Your Safeties

B

bugboy

Damn Good Rat
Joined
Dec 2, 2001
Messages
1,136
I'll echo what's said above. We have good safeties. I expect that they'll be well coached this year, as our DC (Tenuta) is a very good DB coach. So, our safetys and CB's should be a team strength on D.
LB's are our main strength though. Smith is a monster and the other guys fly around pretty good.

Our weakness on D has been our defensive line, especially up the middle. I think we're OK at the DE position, but we'll have to see about our DT's. In the past, they weren't asked to do much. Maybe they'll be a little more agressive this year.
 
Buffy, Just to really cross you up, safety is my second biggest team concern, behind OL depth:-)
 
Crap. You guys aren't leaving a lot of room to put up points. Our strength is our receivers. Although our QBs are green, they do throw the long ball pretty good. So maybe we can just throw some bombs. If we're lucky enough to peg a couple of our receivers long, maybe your safeties will have to start sinking far enough back to give up some of that middle ground.

For you guys, its tempting to want to bring those DBs up to bump our receivers on the line, but although your DL is superior, our OL excels at pass protection. As implied, this also means we can't run jack, yet. Now that I think of it, I might jam the receivers anyway. Our QBs are green enough to do something stupid under a little pressure. Speak to me.
 
Actually, I have to take another position on the safeties. Both are seniors with a lot of experience. They improved greatly last year and if they continue, our pass defense should be very solid. Here's my breakdown of strengths/weaknesses:

FS Jeremy Muyers (#27) is an all-star candidate. Strengths: Very smart 4 year starter, knows where to be, strong run support, sure tackler. Field leader. Weakness: Has below average speed, not a great cover guy, tends to play back to not get burned. Can be slow to jump on the ball, but will bring the receiver down.

SS Cory Collins (#4) will be a 2nd year as a starter, and played a lot as a Soph. Strengths: STRONG hitter, has a knack for big plays. Great blitzer and sure tackler. Has a nose for the ball. Decent cover skills. Weakness: Can get out of postition, average speed, lacks recognition on the fly, can be burned for big plays. Sometimes seems to "disappear".
 
Buffydore, you are right about our pass protection. Up until the 7th or eigth game we were giving up one sack per game (then we lost our line to injuries, and then we started to get blown out), against some quality D-lines (bama, auburn, etc.) We return 4 of our starting lineman from that group, so we should still provide some quality protection. That is why I am not as scared of your D-line as I am of the LB's, who can put a hurting on us (run, pass, and pressure).
 
I'm trying to do some analysis on your defense to figure out where our best chances are. Here's what I know: We have a receiver who will get good yards because he runs great routes and has great hands. His weakness is his ability to get yards after the catch. Up front, I don't see our inexperienced backs gaining anything of note on the ground. So that brings up your mid-section. I'm wondering if we can send some of our speedy receivers through the middle without getting their heads knocked off. Give me some feedback on your safeties.
 
Senior Free Safety Jeremy Muyers is an All-ACC candidate (2nd team all-ACC last season), last year was tech's 3rd leading tackler.

Senior Strong Safety Cory Collins has started 18 straight games, last year was tech's 4th leading tackler
 
You'd do good running your WR's in drag across the middle. Our LB'ers, especially the MLB gets suckered into the play action and is slow to respond.
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If that doesn't work, run the option.
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Syracuse tore us up last year with that play. Never could put much wood on the QB.
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The other (strong) safety is Cory Collins. He is one of the best hitters on the team. I still think about his blitz on Cory Phillips in the '00 Ugag game--POW! as Madden would say.

If I were scheming against us, I would run a lot of outs for the receivers, hitches or deep routes to the outside. I would not run much stuff over the middle--that plays into our strengths w/safeties and linebackers that can really lay the lumber on someone. If Vandy is dumb enough to run drag routes over the middle and the option, chances are good that the D can pitch a shutout.

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And the strong safety (Cory Collins) is a real hitter. He seems to really enjoy the contact - he also plays on special teams - at least he did last year.

The linebackers are the strength of the defense.

If you intend to make a living going over the middle, I think your WRs will need lots of whirlpool time on Sunday. JMHO.
 
I think our safeties are a definate strength of our team. The LBs get a lot of pub, but the safeties are very good. Both these guys Myers and Collins are senior vets. They've played and started for three years. Both guys have become great leaders. Collins is likely to really lay the wood to a lot of players this year. He's always been a big hitter, but his physical shape has drawn a lot of attention in practice. There back ups are young, but gifted as well.

Collins is BIG TIME HITTERR, but Myers is a super tackler and heady player. If someone else in the league has two better safties I'd be surprised. Don't care what any of the mags say.

I know I sound all "Rah Rah" about our safeties, but they really are good.

BTW, Buffy, you're a fired up Vandy fan. That's great. You've gained my respect with your posts here.

I'll probably slip into Peters Parking Deck and see if I can't run into you before game time.
 
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