someone talk some defense with me

[boatsnhoes]

since camp is open/opening soon

so is safety the only questionable spot?
Whitley progress
can banks or broom play one safety so Slay canbe on the field atall times.
Having those three on the field at the same time would be advantageous.
That is a nasty secondary if Whitley is 100%, slay, broom, and banks all on the field at once.

LB
Lawerence is a solid veteran general
what do you get with Skinner??
Bohanna or Mckinney at MLB
ppl say mckinney is as good as KJ. let's hope so.
wells and chris hughes as reserves
the brown boys redshirt? er maybe Richie doesn't

DL
just projects as dirty
do we finally have real talented depth
autry and eulls at the ends
virges and Boyd at DT
not to mention the havoc the endscan wreak if you have to double team boyd, james or quay inside
with Quay, Nick James, PJ Jones, Cherrington, and Devin Jones in reserve.
That seems like a lot of good depth, but your really not sure what your getting in true freshmen
I assume that James will not redshirt. I think you got to keep them both playing this year.

 

[boatsnhoes]

since camp is open/opening soon

so is safety the only questionable spot?
Whitley progress
can banks or broom play one safety so Slay canbe on the field atall times.
Having those three on the field at the same time would be advantageous.
That is a nasty secondary if Whitley is 100%, slay, broom, and banks all on the field at once.

LB
Lawerence is a solid veteran general
what do you get with Skinner??
Bohanna or Mckinney at MLB
ppl say mckinney is as good as KJ. let's hope so.
wells and chris hughes as reserves
the brown boys redshirt? er maybe Richie doesn't

DL
just projects as dirty
do we finally have real talented depth
autry and eulls at the ends
virges and Boyd at DT
not to mention the havoc the endscan wreak if you have to double team boyd, james or quay inside
with Quay, Nick James, PJ Jones, Cherrington, and Devin Jones in reserve.
That seems like a lot of good depth, but your really not sure what your getting in true freshmen
I assume that James will not redshirt. I think you got to keep them both playing this year.

 

[EClass04]

I would say safetyand DEare the most questionable spots on the defense. Our interior line, linbackers, and corners all look to be solid, but whether or not we'll have a pass rush this year will be the big question. At safety, we definitely need Whitley to be healthy, but even if he is 100%, there's still a lot of young unproven talent that will be depended on at the safety spots.

 

[CadaverDawg]

In Mullen's ESPN chat, they asked him who he expected to have a break out year....he said " Nickoe Whitley". I took that as a great sign. I also expect to see Slay play a lot and play well. Believe it or not, our D line could be the biggest question mark on the defensive side. Only because there's inexperience there.....I think by year end they will undoubtedly be a strength of the team, along with our LBs

 

[J-Dawg]

I'm sure a combo of Banks, Slay and Broomfield could cover the 2 CBs and FS spot if it got to be that dire of a situation.

 

[boatsnhoes]

redmond play this year or redshirt?

can he play either safety? Nikoe at SS for FS?

 

[studentdawg87]

Whitley's health and the development of our DEs is the key to our defense. As Bob wrote recently, Whitley is the one guy one defense we just don't have anyone else like. (same argument could also be made for Autry.)

Arrington and Hughes have a tad bit of experience, but I'm not a huge fan of Hughes. Market will be a career backup. We may play one freshman at safety.

We're loaded at corner. Banks and Slay are poised to have big years, and Broomfield is solid. Love had a decent freshman year and Banks and others have said good things about Calhoun. We also have three or four talented freshman here.

LB will be one of the team's strengths. Lawrence is an All-SEC player. Skinner has pro potential. Hughes and Wells are both really athletic tweeners, and Hughes is a guy who was highly regarded by coaches before missing most of last year with legal and personal issues. McKinney earned rave reviews this spring and has a ton of upside. Bohanna and Holmes provide solid depth.

We're loaded at DT. Boyd is a All-SEC caliber player, and Virges apparently had a great spring. Jones had a really good freshman year, and "my boy" DeWayne Cherrington is a capable player. I don't think Devin Jones sees the field much this year. Quay and James the most interesting thing about this unit. Quay is obviously going to play, but I think we play James because playing may motivate him to perform better on-and-off the field. He isn't really a guy you want having tons of free time. (this is based on some things that have been said around the program.) However, we don't need to play seven DTs this year, so I'm not sure if he sees the field or not. Washington and Adams have the potential to develop into solid players as well.

DE is where things get iffy. Autry was hands-down the best DE this spring, but he needs to improve in the run game. Eulls is a good run-stopper, but I don't ever think he will be much of a threat as a pass rusher. He would fit better as an end in a 3-4. McCardell looked improved and bulked up this spring, but I'm not counting on him to do much. Smith has potential. John Harris will probably never play. An injury to Autry could really hurt us.

If we can find a few safeties who can play and someone besides Autry who can rush the passer, out defense could be really damn good. Those two sports will probably be problematic all year, though.

Our biggest problem on defense may be that our offense has trouble staying on the field. If our OL is as bad as I think it will be, the defense is going to be on the field a lot.

 

[EClass04]

Physically, Redmond looks like he could play this year and play either safety or corner. I can't imagine him playing at corner this year though when you look at the depth at that position. Then there's always the mental aspect of the game and the speed of the SEC to take into account.

