This year's schedule is quite a bit tougher, so they can easily be significantly better and not show it in the win column. But you can see many of the pieces for the next couple seasons falling into place. Personally, I think this season could be at least somewhat similar to 2000, where we could see what Ferentz was cooking, even if it wasn't ready to be served yet. A positional breakdown for guys who will still be here for next season or 2015:
QB: Rudock handled himself pretty well for playing his first game in 3 years. He could end up being something special, as I believe many of his issues last week were the result of inexperience and can be pretty easily ironed out.
RB: Weisman and Bullock are here for one more year. I'm very excited to see what LeShun Daniels brings to the table. The hype he was garnering in camp as a young Shonn Greene was certainly enough to grab my attention.
WR: KMM has another year and so does Powell, who I think could develop into a big-play threat similar to C.J. Jones. Smith has two more, and his ceiling is very high, IMO. Hillyer is a guy who I've had an eye on as a sleeper for some time, and he got several targets last week. It'll be interesting to see how he gets used this season.
TE: Krieger-Coble and Duzey both have two years remaining, and Hamilton has one. It remains to be seen how much the tight end will be featured in this offense, though. It needs to be more prominent than it's been.
OL: Never too worried about this unit. But Scherff has (presumably) one more year, but Walsh and Blythe (who looked very good last week) are both just sophomores and Donnal is also back for one more year.
DL: This group was definitely improved last week, and we have a slew of guys who are sophomore or younger (Cooper, Ott, Ekakite, Johnson, Meier) and both Davis and Trinca-Passat have another year. The future could be quite bright for this group.
LB: Definite reloading to do here after this season. Alston has one more season, but after him, IDK.
DB: Lomax is only a sophomore, and I think he's the next lockdown corner for this defense. King played pretty well for a true freshman when he was forced into action last week, and Draper wasn't bad, either. All of those guys have at least two years left. Safety is a question mark, but we don't know yet how Lowdermilk will pan out. Rueben Lile and Maurice Fleming are also in the wings. Parker has a very good track record with our defensive backs, so I think the odds of getting less than 2 stars from this group are pretty long. Lomax and one of Lile and Fleming should blossom over the next few years, at the very least.
I still think this team wins 5 or 6 games this year, which isn't a huge step forward in wins; but neither was going from 1 win to 3. It's next season and the year after where I think we'll see a serious uptick in the win column. I don't see Ferentz getting a serious extension if that kind of success does materialize, either. I don't know if it's something that can be done, but I'd maybe give him an "extension", with something in the fine print that says he will step down when his current deal expires in 2020 (or sooner, if he so chooses) and include a very small buyout. That could ward off the lame duck period in recruiting.
