Defenive gurus and geniues len me your ear

[Coach 57]

Okay I knew this would happen and of course it has. People posting things like "man our defense would've sucked without Banks and Slay". And then the inevitable...."our defense will suck next year now that Banks and Slay are gone." I completely disagree below are the 2 deep breakdown that I see for 2 of our packages we will put on the field.


Base 4-3 scheme


DE: Kaleb Eulls, Preston Smith
DT: Curtis Virges, Quay Evan (this might flip depending on how hard Quay works on and off the field)
DT: P.J Jones, Nick James (our DT in this scheme is a 2 technique DT who plays between the shoulders of the C and the G so is basically a NT)
DE: Denico Autry, AJ Jefferson-Ryan Brown (this will be a battle for the 2 spot in this rotation as AJ is looking good from what I've heard)


LB: Deonte Skinner, Richie Brown
MLB: Benadrick McKinney, Felando Bohanna
LB: Matt Wells, Chris Hughes


CB: Justin Cox, Cedric Jiles
CB: Jamerson Love, Taveze Calhoun


FS: Nikoe Whitley, Jay Hughes
SS: Dee Arrington, Quadry Antoine


Predator package (where I think we will be REALLY nasty)


DE: Kaleb (where I think he will flourish), Preston Smith
NT: Nick James, Curtis Virges
DE: Denico Autry, Ryan Brown (better suited for this particular look more than AJ)


OLB: Deonte Skinner, Beniquez Brown
ILB: Felando Bohanna (where the difference will be by having he and Benadrick on at the same time), Richie Brown
ILB: Benadrick McKinney, Chirstian Holmes
OLB: Matt Wells, Chris Hughes


CB: Justin Cox, Cedric Jiles
CB: Jamerson Love, Taveze Calhoun


FS: Nikoe Whitley, Jay Hughes
SS: Dee Arrington, Quadry Antoine



Now after posting these what I see is alot of speed and athletic ability. I see guys that will create mismatches all around the field. I have heard some really good things about a few of these kids (not to say the others haven't done well). But Richie (from what i have heard) can't wait to have a full on scrimmage (I love this kid and his demeanor). AJ has impressed the coaches as well as Beniquez. I challenge you to come and watch the scrimmage on the 16th and see these kids get after it. I will tell you this I think this defense will far better than what we have this year. As a coach you scheme to play to your strengths. We have played cover 3 and played to the ability to Banks and Slay all year. This next year, yes they won't be here but guess what......that means our coaches will have to be more creative and I think by not relying on that it will make us better. Kind of like most MSU fans have said that we have been better on offense even though the stats prove the contrary. Just because we have a better QB does that mean we are in fact better? Not necessary. Obviously we were better under Relf, do you know why? We had to scheme better offensively. And I think the same will happen with this VERY talented roster of defensive players I have listed. Feel free to poke and prod my thoughts.

 

[engie]

I like it...

It also assumes nothing from the newcomers, which will be extremely talented for the most part - there will likely end up being 6-8 JUCOs, 4+ on the defensive side. You don't recruit those guys to not be in the 2-deep. They are going to effect the overall scheme quite a bit.

I just don't think there should be any ridiculous drop off at DB that many are projecting. There is a crapload of talent in that secondary that redshirted/was freshmen this past year, and we're bringing in good JUCO talent as well. I do prefer to leave Justin Cox at FS if at all possible...

 

[Coach 57]

Yes plus we now get atheletic at both DT spots which I think helps alleviate our pass rush inability and will ultimately help those DBs you speak of. Plus I love Cam but we also get more speed at LB even though he was a wiley veteran and a film nerd, speed kills. Our 3-4 package also has some really aggressive personalities on the field at one time and all involved are going to make IT the best set we put on the field.

 

[121Josey]

Quick points

1. Eulls should move to DT. We have an adequate group to hold down the DE.

2. If Love is starting for us, we'll love Banks and Slay even more.

3. Did our defense ever play to its strengths this year?

 

[tenureplan]

I think you're right, but not quite in the way you're explaining it. Wilson is a DL coach first and is still learning the ropes as a d-coordinator. I think playing in cover 2/cover 3 all year was a waste of Banks' and Slay's talents. I don't think Wilson was ready yet (ever maybe) to have a team weak on the D-line and young or unathletic (sorry cam) at backer but strong at the corners. With a deeper and improved front 7, yes I do believe Wilson's defense will be better next year. I think we will be better at stopping the run which will support Wilson's zone defense philosophies; plus we will have a better pass rush.

