Good points go and this could just be my paranoia getting the better of me, but this is not the NFL. By late last year, teams figured out what to do with our DE's. In fact, WVA had in figured out from the start. You either run a 2 TE set and/or you run the play at the DE. Then his job quickly changes from QB presser to pass-blocker or run-stopper. That is when Carl was pulling in his secondary (safeties in particular) and we were getting burnt deep. If our secondary, can shift more laterally, then the QB has to move and wait. At this point, any solid DE can finish the job. I am not saying that our 2016 tandem were not above awesome, just that I would like to see a little less reliance on pressure from the ends, and more balance.
You saw what we were w/o Ruiz against JMU. With Ruiz in that game, JMU is tired earlier than the last quarter) and it is a completely different game. At TB, the drop from Ruiz/Webb to McCaster/Alessi is at least one season. Then again coach M probably knows something we don't with the new guys. He better ... we are a TB, drop-back passing offense.