Tbh at the end of the year among Bridges, Johnson, and Denson we had probably the slowest starters at cb in the SEC, but nobody could make us pay.
You probably just answered your own question. A couple of td each at a lower level does not suggest immediate impact. Dike and Badger were plug and play.
We also had several players injured too. But the speed was covered up with the way we played in zone. I see why Ron mentioned bend but don't break as the way he described his defense in one of his first pressers. I think the slower we are, the more "bend" we will have in the defense. At least we started getting picks again. That's a nice welcome surprise. Let's see how we do with a healthy team next year. I expect that we "bend" less and play even better. But we cannot lose another DB.
It made sense with how we were so depleted in the secondary, and it really rattled Ole Miss not getting as many explosives into the end zone and having to work for it inside the 20. We just outworked them on the lines and improved our tackling by LB and secondary.
Who then is on the board? By the way, Virgil had 816 yards receiving with 9 tds this season. I would say that compares well with Dike and Badger.
Youre right about the touchdowns. There is no comparison because he played against only a few P4 schools. Dike and Badger were much more known quantities against good defenses. Against ND he had 1 catch. He may be great, but he didn't have all the SEC schools opening their wallets for him. We've only seen the beginning of receivers jumping into the portal. It's certainly not a time to freak out about who is going to be in the portal. Tons of receivers will be in the portal, and we have no idea who has been contacting staff before they even jump in the portal.
Pass rush has been the key to the defensive turnaround we started getting pressure and sacks...earlier in the season seemed like no pressure or sacks.
It is right up there if not the top factor. Now we can see why Lyons and Jackson were all over Banks on the practice videos in the summer. He just has so much potential. We can't depend on him up the middle though. He have to get edge guys going. Lack of production at edge is still the gaping hole in our defense. That is not to downplay the contribution of Gumbs, James, McCray, and Pyburn, but the pressure percentage was just too low all year. I would add that second most or the most important would be the tightening of the rotation to only guys who could play. That wasn't a problem at inside LB as they all really improved, but in the DL/OLB and in the secondary, some starters had to sit because they just weren't good enough. Among the most curious was how Bridges, though not a star player, could be only the tiniest bit player at the season start when we were horrible, but was everywhere on defense when we were improved. He may not have been good enough to start for Oregon, but he was good enough to improve us at safety and then cb.
