Ags Under Sumlin - Almost two years in

quote:

---

Now we're in year two. The defense is a fricking disgrace. I find myself wondering if Sumlin is committed to being a top SEC defense and if Snyder has a vision as to how to achieve it?

---

your angst is misdirected honestly. I get that people are frustrated with the defense but there are some fundamental misunderstandings about the situation we are in. I'm faaaar more frustrated with the offense and maybe I'll get to that in a few days.

But as for the defense....

The SEC West is a grind. More than the East even, it's a LOS league. It's not like the Big 12 in any way shape or form as 5 of the 7 teams are fundamentally power teams. The only teams in the Big 12 when we were there that could be called that are probably Nebraska, KSU, and ISU. Notice all those are north teams (and neither KSU nor ISU recruits well enough to be that problematic schematically). But in the SEC West, Bama, LSU, Auburn, Arky, and MSU basically run mostly out of power sets.

You can't design some tricky defense. It doesn't fricking matter. They just run power right down your throat and since there really are very few teams in the country that have the athletes on the dline to stop them, they maul people. ND played a bunch of power teams last year but when it came time to play Bama, they were physically outmatched. Their system is designed to take almost all schematics out of it. It's about the Jimmies and Joes. Period. And they replace SR 4* OL with a damn JR 4* OL the next year. They all redshirt and these 22 yo men are NFL ready. This is the SEC West today (and based on recruiting it's not changing anytime soon).

Sherman's staff recruited to stop spread teams like Tech, OU, OSU, Baylor, etc. But honestly they struggled immensely recruiting defensively and they ran a 3-4. So a lot of the projects we've taken over the years simply aren't a fit at all. And the ones that are mostly are pedestrian talents. And it's hard to mask that against power sets. You just can't scheme guys to be bigger or faster.

Last year Snyder hid these deficiencies by having a true stud WDE in Damontre Moore. We also had 2 SRs and a JR DT. That maturity went a long way but we rotated a total of 6 on the DL. As of right now 4 of those 6 are gone and the only 2 that remain are underrecruited SDEs Obioha and Stansbury which has forced us to play a lot of young kids and guys who couldn't even break into the rotation last year vs schemes designed to punish exactly that.

As much as the question keeps getting asked, how do we get better, it's not about scheme. The scheme is fine. We need to start winning 1v1 matchups at the LOS. None of our DL do right now whether it's because they just don't have the physical gifts or because they aren't physically developed. They don't win in the run game. They don't win in the pass game. There's not a damn thing a DL coach or D-coordinator can do to fix that overnight. Outside of the absolute freaks like Clowney, Lawson, Jones, and A-Shawn (all 5* recruits iirc), for the most part, DL rarely make large impacts before about their 3rd year on campus. Hell even some of the freaks are average in their first few years.

Here's probably the freakist of the freak DLman we've seen in our lifetime

Rivals rated him the 51st best prospect in the country and 6.0 (as good as our DL haul was last year none were rated this highly)

FR - redshirt
RFS - 14 GPs, 0 GS, 19 tackles, 3.5 sacks, 2 QB hurries
RSO - 12 GPs, 11 GS, 34 tackles, 1 sack, 4 QB hurries

Ndamukong Suh went on to have a SR year (5th year) that looked like this

14 GPs, 14 GS, 85 tackles, 24 TFLs, 12 sacks, 28 QB hurries

He also won the Lombardi Award, the Bednarik Award (Best D player), the Outland Trophy, and finished 4th in the Heisman race. But based on his first few years on campus, the Nebraska fans, if they are anything like ours, would have written him off as a JAG. Linemen, even highly recruited ones, usually take a few years to develop because it's about physicality as well as technique.

In 2-3 years, it won't matter who our coach is, our defense is going to be very very good because these lineman are going to grow up. Complaining that they don't do it right fricking now will just make you crazy. If Suh was pedestrian into his 3rd year on campus, why on earth is the expectation that because Issiah Golden is as well our DC sucks? The answer is basically because fans are irrational and the wonders that our staff did last year masking pretty severe problems made us believe the problems don't actually exist.

