The wife asked me the other night if this defense, as good as they were on Saturday, would compare to the '99 squad. I told her it is still too early to tell. What say ye? I'm hoping someone with more knowledge than me could expand a little.
This year's defense
- Thread starter SuspectZero
- Start date
As good as "99" I would say no we had 2 lockdown corners and a defense that got
gap penetration on every down. We had that hybrid dog safety linebacker in PIG Prather that could stop the run and cover man. Our 2 defensive lines were just badass men. At this time I would say its not even close. Of course remember we were not playing all those spread offenses we have now but when we played a spread with Clemson in the bowl we ate their lunch.
gap penetration on every down. We had that hybrid dog safety linebacker in PIG Prather that could stop the run and cover man. Our 2 defensive lines were just badass men. At this time I would say its not even close. Of course remember we were not playing all those spread offenses we have now but when we played a spread with Clemson in the bowl we ate their lunch.
On par with '99. We've played plenty of crappy teams since 1999 and haven't shut-out any until last weekend.
When the defense is good like it was this weekend, when the opposing offenses appear to get long plays, they're really only getting 2 or 3 yards. That's what Saturday looked like.
When the defense is good like it was this weekend, when the opposing offenses appear to get long plays, they're really only getting 2 or 3 yards. That's what Saturday looked like.
Yeah, the wife is pretty die hard as far as most chicks go. She has a lot to learn though. She doesn't understand why certain things are done a certain way. However, she'll ask a ton of questions. She's not the type to leave the stadium because it's too hot or it's raining or whatever.
I'm trying to get her to understand that this defense hasn't been tested yet so we really don't know anything but we'll know more as the season goes on. She absolutely loves MSU football.
I'm trying to get her to understand that this defense hasn't been tested yet so we really don't know anything but we'll know more as the season goes on. She absolutely loves MSU football.
^^^This^^^ Let's wait and see if this defense can stop everybody we play the way the 99 defense did.
Well it's not like we just started stopping people. We've given up 10 offensive points in our last 12+ quarters (OM, rice, and usm).
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I'm with you at the moment, I'd say we are "on par" with the '99 D. Or at least have the potential to be equally as good as them.
USM was obviously not much of a challenge, but it gave us the opportunity to see some things and answer some of the questions. Our DB's aren't near as good as they were that '99 season, but this D has the potential to do very big things.
Pig also got out of prison not too terribly long ago...I'm sure he could be an asset to building these DB's!!
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It was awesome seeing him all over the place. He was working extremely hard, and was in the right place at the right time some. He has the potential to have a HUGE year with all the attention that Chris Jones will pull. He will get a lot of opportunities for sacks.
It will be hard to compare this year to 1999. The state of SEC offenses is completely different, not to mention the coaching talent is much higher. Going against Tuberville, Cutcliffe, Nutt, Dubose, and Dinardo in the west, not to mention the easiest slate of SECE opponents there has been the last 20 years (an awful Vandy, a rebuilding from the ground up SC, and a 1-dimensional Kentucky about to implode), will make a meaningful comparison very hard. Then again, we have what is probably the easiest SECE schedule since that 1999 schedule.
Too soon to tell. Stat wise with the spread offense and teams playing faster will make it harder to compare. With that said, I think this defense is the best we probably have ever had. Like to see us against a spread but I believe talent wise we can adapt to any offense. I don't see any team overpowering us on the run. We have good corners. If we can get pressure on the qb they will look even better. I'm not sold on them covering 3 or 4 wide outs for over 5 seconds though. Time will tell.
I've been thinking about this at several different junctures. Short answer is: could be.
The strengths are definitely different, partially due to coaching style. The '99 defense featured two NFL CBs (Smoot, Bean), two NFL DT's (Blade, Davis), and at least 4 more contributors who were borderline-NFL/CFL/NFL Europe players (Cooper, Simpson, Golliday, Prather). Sluder, Menafee, Nelson, Hilliard, Grant, Morgan, and Clinton were all serviceable SEC players as well (apologies if any of those saw action in a pro league that I didn't notice).
The '14 defense has an almost-surefire NFL DT (Jones), DE (Smith), and LB (McKinney), and several other prospects, particularly at LB. I do think the '14 defense has less drop off from the 1's to 2's everywhere except DT. The '14 squad also makes up for less talented prospects at DT with more experience.
The strengths are definitely different, partially due to coaching style. The '99 defense featured two NFL CBs (Smoot, Bean), two NFL DT's (Blade, Davis), and at least 4 more contributors who were borderline-NFL/CFL/NFL Europe players (Cooper, Simpson, Golliday, Prather). Sluder, Menafee, Nelson, Hilliard, Grant, Morgan, and Clinton were all serviceable SEC players as well (apologies if any of those saw action in a pro league that I didn't notice).
The '14 defense has an almost-surefire NFL DT (Jones), DE (Smith), and LB (McKinney), and several other prospects, particularly at LB. I do think the '14 defense has less drop off from the 1's to 2's everywhere except DT. The '14 squad also makes up for less talented prospects at DT with more experience.
To early to make that judgement right now.....
Right now I would give it a tentative and unqualified no.
I think this squad is equal in depth, starting D-line and probably linebacker. D-backfield I would say are good but probably not as good as 99. That was also the key to that 99 D because they were so effective in man-to-man that it freed up a lot of firepower to attack at the LOS.
With that said I think this squad stands to rank among the best but then again, we have only faced southern to date. We will find out soon enough what we really have when we visit red stick.
It is kind of cool right now that we are the only team in the SEC (minus FL of course) that pitched a shutout on Sat.
Right now I would give it a tentative and unqualified no.
I think this squad is equal in depth, starting D-line and probably linebacker. D-backfield I would say are good but probably not as good as 99. That was also the key to that 99 D because they were so effective in man-to-man that it freed up a lot of firepower to attack at the LOS.
With that said I think this squad stands to rank among the best but then again, we have only faced southern to date. We will find out soon enough what we really have when we visit red stick.
It is kind of cool right now that we are the only team in the SEC (minus FL of course) that pitched a shutout on Sat.