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.

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scrooster

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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.

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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.

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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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Posted by scrooster

Resident Ethicist

Member since Jul 2012

37716 posts

Posted on 7/1/14 at 2:21 pm to MenloDawg

quote:
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.

Our DBs, for the most part of the past decade and a half, have been above average. We just seem to recruit well there and reload every couple of years. I think this year will be the same. We're going to have to survive the learning process ... but that's where our DL and LBs should help us this year.

We're really as talented and deep at DT as we've ever been ... moreso even. At least in my memory. At DE we're replacing Clowney and Sutton, but honestly, we've got plenty of talent there.

My point was that if our DL and LBs can contain your running game, because we're not going to stop it, and put the pressure on your passing game that you're going to have to try to execute to open-up your running game ... then our LBs and DLine take a lot of pressure off of our secondary. I think that's going to be the game plan and Ward is already known for scheming a lot of pressure on opposing backfields.

Cockopatomous' post is worth noting again:

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.....

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

He put it well. We are stacked along the DLine with some seriously gifted, talented, athletic, big boys. I'm most excited about (DT RS-Soph) Green myself. I saw him the other day when I was visiting the camp and he is just a beast. He's a legit 6'4" or better, and going every bit of 290 of solid muscle, not an ounce of fat on him and he can play. Abu Lamin, Suratt, Dixon Jr, Dukes, Griffin ... I mean it's a big time group of DTs.

And at DE, someone mentioned English might be undersized but he's not really anymore. He looks good. He's always been talented and fearless, but he looked skinny at 6-6 210. Now he's closer to 260 and, although he still looks thin for his height he can really run and with those long arms of his he's did very well last year. Add to him Dixon, Harris, Washington, et al., and we're just stacked along the DLine.

LBs ... everyone already understands that we have good LBs.

So the secondary is where the real question is and I suspect where most A&M and UGA fans are hoping to exploit? I dunno. We're not completely new back there. We've got some returning talent with quite a bit of game experience. Depth is the real question truth be known - although we may have to start one freshman at one corner, probably boundary corner, one of the guys who enrolled early and participated in Spring practices.

If I was an opposing team I would just expect us to be good on both sides of the ball. I mean loaded and with depth. But if I were looking for a weakness it would be on special teams. Special teams has the potential to be our Achilles' heal this year if we are not careful.

We've got a solid FG and XP kicker in Fry, but his distance is average. He's good to about 40-45 yards.

Our punting game has just been horrific. We've got to solve that this season, and early, or it will cause us problems with field position and that can be costly early in the season.

KO coverage has been so-so but we gave up a TD return to UCF last year on a late kick-off that was unacceptable. Punt coverage is another problem area but a lot of that had to do with shitty punting. I think we'll be okay on KOR if Cooper stays healthy. Punt returns ... I dunno. It's up in the air.

Good special teams are usually the result of having a lot of good players so that even the guys not getting regular time on the field can concentrate on special teams ... the young guys. We've got some of those we just need to put them to good use.

Our punter sucks. That's just the truth. I hope he gets it done this year but I have very little faith in him.

Our D and O will be powerful this year, both sides of the ball, but I am very concerned about our special teams and I suspect that if special teams cost us a game this year, much as it did against UT last year (shanked punt, one of three, late in the game), we'll be looking for a new Special Teams coach immediately following the coming season.

I'm predicting that special teams will play a bigger role in more games throughout the league this year than in any recent years on memory. I mean I get the whole Auburn-Bama game and how big it proved to be in that one ... but it's going to be front and center around the league this year and it's going to be interesting to see how many teams play flawless special teams ball because it's gonna be those teams that have the really special seasons in 2014 around the league. Why? Because the league is going to be brutal this year, more than any in the past decade or so, total smash mouth, close games, attrition due to injury ... and games are going to be won and lost with special teams. Mark my words. It always goes back to starting field position in years like the one coming and field position is almost always the result of special teams play one way or the other.

SCAR has work to do on special teams if we're going to compete for a title this year.

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