As far as Nikoe goes, I think he can play either safety spot, but is probably better suited to play free safety where he can roam around and make more plays. He always seems to be around the ball though, so itmay not matter either way.</p>

 

[kired]

can banks or broom play one safety so Slay canbe on the field atall times.
Having those three on the field at the same time would be advantageous.
That is a nasty secondary if Whitley is 100%, slay, broom, and banks all on the field at once.

what do you get with Skinner??
Bohanna or Mckinney at MLB
ppl say mckinney is as good as KJ. let's hope so.
wells and chris hughes as reserves

DL
do we finally have real talented depth

Broomfield can play safety (regardless of what others will say). Obviously that's not ideal, but he's a solid tackler. We will see all 4 on the field at the same time.

Skinner supposedly has had the light come on and will be a legit NFL prospect. Our 2-deep at LB should be great. There's not much dropoff from first to second string.

DL - we have decent depth. I'm not as convinced this group is as great as others make it out to be. Eulls needs to have a breakout year. No one will come close to replacing Cox. I think we're still 2 years and another great DE away from seeing the best DL of this decade. I'm curious to see if any of the true freshmen can push for playing time at DE. McCardell has looked the part for two years but it just doesn't translate on the field.

 

[Todd4State]

How quickly can Denico Autry adjust to the SEC? I remember Pernell McPhee having to take some time to adjust.

I really think Will Redmond will be fine at free safety.

With our depth at LB, I wouldn't be surprised if we try Skinner at DE if we have some issues there.

 

[EAVdog]

He'll probably get a lot of unnecessary roughness calls. That kid brings the wood too.

 

[studentdawg87]

If he was 6'0" tall, he would be a LB. The dude is built like a tank, but I'm not sold on his speed. It will be interesting to see how he develops.

Redmond is going to play corner. If he is as good as many people seem to think, he will probably start there in '13.

 

[hotdigitydog]

nt

 

[Johnson85]

The question last year was about glaring weaknesses. Last year we were pretty sure we didn't have a pass rusher and we were pretty sure we were weak at linebacker. We were right about not having a pass rusher, and outside of the Auburn game, we were more or less wrong about linebacker (although Cox along with a defensive backfiel likely to have 4 players end up in the NFL probably made our lb's look better than they were).

We don't seem to have a glaring weakness this year; where we're weaker, it's really a matter of being young, not having only borderline SEC talent. The question is do we have enough playmakers.

We lost one stud DT and two nfl safeties. We know we have a playmaker in Banks. I think we know we will be good at DT, the question is how good without Cox demanding a lot of attention. We think we've upgraded at DE, but won't know by how much until we see Autry against SEC competition. We know Whitley can be a game changer, but don't know how he will be after his injury. We think Slay will emerge as another playmaker at db, but don't really know. If (i) Whitley is full speed, and (ii) Autry is an NFL talent, (iii) the drop off at DT is small, and (iv) any production from Wells is replaced by the emergence of Slay, we're really talking about making up for any drop-off resulting from Arrington starting, and we'll probably be better on defense than last year, possibly much better if having good DT's and a good pass rush beats having great DT's and a mediocre passrush. If any of those things don't happen (especially (i) and (ii)), it will be difficult to be better from last year, and more than one not being true probably means we will take a step back on D from last year.

 

[chew1095]

the guy can flat out bring it. WRs will think twice and pull up short.

 

[studentdawg87]

Slay has a lot of physical ability, and he can fly. Speed ain't an issue. He is faster than Banks or Broomfield. I'm not saying the guy is going to get drafted, but with a big year he could easily see his name called.

 

[JackBauer.sixpack]

but I dont think speed will be what holds him back. Slay and Jamerson Love are the two fastest players on our team(I havent seen the times, but thats what players & media have said) <div>
</div><div>*Edited for pronoun usage</div><div>
</div><div>

</div>

 

[KurtRambis4]

post I've ever seen questioning Slay's speed.

 

[cheat2win]

And that is scary territory, last time we could cycle through almost two Defensive lines we were Damn good

 

[Columbus Dawg]

nm

 

[biguglyjoe]

<span> <span id="temp-1"><span> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6SgWG4H6j-0?version=3&f=videos&app=youtube_gdata" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="355" width="425" allowScriptAccess="never" ></embed> </span> </span> </span>

 

[aTotal360]

nm

 

[mcdawg22]

Wilson got a lot of **** last year for the cushion the CB's gave WR's. One thing that must be noted is we weren't confident in our over the top coverage or our DE's. DE's need to do two things in run support either push sweeps inside or scrape to stretch those plays to the sideline. We were weak at both last year. If your DE can't do this the CB's can't engage with the WR too early or else they will be forced to inside or outside shoulder making them ineffective in run support. Of course the other problem with tight coverage no matter how talented the CB, is if the FS is lost there is always a chance of a big play over the top. So solid DE play free's up the CB and smart play by the FS allows them to be more aggressive. Autry and whoever plays FS are the difference between us last year and '99.

 

[Palos-Verdes]

but everything else is a big question mark. Our secondary got embarrassed in games last year. The defensive scheme was mostly to blame, but I'm afraid that pass happy offenses will continue to score early and force us to play catch-up all day . Tennessee will enjoy their day in Starkville if we can't get immediate pressure from the ends. Passing offenses will continue to be our achilles heel.

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

was he not a return guy while in jc? i know we have banks, perk, and bump in returns but i'm pretty sure slay was a bad *** in the jc return game. thought i remember john williams (my old ******* coach) talking about him being a return guy.<div id="LCS_336D0C35_8A85_403a_B9D2_65C292C39087_communicationDiv"></div>

 

[Uncle Ruckus]

solid guys up the middle, pressure on the edge from autry and hopefully eulls and that won't happen. our d-line, minus cox, couldn't provide pressure last year. teams shouldn't have enought time in the pocket this year. and 17 tennessee. those hillbilly's won't live up to the hype.

 

[dawgoneyall]

.