Just checked the NCAA stats (thru 10/2). We are 127th out of 131 teams in FBS for opponent 3rd down conversion. We are allowing 34 of 68 attempts for a first down, and even .500. Surprisingly we have only allowed 3 of 10 4th down conversions .300.
Bring back Grantham who would have thought our D would become worse? They said they were going to simplify to allow players to react faster. However, O did not realize they were speaking about our opponents offense and not our D when making those statements
Tied for 97th in sacks (8). Tied for 107th in TFL. Not surprisingly our special teams (returns) have not been very special. Both ranked near the bottom in average yards (#109 and #110).
Why can’t it be both? Or do you mean that’s too easy a way out? I personally believe that some are marginally talented and all except true frosh have been poorly coached
#114 ranked rushing defense? That has to be close to the worst we've had in decades. NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com
Years of bad coaching and poor recruiting resulted in this. It is true that Georgia has Kirby and Lumpy behind that defense, but they actively recruit elite talent and develop it.
I will say that Georgia was talented when Kirby got there and they still couldn't beat some pretty bad florida offenses in 15 and 16. Regime change is rarely smooth. Our offense was pretty bad under Meyer in 2005 despite having the same talent that eventually put it together by the end of 2006
We don't get much pressure from our up front guys and our DBs play soft. The DBs don't seem to challenge receivers. I watch other teams and their DBs are challenging throws. It may be our guys are just not talented enough or that's the way our DC wants them to play. Even against EWU, our DBs rarely were batting down balls. Most of the time the throw was off or their receivers dropped the ball. I thought our DBs were supposed to be a strength. I'm not so sure.
Not enough of a sample to put this down to coaching and scheme. I tend to lean toward talent. As the old saying goes, it is (primarily) about the Jimmies and Joes. Unfortunately, as much as it pains me to say this, we have too many Curlies and Moes. The previous administration screwed us royally in talent aquisition.
It can be both. If you have the horses, a Charmin’ soft defensive scheme can look good. But without those horses, that same scheme will be picked apart because the talent level isn’t great enough to cover for the weaknesses in the scheme. As long as the 2019 defense had Greenard, we could generate a pass rush that helped cover the issues in the secondary. When that pass rush was lacking due to injury, the holes in the secondary/scheme were exposed. I hate the bend-but-don’t-break scheme with a passion. When you rely on the other team to make mistakes to stop a drive, you are placing your fate in their hands. And the better teams on our schedule will/have taken advantage of the scheme/talent issues of our defense.
I checked stats yesterday, and we've forced our opponents to punt only 13 times in five games. That's just mind boggling to me. Ten times they went for it on 4th. That's 23. 34 times they converted on 3rd. That's 57 of the 68 possessions. So the other 11 were either field goals or end of a half? Wow...
Our coaches may be over compensating in their scheme because they come from a small school mentality where they didn’t match up with the big boys straight up. In time hopefully they see we can compete and therefore be more aggressive on D. I don’t believe we don’t the talent to be more aggressive
I can tell myself that for 'maybe' one more week... But at some point we might figure out that the defensive scheme is related to our defensive philosophy... and that is a much bigger problem. One that I do NOT want to think about right now. Schemes can be changed/altered week to week... but a defensive philosophy takes a different kind of coach.
If that's the case, the new coaches should sit the Same Old first string (#0) players in favor of 2nd string players that are more functional. Competition answers a lot of problems.
