The issue is a lack of talent

I had a post a few days ago that reflected on the 2021 and 2022 defensive classes. These should be your juniors and seniors anchoring your defense right now. Ideally you have some strong NFL ready juniors this year but all we got out of that 2022 class was Perkins. The 2021 class was largely a bust and 2022 was a salvage job with a lot of late transfers that are gone now



2021:

This was O's last class and it was actually pretty highly rated. 247 had them ranked 4th overall. There were a lot of defensive recruits rated 4 stars with a 90+ rating plus two 5 stars. But most of them didn't pan out.


5 star DL Maason Smith- we know the story, got some development time as a freshman, injured for the year in game 1 as a sophomore, didn't really make a huge impact in his return from injury as a junior, left early for the draft


5 star DB Sage Ryan- huge recruitment win over Alabama. Sage has been a multi year starter but you got a 5 star top 5 safety in the class and he hasn't panned out as that type of player.


4 star DB Damarius McGhee - top 10 CB in the class. Transferred after 2 seasons


4 star DB Derrick Davis Jr- another highly rated 4 star, top 5 safety in the class. Briefly moved to RB before he transferred after 2 seasons.

4 star DE Landon Jackson- a one time 5 star top 100 ranked player, dropped after a knee injury. Transferred to Arkansas after 1 season and has had a solid career for them


4 Star DE Savion Jones-- Savion has been a multi year starter for us. Probably a satisfactory outcome here

4 star DL Bryce Langston- transferred after appearing in 4 games over 3 seasons

4 star Matthew Langlois- played 9 games as a true freshman, out for the year after 2 games as a sophomore and missed the entire 2023 season before a medical retirement

4 star LB Zavier Carter-- transferred after 2 seasons

4 star LB Greg Penn- multi year starter at LB



[b]2022

This was Kelly's "first class". He didn't do most of the work on this class as O was fired in October and he was hired in December. It was a lighter class on defensive players and Kelly ended up going hard in the portal for starters that ended up helping us. Converse, Wingo, Brooks, Weeks, Foucha, Garner



5 Star LB Harold Perkins- It's hard to say Perkins didn't work out but he basically spent his entire career trying to find his best role and then got injured and is probably moving on


4 Star DE Quency Wiggins- high 4 star, top 50 player in the class. Registered 5 tackles in 2 seasons before transferring

4 star DB LaTerrence Welch- played in 22 games, never started, transferred after 2 seasons

4 star LB Demario Tolan- transferred after 1 season

3 Star DB Jordan Allen- Looks like a depth piece. Played in parts of 3 seasons including 2 starts this year

3 Star DB Jaelyn Davis-Robinson- transferred after 1 season

3 star DT- Tygee Hill- transferred after 9 games in 2 seasons



You can't pin 2021 and 2022 on Kelly. One wasn't his class and he arrived in December for the other. So 2023 is the first full class under Kelly. It's still early on that group but early returns aren't great. Here's the top 10 of that class, offensive and defensive

Lance Heard
DaShawn Womack
DJ Chester
Javien Toviano
Jalen Brown
Whit Weeks
Pimpton
Jaxon Howard
Shelton Sampson
Kaleb Jackson

This should have been the year where we start to see a turnaround and growth of talent in the program. Kelly's first true class should be making positive contributions as sophomores and RS Fr and what he should have done was go hard in the portal to supplement our lack of quality upper classman. None of those things are happened. Only Weeks is making a positive impact from the 2023 class.