[tomcatfan722000]

CovCath lost a lot offensively, other than their QB (Bir) who is, as you noted, the real deal. Some have questioned his arm strength and ability to throw the long ball, but he is very accurate on the short and medium passes. Their best RB graduated as did their best receiver and a lot of their O line from what I recall. Supposedly there are talented players replacing the graduates. Time will tell if that is accurate. A very talented kid name Dressman, is supposed to be getting the bulk of the carries at the RB. The strength of the team is supposed to be on defense, specifically their LBing corps. They have a lot of talented and experienced players returning on D. I'm hearing that they will really challenge the Birds this year. And they may, but I heard that last year and I think the year before that too. They did push us last year in the regular season game. Offfensively they moved the ball very well. In the playoff game, it was just another butt kicking by Highlands, with CovCath's O having very little success. Some has asked me why the CovCath O was so ineffective during the playoff game, after having so much success during the regular season game. Simple truth is there were changes made defensively. First game, Highlands sat back and gave Bir time to pass. He picked Highlands D apart with short and medium passes. Their RB picked up 4 or 5 yds a carry. Their big O line just dominated Highlands smaller d linemen and LBers. In the second game, Highlands stunted and blitzed a whole lot. Really took advantage of their better speed and quickness at the d line and LBing positions. As a result, Bir had little time to pass and their RB was getting hit by stunting d linemen as soon as he got the handoff. CovCath coaches had no adjustments for what Highlands was doing defensively. Proving once again that the little saying that "it's all about the Johnnies and Joes, and not about the Xs and Os", is flat out wrong.

Sounds like a lot of change for the colonels. However when you have stability at the qb position those things seem to transition smoother during the offseason so they should be pretty good.