The Jackal wrote: ↑Tue Nov 26, 2024 6:57 am
It's one thing to have to start freshmen in key complementary roles. Hinton last year is a good example - we had a deep veteran squad and Hinton was a great complimentary piece as s shifty slot receiver.
It's another thing to have to start freshmen everywhere.
I'd be interested to know what, if anything, Hendrix would have looked back and changed. He commented early on about how the team did a lot more physical work this preseason to try to get guys ready who lacked the reps, but did that contribute to the overwhelming number of injuries?
It is a great question.
I think there is no doubt we might have hit less.
I wonder if, given the nature of some of the injuries, if Bernardi might have gone about his program differently?
In retrospect, knowing the season we were going to have, we might have gone all in on 8 earlier. Of course, part of the reason I am sure we did not is because we did not want 5 to hit the portal. So maybe not. But if we knew the run game would be what it was, hard to understand that we not have repped 8 harder.
Honestly, I think one of the biggest things I wish we could have changed was scheduling Ole Miss first. I don't have any evidence to prove this, but you take a young team trying to find leadership and confidence and throw them into that situation right out of the gate... I still think that left a mark.
A lot of the other stuff was either unforeseeable (Harris, injuries) or uncontrollable (33 taking time to come into his own etc.)
