Have you bothered to watch any games from the past 2 years??? If so, do you think that the last 2 teams look anywhere remotely close to what we saw in the 90's??? Can you honestly say that?? Or do you not remember how dominant and fast those teams were. Those teams were all over the field, not just one guy, but 11 guys on every single play.
There is no comparision whatsoever.
Firstly, the players you're dissing were Solich recruits. Are you dissing his recruiting? Could that be? Is that what some of us have been saying all along?
There's no question of the dominance of the teams of the mid 90's. While that would be the model of success to strive for, comparing this year's team to those defenses is like comparing apples to oranges. Firstly, the 93, 94, and 95 teams had all americans on the DL. Having a stellar pass rush definately helps the back 7 in coverage along with being able to stuff the run. I'm not saying our DL wasn't awfully good this year, but we weren't exactly loaded with talent up front like the year we had Wistrom, both Peters and also Rucker i believe. There was also at least one bona fide playmaker in the secondary such as a Brown, Minter or even Miles.
Also, the defenses of the 90's were coached by the great Charlie McBride. He alone had 20+ years of coaching experience at Nebraska. He also ran a much different defense. While still a 4-3, there was a lot more man coverage and a lot more blitzing, especially in 99.
This year's team is more zone oriented as that is the way football has gone. Kids want to play in a cover 2 type system since that's what the pros use. Also, with the way Carriker lined up basically anchoring an entire side of the defense he needs to be bigger. We need at least one large body to put on that end of the line to eat up blocks and allow the linebackers to make plays, so saying we're recruiting bigger and slower players to put on the line is somewhat deceiving since they're more necessary in our current system.
The Mike doesn't really need to be blazing fast since it's not his job to control the flats. I'd be interested to see how McKeon and Dillard's 40 times compare to Barret Ruud, Carlos Polk, or even Phil Ellis (94). A Mike covering a TE is almost always a mismatch, just the way football goes. Terrel Farley's aren't everyday finds, saying we should be recruiting guys like him is like saying we should recruit guys like Leinart to play qb. They don't come along every day.
Of course this year's defense, and offense for that matter, don't match up with the teams of the mid 90's. That's why we aren't in the NC game. I'll wager the defenses of the mid to late 80's didn't match up with those guys either.