Take a look at the dline players by class in the SEC. Not even considering raw talent (which we'd probably come in the bottom 3-4 in the SEC), it's simply appalling where we are comparatively age wise. Then remove the projects that don't fit (Taylors), the guys that didn't "get it" (Alexander) and Kirby. It's crazy bad. If you want to stop the power running of Bama, Auburn, or LSU, you better recruit elite DL year after year. Develop them. Rinse. Repeat. It's the only real solution.

no doubt. And btw, that post was directed more towards the general angst than your post. Seems like you realized that but was worried about how you'd take it

1) honestly the biggest issue on that is LBs (and to a lesser degree but more often lately, safeties). Because of our inability to contain the power runs, we are pressing the line of scrimmage and over committing to the run with disastrous results. It's pick your poison really and we lack the experience on the 2nd level to deal with it. With a good dline that can stop the run and generate a pass rush, everything is different

2) I agree. This is the one question I had (until I spoke with a former starting LB for us) and I wondered if it was Hagen. Our tackling fundamentals are atrocious or so it seems. What he told me is it's more about being in the right place and it's more about feet than anything else. If you are doing your job, tackling is easy but if you are even 2-3 feet out of your gap, it's an arm tackle (or a whiff) because you can't square up. It's true on the dline as well but their arm tackles often are effective. I'm skeptical but he definitely knows more than me and he seems to believe it's more fundamentals that will get cleaned up as they gain a comfort level

Something telling that lets me know that we're going to emphasize the run game more going forward...the number of offensive linemen we're recruiting.

2013: Aguilar, Wilson, Stuckey
2014: Eluemenor, Gates, Ledwik, Davis, Martin, Gustafson

In not directing this at anyone in particular, but JFF has allowed the offense to be off script for too long too much.

He's a unique talent and an easy fix to slave on any perceived open wounds. That's on the coordinator.

I suspect we will see a more disciplined offense going forward when he's not here. Hopefully the scheme itself will be problematic for the others in the West.

I more than halfway hope we've seen the last of JFF after this season as he's not allowing the growth of players and coaches.

I hope that makes sense; there is no malice intended.

Here's something very telling about the abandonment of the run game:

In 2012, runners not named Johnny Manziel had 332 carries for 1737 yards and 25 touchdowns (5.23 yards per carry)

In 2013, runners not named Johnny Manziel have 278 carries for 1398 yards and 21 touchdowns (5.03 yards per carry)

quote:

---

CGSC: Your stats are very telling indeed. I wish we'd incorporate some true two back sets, or the diamond again. Just to keep defenses completely honest. The 4 and 5 wideout sets are completely tipping our hands.

---

This is perhaps the most disappointing aspect of this season. We saw what the backs were capable of in the Arkansas game, but instead of building upon that and making defenses play us honestly, we regressed. Given that we have JFF, we can get away with that against most teams, but not the elite, as we saw last Saturday.

quote:

---

In 2012, runners not named Johnny Manziel had 332 carries for 1737 yards and 25 touchdowns (5.23 yards per carry)

In 2013, runners not named Johnny Manziel have 278 carries for 1398 yards and 21 touchdowns (5.03 yards per carry)

---

IMO, the only time I can think of where I came away impressed with McKinney's play calling was after the Cotton Bowl last year. The lack of a running game this season has been excruciating to watch

quote:

---

Thats what roughly 60 fewer carries and one game,Arky actually skews that stat because all did for on quarter was handoff. We ran what only 47 or so plays Sat and only 6 were called runs I mean come on. If the passing game is off run the fricking ball

---

I mean we were down by a pretty wide margin at the beginning of the second half and we needed to throw. It's what we do well and we have the greatest player in the country back their slinging it. I don't think the margin is reflective of what happened, but I agree, I think the play calling needs to have more run calls to keep them honest, and more so early on. Would love to see some zone read.

quote:

---

I mean we were down by a pretty wide margin at the beginning of the second half and we needed to throw. It's what we do well and we have the greatest player in the country back their slinging it. I don't think the margin is reflective of what happened, but I agree, I think the play calling needs to have more run calls to keep them honest, and more so early on. Would love to see some zone read.

---

Here's the microcosm of the game:

1st and Goal at LSU 9: Malena 6 yard rush
2nd and Goal at LSU 3: Incomplete pass
3rd and Goal at LSU 3: Incomplete pass
4th and Goal at LSU 3: Incomplete pass

LSU was up 14-0 at that time.