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**bigsig50** · 12-24-2018, 01:15 PM

Re: Truman Offseason

Truman had a pretty nice little season bookended by some tough losses. With that being said, being able to reel off 6 straight wins is impressive no matter what.

Truman returns most of their ground game production, considering their QB was the biggest piece of that puzzle, however graduating 3 big important pieces of that OL, one of them being an all-conference performer will certainly test that "next man up" mentality.

The Achilles heel for the Bulldogs seems to be the forward pass... both executing it and defending it. To be fair, I don't believe they really CARE to try to pass that much given their offensive play calling.... but you're going to HAVE to defend the pass if you want to win championships as most teams at that level have above average QB play that will shred a defense that is even slightly suspect. They do return 7 young all conference players on that side of the ball but the hardest part of playing defense is always getting guys to think and move with "one heartbeat". Putting up nice defensive stats does not correlate to a good defense if you're giving up big pass plays that offset the big defensive plays.

I think given their youth, the Truman defense probably takes a step forward, while their offense takes some time to break in some new OL before they get back up to speed. I can see them being in the mix again for a post season bowl game next year at the end of the season.

**TSU_Mike59** · 01-07-2019, 09:33 AM

Re: Truman Offseason

Originally posted by bigsig50 View Post

Truman had a pretty nice little season bookended by some tough losses. With that being said, being able to reel off 6 straight wins is impressive no matter what.

Truman returns most of their ground game production, considering their QB was the biggest piece of that puzzle, however graduating 3 big important pieces of that OL, one of them being an all-conference performer will certainly test that "next man up" mentality.

The Achilles heel for the Bulldogs seems to be the forward pass... both executing it and defending it. To be fair, I don't believe they really CARE to try to pass that much given their offensive play calling.... but you're going to HAVE to defend the pass if you want to win championships as most teams at that level have above average QB play that will shred a defense that is even slightly suspect. They do return 7 young all conference players on that side of the ball but the hardest part of playing defense is always getting guys to think and move with "one heartbeat". Putting up nice defensive stats does not correlate to a good defense if you're giving up big pass plays that offset the big defensive plays.

I think given their youth, the Truman defense probably takes a step forward, while their offense takes some time to break in some new OL before they get back up to speed. I can see them being in the mix again for a post season bowl game next year at the end of the season.

Definitely plan on taking a thorough look through all of these this week. Looks like fantastic offseason work, BigSig. Thanks for the effort!

**TSU_Mike59** · 02-07-2019, 09:49 AM

Re: Truman Offseason

Signing Day release for Truman yesterday: https://trumanbulldogs.com/news/2019...ing-class.aspx.

Some of the things that stuck out-
1. A big focus on the offensive and defensive lines. Truman is relatively young at most of the other skill positions, so this makes sense. Hit the Chicago area for a couple of big O-linemen who got pretty high praise in Illinois' largest class. Also grabbed some mid-Missouri talent as well, led by Jon Saxbury from perennial Missouri power Monroe City.
2. Love the fact that Truman grabbed the starting QB and WR from Blair Oaks, another longtime Missouri powerhouse program. The QB looks to be an heir apparent made up from the same mold as current Truman QB Jaden Barr ... small town Missouri kid who can throw it (2,700 pass yards, 48 TDs, 0 (ZERO) interceptions a senior) but will also run it (1,600 rushing yards as a senior also). His teammate was on the receiving end of nearly 1,700 of those 2,700 passing yards and for 27 of the 48 TDs. I expect to hear a lot of "Hair to Thomas" in a few years.
3. Per typical Truman tradition, all of these kids look to also bring high academic quality to the program. Lots of Biology, Athletic Training, Computer Science majors in the bunch.

**bigsig50** · 02-07-2019, 10:32 AM

Re: Truman Offseason

Originally posted by TSU_Mike59 View Post

Signing Day release for Truman yesterday: https://trumanbulldogs.com/news/2019...ing-class.aspx.

Some of the things that stuck out-
1. A big focus on the offensive and defensive lines. Truman is relatively young at most of the other skill positions, so this makes sense. Hit the Chicago area for a couple of big O-linemen who got pretty high praise in Illinois' largest class. Also grabbed some mid-Missouri talent as well, led by Jon Saxbury from perennial Missouri power Monroe City.
2. Love the fact that Truman grabbed the starting QB and WR from Blair Oaks, another longtime Missouri powerhouse program. The QB looks to be an heir apparent made up from the same mold as current Truman QB Jaden Barr ... small town Missouri kid who can throw it (2,700 pass yards, 48 TDs, 0 (ZERO) interceptions a senior) but will also run it (1,600 rushing yards as a senior also). His teammate was on the receiving end of nearly 1,700 of those 2,700 passing yards and for 27 of the 48 TDs. I expect to hear a lot of "Hair to Thomas" in a few years.
3. Per typical Truman tradition, all of these kids look to also bring high academic quality to the program. Lots of Biology, Athletic Training, Computer Science majors in the bunch.

Keep an eye on QB signing Ben Watson from Zumwalt East (my kid's school).

He was a one man wrecking crew for the Lions the past couple of years. He didn't have a ton of help around him either. He's a good enough athlete to help just about anywhere on the offense. He was a really good get for the Bulldogs.

I was hoping the Lions would land him, but academically I imagine he's looking for some advanced degrees as he's a really smart kid. He was also taking visits to Havard, Yale, Brown, etc.

**TSU_Mike59** · 02-07-2019, 01:06 PM

Re: Truman Offseason

Originally posted by bigsig50 View Post

Keep an eye on QB signing Ben Watson from Zumwalt East (my kid's school).

He was a one man wrecking crew for the Lions the past couple of years. He didn't have a ton of help around him either. He's a good enough athlete to help just about anywhere on the offense. He was a really good get for the Bulldogs.

I was hoping the Lions would land him, but academically I imagine he's looking for some advanced degrees as he's a really smart kid. He was also taking visits to Havard, Yale, Brown, etc.

Thanks for the insight. I remember now seeing some things about him over the past couple of years, but I think the Blair Oaks kid made my mind just skip over any other QBs they signed.

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