[Bama323]

VT will be a VERY tough opening game. They had a good team this year, despite being one of the youngest teams in DI. They are well coached so you can bet they'll be ready to play to start the season. They will likely be ranked in the Top 10 to start the season, but it will be legit unlike Clemson's ranking this year. It wouldn't suprise me if lost against VT next season, and still end up winning the West.

Our season next year is probably going to be determined by how good our new incoming players are. What I mean by that is even though we have alot of players returning, we lose many KEY positions from this year's team. Center, LT, QB, RG, Safety, and two starting TE's. Those are all very important positions, especially C, QB, and LT. Also, you can't discount what Rashad Johnson has meant to us on defense. Not only he is a good player, but he was one of the smartest people on our team and was basically a QB for our secondary, and made big special teams plays.

If Fluker and Carpenter can come in and play well from the start at LT and at Guard, that really helps our chances. That leaves the Center position as the only real question mark. IF we can pick up a Massie, that really gives us some much needed depth and talent on the OL. Tyler Love hopefully will make some noise this coming season as well. If we have the blocking, we'll have the RBs to give us a strong running game next season.

I think Smelley and Peek will do very well at the TE positions, and may even be an improvement over what we had this year.

The QB battle is going to be fun to watch and probably the topic of much speculation even into fall camp. McElroy has looked very capable in limited action this year, but I haven't really seen enough of him to know if he is capable of taking over the reigns completely and competing consistently at a high level. We may not know for sure until we seem him play in a critical point in a game. He does seem to be a great student of the game, and hopefully that will help him become a leader and good decision maker on the field.

It wouldn't suprise me at all to see Star Jackson get significant playing time next year, if not take over the starting job completely. He seems to have all the physical tools to make a big difference on offense. He has a strong accurate arm, mobility, and the athleticism to make plays on the run. If Star can develop enough mentally, then he could really give us another weapon offensively. However, he will only be a redshirt freshman, so there is plenty of time for him to develop.

Defensively, we should be more talented and deeper next season, especially in the front 7. We desperately need a speedy pashrusher or two. We'll miss Rashad Johnson, but considering he is really our only loss in the defensive backfield, I think we'll be fine. We have the potential to be very very good defensively next season. Rolando McClain will be our most important defensive player next season.

Special teams should also prove to be a strong point for us next year.

With that said, IF, IF, we can find immediate replacements to come in and shore up the offensive line, we should have a good season next year. Stong running game + Strong defense + strong special teams = formula for winning football games. AGAIN, THE OFFENSIVE LINE WILL BE THE DETERMINING FACTOR FOR THE DIRECTION OF OUR TEAM NEXT YEAR.