Interesting quote from Diaz on the DE situation.

AzzurriDawg4

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Nov 11, 2007
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Diaz said McPhee is the only “starting quality” defensive end on the team, and he needs three more of them. As for the right end spot, he said, “It’s not a matter of one guy wins, one guy loses. We just need people to play.”



An X-factor this year could be juco transfer James Carmon, a 6-foot-7, 345-pound beast at tackle. But size isn’t everything. Diaz said Carmon must be able to bend that large frame and get low on offensive linemen.

“We don’t want our defensive linemen clogging anything,” Diaz said. “We want our defensive linemen being explosive and disruptive and making things happen in the backfield. We’re not a clog defense, we’re an attack defense.”
I liked that last part in bold.

Credit to 2HD.
 

rugbdawg

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Oct 10, 2006
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of course he is right. Carmon's job is not to be Gilbert Brown. If I remember correctly, Diaz does a lot with his DTs scheme wise. They don't just lay down their fat *** in the middle of the line of scrimmage.
 

Irondawg

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Dec 2, 2007
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Bell, Ferguson were adequate but there probably aren't many other SEC teams that they'd be battling for starting spots for. McKenzie has drawn some good praise here and there but he's still a RS freshman with no game experience.

McPhee is just a stud so by comparison everyone else looks a little worse. I still think our d-line as a whole will be quite solid.
 

olemissbydamn

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May 24, 2006
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The situation probably isn't near as dire as he made it sound.

This could be something he harps on to get some of the other DEs to believe they have a chance and work harder.
 

Msudawg985

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in Diaz scheme its a firezone, they will blitz 5 at a time and the ends will also drop back in coverage alot so they have to be good at defending the pass.
I love the firezone 3-3-5 defense that he is bringing us. also the DL will blitz grass not gaps. they will move lateral until they find an open space, they don't have assigned gaps to go thru.

I love this defense better than any other
 

AzzurriDawg4

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When you are looking good at 3/4 of the D-Line you are generally in good shape. With McPhee, Cox and Boyd...that is certainly the case here.

I also agree that it is probably partly a motivational tactic. However, Ferguson, Bell, McCardell, Stigers, McKenzie, et al, do not measure up to the rest of the line, so I think there is some truth in what he is saying. I am sure part of it is the fact that some of those guys have some pretty decent physical tools too, and the coaches may be a little frustrated knowing that they could have a dynamite DL if they can get one of those guys to play up to their ability.
 

opusdawg

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I think we have quality DE's than middle tn state but I do understand that we are in a completely different league (pun intended). Diaz has produced some talent at MTSU especially at the DE spot. Chris McCoy was a DE that got drafted this year and I think Waiden got drafted as well a few years back, but I dont think Diaz recruited him.
 

Todd4State

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Msudawg985 said:
in Diaz scheme its a firezone, they will blitz 5 at a time and the ends will also drop back in coverage alot so they have to be good at defending the pass.
I love the firezone 3-3-5 defense that he is bringing us. also the DL will blitz grass not gaps. they will move lateral until they find an open space, they don't have assigned gaps to go thru.

I love this defense better than any other


but I thought we were running a 4-3? At least that's what it looked like to me the two times I've seen Manny's defense- against MSU and USM. And I didn't really pay much attention to what we did during the spring game.

That said, I like a 3-3-5 scheme and if that's what he wants to do with us that would be great.

Explain to me how we are going to lineup with a 3-3-5- as in what is our front 6 going to look like.