When I see the talent we had on defense it makes me believe we under performed.
The elite talent (4 likely drafted) was only on the defensive line. Our LB were experienced but not elite (0 likely drafted) and our DB’s (0 likely drafted) were okay but a weak spot on last year’s team. The 4 elite D-linemen gave the appearance of talent on defense but we were only talented on the D-line.
This is kind of my point running 4-2-5. The strength of this defense from second one of DD has been the DL. We inherited the most from talent from TOB on defense at the DL. TOB’s DL coach went to Clemson and our first DL coach under DD was arguably better. Will the current one recruit and develop talent as well as the last two? We shall see, but that is a tall order. Hopefully our S&C program helps with that.
The weakness has been the back 7 and especially the secondary. We’ve turned over several coaches in the back, and now are bringing in another coach to help. If DBs are my weakest link, I’m not putting 5 out there every down. It’d be like choosing to kick a FG when the offense stalls out at the 35 given our place kicking (no comment on that).
I think the impact of the spread/hurry up teams are greatly exaggerated. For every Oregon under Chip Kelly, there are a half dozen Syracuses under Dino Babers. Yeah, they play fast but they shoot themselves in the foot as often as they do something good with their tempo, and that tempo on offense leaves their defense dead tired. A lot of those tempo teams end up giving up lots and lots of points. One could argue it is due to more possessions and plays, but their per play and per possession defensive stats are pretty bad.
I do think teams with more talent should play at a faster tempo and I think the exact same thing in basketball. If you’ve got more talent, run more plays, lengthen the game and eventually those great players will win in 1-1 match ups, or the lesser team will “return to their norm” and make a mistake. In converse if you don’t have talent, take the air out of the ball, shorten the game and hopefully you catch a lucky break or two (Loyola Chicago just put on a clinic on how to do this in the NCAA tournament).
Oregon was good because they had GREAT talent and a great set of college coaches. The great head coach left and there was enough talent there for 1 more year, but things went downhill quickly. Alabama is great because they have a great coach and great talent. They have a totally different style that is probably the polar opposite of those spread/tempo teams but they still won their 2nd title in 3 years and 4th in the past 7. One can win that way just as well, and arguably even more convincingly if you’ve got the right players and coaches.
If I’m coaching, give me a team that can run the ball when they want to and stops the run on defense. We FINALLY have a real OL (and I credit DD and Ledford for that). Run the ball until the other team shows they can stop you, then mix it up. Last year we had a stud DL (of which I’ve only seen something similar at NC State one time). Stack the box, stop the run, force passing downs and turn that DL loose. This game doesn’t seem that hard.
I hope we can keep the lines going. More than anything else, that will be the key to our success. If we can, then we may actually eventually break through and win something meaningful — despite scheme, baffling in game decisions, etc..
