Ishaq Williams reminds me of Jonas Gray...

[CanadalovesND]

I saw that too. If he would've kept running hard on his angle, he wouldve been involved in the tackle, but he (saw him on the bottom of the screen) just stop running after the ball and jogged. Kind of pissed me off because if we were playing an all-american RB the cut back to the middle was there for a big gain, and if that were to happen, Ishaq's slowing down wouldve been the reason

Mike Mayock said in a joking way that Ishaq has no idea what he's doing right now, but when he does, and with his athletic ability, he could be special.

 

[ChiefSecond]

The way i understand it Saban and muschamp play a hybrid 34/43 that flows seamlessly from one to the other...and thats essentially what we'll be moving towards with Ishaq/shembo at CAT. sometimes they'll be outside and othertimes putting the hand down.

question is...next yr do we scrap the senior projects of spond-calabrese-fox...and commit to councell-grace-rabassa so we can build towards 2013??

 

[Domer4ever]

For what it's worth.... people "in the know" have talked about a hybrid defense of sorts that will become the staple once we get the personnel to run it. I have no idea what this means, but Diaco is certainly not married to the 3-4 even in current games if you watch film of the last 2 seasons. He shows a lot of flexibility to fit his personnel. The truth of the matter is that with EJ and KLM out we don't have the big space-clogging ends we really need to play the 3-4 as effectively as we did earlier.

Even when EJ and Kap were in there, the defense did not seem to get after the QB with much regularity. I think when you have the horses to create more havoc with a four man front....you do it. The other benefit is it keeps less bodies off Teo and the other LB's to flow and make plays.

Curious to see what this hybrid defense is going to consist of. I guess I am of the "keep it simple stupid" mindset and when you have the talent up front to whip 90% of the teams on the schedule...why make things complicated?

 

[IrishLax]

Even when EJ and Kap were in there, the defense did not seem to get after the QB with much regularity. I think when you have the horses to create more havoc with a four man front....you do it. The other benefit is it keeps less bodies off Teo and the other LB's to flow and make plays.

That's because the 3-4 we are playing (read: not a ton of complicated zone blitzes, etc.) is intended to stop the run first. I'm really not even remotely close to a football expert or coach or anything, but just going off of what I've heard/read. I think our goal was to be stout against the run and then hopefully get the team in passing 3rd down situations where we could then bring in guys like Lynch for the DL and unleash the OLBs to bring pressure.

Curious to see what this hybrid defense is going to consist of. I guess I am of the "keep it simple stupid" mindset and when you have the talent up front to whip 90% of the teams on the schedule...why make things complicated?

I'm interested to see what they're talking about too. I believe the idea is to have so much size/speed/talent on defense that we can play a base defense against those 90% of teams and whip them; and then against the elite teams go Pittsburgh Steelers on them and bring all kinds of crazy pressure from different angles that college offenses simply won't be able to deal with. This is all just pure conjecture from me though.

 

[tommyIRISH23]

That's because the 3-4 we are playing (read: not a ton of complicated zone blitzes, etc.) is intended to stop the run first. I'm really not even remotely close to a football expert or coach or anything, but just going off of what I've heard/read. I think our goal was to be stout against the run and then hopefully get the team in passing 3rd down situations where we could then bring in guys like Lynch for the DL and unleash the OLBs to bring pressure.



I'm interested to see what they're talking about too. I believe the idea is to have so much size/speed/talent on defense that we can play a base defense against those 90% of teams and whip them; and then against the elite teams go Pittsburgh Steelers on them and bring all kinds of crazy pressure from different angles that college offenses simply won't be able to deal with. This is all just pure conjecture from me though.

Thst sounds awesome, but I feel that is a long ways away. I feel like that takes a couple generations of recruiting classes where players can sit-learn-reload. I thought the main problem against USC (and most likely against Stanford) was that they were afraid of Barkley picking them apart, and played to much coverages, particularly in the first half. I think, with the talent we have, keep it black/white, and just bring a lot of pressure. While we have trouble getting pressure with our front 3, they do require a ton of attention from the offensive line. I feel like Tenuta's blitz packages would work very well with the talent we have. I am not football expert, and this will definetly get mixed comments, but I feel like our LB's are really good at bringing the heat, why not let them do that, rather then make them sit uncomfortably in pass coverage. Giving a ton of different looks is the way to beat good QB's like BArkley, and Luck.

Sure, we will get burned every now and then, but I'd take that over getting methodically picked a part. Plus, a rattled QB is more prone at making mistakes then a comfortable QB.

 

[Sherm Sticky]

Yup. And the couple times they've let him put his hand on the ground without other responsibilities this year he has shown great ability to get pressure.

As for Fleming, if you don't think he'll get drafted, you're crazy. Absolutely certifiably crazy. He was a ~4th round grade last year. He hasn't elevated his play to the level most thought he would, but you're saying things like "he sucks" or "he can't keep contain" when they're simply not indicative of his full body of work. He has many, many more "good" plays than he has "bad" plays.

I'm with you Lax. Flemming is a solid player, he played very well against Navy. We all thought he would explode this year, but he is limited athletically. Saying that though he should get drafted between round 4-6. Quoting Mike Mayock "Flemming is just a solid real solid player." Also, Scouts, Inc. really like Flemmings play at the point of attack, but he is limited athletically. People need to stop hating on Flemming, he's one of the best players on def.

 

[Chicago Irish Fan]

Is it safe to say that one of either Ishaq (at CAT) or Niklas (at DOG) will start next year depending on where Shembo plays?

 

[IrishLax]

Is it safe to say that one of either Ishaq (at CAT) or Niklas (at DOG) will start next year depending on where Shembo plays?

I don't think so because you've got guys like Spond and Councel who no one can predict right now how they might compete over the summer.

 

[jason_h537]

I don't think so because you've got guys like Spond and Councel who no one can predict right now how they might compete over the summer.

Exactly, all these guys are very young. Next year our OLB's could be Councell and Niklas. They are still growing and who knows when the light may go on.