The good: I read that UW has the highest returning % of 2012 letter-winners of any D-1 team. They have the best combination of depth and talent at QB as they have ever had in my lifetime.

The bad: They play at Ohio State, so unless OSU is playing in the national championship game it likely means no fourth straight Rose Bowl, despite a relatively easy schedule other than that game.

The ugly: It's not so much who will be the #2 WR opposite Abbrederis, as it is that Abbrederis is a senior and what will they have next year for WRs?

The transition to a 3-4 leaves some questions. While Allen is almost a perfect 3-4 NT and Hemer is almost a perfect 3-4 DE, they have lots of DE-OLB 'tweeners - are Dippel/Muldoon/Kelly/Adeyanju/Zagzebski big enough to play DE in a 3-4? And losing 3 of 4 starting DBs is going to lead to lots of inexperience back there.

They must really be high on Clement to move the speedy Jeff Lewis to DB, considering Jackson is out for the year with another ACL injury. Hopefully they keep the jet sweep play in the playbook, in which case they will need 3 RBs. Two seasons of light recruiting has left the OL thin; one of last year's recruits, Jake Meador, is no longer listed on the roster. Ryan Groy is moving out to LT. Sounds like Mason is also out for the year with an ACL and Hammond is hurt again too; one or more of Jordan, Doe, Frederick, or Love will need to step up.

Biggest loss is David Gilbert, who I thought would have made a great OLB but transferred to Miami. Reggie Mitchell, lightly recruited but played with the first team at S in spring, went back home to Pitt. Meador is gone, as is D.J. Singleton who didn't qualify last year and transferred to Nebraska (if he got into Nebraska but not UW, I don't want to hear Nebraska called the Harvard of the Midwest or whatever they call themselves). What is interesting though is that the entire 2011 recruiting class is still intact. I don't know that they are a great team, but an easy schedule should lead to 10-2 at worst with losses at Ohio State and possibly Arizona St.

Thoughts?

They have him listed at NG. I'd rather see him play DE this year, as I think he, Allen, and Hemer would make a very good DL in a 3-4. Likely he comes in on passing downs as an interior DL and they use a more traditional 4-man front on passing downs.

Hemer is listed now at 285. I hope he hasn't lost too much weight to be able to stand up OTs at the DE spot on running plays.

I just don't want a repeat of last year against Penn State where they go conservative and end up losing. Nothing was at stake against Penn State last year, but the stakes are really high this weekend.

Oh, and I take back my comment in the initial post about having the best combination of depth and talent at QB they've ever had. It's pretty clear that Stave is the weak link of the offense. Hopefully Houston is healthy enough next year to give Stave some real competition for the position. As much as McEvoy wants to play QB, they need him at WR and S.

Former Vanderbilt WR almost transferred to Wisconsin, but chose to go pro instead:

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000288006/article/former-vanderbilt-wr-chris-boyd-discusses-early-nfl-entry

Would have been really helpful to have an experienced upperclassmen WR next year.