the 5 guys listed who had stats last season, that is over 1000 rushing yards, over 1900 receiving yards, 157 total receptions, and 26 TDs scored. And McQueen is the highest-rated RB we have ever signed in the history of the program.
I expect WCU to again have a pretty good offense. Our season will hinge on if some of the defensive guys have gotten better - for the last 3 or 4 weeks of 2018 we had about 1/2 the starters and nearly every guy on the 2nd team listed as either RS or true Freshman. More precisely, it will hinge on our defensive front as we have some pretty talented guys in the backend (Ronald Kent was all-Freshman and was on the Jerry Rice watch list, Michael Murphy had a very good year, Shamon Elliott has 13 career starts and 3 INTs, JerMichael White missed much of last year due to injury but has 11 career starts with 2 INTs and a couple of double-digit tackle games, and John Brannon with 4 career INTs come to mind back there). A pair of LBs with experience return in Ty Harris (105 career tackles, 2 sacks, 2 INTs) and Jarquavious Wortham (19 tackles and 2 sacks last year). We also signed a pair of highly-regarded Freshman D-lineman in Christian Harris (our top-ranked recruit as the #3 SoCon signee per Hero Sports) and Roman Johnson.
Our biggest losses are Jordan Mathis on offense and Nate Link on defense (Link graduated in May and decided not to play as a graduate student). Again, a whole lot of this is based on potential and previous stats, but we also had what Hero Sports ranked as the #1 overall SoCon recruiting class. I am not ready to translate that into "x" wins until I see the team in action, but for the exercise I ***think*** was being asked here, that is a more in-depth look at the Cats.
Hero Sports link: https://herosports.com/fcs/recruitin...nce-socon-ajaj
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