Good report. Our DB room is one of the strongest in the Big Ten.
D'Angelo Ponds lands on the Jim Thorpe Award Watchlist. Congrats to D'Angelo
This is the group I'm most concerned with on our defense.
Out starters, if all are healthy, I'd put them up against just about anyone in the league. The second team is where the questions are.
Bonds has played some (played more as the year went on last year), and that's basically our backup returning depth. Sure, we THINK our young guys will be good, but I'm not sure how they'll match up with the Oregon or Penn State receivers once league play starts.
Gotta keep our starters healthy while also getting the young guys reps early in the year. We do that, I'll feel much better about the latter part of the year with this group.
@boogie Don't forget Boykin and Lou Moore. One of those guys is also a depth piece at rover/safety
@thehoosierhuddle sure, but I'm assuming that they'll be starters along with Farrell. (Just my thinking out loud), we need to find some guys that the staff will trust if one or, God forbid, two of those guys go down because outside of Bonds, we don't have anyone coming back at safety that's a backup with any game snaps.
The key to our team is to be injury-free.
@red-hornet Agreed. But that's a key for basically everyone in the portal era
Louis Moore was granted another year of eligibility.
@red-hornet Agreed. But that's a key for basically everyone in the portal era
Agree. Though for teams like us with limited NIL/rev share, no significant injuries is probably even more important. We can't afford as much depth as the big programs.
@red-hornet We are. Our NIL was $2M for Tom's last year, $4.5M for Cig's first season, and ~$8M this season (plus ~$15M rev share this season for a total of ~$23M).
That's a lot of progress in 18 months. Got to keep it going up though somehow...
If I win Powerball or Mega Millions, I will make it happen.