junior4949
All-American
While we may not have "proven" talent this year, by year's end I have a feeling we will see that some stars have emerged. This defense isn't nearly as devoid of talent as some would suggest.
Aaron Willams is a game changing playerChin's defense has no stars, no big time players. Be prepared, this D is going to struggle as there is very little proven talent to work with this year.
i expect we will have to wait a couple more seasons to get/develop some good D talent on the field. Give this guy some time here.
LOLMoiraine said:
The defense has been pretty putrid the past 3 years (and was turning poor under Bo), so I am expecting some rough moments this season. Chinander isn't going to be able to make the D a good defense overnight. This is especially true given the returning players and lack of depth (especially the secondary). I don't know if Chinander's D will ever be "great" in terms of traditional defensive statistics. From what I understand Chin's D is designed to work in lock-step with Frost's offense. I liked what Chinander did at UCF. Sure there were games where their D was giving up lots of yards and points, but I think last year the team wore down in having to play so many weeks in a row, and going up against some top offenses in college football.Frost or Chinander could fart in to a microphone and people would praise it.
Things were so awful last year that we will take anything and start printing championship shirts. I am not saying we wont be loads better, because it seems like we should be, but lets just cool our jets.
Plenty of people were excited about Diaco and look how that turned out.
The major concern going in was the idea of transitioning to a new defense and that is going to happen yet again.
I get the conditioning/tackling/scheme should all be better but lets not forget Diaco was a major success at Notre Dame. Sometimes you just dont have the players.
I am as excited for Husker football as I have ever been but what happens if we go out and get smoked the first few weeks? Do people turn on Chinander the way they did with Diaco or because he is a frost guy do we give him a ton of leash?
Ok.. I am done being a debbie downer.. Just think we need to level set expectations and not get overly excited by a few flashy words.
*Prepares for a backlash of anger
After watching many games from UCF last year I noticed a few things....
ILB: there to be tackling machines, not worried much about blitzing
OLB: he loved to have a main 'attacker' who was Griffin. The other had your typical OLB duties like a 4-3. Most times both were on the LOS
DL: they are allowed to disrupt. have to be able to take on blocks. big bodied guys
S: laid off for the most part, but aren't afraid to come up and tackle
CB: they had some depth issues like we have. They shuffled until the right guys shined through. They press a good amount which is nice to see
I get the conditioning/tackling/scheme should all be better but lets not forget Diaco was a major success at Notre Dame. Sometimes you just dont have the players.
I don't see Weinmaster seeing the field much unless heavy run teams, he just can't hang in space. Honas and Barry I like a lot. Young has to take a leap from last year, which is possible. We are hoping that Dixon can be similar to Griffin. It will be a different transition for DC in the B10 for sure though.Note that what they did is based off personnel and opposition. Blitzing inside guys, for instance, is hard to do against the schemes they commonly faced. You also aren't as likely to rush those guys if you have a dominant outside guy, like Griffin. Maybe for Nebraska the inside guys, like a Honas or Weinmaster, are better rush threats and weaker in coverage. Maybe this defensive line is a little quicker and allows for more inside games and stunts. This staff has talked quite a bit about their backers and safeties being able to drop or go as necessary.
We also didn't see them play offenses like Minnesota/Wisconsin/Iowa/Michigan St/Michigan. The quality of offense is better in the AAC, but I think there is more diversity of style in the Big Ten right now.
While we may not have "proven" talent this year, by year's end I have a feeling we will see that some stars have emerged. This defense isn't nearly as devoid of talent as some would suggest.
Just having the DL do something besides take up space and having the CBs not playing ten+ yards off the ball should make the talent look a whole lot better. The DL in particular, I think we've got the horses if we actually USE them.
I agree. I like the 2-deep we have on the DL. Hopefully Stille and Neal can prove to be pass rushers we think they can be and Freedom gets back to his Freshman form.
The problem last year was we found out Bobby was an idiot and just wasn't a fit for us, but no one really interjected.
Making Chimichangas said:I think the biggest thing people will need to keep in mind is that while Chinander's defense will resemble the blitzing, attacking defense we're used to, it is probable that the results will not be as dominating.
For one thing, many offenses from the 90's were pretty standard: immobile QB, 2 backs, a TE, etc and the zone read hadn't been developed yet. Today, practically every offense spreads you out, goes uptempo, and gets yards/scores points.