So looking at Pac-12 ESPN blog RE: WR

[MRICoug]

Looks like they tab the Cougs as 7th in the conference. I am mildly surprised by this since it seems to me that we have a very deep and talented pool available. They note Dom, River, Lewis and Marks, but seem to imply there is little to no depth which due to style of play means we are really worse off than others. Perhaps, but I am not sure how you would put Oregon above us, as well as many others who only run 3 deep, with 1-2 guys who have proven effectiveness. I get that some of the guys are higher rated, and I would say USC, UCLA, are two I can get with the thinking. So what is our depth? Bartolone is not mentioned (although injuries have certainly been a problem for him), No mention of Green, Lilienthal, Ware, Thompson. No mention of how the RB's catch a bunch of passes, but they do count that towards other schools (AZ with a RB/slot disclaimer for one). No mention of the incoming guys either. Is it a perception that we no longer have depth here? When I look at it I think we are pretty deep, and some of the incoming guys, Sweet in particular along with Dimry could have a chance to add more depth this season.

 

[SaveFerris]

Looks like they tab the Cougs as 7th in the conference. I am mildly surprised by this since it seems to me that we have a very deep and talented pool available. They note Dom, River, Lewis and Marks, but seem to imply there is little to no depth which due to style of play means we are really worse off than others. Perhaps, but I am not sure how you would put Oregon above us, as well as many others who only run 3 deep, with 1-2 guys who have proven effectiveness. I get that some of the guys are higher rated, and I would say USC, UCLA, are two I can get with the thinking. So what is our depth? Bartolone is not mentioned (although injuries have certainly been a problem for him), No mention of Green, Lilienthal, Ware, Thompson. No mention of how the RB's catch a bunch of passes, but they do count that towards other schools (AZ with a RB/slot disclaimer for one). No mention of the incoming guys either. Is it a perception that we no longer have depth here? When I look at it I think we are pretty deep, and some of the incoming guys, Sweet in particular along with Dimry could have a chance to add more depth this season.

I wondered why they didn't include the RBs in the passing game as a strength since I believe they also knocked the RBs because of how rarely we run. Leach has said he wants 8 or 9 to feel he has enough depth. Green has talent behind Marks and Baker had his moments last year behind Cracraft. Lilienthal and Thompson (both John and DJ) are pretty much unknowns and Ware and the rest don't show up in the depth chart. Dom Williams has also been inconsistent over the years and Bartelone hasn't played for a long time. So added up, I can see why they would rank the receiver unit lower that we would expect.

After last year there's a lot to prove and we aren't going to get the benefit of the doubt.

 

[spongebob11]

Well, receiver has never been an issue here so I wouldn't put too much stock in that. Hopefully we can stretch the field vertically more though. We'll see if Marks can do that.