Billy Newman made some comments on the call in show
- Thread starter dgibbons
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I really think the coaches over-estimated many of our players on D. I really thought 92 and 27 were gonna be monsters on D. So far neither have been very good. Won't even get started on 37 or 25. Will be an interesting two weeks before next game.
I'm sure 37 and 25 are playing so many snaps for a reason. We really need Dom Silvels back and more reps for Pat Nunn so we can drop Isom down to the slot on passing downs. Or maybe more Tyrese Ross.
They actually tackled much better last night. They were getting blown off the ball and/or getting completely fooled and ending up out of the play.
The repeated busts in coverage are the problem. Yes, this isn’t a talented defense, but receivers are open by 5-10 yards. That’s coaching.
Did he go on to say the sky is blue and water is wet?
Jest aside, it's affirmation for us fans to have a Coug luminary call this team out, but I feel like it's wasted words as CML doesn't stole me as the type who would use that to fire his guys up.
Maybe he should take to Twitter...?
For a post-game rah, rah call in show he was pretty critical. He also said that because they're operating at such a low level a lot the defense is limited in what it can do, especially for pass coverage.
Yeah. They're combining lack of talent with lack of execution. Result = 67 points for UCLA, 300+ passing yards for Utah.
This is what struck me.
After a home game weekend during the Brink years, I ran into his HS coach at the Sports Page on a Fri night. I chatted with him about a lot of stuff, but I asked him why we don’t see things like D-lineman dropping back into coverage, twists, rotating coverage, etc. at the HS level. His reply was basically what Newman said: they don’t get it. Do we really have players not bright enough to get this? Or perhaps it is Leach hinted, that they are too soft and don’t care.
When you can't recruit superior talent, you have to make sure the 2/3 star kids you do get are "football" players. They have to understand how to play the game. You can't have less talented players that don't know how to play football. It sounds like we have too many of those guys on defense. I have no idea if that's the case, but it sure looks that way.
I am still wondering why Skyler Thomas is starting. He is massively undersized and gets roasted often. He can't get any sort of push at the LOS because most receivers will just brush him off. He misses tackles often, as does the rest of our defense and I honestly don't think he is as fast as advertised. Another thing I noticed, was a lot of the times when Utah ran the ball, our defensive line would crash to one side but the LBs would also crash to that same side leaving the backside of the play WIDE open. The one person I saw most, not holding that backside contain was Justus Rogers. In addition, why did we only rush 3 on 3rd and a mile when we know our DBs can't even cover geriatrics in wheel chairs?
Remember when Pelluer and Dotson we’re both injured in 2017, and Woods and Rogers were the starters? Any kind of misdirection, play action or whatever and they were out of the play.
We need more Billy Newman's. Bad Ass high school RB, converted to SS. Dude would put his nose in a bee hive. Tough as they come!!
Some young people would dismiss that as hyperbole or fable. A common strategy is to simply deny that the standard exists!
Ya right dude! How about the legend of Justin Sagote? This guy was recruited late out of the Cal JC's.....only had fall camp...beat out a 4 star recruit...had 61 tackles his first season and 106 his senior season.....only doing his job. What???
I'm already growing tired of the "our defense is slow" rhetoric. Not saying it's false, but the issues were experiencing have more to do with football IQ and coaching than they do speed.
Guys are grossly out of position, and that has nothing to do with speed. I'm 52 years old haven't played football in over 35 years, but I honestly think that in certain situations, I could read and react better than I'm seeing from our back 7. Opposing WR's are running 15 yard outs on 3rd and 10 and literally just standing there waiting for the pass to arrive.
We have defenders in the flat who are completely unaware that THERE IS NO RB OR DRAG ROUTE TO DEFEND, yet they stand there in no mans land throughout the play. No instincts whatsoever.
Guys are grossly out of position, and that has nothing to do with speed. I'm 52 years old haven't played football in over 35 years, but I honestly think that in certain situations, I could read and react better than I'm seeing from our back 7. Opposing WR's are running 15 yard outs on 3rd and 10 and literally just standing there waiting for the pass to arrive.
We have defenders in the flat who are completely unaware that THERE IS NO RB OR DRAG ROUTE TO DEFEND, yet they stand there in no mans land throughout the play. No instincts whatsoever.
I don't know if the "football IQ" thing is just rhetoric or not. You'd have to be a fly on the wall throughout practices to really know what the disastrous problem is. Teams learn very little having early season opponents like the first two teams they played. If they could up the level of competition a little...then their weaknesses might be exposed and the coaches have something to go on towards the start of the season when they play "meanies" like UCLA.
I was thinking about this in the context, what could be done to shore up coverage. I agree that we see guys defending empty space or drifting into empty space to defend no one. Nunn did that on the first TD pass for Houston. Plenty of others I'm sure. We've got a lot of guys in the secondary that have not played meaningful snaps before this season.
So what is a viable solution? Switch to man, with 10 yard cushion, and a safety over the top? Expect some runs going up the middle for easy yards since the LBs get fooled on anything except a dive. But maybe that forces the opposition to have to execute.
Last year Claeys stated he was going to continue with what Grinch did so as to make the transition more seemless. I wonder if what we are seeing this year is the growing pains of implementing the transition into the type of defense he wants to run.
It doesn't excuse/explain the poor tackling, but it does explain the constant confusion by our defenders.
It also might be the coaching turnover catching up to us. We have replaced 4 defensive coaches in the past 4 seasons. Eventually that was going to bite us.
It doesn't excuse/explain the poor tackling, but it does explain the constant confusion by our defenders.
It also might be the coaching turnover catching up to us. We have replaced 4 defensive coaches in the past 4 seasons. Eventually that was going to bite us.
