In Reply to: 2025 B1G Team Talent Preview: UCLA posted by mh on July 05, 2025 at 09:50:21
Most of the previews I've seen tend to gloss over the coaching changes, especially at our worst areas -OC and OL.
As such, it's possible our players returning, especially on the OL, are undervalued.
As an example, most previews seem to really underrate Habemehl as a TE, and he was looking great before the injury. I think the OL is similarly getting undervalued due to the sub-par play we had last year - which we are hoping gets an immediate boost from the new staff.
Ditto the running game.
Our biggest question mark is whether our dreadful offense was coaches or talent. Yes, it's probably both, but in terms of this year, the talent is what it is, and we'll see if we get better performance or not.
I think we'll see far better play on the OL, especially in the running game, and being better at those 2 facets can also make the passing game much better.
Defensively, I'm concerned about the pass defense. We'll need to generate pressure and we don't have anyone proven, as of now, and all the new players in the DB/S realm will need to gel quickly. It's possible, but an area to really keep an eye out. We could actually be better at DT than last year with both Smith and Williams back, even tho we lost Toia.