Wilson to Wiscy

[Nebula]

Also, you cant really compare Safeties and CB's. CB's are, by far, the most important position on defense while the safeties are toward the bottom. What about our nickelback? Our dimeback? Our pass defense wont nearly be as good as last year because of losing the most important pass defense position...the cornerback!

I was strongly inclined to use my first ever "I can't believe you said that" facepalm emoticon. Not gonna do it, though.

Tell Ronnie Lott, Steve Atwater, Mike Brown, Ed Reed, and Troy Polamalu that the safety position is toward the bottom of importance regarding impact on the success of a defense.

Or just look at the Indianapolis Colts defense with Bob Sanders and without Bob Sanders. Pretty stark contrast. Safety play is enormously important.

 

[BigAppleBucky]

CB's are, by far, the most important position on defense while the safeties are toward the bottom.

And... you're done. Teams can stay away from a good corner. Good safeties are involved on both sides of the field against both the pass and the run. CB's might be among the LEAST important positions on the defense. DT, NT, DE's, LB's all rate higher than the CB's in importance.

Yep.

While no doubt they're all "important" safeties rank way, way above cbs. They have to defend against the pass "and" are crucial to stopping the run.

Imo, the Dline is #1 & good safety play #2.

Football is the ultimate team game. A breakdown at any position can lead to a disaster on either side of the ball on any given play. Perhaps, since the QB handles the ball on almost every offensive play, that position might be the "most important". Other things nearly equal, an effective three year starter is going to be better at that position than a redshirt sophomore who has taken, perhaps, 50 real college game snaps, most of them handoffs to run out the clock.

 

[Mierin]

This thread turned really stupid, and I'm sure this will happen every year now. "Such and such left. We'll be bad this year." I wonder how many times that will happen before people get the hint. We were a great defense after one of the greatest players in history left the team. That should be enough. Obviously it's okay to be concerned but saying we're going to be bad and that so and so won't be a good corner (when they were a freshman last year) is ridiculous.

 

[The Dude]

This thread turned really stupid, and I'm sure this will happen every year now. "Such and such left. We'll be bad this year." I wonder how many times that will happen before people get the hint. We were a great defense after one of the greatest players in history left the team. That should be enough. Obviously it's okay to be concerned but saying we're going to be bad and that so and so won't be a good corner (when they were a freshman last year) is ridiculous.

To be fair, I don't think huskerfan333157 said anything about us having a bad defense, just one that's not as good. Our defense wasn't "as good" after we lost Suh. So it's not entirely unfair to think we might not be as good after losing someone as good as Prince. Losing Suh, Dillard, and Asante had an obvious affect on our run defense. So it's reasonable to think losing Prince, Hagg, and Gomes will have an affect on our pass D. But all things considered, I wouldn't be surprised at all if we have a better defense this year.

 

[knapplc]

This thread turned really stupid, and I'm sure this will happen every year now. "Such and such left. We'll be bad this year." I wonder how many times that will happen before people get the hint. We were a great defense after one of the greatest players in history left the team. That should be enough. Obviously it's okay to be concerned but saying we're going to be bad and that so and so won't be a good corner (when they were a freshman last year) is ridiculous.

To be fair, I don't think huskerfan333157 said anything about us having a bad defense, just one that's not as good. Our defense wasn't "as good" after we lost Suh. So it's not entirely unfair to think we might not be as good after losing someone as good as Prince. Losing Suh, Dillard, and Asante had an obvious affect on our run defense. So it's reasonable to think losing Prince, Hagg, and Gomes will have an affect on our pass D. But all things considered, I wouldn't be surprised at all if we have a better defense this year.

I think Moiraine is saying - and I think you and most everyone else would agree - that we're going to be "good" on defense while Bo is here. We'll vary between top-15 overall ranks here and there, some years being top five, some years around 10-15-ish, but overall defense will continue to be good. Some will be better than others and some will be a step up or a step down from the previous year, but we will not have a "bad" defense while Bo is our coach.

Does anyone disagree with that? I don't think they will. That's what Moiraine is getting at.

 

[NebraskaShellback]

We will rock this conference with our defense, I do believe our offense will answer those ??? everyone still has. I think we will bring back something we have been missing, a freakin' fullback baby. I just love fullbacks in games.