Our DL next year...

1

1gtfan

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Nov 26, 2007
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1st off, I think our DLine was overrated this year...P.J. said early on that we would be recruiting bigger DT's and we got T.J. Barnes and Lanier, I agree we need bigger DT's.. L.S.U. ran right through our DL last night..Up the gut hurt us..When I saw how big LSU was in that team walk at fanfest, I knew we were in trouble. Big NFL type Olines have given us trouble during the Gailey years and this year with the holdovers DT's from his and Tenuta's recruiting (Light wt. DT's) and UVA has dominated us the last few years because like LSU they have that huge NFL type Oline that blows us off the ball..

I'm hoping that this is corrected going forward with big guys like Barnes and Lanier..Morgan is a beast at the one DE spot...I heard someone today tell me that P.J. mentioned again 2 weeks ago that we will play the 3-4 a lot next year, smart move I.M.H.O. PJ is real high on the 2 redshirts Barnes and some DE that was unstoppable this year in practice (I'm assuming he is talking about Antonio Wilson ? )

Oh no, now comes the guys on here telling us the 3-4 wont work for us) :laugher:
 
No, they weren't. Our biggest problem is that our LB play was so weak. DLs won't make all the tackles unless they are physically able to dominate. Our DL is more of a speed/finesse group, not a big, powerful unit. They get a push on the OL and tie up space, but the LBs have to fill and make the plays. Our LBs just were not good and it showed.

and no, PJ did not say we would play the 3-4 a lot next year, in fact he didn't say we would play it at all. Since we don't have 2 good LBs right now, where do you think we're going to get 4? What we will probably do is play lots of fronts, just like we did this year.
 
nc. I agree with you that our DL was not overrated. Those guys had great careers. But, I was disappointed some in their play. I think Walker had a much better year as a Junior. MJ was always an up and down player, made some unbelievable plays, but disappeared at times. Richard had a good year, but not a great one. Morgan was great early to mid-season, thentailed off a bit. You are right, if LB's are weak you can double team the DLine a lot more. I wonder if we should have tried to play more players on the line to keep these guys fresher.
 
I think it came down more to the LBs as well. Our LBs have to fill the open spaces and they have had trouble with this all year. In their defense though, I think the LBs had as big of a transition this year as the offense did. The role of the LBs in Wommacks D is way different than in Tenutas.
 
Doing something instead of running around like chickens with their heads cut off?

Yea. That'll do it.
 
ncjacket said:
No, they weren't. Our biggest problem is that our LB play was so weak. DLs won't make all the tackles unless they are physically able to dominate. Our DL is more of a speed/finesse group, not a big, powerful unit. They get a push on the OL and tie up space, but the LBs have to fill and make the plays. Our LBs just were not good and it showed.

and no, PJ did not say we would play the 3-4 a lot next year, in fact he didn't say we would play it at all. Since we don't have 2 good LBs right now, where do you think we're going to get 4? What we will probably do is play lots of fronts, just like we did this year.
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NC don't tell me PJ. didn't say he would play the 3-4 because he said that according to my source..And yes, our Dline was not as good as advertised, very inconsistent, but, I agree that we have weak LB's, the same person that told me this said, P.J. is high on the 2 LB's we redshirted and the others coming in.
 
1gtfan said:
NC don't tell me PJ. didn't say he would play the 3-4 because he said that according to my source..And yes, our Dline was not as good as advertised, very inconsistent, but, I agree that we have weak LB's, the same person that told me this said, P.J. is high on the 2 LB's we redshirted and the others coming in.
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You're source is probably misquoting or misrepresenting some comments PJ made in a press conference. Someone asked him about the 3-4 and his answer was very noncommital. He didn't say we wouldn't and he didn't say we would. He basically said we'd play whatever we thought would work best. Tje comments were in the paper and widely discussed on this and other boards.
 
1gtfan said:
1st off, I think our DLine was overrated this year...P.J. said early on that we would be recruiting bigger DT's and we got T.J. Barnes and Lanier, I agree we need bigger DT's.. L.S.U. ran right through our DL last night..Up the gut hurt us..When I saw how big LSU was in that team walk at fanfest, I knew we were in trouble. Big NFL type Olines have given us trouble during the Gailey years and this year with the holdovers DT's from his and Tenuta's recruiting (Light wt. DT's) and UVA has dominated us the last few years because like LSU they have that huge NFL type Oline that blows us off the ball..

