| 21 September 2009
Someone on Bucknuts asked whether this is the best defense since the 2002 defense. I think it is too early to make that determination but there is one thing they have in common. Tough veteran defensive linemen. I would put the number of reps that Worthington, Denlinger, Larimore and Heyward up against any other front in college football. You have fully grown men out there with a boatload of weightroom reps. They have made it very easy for the rest of the pups on defense to find their way around.
I think we need a primer as we are in an odd man front defense so much of the time.
The difference in an odd man front and a 3-4 is there are still 4 down linemen on the field. It is where they line up that matters. You want that weakside end, in the case of our defense that is more often than not Thad Gibson, uncovered. You are trying to create a situation where he is out there able to run free and clear and not have a 330 lb tackle lined up over him. We still have 2 tackles and 2 ends on the field but the positioning is different than a 4-3.
We are moving one of the tackles, Worthington most of the time, out over the left tackle rather than over the guard. It occupies the left tackle and allows Gibson some room to attack without having to deal with a guy far too big for him. At the same time moving the tackle over occupies space. There is a big gap if the edge player is rushing all the time and the tackle is still lined up on the guard. I think the key to it is having a big athletic base/5-technique player like Heyward on the strong side. He is big and strong enough to set the edge and hold the point, but athletic enough to rush the passer and cause problems for the running game.
Speaking of Heward, he continues to show himself to be a sure NFL player. The versatility is going to have the NFL drooling. He proved early in his freshman year that he could play the strong side/base end in a 4-3. Last year and this year he showed he can play the 5-technique, which is the strong side DE spot in a 3-man front. He played weak side in the Toledo game. His best position may be as a 3-technique DT. That kind of versatility is going to make him very valuable to NFL personnel men. He is the kind of player a Bill Belichick would covet.
We were talking about Rolle hanging on trying to bring down a tight end in Saturdays game. That is the downside. He is going to give up size. So far it has not been a problem. He is recognizing and attacking before linemen can engage him. He is as fast as a safety. There is an engagement zone. When we diagram plays we show the lineman making contact at a perfect point. Every step beyond that point makes that block less and less likely to be effective. He is beyond the "engagement zone", before they can get there. As long as he keeps doing that I can handle him having a hard time trying to corral a tight end down the field. That is not going to happen very often.
He would not be ideal for the Star since he is not a great coverman. On obvious downs he is not the best choice for the Star but as an every down player he could an the position. That would allow us to play two bigger LBs most downs.
That he is not big enough does not matter. Can he do the job? A player who fits the profile, the template, what have you, of any given position stands a better chance of being able to do the job. That is the point of recruiting. It is the only reason combines even exist. In the end it comes down to doing the job. Rolle is doing it.
I have been considering Spitlers role in the defense. I can't recall a big play out of him. In his defense, I am still waiting on a play where he really messed up too. Maybe that is his role in the defense. Rolle and Homan are all over the place. They seem to have carte blanch to roam. Maybe that is what the coaches are counting on. Having one kid out there that is going to find the hole in the defense and sit it in. Maybe Spitler has made big plays in the fact that he was in the right place at the right time to keep our opponents from making a big play.
Still a little nervous about our secondary. I like what I see out of Torrence as a tackler but I need to see him in coverage before I am going to relax. I saw Johnson on the field at safety and that makes me relax ever so slightly. I projected Hines to linebacker coming out of high school and I still don't like him on the ball in the last third of the field. The sooner he is back to the Star, more a linebacker position, the happier I will be.
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