 

[8dawg.sixpack]

If I were the defensive coordinator, my defense would look like this...

de: smith
dt: Evans/jones
dt: James/eulls
de: autry

Olb: skinner
mlb: mckinney
olb: juCo

cb: jiles
fs: cox
ss: wells
cb: love/calhoun

 

[Coach 57]

Sir if you look up how many picks Banks & Slay got this yr almost ALL were in cover 2 & 3. When we went to man2man or man press both got exposed. It's the reverse of what you are disagreeing with me about. Go look up the picks, it's not my opinion it fact.


121josey , Eulls is a natural 3 down line DE not big enough yet for the interior.


Jamerson is one hell of a cover corner. He's young. He is actually a better man press corner than Banks as he has better upper body strength and loves contact. Banks......not so much. It's like comparing Revis & Deion both great. But different. And if Jamerson is in the game with the pass rush I expect he'll be absolutely fine.

 

[InaccuratePredictionsDawg]

I don't question this year's talent & I don't question...

..next year's talent. This defensive has some headhunters this year, & will again next year. What pisses me off is a scheme that demands they sit back on their heels & allow the offense to execute. I want to see some disruption @ the LOS. I want to see some nasty, unapologetic licks like MSU defenses are famous for. I want to see the physical athletes we have on defense be turned lose & allowed to play some football for a change. We have some mean men in our defensive 2 deep. It's make me sick seeing then being subjected to a scheme that forces them to delay for 10 seconds before they even prepare to make a tackle. I really hate Wilson. Even if he shuts out UN in the Gator Bowl (which there is 0% chance of happening), I'll still hate him.

 

[BogeyGolfer.sixpack]

You are so full of...

Jamerson is one hell of a cover corner. He's young. He is actually a better man press corner than Banks

****. Jamerson lacks quickness and is slow to react. If we have to start him, we are in trouble. Teams like OSU, A&M and Mississippi will have a field day against us more so than they did this year.

 

[CadaverDawg]

..next year's talent. This defensive has some headhunters this year, & will again next year. What pisses me off is a scheme that demands they sit back on their heels & allow the offense to execute. I want to see some disruption @ the LOS. I want to see some nasty, unapologetic licks like MSU defenses are famous for. I want to see the physical athletes we have on defense be turned lose & allowed to play some football for a change. We have some mean men in our defensive 2 deep. It's make me sick seeing then being subjected to a scheme that forces them to delay for 10 seconds before they even prepare to make a tackle. I really hate Wilson. Even if he shuts out UN in the Gator Bowl (which there is 0% chance of happening), I'll still hate him.

Gotta agree with this^^....although "hate" is such a strong word. I hate what I saw out of him this year though.

 

[Coach 57]

Speaking of someone who is "full of ****". BTW is Auburn still more talented than with their 0fer conference record? What about that "full of **** l" 6-6 prediction you shat the bed on? You lost ALL credibility after making those two statements. And your ability to get anything from me besides how bad you **** your pants on those dumbass comments. Next......

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

like your 10-2 prediction. we were far closer to being 6-6 than 10-2.

 

[Todd4State]

The thing is you have some sense

However, Chris Wilson does not. Therein lies the issue. That or he wants to be a Tony Dungy wannabe. I know people give Coach34 hell about the vanilla defense thing, but how else do you try to explain something that didn't make any sense whatsoever?

I agree we can scheme around the loss of Banks and Slay, but the real question here is WILL we? Based on what I have seen from Wilson, I would have to say no.

You can't seriously sit there and say that our cover three defense was designed to take advantage of Banks and Slay's strengths by starting Cherry at DT. If we wanted to take advantage of their strengths we would have done whatever was necessary to apply pressure so that they can ball hawk. What we did was rush 3 to 4 guys, not get any pressure because we didn't start Quay for God knows why, have our LB's stand around and then let some WR or TE run down the middle where our safety was exploited. Teams didn't even have to look at Banks and Slay. Heck, Banks biggest play this year in a SEC game was when we caused a fumble by a RB against UT.

Now yes, our d-line will be better because we won't start Cherry. Thank God. But we're losing two NFL CB's- and I don't know that Love is a NFL CB and Giles has almost no experience. Calhoun has some potential, but he seems more like a special teams guy to me. And even if we get JUCO's, who knows what we are getting? At best, we need those guys to step up and there is no guarantee on that. I'd have to say that the odds are pretty good that we will be worse at CB. Nikoe had a bad year and apparently doesn't know what the hell is going on and Jay Hughes didn't exactly set the world on fire last year.

