What are the odds the Blackshirts improve in 2013?

I'm a little worried about all the confusion we had last year. Whether that is on the shoulders of the coordinator, or on the players shoulders I'm not sure - but you can't deny there were times when things looks like a cluster-f*** of a mess out there. And that was with a 5th year senior with 30+ starts calling the defense. Now we'll have some young guys in there and that has me concerned. I don't expect much of an improvement in regards to the confusion, which means this D will likely be operating in somewhat of a hopefully controlled chaos. That can be good, or it can be bad.

I expect to safeties to be a step or two better than last year. Stafford just never made that jump from year 1 to year 2 most of us hoped he would. Our corners will be fine. Pass D isn't very concerning.

The linebackers....I'm not sold on that group yet. Santos has a ton of upside but why didn't he see the field for second half of the season last year when we clearly needed him out there. That's a big question mark in my mind. Also, we'll have to see if Zaire can come back 100%. Not everyone does from that injury. Roach cracked the depth chart which isn't saying much. Essentially we have no idea other than a little hope here. I'd say we were far deeper at LBer last year in regards to experience than we are this year. A couple of these guys don't pan out, or we see an injury or two and we're throwing freshman in there. Heck, we'll likely be playing freshman as-is. That's never good.

Same goes for the DL. At DE I think we are going to be a little quicker which will be nice to see. I expect a little upgrade there just for that reason. I'm concerned about the DT position though. I'm not expecting VV to make an impact at this point. Same goes for Oku and maybe Guy. That leaves us with a fairly undersized unit, most of these guys play at around 275-280. Randle needs to have a breakout year...but I can't imagine his 2013 will be much better than Stein's 2012...and that's not saying much. So which of the others steps up. It'll likely be a freshman, and that doesn't go well at DT very often. Nickens will be interesting to watch. I'd like to see him get some time. Hopefully he sees an opportunity and works his a$$ off over the summer.

Overall, I don't think we can be much worse - but there's certainly the potential there to be. If these guys couldn't beat out what we had last year, you've got to imagine this years junior/seniors are just about a wash - which means we're going to have a very young D, and that's never good in Pelini's scheme.

 
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As far as the percieved "confusion" goes, yes there were cases where it did seem like a cluster bleep. But for the most part, the talking and communication that folks see before the play and get all panicked over is a good thing. In the Big ten, offenses seem to take their time a little more. it's less up-tempo than the Big 12. In the Big 12, offenses came out with 3-5 wide, we'd matchup, each guy had his read/responsiblity, and it was his job to know the tendancy and concept. Now, the offense are balanced. They take a little more time between plays, giving our guys more time for that necassary communication. I know I tend to oversell it, and maybe it's not that big of deal, because football is, always has, and always will be about blocking and tackling, but Big 10 football really is a different style than the Big 12 was all across the board. I personally like seeing that communication. To me it shows a concerted effort by the guys to be on the same page. If they werent communicating and we were still seeing the mess of performance we saw last year, then I'd be really concerned.

 
The Dude said:
I predict overall improvement. The linebackers and secondary will be fine. There's good reason to buy into the improved athleticism hype for the linebackers. We've already seen flashes of it from Santos and Anderson. We know those guys are a step up from what we had last year - how big of a step we don't know yet. There's less reason to buy into the defensive line hype as we don't really have anything to go off of other than hearsay.

If the defense lays another egg or 4 is Bo pressured to bring in an actual coordinator?
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I don't think so. I just can't see Bo regardless of how poorly the defense plays ever bringing in an actual defensive coordinator.

Our run defense is a lot like the interest rate. There really is only one way it can go. We can't get much worse there. I'd rather see some mistakes with speed and athleticism on the field than what we had last year. I have to believe our defense will be better than last year.

 
Slightly worse in the first half of the season. Slightly better by the end of the season.

On average, about the same.

(I remember the "increased speed/athleticism" talk when we had intriguing newcomers like Sean Fisher. Same stuff. Different year.)

