Since we are now in a relatively quiet dead football period, and not wanting to detract from any of the meaningful stories on this site, I thought it might be a good time to revisit and analyze our Tomahawk Nation members projections for the 2009 football team, just for fun.

Last summer I wrote a series of stories wondering if our 2009 football teams 7 individual units (defensive line, linebackers, secondary, backfield, offensive line, receivers and tight ends, and special teams) were going to be better, the same, or worse, as compared to the same unit from 2008, and I polled our members on their expectations for the 2009 season.

Since our membership here at TN has exploded over the past year, many of you will be seeing this for the first time. I ask that our newer members who did not have the opportunity to participate and vote last summer be patient, but to please feel free to comment, or ridicule those of us (myself included) who had some unrealistic projections. However, I would like to warn that I plan on doing a similar series later this summer, again using the 7 units, and your projections for 2010 may come back to haunt you sometime next spring, so you may want to consider treading lightly.  

My hope in revisiting this series is not to turn this into a coaches hate-fest, although that topic can not be off-limits due to the nature of the series.  I do think most of us are ready to move forward and stop rehashing our previous coaching regime's shortcomings, but I would like to focus on the individual units themselves and decided how far off, or in some situations, how well these units performed compared to the same unit from 2008.

I intend to keep my comparisons very basic, but I do welcome those of you with more statistical experience, with greater understanding of the advanced metrics often used on this site, and with more time, to please share your opinions with those of us not as knowledgeable in those area's.

Today we will look back and share a good laugh at what a bunch of optimistic, Kool-Aid guzzling, Garnet and Gold glasses wearing group of Seminoles we had gathered here at TN last summer, by looking back at Progression, Stagnation, or Regression? Noles Defensive Line.

You may first want to look back at Closing The Book On The 2009 Florida State Defense where Bud breaks down the performance of the entire defensive unit as a whole. However for these posts, we will review each unit individually, and not nearly in as much detail as you have grown accustomed to expect from TN.  As I previously stated, this post is just for fun and to give us something to discuss during this slow news period, that is if you are interested in doing so.

2008 DE=Benjamin Lampkin (really a LB) started the first 3 games, then was replaced by Neffy Moffett who started the rest of the season. In 10 games played, Moffett had 19 Total Tackles of which 11 were for loss, 5.5 sacks, 1 int, 2 QBH, and forced two fumbles and recovered one. Both players are now gone.

2009 PROJECTED DE=Kevin McNeil and Jamar Jackson

2008 NG=Moses McCray started the first 2 games then was replaced by Budd Thacker who started every remaining game until the Champs Bowl when Paul Griffin started his last game as a Nole.  Griffin is the only one gone and only had 11 Total Tackles, 1 for loss, 1 QBH, and 1 FR.

2009 PROJECTED NG=Moses McCray and Budd Thacker

2008 DT=Kendrick Stewart started 8 games and Justin Mincey started 4 games, 3 of which were the last 3 games.

2009 PROJECTED DT=Justin Mincey and Kendrick Stewart

2008 DE=Everette Brownhas left and taken his 36 total tackles of which 21.5 were for losses, 13.5 sacks, 2 pass BU, 3 QBH, 4 FF, and 1 FR.

2009 PROJECTED DE=Markus White and Toshmon Stevens.

 

OTHERS EXPECTED TO CONTRIBUTE: Everett Dawkins (SDE), Brandon Jenkins(WDE), Jacobbi McDaniel (DT), Demonte McAllister (DT/SDE)

What really wound up happening at;

2009 LDE:  Craig Yarborough started the first 3 games and the bowl game versus WVU, and Kevin McNeil  started the 9 games in between.

2009 RDE:  One of the few positions with any stability as Markus White started every game except the Georgia Tech game where our coaches tried stopping the GT option with 2 DT's (McCray and Thacker) and Dawkins at NT.

2009 Interior Line: I decided to group our NT's and DT's together because of the constant shuffling of players due to injuries at times, and at other times due to what seemed like no clear rhyme or reason. 

Excluding the GT game referenced above, the DT tackle position saw McCray starting 6 games, Dawkins starting 6 games, and Thacker starting one game against BC. 

The NT position saw Kendrick Stewart start the first 5 games, followed by Dawkins starting the next 2, then McCray, then Dawkins, and finally McCray started the final 4 games.

  |---------Tackles---------| |---Sacks---| |---Pass Def---| |-Fumbles-| Blkd
DEFENSIVE LEADERS   GP   UT   AT  Total   ForLoss     No - Yards  Int-Yds BrUp QBH Rcv-Yds  FF Kick Saf
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Markus White        13   21   17    38  10.5- 27.0    2.0- 10.0     1- 31   .    2    .      1   .   .
Jacobbi McDaniel    13   13   12    25   4.0- 16.0    1.0- 10.0      .      .    .    .      2   .   .
Kevin McNeil        12   14    5    19   5.5- 26.0    2.0- 18.0      .      1    3   3- 33   .   2   .
Budd Thacker        10   12    4    16      .            .           .      .    .    .      1   .   .
Everette Dawkins    13    9    5    14   3.5- 15.0    1.0-  9.0      .      .    .    .      .   .   .
Kendrick Stewart    12    6    6    12      .            .           .      .    1    .      .   .   .
Moses McCray        12    5    7    12   1.0-  1.0       .           .      .    .   1-  0   .   .   .
Craig Yarborough    13    3    1     4      .            .           .      .    1    .      .   .   .
  

Here is how you, the Tomahawk Nation members, voted?

2009 FSU DEFENSIVE LINE-PROGRESSION, STAGNATION, OR REGRESSION? PLEASE VOTE

50% OF YOU VOTED FOR PROGRESSION

32% OF YOU VOTED FOR STAGNATION

16% OF YOU VOTED FOR REGRESSION

I have to give myself a D for thinking White could adequately replace Everette Brown, for not realizing how very thin we were across the line and how unforeseen injuries could and did devastate our defensive line, and for thinking that Jacobbi would be able to play a bigger role as a freshman,  even though Jacobbi's playing improved as the season progressed and gives me hope for the interior of the line.

How would you rate your projections and expectations for the 2009 Defensive Line from last preseason?