Of course our d-line has nowhere to go but up- Denico has been average, and then we lose Boyd. Even there, we have some big time question marks- can Nick James get in shape? How quickly can Chris Jones step in? What idiotic personnel decision will Chris make?

I won't mention LB's because they are a non-factor for us.

Just because Banks and Slay may not be all that great in press man to man- and who the hell knows since we didn't see it all year- that doesn't mean you just play straight up cover two or cover three the whole time. Has Chris heard of a zone blitz? It is legal to use your LB's to pass rush. It's not like it has to be all out blitz or all out zone all the time.

Only at MSU can you give up more yards than your offense gained and still be considered a good coach by some people. If we keep Chris and fire Les, we are basically saying that we're going to try to win shoot outs. I don't believe we can be successful doing that anymore than we are now. We HAVE to have a good defense and we have to be creative because we don't have guys like Banks and Fletcher Cox at every position where we can just play zone all the time if we want to.

There is no question in my mind that Chris should go and if he comes back, it's going to be a lot harder to renew my season tickets because I know what will happen to our football team, and it won't be pretty. Especially now that Auburn has Mahlzahn. We'll end up 5-7 or 4-8 and then wonder why the hell Dan didn't fire Chris after 2012.

 

[SPMT]

We got mauled by the the top offenses - Bama, A&M, Miss, and..........Troy.

The defense doesn't pass the eye test. Really not much more to see.

If we are that much more athletic on second string, why the 17 didn't we play them more. I noticed we were more athletic on second string during the season as well.

Giving up big plays repeatedly, in the same game, running basically a dime package is unacceptable.

 

[Todd4State]

And people forget

Tennessee had a good game against our defense as well. Including a free TD that we pretty much gave them. I think people have forgotten because we actually won that game. Ironically thanks to our offense.

LSU also had a pretty good day as well- we did the same thing giving up an easy TD with 45 seconds left in the half that pretty much ended the game for all intents and purposes. If we go in at the half down by only three- who knows what happens?

And those were conventional offenses.

 

[Chesusdog]

You're leaving Redmond off the two deep at CB?

 

[CookieMonster.sixpack]

This pretty much sums up my feelings about the defense. Great post. There is zero chance we will be better on defense next year. You do not lose talent like Banks, Slay & Cox plus leadership like Lawrence and get better. If people were skeptical of Wilson this year, what will they say when we are worse next year because I see not a snowball's chance of us being even the same (which wasn't very good) without those playmakers.

 

[121Josey]

Diagee on all accounts

Sir if you look up how many picks Banks & Slay got this yr almost ALL were in cover 2 & 3. When we went to man2man or man press both got exposed. It's the reverse of what you are disagreeing with me about. Go look up the picks, it's not my opinion it fact.

121josey , Eulls is a natural 3 down line DE not big enough yet for the interior.

Jamerson is one hell of a cover corner. He's young. He is actually a better man press corner than Banks as he has better upper body strength and loves contact. Banks......not so much. It's like comparing Revis & Deion both great. But different. And if Jamerson is in the game with the pass rush I expect he'll be absolutely fine.

1. How long do you expect Banks and Slay to hold their coverage? In zone they were picked apart. How many TDs did we yield in zone?

2. You said, "Not big enough YET..." Maybe by next year? Gosh, how big do you have to be to play the interior? Eulls is at least 280. How did Gross at TSUN fair this year? What a runt!

3. "Jamerson... loves contact" might be the laugher of 2012. (Pun intended, huh?). Don't kid yourself, Love is no Fred Smoot. But with the pass rush you expect, we could put our kicker on the island and he'd be Smoot-esk.

 

[War Machine Dawg]

Mullen has already said Holmes is moving to FB/TE.

 

[SidneyBurger]

Lacks quickness, he does not. Slow to react and be where he needs to be, fo' sho!

 

[esplanade91]

Talked to Holmes yesterday actually. Confirmed he's been practicing on offense. Expects to be a receiving TE.

Nice guy.


An I the only one that thinks its funny that someone wants to hire our ***CO*** DC as a head coach? Or our previous DC? But not a single person on God's green earth wants Wilson, even our fan base.