That seems awfully ambitious. I don't see them being that good. If they are, Dooley will hear the calls for his head earlier than expected.
Tom O'Brien always shows brilliantly in bowls. A brilliant showing in a bowl game often--not always, but often--leads to some people highly overrating you the next year. I don't think there's anything but that going on here. They should have a great secondary and a strong QB, but their OL is as bad as ours, they don't have any actual linebackers. . . . Oh, and at WR, Charlie Hegedus, a true freshman from Georgia who had TOOS (Sab, I think) begging for a UT offer, and who our coaches decided was not a UT-level player, is pushing for a starting spot.
Don't know if I can blame the coaches for the Hegedus situation. He reportedly tore it up at camps, but we wound up getting a solid WR class. Time will tell.
I apologize if I was unclear. I was pointing out that a guy we found inferior to the WRs we ended up with is pushing for a starting job as a true freshman at NC State. That, I think, says something about their WR situation.
It could, but Tennessee, on paper, signed a ridiculous class. He could be a stud at the collegiate level and still not be as good as Croom, Bowles or Pig. That's a testament to Hinshaw.
I'd be pretty excited if the next coach got Hinshaw and Graham to stick around after Dooley is out. I imagine the latter will happen, although the former probably won't. It's a shame, he's been perhaps the only staff member to meet or exceed expectations.