I am hopeful that our D linemen will, as a group, be much stronger and we will actually rotate a bunch so all should be fresh. I would expect to see more TFL and sacks from the Davis twins, Stille, D Neal, and several of the backups (we are loaded with quite a few and we get so little info it is hard to guess which ones will emerge).
When we do use a blitz or hard rush from the DE / OLB or even safety / rover type spots, I would venture we see some good play from Ty Robinson, Wildeman, Snodgrass, Heinrich, A Davis, Hannah, Nelson, Domann or even a Javin Wright.
We will show a lot of 3 DTs, 2 DEs and 2 LB looks but I would guess we will actually use more 3-4 techniques and schemes because we can field a much stouter front 3 against most teams. We will have enough more depth with good size against the more power ful run teams like Wiscy, Mich, etc. so I look for our defense to be the strongest unit of the team, overall, assuming our secondary play holds up to the task and tackles better. LB play may be a little hit and miss at times with the youth but it should be physically stronger and play faster.
2019 should be a fun season for the Defensive coaches as they will have a lot more experience and guys will be playing with much more confidence and physical toughness.
I will predict the defense will end up being one of the top three in the Big Ten and top 20 nationally overall. Our defense played much better last year than I think most give them credit for and better than their stats would suggest
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The key to the season and how successful it turns out to be will come down to improving our offensive 'efficiency' (we need to score about 10 points a game for every 100 yards of total offense) and that will be helped by fewer execution errors by the offensive players AND more importantly, by our defense giving them more possessions in better field position.
Of course, it seems most discussions ignore the third leg of the football team - Special Teams - and I have to believe we will see the most dramatic improvement on the entire team in the areas of kick coverage and kick returns. I suspected last year that Frost & Co just didn't have enough time in practices to focus on those nearly enough. Again, the effectiveness of these units will enable the offense to get more scoring opportunities with much better field position when we gain possessions and the defense will get more changes to defend a longer field if we cover better and have fewer crappy punts, etc. Hopefully, our field goal kicker is called upon much less frequently because we a scoring more TDs and have more confidence in going on 4th downs quite a bit.
Frost has recruited speed over all other things and this bodes well for finding better returners and getting down the field to cover as well.
