The college football offseason is a time to evaluate more than merely the number of starters teams do or don’t replace. This is a time to consider how good the various units were in the previous season, which demands an ability to judge how urgent certain roster situations are for the season to come. Here are several examples as we take stock of 2016 and look ahead to important transitions facing programs in 2017:
Colorado Secondary
The Buffaloes lose three starters from their starting 2016 secondary, but it’s more than that: Colorado was as good as any team in the nation in pass defense. It held USC and Sam Darnold to 21 points, and then against Washington in the Pac-12 title game, it held UW star Jake Browning to 9 of 24 passing for under 120 yards. John Ross, the receiver who blew everyone away at the NFL Combine over the weekend, was held in check by the Buffaloes’ back line of defense. If that unit was so thoroughly effective against USC and Washington, it has to be taken very seriously. Therefore, replacing 75 percent of this unit does figure to be a daunting challenge for CU coach Mike MacIntyre. The Buffaloes were a surprise team in the Pac-12 last season but they have a long way to go to sustain what they had.
Louisiana Tech Wide Receivers
There were few better receiver tandems in college football last season than Carlos Henderson and Trent Taylor. Both could make plays at all spots on the field, but Henderson was more explosive while Taylor looked like a clone of Wes Welker at times, relentlessly getting open in the slot for first down catches on third and six. The individual gifts of both players are extensive, but what made these receivers so good in a team concept is that their skills largely complemented each other. That’s what Louisiana Tech will have particular difficulty replacing.
Michigan Secondary
When the highlight reels clicked and whirred into action last year, they showed Jourdan Lewis and Jabrill Peppers making acrobatic plays of all kinds. These are two freakish athletes with incredible reach, instincts, lateral movement capacities, and great hands. They perform so many actions well and have a feel for the game which augments their physical gifts. Peppers is still somewhat weak in coverage, but run support and reading defenses are big strengths. Michigan will encounter moments during the 2017 season when it realizes how much of a safety net it had in its defensive backfield with these guys.
Oklahoma Running Backs
There is a complementarity between receivers, as shown by Louisiana Tech, and running backs can enjoy that same yin-yang effect as well. Oklahoma had that benefit with Samaje Perine and Joe Mixon. The two did not typically line up in the same backfield set. The Sooners alternated plays or, if they used both, they would put Mixon at a receiver spot on occasion. Perine’s interior bulldozer-style running and Mixon’s open-field make-you-miss slashing gave Oklahoma two equally potent but stylistically different weapons. That’s a lot to lose heading into 2017. The good news is that the Sooners should have a strong offensive line in 2017. That’ll help whoever is in the backfield. Beyond that, they also play in the Big 12, so they won’t be facing too many vaunted college football defenses. They need someone to step up but they’re not in the worst situation.
West Virginia Defensive Line
When the offense-happy Big 12 roared into action last college football season, one defense usually held the line, and that was West Virginia. The Mountaineers were blown out by Oklahoma, but they did well against just about everyone else. Even in their loss to Oklahoma State, the Mountaineers’ offense was primarily responsible for WVU’s woes. The defense was put into short fields and sudden-change situations. This defense, under coordinator Tony Gibson, was consistently able to shut off big plays and force opponents into making large numbers of difficult plays to score. Few Big 12 defenses had the same knack, and so with WVU losing three defensive linemen, the 2017 unit has a very high standard to try to match. It won’t be easy.
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