They have a really good QB who was injured last year and coming back from said injury. Likely to be a bit rusty, it was ACL/MCL. He is a mobile QB so the fact that it's a knee injury matters. Their rush yards dropped dramatically with him out.
Elsewhere on offense, top two WRs and RBs are gone. Chemistry between WR and QB likely to be an issue. Good news for us, since our D likely suxes this year.
On the OL, similar to us. Had an experienced line last year and 3-4 of those guys are gone. They return one full time starter and one part timer, 27 total starts on the line and like us, bring in a good JUCO OL. Better off than us but still rebuilding and not as good as last year.
On the other side of the line, they also lose roughly half their DL, including a 2nd team all conference guy at DE. One good DE coming back. Only one starter back, but very experienced backups to step in to their (3 player) DL. Overall down a bit but still have some veterans.
They start 4 LBs, 3 of which are back, and two of them were all conference. Pretty strong at LB. We may not break many long runs, but how often have they faced SEC speed? (which we actually have again, lol). All four of their starting LBs had int's last year, so they must be decent at pass defense. Overall LB looks like the strength of their D (which is also similar to us).
It's almost a total reboot at DB. They were very good last year, but two draft picks are gone along with a third starter and their top two backups. Five of top six gone. Returning DB was 1st team all conference, but he is basically all they got. I am salivating thinking about North , Malone, Croom and Pig testing them deep.
Overall they only return 3 starters on offense and 5 on D (and the QB returning is off a serious injury and has no veteran skill players).
They likely will score some points, but I think we outscore them.