I'm hoping that this is corrected going forward with big guys like Barnes and Lanier..Morgan is a beast at the one DE spot...I heard someone today tell me that P.J. mentioned again 2 weeks ago that we will play the 3-4 a lot next year, smart move I.M.H.O. PJ is real high on the 2 redshirts Barnes and some DE that was unstoppable this year in practice (I'm assuming he is talking about Antonio Wilson ? )

Oh no, now comes the guys on here telling us the 3-4 wont work for us) :laugher:
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I don't think Richards and Walker are overrated at all. Ncjacket is right. Our problem on defense are the linebackers. Go look at the game film. They overrun the point of attack consistently. They take horrible angles, and they can't tackle worth a crap.
 
ncjacket said:
You're source is probably misquoting or misrepresenting some comments PJ made in a press conference. Someone asked him about the 3-4 and his answer was very noncommital. He didn't say we wouldn't and he didn't say we would. He basically said we'd play whatever we thought would work best. Tje comments were in the paper and widely discussed on this and other boards.
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Not the case, but I'm not going to argue anymore on this, just wait and see next year. i am excited about Lanier and Barnes coming in as big DT's we desperatly need. Does anyone know if the DE PJ is saying was unblockable in practice this year was Antonio Wilson ?
 
BarrelORum said:
I don't think Richards and Walker are overrated at all. Ncjacket is right. Our problem on defense are the linebackers. Go look at the game film. They overrun the point of attack consistently. They take horrible angles, and they can't tackle worth a crap.
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Yes, I have agreed with you all year on our LB's. I do disagree with you on only Griffin being any good , I feel The Gladiator along with Griffin are the only 2 good ones at this point. I give the gladiator credit, in the 2nd half he came on strong after a terrible 1st half last night.
 
1gtfan said:
NC don't tell me PJ. didn't say he would play the 3-4 because he said that according to my source..And yes, our Dline was not as good as advertised, very inconsistent, but, I agree that we have weak LB's, the same person that told me this said, P.J. is high on the 2 LB's we redshirted and the others coming in.
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He said/ she said... I'm sure PJ is not serious about running the 3-4 defense if there was any discussion about it. 3-4 defenses are not run because you have big DT's, you can run it when you have NFL sized linebackers. We aren't even close in personnel to running a 3-4. If we started running the 3-4, I'd have to seriously question the competence of the coaching staff.
 
I'm beginning to think that having stud DL's is overrated. All you really want DT's to do is tie up space and free up the LB's. If you have quick athletic DT's, they are just gonna get held, and the refs aren't gonna call it most of the time. DE's are a little different, since they are out in space, and it's harder for the refs to ignore holding on them. The key is LB play, and we didn't have any this year.

Last night, we weren't able to hide our short comings at LB and OL.
 
I agree completely...

Killick said:
I'm beginning to think that having stud DL's is overrated. All you really want DT's to do is tie up space and free up the LB's. If you have quick athletic DT's, they are just gonna get held, and the refs aren't gonna call it most of the time. DE's are a little different, since they are out in space, and it's harder for the refs to ignore holding on them. The key is LB play, and we didn't have any this year.

Last night, we weren't able to hide our short comings at LB and OL.
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DL - Vastly overrated, but GOOD. DMorg is the total package, but is still learning. Remember, he was another one of the young guys that "Chantastic" blew a year on. MJ was MJ...as long as he wasn't feeding himself :), Walker was AWOL for most of the season and DRich was spending too much time telling the Refs how much he was being held (in his defense, he seemed to be held 75% of the time).

LB - The only positive I can say about our LBs are that Griffin/Jackson seem to play hard and Jefferson looks the part...other than that, their play has been horrendous for most of the season.

DB - Mario Butler should take a seat on the oak next year if he can't accept the fact that this is a contact sport. He was as soft as wet tissue all season and tackled worse than my 5yr old son's team.

Reese is a gritty player that I'd take 10 more of on D and Cooper Taylor will be a stud once he gets a bit stronger. Right now he is explosive, but has no power behind it. I don't think people realize how fast the kid is and he along with Griffin seem to be the ONLY guys on D that play with an attitude.

