I don't think anyone (certainly not me) predicted that happening. And the grades Craig received for his signing class certainly didn't hint at that being a remote possibility.

But I trust my eye — & it led me to further research into what appeared to be an intriguingly promising haul for Mr. Smith.

That said, you can't begin to compare our roster of this year with our roster of last. And another thing: if you'll remember, in the preseason last year the yewts were projected to be significantly stronger than we were figured to be. And for good reason. In terms of personnel — they SHOULDA had us beat hands down. In either the HC or the MC.

The main difference was coaching. Particularly the defensive end. Craig Smith's a worse defensive coach than was Dave Rose. And I don't have a clue if he's hired himself a solution in the his staff yet. Their last two games looked pretty inconclusive given the talent level of the opponent — but honestly it looked more of the same to me.

Defensively, so far I'm liking what I see from Voigt. (Of course we really haven't been challenged yet, & still have some pretty glaring chemistry issues. Offensively, the yewts were clearly (& expectedly) ahead of our Hall-less team. Then again, they got no one like Egor to make things right, regardless.)