OK, so I am going to give an early assessment after one single game against a cupcake.

 

Offense:

I liked the protection. It wasn't perfect and it was against a cream puff, but not bad for the first game. There certainly is some potential as they get more cohesion.

I liked the running game. Demps appears to finally have a little wiggle and Rainey looks great on his first cut. Seems having a FB is going to pay off for them.When Burton gets healthy, motioning him as a co lead with Joyer has great potential, especially against the 3-4 teams.

Reed looks ok as a TE in what limited plays we've seen thus far. Dunbar looks like a good one, as Hammond looks poised for a breakout. DT still looks hopeless, and Debose looks positively lost on downfield plays, but I liked Debose's willingness to lay a hat on people, so that counts for something.

It'll be interesting to see how Hines and Clark factor in.

Brantley still looks like a lost cause. When you take away his swing completions and yardage, his numbers were on par with last year. That's particularly disturbing since the apologists blamed it on him being miscast, a square peg in a round hole as it were. We heard non stop about how his skill set is better suited for Weis' offense, that it's similar to the offense he ran for Kerwin Bell.  I (and others) warned people that Bell's offense was prolific because it was a run first league that teams were not built to stop and Brantley's high school stats were inflated because of this - much like Shane Matthews' numbers when Spurrier first arrived were an illusion because of the opponents. We saw what happened when Matthews went up against elite athletes (read: FSU, Bowls) in top flight OOC games. The same can be said against Brantley - the defenses he is facing now are all geared to stop the run and the pass, so he'll have no advantage derived from scheme specific personnel.

Brantley just doesn't have "it."

 

Defense:

Hard to gauge based on the competition, but I did like a few things.

For starters, Easley looks like a beast. The level of competition doesn't play a factor in how one fires off the ball, and his first step is freakish. Whether he can knife past the better players he will face is another matter, but his first step automatically means teams HAVE to account for him.

Powell was still a non factor. Where is this freak we heard about ? He had a coverage sack on a cleanup play. Where was the steady menacing expected ?

I like the instincts of the D coming up to tackle. From the DBs to the LBs I loved the quick reactions and beelines they made on plays at or behind the LOS and the way they stormed up. This bodes well, as they seemed to have learned how to force the play, rather than let the play come to them while they are flat footed. They'll miss some tackles, but they'll also force some ballcarriers to the inside on occasion where they'll have their bells rung and/or cough up a turnover.

I like the way Elam patrolled the middle. He wasn't tested, but that has as much to do with his positioning as anything else.

All in all the season hold promise. While they stand no chance of winning the SEC title, they could challenge for the EAST. I don't think they will though. While they will most likely beat Georgia, Tennessee, and SC that triple header of Bama, LSU and Auburn will likely cause them to lose out on the east. They have to steal the Auburn game to have a chance. They need a 6-2 SEC record. Georgia has a cupcake schedule, with SC being the only other opponent of note. Florida needs Georgia to lose to SC, then they need SC to lose to Arkansas or MSU. This works on the idea that Florida beats both Georgia and SC thus having the head to head edge. I haven't mentioned UT because they have Arkansas, LSU and Bama from the west. They are losing at least 2 of those, plus I am assuming they lose to Florida and probably SC as well as Georgia.

 

Special teams:

Like the 51 yard bomb. Like Patton's block. Like the return (not the nullification)

So, all in all, decent first outing. Lots of potential for down the road. In reality, I think we should temper our excitement for this year, and think 2012-2013.