Reid played well for a FR thrown into the fire and Burnett gets a pass for his mistakes considering how much he saved our asses back there.

Enough of my rant...DAMN I miss KMike and Anoai!!
 
You win at the point of attack. Simple Football 101. Look at all the great teams. Schemes mean nothing if you can't play smash mouth up front. Blocking and tackling is what wins games.
 
yes i would have to agree our that LBs play was weak at times. but we have to realize that we been down on numbers all season at LB due injuries: Bowen career over w/ a broken neck, AT broken leg, Sed coming off two torn ligaments in his knee (and it showed last night), and Brad with a major wrist injury that slowed him down all season. yes the scheme is different from JT but that still doesnt excuse you from doing the fundamentals of football (lining up and making tackles)

also i think our DL was good but not great as we made them out to be. IMO i think MJ is overrated and very inconsistent. he will have to learn to play the run b/c i think the consistancy in the LB was due missed assignments up front in particularly MJ.

But with being a year better and having this as a learning tool to see what a defense suppose to look like the D will be BETTTER NEXT YEAR!!!
 
All I know is that this is the first time in like 10 years that I can ever remember getting to the QB without blitzing. I'd say our front 4 had a terrific season - especially when you consider how young our LB's and secondary were. The defense was squarely on their shoulders and they gave us a pretty doggone good season.
 
The next DL will be a huge dropoff from this one. This DL consistently got pressure with nearly no help. Occasionally in the CFA we brought 5 but LSU seemed to know exactly where it was coming from and we never seemed to get any pressure with the help. Not sure if this isn't partly because our LBs and CBs are not good blitzers either.

LSU, like UGA, threw very quick passes. I do not recall plays like you see in other team's games where the QB has loads of time to look for open receivers. The LBs are not good in pass coverage yet and our CBs appear to have to give a cushion.

If you can criticize the DL at all IMHO I think they could coordinate their pass rush better to help contain mobile QBs. And that is bigtime nit pickin.
 
Where's the beef?
Haven't you guys learned anything from watching Alabama destroy Clemson and LSU throttle us? All good teams start and end with the line.

We are a better team next year because of OL speed and DL size. Nick McRae and Uzzi start on the OL next year, both are 6-4, 290 and run a 5 flat 40. Yes, they will get bigger in the next 9 months. So we'll get both blocking on the dive play and quality 2nd level blocking on LBs and DBs.

For DL, if we put TJ Barnes and Lanier on the line on day 1 our DL is better next year. That's a freaking brick wall in the center. They won't push us back and the LBs will be free to make plays.
 
Re: I agree completely...

GTWin said:
DL - Vastly overrated, but GOOD. DMorg is the total package, but is still learning. Remember, he was another one of the young guys that "Chantastic" blew a year on. MJ was MJ...as long as he wasn't feeding himself :), Walker was AWOL for most of the season and DRich was spending too much time telling the Refs how much he was being held (in his defense, he seemed to be held 75% of the time).

LB - The only positive I can say about our LBs are that Griffin/Jackson seem to play hard and Jefferson looks the part...other than that, their play has been horrendous for most of the season.

DB - Mario Butler should take a seat on the oak next year if he can't accept the fact that this is a contact sport. He was as soft as wet tissue all season and tackled worse than my 5yr old son's team.

Reese is a gritty player that I'd take 10 more of on D and Cooper Taylor will be a stud once he gets a bit stronger. Right now he is explosive, but has no power behind it. I don't think people realize how fast the kid is and he along with Griffin seem to be the ONLY guys on D that play with an attitude.

Reid played well for a FR thrown into the fire and Burnett gets a pass for his mistakes considering how much he saved our asses back there.

Enough of my rant...DAMN I miss KMike and Anoai!!
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Who makes more in the NFL, a lock down corner or an Ed Reed type safety? Next year, I think our best five in the backfield is Burnett at CB, Reid, Reese and Taylor.

Our LBers were our biggest problem but they did have some issues to overcome. They were all hurt at some point of this season. Jefferson is playing with a bad wrist that I'm sure hurts his ability to tackle and clear off OL. And they're all young and constantly changing their lineup.

We may not be ranked at the end of this season now and with so many questions on defense for next year, I wonder if we'll even be ranked next year.
 
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