…Holgerson’s last year as our OC?
We had a pretty good year then with Case at Q-back and some great receivers. All our loses except the bowl game were close and we upset two well known P5 teams.
2009-Houston (CUSA)
9/5 vs. Northwestern State (non-IA) W 55 7
9/12 @ Oklahoma State (9-4) W 45 35
9/26 vs. Texas Tech (9-4) W 29 28
10/3 @ *Texas-El Paso (4-8) L 41 58
10/10 @ Mississippi State (5-7) W 31 24
10/17 @ *Tulane (3-9) W 44 16
10/24 vs. *Southern Methodist (8-5) W 38 15
10/31 vs. *Southern Mississippi (7-6) W 50 43
11/7 @ *Tulsa (5-7) W 46 45
11/14 @ *Central Florida (8-5) L 32 37
11/21 vs. *Memphis (2-10) W 55 14
11/28 vs. *Rice (2-10) W 73 14
12/5 @ *East Carolina (9-5) L 32 38 CUSA Championship
12/31 vs. Air Force (8-5) L 20 47 @ Fort Worth, TX Armed Forces Bowl
Collectively now.
Pure physical talent? Now, and it’s not that close.
That is the year we were cheated by the review late in the game and then looked unprepared in the bowl game.
You make this post without giving us a roster?
We have upgraded conferences since that season too. Memphis, Cincy, and UCF are every bit if not more talented than us currently.
10/3 @ *Texas-El Paso (4-8) L 41 58
That was a weird game to watch after having beaten OSU and TTech. Just could not stop UTEP’s running game. Right when we were sure the program had hit another level…bam. But hey…kids ran off another 5 straight wins and made the CUSA Champ game(almost winning in on a come back)!
The UTEP game was one of my bleakest Cougar memories. Just when I thought we had turned that corner we got blindsided by a team that had no where near our talent.
Donald Buckram. I thought we would never another RB own us like he did that night. Then the second half of last year happened.
Russell makes a good point so here it is.
Donald Farking Buckram just scored again.
Man it’s tough:
QB - Keenum vs King: Edge 2009 slightly
RB - Sims/Beall vs Carr/Porter/Car: Edge 2009 slightly
WR - Cleveland/Carrier/Edwards/Rodriguez vs Corbin/Stevenson/Lark/Smith: Edge 2019 slightly
OL - 2019
DL - 2019
LB - 2009
DB - 2019 slightly
Special Teams: 2009 slightly
It’s tough to go against King, but Keenum beat Okie State and Tech in back to back weeks. I’m willing to change my mind depending on how the season ends up as Keenum did not end that season well.
RB was tough and I think we have better overall depth this year than that season as Hayes hadn’t arrived yet and we didn’t really have a 3rd RB. However, Sims and Beall were very dependable…this is another one that I may change after the season.
As good as our WR were in 2009, they were still young. This year’s squad is deep and one of the best in the country. If they can eliminate the drops, they will be elite.
Our starting OL this year is better than what we had in 2009 as a lot of the hosses on the line at that time were still young. Our DL that year wasn’t strong and our guys this year will be solid.
LB was an easy win for 2009 considering they had McGraw, Steward, and Nicholson along with quite a bit of depth. This year’s squad has some talent, but a lot of inexperience.
At DB, I’d take our corners from the 2009 season and the safeties from this season. Overall, until our guys prove it this year, I’d give the edge to 2009, but this will probably change.
As solid as I think our special teams are this year, we were in good hands in 2009. Matt Hogan was money that season and Carrier returned 4 punts for TDs (we had 5 overall). As of now, we’re not even sure what our returners will look like since our previous staff wouldn’t let guys return kicks or punts.
Overall, I’d probably say it’s a push on talent, but I’d also say that this year’s team has the potential to be much better.
Patrick: Nice analysis. Maybe this year we can get back to actually returning KO s and punts. I believe we have some serviceable and maybe dynamic return players.
Yes we do.
The best thing we have going talent-wise for 2019 is this:
Our best player is our QB and he’s one of the best QBs in the country.
One way to look at it, how players on that 2009 team ended up being drafted (2? Hayden and Volmer??). How many ended up playing in the NFL?
Right? Not many other times I’ve felt as helpless as watching a stream of the Sun Bowl scoreboard as Donald Buckram punched in yet another touchdown to the sound of an ad for the Three Legged Monkey
Three Legged Monkey
Three Legged Monkey
I don’t think any of our current WR’s are as good or better than Carrier and Edwards. Stevenson is really close, but none of the others have shown that they are.
Was that the game where we were slipping and sliding everywhere on defense?
The stunning thing to me is that UTEP was coming off an annihilation in Austin and we were flying high…shocking loss it was
We’ll see…I really like Lark and Corbin and think they can be stars if they clean some of their issues up.
But, I agree, right now Carrier and Edwards were stronger overall. The analysis I did above was for 2009 when those guys were only sophomores so I believe our guys are stronger as upperclassmen. James Cleveland actually led our team in receiving that year and Justin Johnson still hadn’t arrived as he was only a sophomore as well.
I sort of wish Corbin and Lark had redshirted in 2016, but Herman had to put them in a couple of games because of his, “ if you’re a skill player you better play right away or you suck” mantra even though we had a strong receiving corp. Both could have used more seasoning prior to their senior year. Just think if both could have gotten 2 years with Coach Carrier and CDH; they’d be extremely polished heading into the draft.
It’ll be interesting to see who steps up behind them as Lark and Corbin graduate while Stevenson is likely going to enter the draft. Singleton showed flashes last year and I think Terry Mark has some potential.