quote:
Who all graduated/left early? Clowney, Sutton, Quarles, Legree and Hampton? 3 of 4 DL and your top 2 CBs? Is that correct? It looks like a lot of production, but I haven't looked at the stats yet. May do so later.

Clowney, Quarles and Hampton left early (the first two going early in the draft, the last... not so much), Sutton and Legree graduated. In addition to that we had CB Ahmad Christian transfer out. He was being penciled in at one of the starting spots this coming season by many, but if that were the case for the coaches I don't think he would be gone.

quote:
Who will provide the pass rush?

Darius English (Former Georgia HS defensive POY) seems to have bulked up to a solid 250 lbs on his 6'6" frame and saw pretty good playing time last year backing up Clowney. On the other side, right now, I would probably say that Gerald Dixon (6'2" 265ish lbs RS JR) has the edge at SDE. English has a nose for the ball, so will be the one getting after the QB off the edge of the line. In the middle we return Surratt (6'2" 305 lb RS SR) who started last year and will probably pair him with Gerald Dixon, Jr. (actually half brother to the other, not son... 6'3" 325 RS JR).

quote:
Who is going to play corner?

We'll probably have one or more of the freshman make an impact on the CB corps, but I'll wait til they actually start practicing to predict which ones. Returning we have Rico McWilliams who backed up both corner spots last year and Ali Groves who redshirted after an injury, but showed promise early on. We also moved Jabari Smith over from RB in the spring and he showed flashes in his limited experience. Brison Williams did play there in the spring and some early in the summer, and we have a very capable guy behind him at SS in TJ Gurley, but I think if some of the new guys show promise then he will migrate back to the safety spot.

quote:
Is it safe to say your LBs will be the strength of the defense?

Yes and the safeties as well.

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Who all rounds out the projected starting lineup?

Kadetrik Marcus should continue to start at FS but he is being pushed by RS SO Chaz Elder who has showed great promise. Skai Moore (OLB), Kaiwan Lewis (MLB) and Sharrod Golightly (SPR) should form a solid starting corps with Jordan Diggs (SPR), Larenz Bryant (SPR, OLB), Jonathan Walton and TJ Holloman (LB) pushing themselves to get some starting time as well.

quote:
What signees have already been ruled ineligible? What other signees are in jeopardy? How does this effect you defensively?

Jhaustin Thomas (JUCO who couldn't get his grades up and is probably never going to put on the Garnet and Black), Dante Sawyer (already inrolled in CC and on pace to join our 2015 class in January, if he keeps his grades up) and Kalen Ritchie (probably headed to JUCO) are out. All three would have helped out our DE position, but I think it would have added depth more than pushing for starting spots. Dexter Wideman is still waiting on some grades to see if he will make it in, and depending on the week it's either looking good or dire. Joe Blue looks like he will make it in in August, as of right now, but he's going to be on the offensive side of the ball at FB and not ILB like 247 shows.

The only one I think who would realistically pushed for playing time is Thomas, but we still have plenty of talent behind English and Dixon (Mason Harris, Cedric Cooper and Devin Washington most notably).

All the CB freshman should report by Summer II or the start of Fall at the latest. Al Harris is already on campus and from all reports seems to be taking the field by storm. He does have the added benefit of spending the offseason in the Chief's training facility with his dad, though... so that's nice.

The closer we get to kickoff the more confident I get that Ward will have a dangerous defensive unit for the Aggies to test out in August. I can't wait to see what they can do.

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Posted by Cockopotamus

Member since Jan 2013

15739 posts

Posted on 7/1/14 at 12:09 pm to Loathor

quote:
Kadetrik Marcus should continue to start at FS but he is being pushed by RS SO Chaz Elder who has showed great promise

Chaz Elder took the starting FS spot from Marcus around the Arkansas game iirc.

Another strength of the team I haven't seen mentioned is DT. We are stacked with experienced players like JT Surrat, Dixon Jr. Phillip Dukes, Deon Green and Kelcy Griffin, plus JUCO transfer Abu Lamin got here in the spring and should make an immediate impact.

I think we'll see more 3-4 not only because of the talent and number at LB, but because we could slide some of the more athletic DTs out to DE in a 3-4.

CB will be a lot like LB was last year. Lots of early growing pains but around mid-season the light should start to come on for the true freshmen. Having Brison Williams play some corner and letting Elder and Gurley play FS and SS might help alleviate some of the problems, but I really like the combo of Elder and Williams at safety

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Posted by MenloDawg

Member since Jan 2010

6719 posts

Posted on 7/1/14 at 12:52 pm to Loathor

quote:
Gamecox20

quote:
Loathor

Thanks for the detailed responses, much appreciated.

I think the USCe defense has a chance to be pretty good, but we'll find out pretty early in the year w/ aTm, ECU, and UGA to open up. The trademark of your good defenses over the last few years, at least IMO, was the strength of the DL and the physical play from your DBs - not necessarily the best in coverage, but always seemed to be big and physical.

That was the primary reason for starting the thread - I know you have some legitimate talent at safety, but I knew next to nothing about your CBs and DL. I think our WRs will have a significant advantage over your CBs, but I'm not so sure that the interior part of our DL will be able to block your DTs effectively. I think the USCe D v. UGA O aspect of the game will really boil down to how our tackles handle your pass rush. If they can do so effectively, then I'm pretty confident we'll have a big day offensively. If they can't, then I'm not so sure. With that said, our offense under Richt never performs well in Columbia. Even though he's only lost 2 games there in his career the D usually carries the day, not the O.

I'm going to try and keep up with USCe's D as much as possible in fall camp and really observe how they perform against aTm. I think both fan bases understand how big of a game they have in week 3.

quote:
scrooster

quote:
If you're hoping we're going to be down on the D side of the ball, you're probably going to be disappointed.

We've been recruiting well there so we're not dependant on the new class for success on that side of the ball this year.

Of course I'm hoping your down on the defensive side of the ball. I may be disappointed, but I think we're fortunate to catch you early in the year during a season where you're replacing both your pass rush and CBs. That's typically not the best combo for a defense.

quote:
I'm not convinced we'll take a step back. To the contrary, there's a chance we'll be better.

It's possible, I just have a hard time seeing a "better" D for USCe than what you had the last few years. No, I don't expect us to score 41 again, but that's merely one game. I could see the USCe D reflecting Bama's O from last year, kind of what slayerxing alluded to. Statistically, you could see improvement, but not relative to the other teams in the league.

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This year, as recently alluded to by the HBC himself, this is the hardest working, most focused team in the off season he's had in awhile.

I can tell you from experience not to get caught up in that garbage.

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DLine and LB are most important to us vs UGA.

I agree that your DL is most important because that will dictate just how much your LB corps can do. If we have to spend time chipping and double teaming, then I expect your LBs to have a field day. With that said, what makes those two positions groups any more important than DBs in this game? We're pretty talented at WR and our QB isn't a freshman that we'll be going out of our way to protect with play calling.

quote:
We'll be better there this year than we were last year IMHO without all the attention and distration on Clowney. Different chemistry, more of a team thing than an individual thing.

Sounds a lot like UGA fans going into the 2009 season with the departure of Knowshon/Stafford. Not saying that the results will be the same, but I'm interested to see if this sentiment is indeed true.

As an aside, were there anymore issues between members of the defensive coaching staff after the UGA game? Obviously that was in the heat of the moment, but I'm unaware about how it played out after that. Was there an overarching issue that went beyond the UGA game? Did the tension linger? Is it still present or was somebody sent packing?

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