[EKUAlum05]

Willis and the development of Gary Runyon are critical...

Belfry will be better defensively by the end of next season. The line play will be more consistent as well, but the loss of Varney and Maynard on offense may have a bigger impact then when Belfry lost Jones and Howard because of the apparent lack of playmakers on the depth chart if Willis can't heal up.

People won't like this next thing, but unless either 3A is down across the board like this year, or Belfry improves significantly, I dont see the Pirates being a true contender for the championship at this point. My gut instinct is the talent pool is going through a little bit of a dip and we won't see that next wave of dominant players work their way into the varsity ranks for a couple more years. Next year's team can still make a lot of noise, but it is going to require a lot of effort in the offseason to shore up