Danimal
All-Conference
Ya, the reason for our defensive downturn not only gets down to the athletes but that this scheme really relies on having the right athletes where another might "make do" better. Saban fills up on athletes to where he doesn't really have to decide so much between athleticism and knowing the scheme. The athletes that get it play and athletes that don't are processed-out. Being that we don't shove guys out the door like Saban we really can't afford to have the defensive recruiting classes we did. Thankfully things seem to be turning around now. This young group will make mistakes and be a work in progress but the talent is there and they should improve with experience.The ceiling is much higher than with last year's senior-heavy but slow squad. I think next year's squad is salty, especially if we can get Pelon in the fold.If it's so difficult, I suppose we could just copy Norm Parker and play cover 2 all game long. We probably won't have huge 40+ yard busts, but we'll get dinked and gashed all game long by teams with any speed.
Bo's "system" is extremely similar to Nick Saban's defense. Both use a 2 gap and a pattern matching zone/m2m in the secondary, except Saban uses a 3-4 base (for disguising pressure) instead of a 4-3. The biggest difference is that Saban has better athletes. That's what it takes to run this type of D, quick feet and route recognition.