Compare talent level at past few coaching changes

[Dutchnation]

Talent in the trenches right now is below average-to-average depending on injury status. Against teams of a similar caliber, the teams results were mixed. Against the upper-echelon MW teams (Utah St., Boise, Fresno) Wyoming was flat out dominated in every way in the trenches. Different level of talent.

Obviously the QB talent would have been better had Bohl not gotten a little lucky with Smith/Thompson. RB talent is adequate. Not great, but not horrible either. Middle of the MW level. WR talent is solid, but it remains to be seen if these are more spread WRs than pro-style WRs. Bohl seems to favor guys with height big time.

Wyoming's secondary talent has always oddly been pretty good. Consistently sending players to the NFL, but for whatever reason they suck while they're here.

Overall, I'd say the talent level is decent considering Wyoming rarely makes an impact with higher level recruits.

Exactly what I was trying to say. And you aren't giving our running backs enough credit. Unfortunately, to Jrods point, our beef up front needs to improve dramatically. I am hoping by some miracle that they are better at blocking in the pro-style offense than they were in the spread.

 

[joshvanklomp]

Going back to my Kill comparison, an old thread was brought up tonight on a Gophers forum. It was from mid-October of Kill's first season at Minnesota. Kill was quoted as saying he "needs four recruiting classes to change the Gophers culture and last years did not count".

I think we could have a similar time frame here, no matter what the talent level may seem to be. Sure, there may be glimpses of change in the meantime, but this isn't an overnight process.

 

[WYCowboy]

IMO, it isn't as much about talent as it is about attitude, buying in to the coaches and the system they are running, and working hard to improve their physical conditioning and level of play. A 5 star kid may be able to come in and start right away, but if he doesn't improve during his first couple of years he may not be any better than a 2 star kid who who works his ass off the whole time he is here. Besides that, whatever the talent level, they need to be team players & leaders - if they aren't then they might as well have zero stars.

 

[johnywyo]

The game is won in the trenches, and this quite honestly has been our demise of late. Skill position, we have had some talent under DC, no doubt. We've seen glimpses of that in a couple places but not consistently over Howdy's tenure. Glenn seemed incapable of making the leap, we were close with him but regressing back to that TCU game some years ago at home where we had 5 turnovers, and since that juncture the wheels came off for Joe. I think had we won that game we may be talking a different program at this point. We've had some ball hawk safeties, and some DE play that has been in play for several years, that may resonate this year as well. Our receiving corp I don't believe is going to be as good this year as last. Maybe the TE and FB will develop in time, however I'm not sure it will be this year that we see it at it's full potential. I like our RB's, and perhaps ball control and no mistakes will help Colby in finding some combination of developing a feel for what we can do early on as we approach those big venues at Oregon, then Michigan State. I sense Kirk may perform at a higher level that what we all fear. So, it comes down to line play both sides of the ball, control the line of scrimmage to the extent these kids can and pray for a .500 season. Talent level aside, we need some big uglys.

 

[WestWYOPoke]

Exactly, it doesn't matter if we have Barry Sanders and Adrian Peterson in the backfield, without at least a decent OL to block for them, they aren't going anywhere.

On an aside, how badass would that be to see those 2 in the same backfield with a Larry Csonka or Mike Alstott blocking for them...