and being unconventional. Having them blitz more.
I'm not saying that we would shut everyone out if we blitzed more or that it would even make our players better, but you play to the strengths of your team, and sitting back in zone coverage is not our strength. You don't have all-world talent- and you don't to be solid on defense- and I consider being solid allowing 20 points or less on average per game, which is really very average.
Look at our 1999 defense that finished number one- Bean, Prather, Josh Morgan, Tim Nelson, Ashley Cooper, Barrin Simpson, Kevin Sluder- how did they do in the NFL? Fred Smoot was the most successful guy, and we did put some guys off of that defense such as Willie Blade, Ellis Wyms, Dorsett Davis, Alvin McKinley, and John Hilliard among others, in the NFL as well, but we were not just loaded with talent. Yes, a lot of MSU fans consider those guys to be "good players"- and they were- but we put them in position to be the most successful that they could be. If we tried to play Tampa-two with those same guys in 1999, we would have had some big time problems.