Austin A is our DC much like Toney

I dunno...I see BN's fingerprints all over this defense and some of the plans that they had. The plan they had going into the KY game was abysmal and nobody was hurt for that game. It makes me wonder if we are in a Muschamp type situation where it doesn't really matter who the Coordinator is because the head coach's philosophy is different?

There were a few NFL draft choices on last year's defense and it was terrible. I didn't expect much out of this one just because of the youth equation despite believing it would be more talented overall .

 

This.

 

We started playing the good offenses on our schedule

 

The oline kids we recruited aren’t playing and may only be backups next year. The freshmen we have coming may not be backups till 26. We took portal linemen and lost probably the best one before the season started. We likely need two portal guys to start next year and they need to be above average sec players or we will see more of the same on offense. Mertz and co can be pretty decent if he is given a pocket to work from. Seems to me, we are spending our money on hs kids and that’s best for the long run. We gonna need some right now players next year for the instant gratification crowd. A third year of bad oline play is probably the worst case scenario for Napier keeping himself at the helm. I know some think our line was good last year but it wasn’t by much. We had one really good gaurd and a mobile qb that changed up the running lanes. They couldn’t have protected Mertz either.

 

We played some decent quarterback, and we are going to play more of them

 

What’s wrong with five big linemen, the best we got, with Pyburn in the middle, take out Scooby and bring in another db. Most of the problem on defense is getting to the QB, with a five man line we would get more pressure. Right now, we didn’t get much on Arkansas. Heck, I say bring Pyburn on in the qb about 1 out of 3 plays, we would get some pressure.
We take a db and occasionally blitz and sometimes two dbs. They, in the SEC are getting hammered by huge linemen and getting hurt. Let’s get bigs on bigs. Right now we are putting little guys and not enough guys up front. Arkansas put up a four man line with four more big lbs, dbs right behind them two to three yards away. Novel approach, very effective compared to ours defense, up close in the middle of the field and got three and outs way too many for my likes. We have to have adjustments is our only hope are there are going to be blowouts and injuries piling up. so let’s keep eight men back deep is the answer to stopping first downs and long runs and completed long passes, I guess you have a defense in mind that I can see your answer to our problem, or you can give and tell me youth, injuries, soft zones, whatever and I am sure I could tell you your weaknesses. We need a defensive coordinator that is mean and knows what to do. I am embarrassed from Saturdays effort, one of the worst in twenty years.

 

Not a bad thought, but the good offenses remaining on our schedule would be able to scheme around that fairly easily. Kelly did this when we played LSU last year. He knew that Miller was great against the run and suspect in pass coverage. LSU line shifted and motioned to force Miller into pass coverage throughout the game and neutralized what Miller did best.

 

Our bigs are slow…….

 

First off if it was one of the worst in 20 years it was honorable mention only i give you georgia southern and samford plus Okie in the sugar bowl plus numerous others.

Lsu and bama are probably up in arms with how they fared against running QBs last week also, although bama ultimately had an answer. (this is where Kirby S learned the trade he used to remove K Pitts from the game several years ago)

Jack P hasnt to my memory ever played without his hand in the dirt pretty sure he isnt athletic or speedy enough to play half of the field or carry the TE vertical as a MLB has to vs 5 wide

We dont have enough DL to play 4 much less 5 down DL. If you want to audition some of the back up OL ala M Pouncy under Urban go ahead if they are agile enough.

If you go to a bear front, offenses will kill you throwing the ball you cant press 4 across the whole game yiu still gave to run vertical with the TE (see above)
much different in the red zone.

We can talk personnel but it wouldn’t be welcomed here to be negative of those underperforming and why. The game has evolved and teams built with stout agile OL and a dual threat QB cause the most issues. Teams countering formations with personnel are at a disadvantage. We saw the same against UK pass formations and alignments with a run emphasis. Game situation dictated tossing the scouting report and “playing the game you are/in”, stop the run at all costs force them to throw.

We are slow afoot on the DL, rush too deep on the edge, dont have a 2nd move to complement our bull rush to come free, etc. I could go on but our biggest issue is twisting tackles who are slow and taking to long. I would stem the DL to responsibilities or play “2” tech and jump a gap at the snap with the inside guys to create a slight hesitation for the OL while bring pressure from the secondary and LB.

FTR we haven't shown an ability to consistently get home with 5,6 or even 7 rushers. We could explore this also but you dont want to discuss physical development of players

 

And are smalls struggle to tackle

 

My hope is it is youth and an off season under quality S/C will help us close the gap.

Raymond likes big physical DB. Throw in a LB or two for Christmas

That’s allI got

 

I would like to see that as well. Question is, do we have a quality S/C staff? I don’t see our players out-physicaling, wearing down or out-speeding other teams, is it the staff, the players or the way they are being used? I see other posters refer to us as a finesse team and I’m not sure that approach works in the SEC.

I am glad to see our players treated better from a nutritional standpoint, it was almost criminal the way we were feeding them under past regimes.

 

I still believe in Austin Armstrong as DC. I’m sure it’s been noted in the thread, but, the calls are good. MAKE A TACKLE!