| 13 August 2009
We had solid depth across the defensive line. I liked the talent level and thought we had good numbers. You always take an elite DT or a DE but we had no real needs. You will notice I used the word had, not have.When Sol Thomas moved over from the strong side to the weak side in the spring, I raised an eyebrow for a quick minute. Wilson is coming back. Rose showed he is at least healthy. He can provide depth if nothing else. Fellows is a superstar waiting to happen. We are fine. Nothing to worry about.
That was then. This is now. Rose is gone. For how long we don't know for sure. Seems we are hearing alot of chatter about Small coming back. I have not heard that about Rose. Wilson has played so little in the past couple of years. I think those major injuries take so long to come back from that it is very dicey to assume they are going to help, let alone be the player they were before. I know when we go to the odd man front we will see Heyward out there playing the 5-technique. He is perfect for it. You need a really big 5-technique end when you have a 3-man front. I am not sure who will be the base end when we want to go with a straight up 4-3. I have to think Heyward but he is not an ideal guy out there for a 4-3 base end. He got bigger last year and was not as effective. I think he is a future 4-3 3-technique DT or a 5-technique 3-4 DE.We call the right side of the offensive line the strong side because traditionally the tight end lined up on that side and most of the running plays went to that side. A strong side end needs to be a very versatile player. He needs to be big enough and strong enough to stand up to the run but he also needs to be quick enough and athletic enough to rush the passer. Nobody lined up on the weakside can come over and help. You need a bigger guy to play on the strong side in a 4-3 than our large and impressive collection of weaks side ends. We recruited Sol Thomas as the heir apparent on the storng side but he just has not been able to get big enough to stand in there versus a heavy dose of the running game. He had a breakout spring on the weakside. Now we see Mobley moving back over to the strong side spot from DT. I don't know what that tells us yet. I know we are in limbo. So many unknowns. Wilson coming off the injury, Rose not with the team right now and Fellows just a pup. I am liking the odd man front more and more with this degree of uncertainty from our personnel out of the 4-3. I know we saw a good deal of odd man front in spring. I think it is a defense that Heacock is very comfortable with, and was at his best with, a couple of years ago with the versatile Bobby Carpenter playing the Leo. I wonder now if there was as much necessity as there was design in that move. The staff would have had some inkling about Roses situation and how the rehab was going with Wilson.You never know if a freshman can come in and play right away, and most of the time you don't want to find out, so the staff could not have been counting on Fellows to step in and provide immediate depth. There just aren't many options for the position out of the 4-3 but in the odd man front, it is NOT a 3-4, we have a prototype for what is called the "5-technique", in Cam Heyward and could even slide Mobley out there and even Doug Worthington. The options for a base end, the strong side defensive end in a 4-3, are all question marks. I think the staff used the spring to prepare for it.
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