Let me start by saying it's hard not be skeptical. Have you seen our defense the last three years? Did you see the Spring game? Most of camp was the same movie - Anemic run defense and very little pass rush.
Secondly, it's not like we have a lot of obvious talent in our front 7. I'm not talking about star rating talent (which is useful as we evaluate recruiting because we haven't seen them play) as we know more from watching than we do from HS ratings. We're shy big, explosive players on the DL and we don't have a bunch of smart, instinctive LBers.
Lastly, we're young and in college football, experience matters a lot on Defense. Older defenses are better. Players play faster, instincts get honed, they understand the level of physicality they need, they get better at preparing for offenses and leveraging a knowledge of formations and tendencies.
To my first point, it's hard to have a ton of confidence that our kids are going to get coached up a lot by this staff.
So with the short answer to my post's question being - Very likely not enough, let me share where and how I think we can improve.
1.) 1st game to 2nd game: Always the biggest jump you see any team make all season. Especially with two weeks to work on it. We will learn more and improve faster via the failures of Friday night than we would had we performed better (not to say that I wouldn't prefer to have been better and improve less).
2.) Conditions were bad for defense. Unknown system, no real film, sloppy field, crazy long travel and bowl week like distractions.
3.) We're young (see above) and will be less young week over week. That was the most snaps in a game seen by 8 of our players. We played a lot of walk ons as backups where we will soon see younger kids who earn the trust of the staff (particularly at CB).
4.) Having watched practice and these players, they can play a lot faster than we did. The LBs and Safeties in particular were thinking too much and not playing on instinct. That will get better
5.) Tackling is going to improve. It always does as the season goes on and this is one area where in Fall Camp I saw fewer issues than we did on Friday. The one concern with tackling is when you're physically overmatched. I don't see that with Vanderbilt, Downs, Rambo, Allensworth and others who whiffed on Friday.
6.) We have some depth to make sure if play doesn't improve, there's someone else to step up. If Vanderbilt doesn't get it figured it out then Hawkins/Rubenzer/Psalms and Anderson will take his job. If Downs struggles then Jordan K can take his job (I predict this will happen soon). The one area where I'm less sanguine on this point is the DL. Just not sure that L Bequette and Z Johnson (despite being more talented than the guys in front of them) are ready to step up. Weaver's dinged up meaning we have fewer options at DE as well.
7.) We were vanilla on Friday and when we made the jump in camp late on defense it was when the D started to doing more stunts and showing more exotic blitzes.
8.) Can AK really be this bad? Can't he adjust to his personnel? His being hands on with the LBs has to pay off, no? His resume isn't this bad, that's for sure.
9.) Speaking of adjustments, perhaps we're a team that blitzes a ton, takes a bunch of chances and trusts our guys to cover and open field tackle.
Net net, there are TEMPERED reasons to believe we can and will get better. How long will it take for us to reach peak defensive performance? To some degree, it's going to be about confidence. We could really use a game where we play better AND the team we play is not great offensively so the guys can find some swagger and self belief. Week 4? And how high is the upside? Zero surprise,it's not high. I would say BEST CASE is that we finish the season slightly better than last year (so still below average). WORST CASE? It could be pretty bad. 2014 bad is a real possibility. I don't think we hit 2013 levels.
My biggest concern is the coaching of our DL. Got to see better leverage, pad level and gap integrity from our guys. We need to see more technique in our pass rush.
Some good signs: In rewatching the game, Looney got good push on passing downs early in the game until they double teamed him. He broke down the pocket 4-5 times. Saffle actually had a good game. He was our most effective pass rusher. He got held a ton and simply needs to learn what to do when a blocker has both hands on your trailing shoulder and jersey to draw the flag. He's got some good quicks. I think he's going to be good in the long run. Jordan K draws your eye with his acceleration and physicality. He played like he was scared somethingless on Friday. Yet I saw him in camp improve a lot and he's got an upfield instinctual style that Downs does not. Rambo has a ton of potential. Could be really good. Allensworth shut down half the field on Friday night and Franklin flashed some potential. We had quite a few good PBUs. I did not see Ced Dozier on the field which was probably the highlight for me defensively.
