Besides recruiting, so far, what went well for the Hogs this season..................................

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#1

…don’t go crazy now, this is a serious question.

  1. The defense was better. Despite the late game collapses, it played better and tackled better than last year. The lack of depth combined with the offense failing to do its job left it gassed late in games, but, overall, it was not good but definitely better than last year.

  2. Except for punting, the kicking game was much better than last year. Coverage was good and kickoff returning was decent at times. Punt returning was nothing to write home about but we caught it without fumbling most of the time. Field goal kicking was significantly improved.

  3. Tight end play, mostly O’Grady, was improved over last year.

So, that’s all I got. Here are the positions that played worse than last year:

a. Offensive line.

b. Quarterbacks

c. Wide receivers

d. Running backs (mostly due to injuries and a bad offensive line)

e. Punter

f. Upper Class Leadership - There were some (Watts, Froholdte, Ramirez, & Storey -played worse than last year but never quit trying) that didn’t quit but not enough.

When I look at this list, losing two more games than last year makes sad sense.

#2

My quibble would be with your ranking order. I’m not saying that any are wrong, just perhaps out of order. It’s really hard for a QB to be effective when the OL is not.

I was thoroughly disgusted with the performance of the punters. I would have put them at second on your list. We used to have good punters and turning over the field was not uncommon. To me, it was a sign of the ineptness of special teams.

#3