 
Mr. Accountability said:
The athleticism and talent will be there. Will the mindset? That's the bigger/est question to me.
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PJ said there was a problem with guys not buying-in and playing their assignments. That has to be remedied. D won't work without everyone all in. Do think Bo needs to simplify a little. Young guys have to be able to execute assignments consistently against UCLA and I think our complexity sometimes impacts our ability to adjust before halftime. We do have the talent this year where we should be able to improve over the course of the season and be salty at the end.

One big thing is Randle staying healthy. He was doing solid work before injury bogged him down in the second-half of the season. If a healthy Randle can hold down one DT spot for most important reps I think we can get enough out of VV, Curtis, Williams, and Nickens to decently hold-up the rest.

 
100% odds that the D is better this year than last.

Part of the issue last year, was people being in the proper position to make the play - but not being athletic enough to make it. That will be fixed.

 
Cross my fingers, I don't think we can get worse than last year - which rivaled BC's worse D. So, D should be better - because of that and because the schedule is easier - not good reasons at all for being better. If we make the CCG we'll face being exposed by OSU. No kool-aid here. I think the D is a year away from being pretty good - let's hope the O remains good in 2014 - then we may have something special. UCLA will be a good 1st test to see if athleticism trumps experience.

 
The fact that Bo Pelini came right out and said that he had some regrets about not playing some people last year, meaning there were guys on the bench that were better than the guys out there I assume, that gives me hope. Plus, I have seen the athleticism of these guys and it is clearly an upgrade in speed next year. Let's face it though, unless Bo is simplifying the system a bit so these guys can actually start "getting it".......I just don't know what to expect. Sometimes speed, athleticism, and a nose for the ball can make you look like Lavonte David. But according to Bo, Lavonte David was "all over the place", or "out of position" constantly. So it also leads you to believe that the speed and athleticism next year could just mean that we will have guys making the same mistakes.....only they will make them with much more speed.

 
Odds are it will be worse, but the easy(ier) schedule will disguise the problems and allow the D the grow during the year.

D line is going to be the problem, and that is the worse problem to have.

Also, I'm one that believes that people are on the bench aren't as good as the starters. So even if they show potential, they maybe weaknesses that need to be corrected before they play. My belief is that the reasons for Bo questioning his decision to redshirt was due to injuries and the problems it caused.

 
I said in another thread the same thing:

That UCLA game, UCLA will score points and probably around 35 or so. I truly do think so. With as much inexperience as we have, and UCLA being probably the best offense we will play until Michigan, I expect us to give up points. That game is going to come down to one stop. I see the defense playing better and better as that game goes on and Memorial Stadium with 90k+ giving us the added boost to win the game. In between UCLA and Michigan, there is not a game we shouldn't be favored to win and our high powered offense should allow for a good sized margin for error. This will give our young guys a lot of in game experience. By the time we go to Ann Arbor, we should be playing very solid defense. Good enough defense to win that game.

 
Basically with the schedule how it is, this is the perfect year to be youthful and inexperienced.

 
I just want Bo to let these kids play. I've noticed that he tries to call a perfect defensive play inorder to stop the offense which causes confusion, we have a lot of athleticism this year

 
IMO, unless we can improve in the fundamentals ie fumbles, penalties and missed tackles scheme, ability, knowledge etc mean squat.

Even with our pitiful D showings last year, tackling would have greatly increased our chances to win at least one more game. This has been beaten into the ground, but fumbles put the D in some holes last year. A large percentage of points scored against us came after a fumble. Clean up basics, an upgrade in athleticism and more speed should help.

This team also needs to develop some leadership and some nasty. Things that can't be taught IMO. (the previous based on my opinion only) I would like to see permanent captains, not week to week. Let guys take ownership for the whole season. Let them know that their decisions for week 1 will carry into week 2 and week 12 etc..... Set the tempo for game 1 and build on it.

 
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