7 Comments

  1. quigley

    When defenses go to base dime, teams will switch back to running the ball right (OU @ WV 2012, “Tavon Austin $$$”)?

    It almost seems like you need five DBs that are 6’1″ 190 and can run 40 in 4.4 seconds. Egro, recruiting is more important on defense than offense (something Mathlete showed about seven years ago). This is why teams that can’t recruit five star players should just recruit seven tall sprinters who play football every year. The ones with better hands play offense, and the rest play defense.

    If great high school athletes like Bru McCoy get beat out by Jake Smith, they may realize that their path to the field in college and the NFL is easier playing defense.

    • ianaboyd

      You can still limit the run in dime, you can’t stop the pass tho without athletes.

      It’s been true for a while that there’s money to be made on D but there’s so much opportunity on O these days that it still doesn’t get the athletes it should.

  2. […] The ‘Pokes don’t have a ton going for them on defense but these two guys at least have played a lot of football and have some decent size. Jim Knowles’ best bet for next season is going to be more in going pseudo-dime and flooding the field with extra safeties of reasonable quality than relying on key matchup weapons. They have Kolby Peel (6-0, 210, sophomore), Jarrick Bernard (6-2, 195, sophomore), and Malcolm Rodriguez (6-0, 205, junior) back who all played a lot of football last year at varying levels of competency. [Concerning Sports] […]

  3. Clayton Davis

    Coach A has a look at Grinch’s defense over at TFB right now. The third installment is behind the donors’ paywall, but will probably be available for free in the coming days. Good stuff for you to chew over.

      • Clayton Davis

        Er, nevermind. The whole series is behind a paywall. Somehow I thought some of these pieces got repackaged later on outside the paywall, but apparently a lot does now.

        I’ll respect the paywall, but here’s the conclusion on the most recent post.

        “This is just a small sampling of how Grinch’s overall defensive scheme fits the run, but one thing is clear, it is aggressive and multiple. Grinch uses different secondary manipulations along with aggressive D-line play to help get free hitters on the ball. This is crucial when stopping the high-powered offense seen in the Big 12. By keeping things simple up front in using single-gap fits, the LBs are left to simply react to what they see. Though the scheme can get into trouble at times, it puts the pressure on the QB to make precise throws or reads under duress. Grinch takes the game away from the OC and into the QB. Combining different looks whether it be stemming D-line men, blitzing LBs, or rotating men in the secondary, Grinch is trying to force the offense into situations that favor the defense, what I refer to as a plus-one mentality.”

        • ianaboyd

          Very cool. I know Coach A and he’d probably send me the whole thing if I asked.

          Grinch sounds like the other really good D-coordinators that have come to the B12 with reputations as spread busters. Rhule, Orlando, etc. Typically they’re really good at creating plus-1s in a variety of fashions but then they face B12 spread Os that want to space you out to attack matchups in the passing game and realize they aren’t in Kansas anymore.

Comments are closed.