The dominoes are starting to fall with LR players hitting the portal

[BearFan1]

I was told this morning that Mt Airy's Spencer Baldwin left today to begin his enlistment to the Navy hoping to play a role of some kind in a submarine. His father is a retire career military but not Navy, as I understand it. So if he is going to LR it probably will be in several years down the road. Caught some of us by surprise.

[BearFan1]

While I would much rather Football Coach or someone with more "knowledge" expound on what I am going to post here, for what it is worth:
It seems to me the out going portal for LR is that we lost 5 starters and maybe one more that played a lot. So say we lost 6 significant contributors.

What did we bring in via the portal? From Football Coach's review (and my very quick reading of it, which may not be correct or accurate) we got four to possibly 5 immediate contributors.

Also, my impression is that what we needed to replace most was LB, WR, DB and kicking game.

While I have no idea about what we are bringing as Freshman, a couple were listed as very good kickers. I hope so, but when we made NO ATTEMPT to get Walter Stroup from Mt Airy, well we left the States 2nd best kicker (first was Hauser from Hough who is going to Clemson) out of the picture. That is all but unforgivable.

Replacing Maye at LB is going to be really hard but a two time All America might go a long way. WR seems to be addressed, at least on paper with portal guys and a couple of freshman.

Again, I really would like to see what some others with more knowledge think but I would give the coaching staff, at this point, a B- in replacing what we lost. Of course the unknown is really the freshman. Did we get a couple of gems?

[FootballCoach]

While I would much rather Football Coach or someone with more "knowledge" expound on what I am going to post here, for what it is worth:
It seems to me the out going portal for LR is that we lost 5 starters and maybe one more that played a lot. So say we lost 6 significant contributors.

What did we bring in via the portal? From Football Coach's review (and my very quick reading of it, which may not be correct or accurate) we got four to possibly 5 immediate contributors.

Also, my impression is that what we needed to replace most was LB, WR, DB and kicking game.

While I have no idea about what we are bringing as Freshman, a couple were listed as very good kickers. I hope so, but when we made NO ATTEMPT to get Walter Stroup from Mt Airy, well we left the States 2nd best kicker (first was Hauser from Hough who is going to Clemson) out of the picture. That is all but unforgivable.

Replacing Maye at LB is going to be really hard but a two time All America might go a long way. WR seems to be addressed, at least on paper with portal guys and a couple of freshman.

Again, I really would like to see what some others with more knowledge think but I would give the coaching staff, at this point, a B- in replacing what we lost. Of course the unknown is really the freshman. Did we get a couple of gems?

Already posted my thoughts but wanted to show who all LR lost from last season. These were starters from the Harding Game (last game of the season) who are no longer on the team. Seems like there will be a lot of new faces on the field this season!

Starters Lost:

Defense: 8/11 starters not returning
C'Darius Kelley- CB Transfer
TJ Blanding-CB Grad
Malik Taylor-SAF Grad
Zeke Nance- DE Grad
Rashad Yelding-DT Grad
Jon Ross Maye-LB Transfer
Devin Hibbitt-LB Transfer
Percy King-LB Grad

Offense: 7/11 starters not returning
Blake Jefferson-OL Grad
Shane Wells- OL Grad
Xavier Jennings-OL Transfer
Sean White-QB Grad
Dwayne McGee-RB Transfer
Deondre Lester-WR Grad
Kelin Parsons-WR Transfer

[Eagle74]

Duh-ham!!! That only leaves 6 starters from last year's Harding game left on the team!

[Bulldog Blue]

Ok, LR guys don't get your drawers in a knot. I talked to one of the coaches (old pal Wingate grad) and he told me they have some NAIA All Americans from Kaiser, where their coach won a natty. He says they are going to be fighters to prove they belong at this level. Turns out that THREE of LR's top coaches are WU grads. I told some of you LR boys that Wingate will someday teach yall to play football. Someday is here

[LRBear]

Ok, LR guys don't get your drawers in a knot. I talked to one of the coaches (old pal Wingate grad) and he told me they have some NAIA All Americans from Kaiser, where their coach won a natty. He says they are going to be fighters to prove they belong at this level. Turns out that THREE of LR's top coaches are WU grads. I told some of you LR boys that Wingate will someday teach yall to play football. Someday is here

That’s pretty crazy to say. Especially saying Wingate hasn’t won a SAC title since 2017.

[Bulldog Blue]

That’s pretty crazy to say. Especially saying Wingate hasn’t won a SAC title since 2017.

What's LR's record against Wingate for the past 2 years? 0-2!!!!!!!

[Eagle74]

I'm optimistic that CN's Coach Ingram will have the Eagles flying high again, but it's probably going to take at least a year or two. With that being said, and based on what I'm hearing, Wingate's Bulldogs will be the team to beat in the SAC this coming season. The Bulldogs will be stronger and more loaded than in the past.

[FootballCoach]

Ok, LR guys don't get your drawers in a knot. I talked to one of the coaches (old pal Wingate grad) and he told me they have some NAIA All Americans from Kaiser, where their coach won a natty. He says they are going to be fighters to prove they belong at this level. Turns out that THREE of LR's top coaches are WU grads. I told some of you LR boys that Wingate will someday teach yall to play football. Someday is here

Other than Nick Vagnone, who else graduated from Wingate?