Secondly, it's not like we have a lot of obvious talent in our front 7. I'm not talking about star rating talent (which is useful as we evaluate recruiting because we haven't seen them play) as we know more from watching than we do from HS ratings. We're shy big, explosive players on the DL and we don't have a bunch of smart, instinctive LBers.
Lastly, we're young and in college football, experience matters a lot on Defense. Older defenses are better. Players play faster, instincts get honed, they understand the level of physicality they need, they get better at preparing for offenses and leveraging a knowledge of formations and tendencies.
To my first point, it's hard to have a ton of confidence that our kids are going to get coached up a lot by this staff.
So with the short answer to my post's question being - Very likely not enough, let me share where and how I think we can improve.
1.) 1st game to 2nd game: Always the biggest jump you see any team make all season. Especially with two weeks to work on it. We will learn more and improve faster via the failures of Friday night than we would had we performed better (not to say that I wouldn't prefer to have been better and improve less).
2.) Conditions were bad for defense. Unknown system, no real film, sloppy field, crazy long travel and bowl week like distractions.
3.) We're young (see above) and will be less young week over week. That was the most snaps in a game seen by 8 of our players. We played a lot of walk ons as backups where we will soon see younger kids who earn the trust of the staff (particularly at CB).
4.) Having watched practice and these players, they can play a lot faster than we did. The LBs and Safeties in particular were thinking too much and not playing on instinct. That will get better
5.) Tackling is going to improve. It always does as the season goes on and this is one area where in Fall Camp I saw fewer issues than we did on Friday. The one concern with tackling is when you're physically overmatched. I don't see that with Vanderbilt, Downs, Rambo, Allensworth and others who whiffed on Friday.
6.) We have some depth to make sure if play doesn't improve, there's someone else to step up. If Vanderbilt doesn't get it figured it out then Hawkins/Rubenzer/Psalms and Anderson will take his job. If Downs struggles then Jordan K can take his job (I predict this will happen soon). The one area where I'm less sanguine on this point is the DL. Just not sure that L Bequette and Z Johnson (despite being more talented than the guys in front of them) are ready to step up. Weaver's dinged up meaning we have fewer options at DE as well.
7.) We were vanilla on Friday and when we made the jump in camp late on defense it was when the D started to doing more stunts and showing more exotic blitzes.
8.) Can AK really be this bad? Can't he adjust to his personnel? His being hands on with the LBs has to pay off, no? His resume isn't this bad, that's for sure.
9.) Speaking of adjustments, perhaps we're a team that blitzes a ton, takes a bunch of chances and trusts our guys to cover and open field tackle.
Net net, there are TEMPERED reasons to believe we can and will get better. How long will it take for us to reach peak defensive performance? To some degree, it's going to be about confidence. We could really use a game where we play better AND the team we play is not great offensively so the guys can find some swagger and self belief. Week 4? And how high is the upside? Zero surprise,it's not high. I would say BEST CASE is that we finish the season slightly better than last year (so still below average). WORST CASE? It could be pretty bad. 2014 bad is a real possibility. I don't think we hit 2013 levels.
My biggest concern is the coaching of our DL. Got to see better leverage, pad level and gap integrity from our guys. We need to see more technique in our pass rush.
Some good signs: In rewatching the game, Looney got good push on passing downs early in the game until they double teamed him. He broke down the pocket 4-5 times. Saffle actually had a good game. He was our most effective pass rusher. He got held a ton and simply needs to learn what to do when a blocker has both hands on your trailing shoulder and jersey to draw the flag. He's got some good quicks. I think he's going to be good in the long run. Jordan K draws your eye with his acceleration and physicality. He played like he was scared somethingless on Friday. Yet I saw him in camp improve a lot and he's got an upfield instinctual style that Downs does not. Rambo has a ton of potential. Could be really good. Allensworth shut down half the field on Friday night and Franklin flashed some potential. We had quite a few good PBUs. I did not see Ced Dozier on the field which was probably the highlight for me defensively.
