This is what I'm looking for. A guy like Sua makes five interior lineman in the rotation. Safety is a little thin and Hartzog is going to be a utility guy there. Forgot about Thompson, but he should be ready by fall camp.
Secondary is a concern to the staff I think also. They want their freshmen secondary in a couple weeks earlier than originally planned. That seems like they expect them to have to be a factor more than originally plainned imo.
Yup, no way Thompson isn't in the 2 deep.
And more importantly...most of the schools they play have lame ass QB's.
At ILB, it looks like they have 5 with Shavers and they will all get a lot of reps. Between injuries and a serious health episode, Wright had to wait until year 5 to really play much, but I remember being excited about his raw athletic ability. And last year he always seemed to be around the play and had one of the best stat sheets on the defense.
So that is one of the good things with the 3-3-5 (or 3-5-3)...there is not a lot of traditional shedding.
I think White will play as many ILBs as are ready. Fresh legs = more mob tackling. Having Buddha out there on third and pass is a real luxury, as I think he might be playing nickel if Gifford wasn’t on the team. It’s like playing with four safeties instead of two.
I like Wright. Though from what I saw, I thought he started the year strong but faded just a bit down the stretch.
He'll string it together, and he will be a head coach next season.
I love how this defensive staff mixes and matches. Gbayor is absolutely an early down guy at this point. Will be interesting to see if they can develop him as an every down guy.
Well, they have 22 like guys you would think finding good starters would not be a problem at this point. I think we will be pretty decent back there. The DL will help them not have to cover for a long time hopefully.
I always said that a good linebacker has innate instincts to get to the ball through traffic, find the lane and explode into the ball carrier. You can only teach so much of it. Either they have it or they don’t.
I do believe the staff took several fliers on kids that are DBs.
Is it OK if I question our D to this point? I too have questions about our back end LB's and secondary. The fact we are moving Hartzog around from corner to safety and now possibly back and going to the portal tells us something. At best I would say we are unsettled in the secondary. Hartzog, for me, was a bit disappointing last year, bit on the double moves and was late to the party at times. Lost a lot of production at the LB position and replacing with guys who have been around but don't have much for stats to show. We have a solid front until they get worn down from good doubles.
okay with me. I agree with everything you posted here (easy since it's fact).
I don't think our DL was wore down a lot last year. We have more depth at the DL than we have had in a long time. Hopefully they can help the secondary.
I can understand your concern but here are my reasons for optimism:
1. This one could be up for debate. Not certain we “so many guys ready to play” at a high level. There has to be some questions at LB and DB. Counting on one coming back from surgery, moving others around and going to the portal leave questions for me. Would you say our LB starters project to be better, the same or worse than last year? Data?
sounds like something teams said about us last year - it was true
Yeah, the new era is bring in more guys and let them try out for roster spots- it’s somewhat of a best case scenario for us. Less risk than ever taking chances on guys.
weakest part of our defense at the moment. they have to get better in order to rank in the top half of the current big 10. size and hype dosen't translate to getting off the field at critical times in games. pass rush vs waltzing on 3rd or 4th and long? when we get a legit pass rush without blitzing we'll have something.
This is a great post. I agree with all of it.
