TJ Barnes.....

[Axe]

I think if you go back and look at UGA's holding penalties in the 2nd half, you'll see that our D line was definitely a factor in that game. Plus, there were several times Stafford had to flee for his life, which led to drive ending incompletions.

Plus, our D line had a pick 6 in the previous game.

I think it'd be hard to support the idea that our D line was a nonfactor late in the season. They were clearly a factor.

Like I said non-factor was the wrong word. If we didn't have our dline we wouldn't have beaten UGA, but we still gave up 42 points without turning over the ball. UGA had to drive the field for all their points. We forced 1 punt against UVA. We gave up a lot of points and yards to FSU. We had one of the best Dlines in the country and we struggled to stop people down the stretch. The reason it happened is we were really young and not very effective in the back 7.

When I said, non-factor I simply meant that if you are UVA and you are getting ready to play one of the best d-lines in the country you shouldn't expect you will dominate time of possesion and only punt once. We weren't very good on defense over the second half of the season that is what I meant by non-factor. However, those guys still made plays so non-factor was the wrong word. If it wasn't for that D-line our defense would have been vintage '99 bad.

 

[beej67]

If it wasn't for that D-line our defense would have been vintage '99 bad.

I'll agree with that.

 

[gtyellowjackets]

Wommack seems to plya a real soft style of defense. A bend but don't break attitude. I beleive that is as much to blaim as the youth and injuries.

However, Wommack does tend to make good adjustments at halftime. I just don't know why he doesn't do it sooner.

 

[SeePops]

Wommack seems to plya a real soft style of defense. A bend but don't break attitude. I beleive that is as much to blaim as the youth and injuries.

However, Wommack does tend to make good adjustments at halftime. I just don't know why he doesn't do it sooner.

Wommack also said he wasn't using his full playbook this season. Having just started this year, and having a lot of young'ns, he didn't want to create too much confusion. At Southern Miss he blitzed fairly often, although not at Tenuta levels. I expect to see more LB blitzing next year. AT Barnes is built to blitz.

 

[BuzzCzar]

lets see, last year, with Tenuta's "high pressure defense":
5 interceptions
111 tackles for loss
47 sacks
18 forced fumbles
861 plays for 4295 yards (5 ypp) [allowed]
scoring defense 20.8 ppg
total scoring defense 271 pts

this year's (according to you) "soft; bend but dont break defense":
18 interceptions
90 tackles for loss
32 sacks
12 forced fumbles
785 plays for 3752 yards (4.8 ypp) [allowed]
scoring defense 18.8 ppg
total scoring defense 226 pts

in my opinion, this year's defense is much preferred

 

[JWE37]

lets see, last year, with Tenuta's "high pressure defense":
5 interceptions
111 tackles for loss
47 sacks
18 forced fumbles
861 plays for 4295 yards (5 ypp) [allowed]
scoring defense 20.8 ppg
total scoring defense 271 pts

this year's (according to you) "soft; bend but dont break defense":
18 interceptions
90 tackles for loss
32 sacks
12 forced fumbles
785 plays for 3752 yards (4.8 ypp) [allowed]
scoring defense 18.8 ppg
total scoring defense 226 pts

in my opinion, this year's defense is much preferred

+1
Turnovers forced and points allowed are how you measure a defense.

 

[beej67]

Post FSU quote:

"Make them snap it one more time, and eventually something good will happen."

 

[ncjacket]

Wommack seems to plya a real soft style of defense. A bend but don't break attitude. I beleive that is as much to blaim as the youth and injuries.

However, Wommack does tend to make good adjustments at halftime. I just don't know why he doesn't do it sooner.

Sorry, but this post is just silly.

 

[GoldenTornado]

Wommack seems to plya a real soft style of defense. A bend but don't break attitude. I beleive that is as much to blaim as the youth and injuries.

However, Wommack does tend to make good adjustments at halftime. I just don't know why he doesn't do it sooner.

"Soft" is a bad word. "Bend but don't break", I'll agree with.

Which is not all bad, thanks to the "not breaking" part:

2008 -- 10 rushes for 20+, 15 passes for 25+
2007 -- 16 rushes for 20+, 28 passes for 25+

Definitely a huge improvement in not giving up big plays this year. Everyone knew it just watching the games, but it's nice to see it in the stats too.

Tenuta fit Gailey better -- we couldn't score, so an all-or-nothing defense gave us the chance to steal some 7-3 and 14-10 type wins at the expense of blowout losses when we got burned.

Wommack fits Johnson better. We will score scads of points under Johnson, and we need dependability more than all-or-nothing. A 1998 or 2000 style defense that holds people to 14-20 points and gets a lot of turnovers is exactly what Johnson needs, and generally the style he seems to have always had.

 

[GoldenTornado]

Obviously we're gonna take a step back on the D-line.

As I've said on TOS, the roster looks built for a 3-4 to me. Especially if one or two of the smaller DE's could play LB. Maybe Hall at ILB, like Gerris Wilkinson.

Then Barnes is in the middle with Lanier and Walls competing to spell him, and your three-man DE rotation is Morgan, Peters and Anderson.

If we do that, it might go some of the way towards masking the DL's losses. We do need Barnes to stay healthy and Lanier or Walls to come on strong.

 

[SeePops]

Obviously we're gonna take a step back on the D-line.

As I've said on TOS, the roster looks built for a 3-4 to me. Especially if one or two of the smaller DE's could play LB. Maybe Hall at ILB, like Gerris Wilkinson.

Then Barnes is in the middle with Lanier and Walls competing to spell him, and your three-man DE rotation is Morgan, Peters and Anderson.

If we do that, it might go some of the way towards masking the DL's losses. We do need Barnes to stay healthy and Lanier or Walls to come on strong.

Now I haven't played meaningful football since HS, and I've never coached, but I feel like a DE being moved to LB in a 3-4 would play OLB, not ILB. A 3-4 with the players we have next year could certainly be effective. However, I think there is no need to switch to a 3-4. In 2010, we will be better suited to run a 4-3. In my limited experience, it always seems like defenses play better when they have one known identity, and don't have to re-learn entire concepts year to year.

 

[00Burdell]

In my limited experience, it always seems like defenses play better when they have one known identity, and don't have to re-learn entire concepts year to year.

Agreed. Its like telling the kids you don't think they can get it done.

At some point, you have to transition from fitting the system to the kids to fitting the kids to the system.