I believe you are going to see the defense become a true strength this season. It might take a couple games for them to get into a groove, but this will be a very solid defense. Here are some of my reasonings.
DL: Last season, we were starting a Sophmore in Ethan Johnson. Red-shirt Fr with KLM. A very undersized and non-physical DE in John Ryan. We were backing up with a Red-shirt Fr in Sean Cwynar. Move to 2011. This year, we are starting a solid NT in Ian Williams. He will have depth behind him that has had 3 years to mature. At DE, we are starting KLM and Ethan who started so show some flashes last year, but were just not quite physically mature enough. Cwynar will give solid back-up to these two.
LB: Last season, we were starting a freshman in Manti. I don't care all world or not, he was learning the college game. We had a Junior in B. Smith who was the only true experienced upper classmen at LB. Then we had H. Smith playing OLB at about 210lbs. Move ahead to 2011. You will have a 2 players in the middle with atleast a season experience in Teo and Smith who both are athletic and over 240#'s. They will have back-ups with size in McDonald and Calabrese who are over 230#'s. At the outside position, we will have speed, athletism and size. With Filer and Fleming we will have two guys who can run with size. Fleming has already proven to be probably the second best tackler on D behind Teo. Filer will finally blossom as an OLB.
Safety: Last season, this should have been a strength and became a liability. We lost McCarthy, so that is leadership gone on D. This is the one position I am not 100% sure of both positions yet. 2011 brings some questions, but there are athletes. Harrison Smith will move back to where he is supposed to be at free safety. He struggled last year and I blame most of this on COACHING. The kid is an athlete, but was out of position many times. I believe he becomes that center field playmaker this season. At strong safety, we will have to see how spring plays out. There are a couple interesting options. We may see a split duty here. Against running teams, we may see Motta here with his size and strength for stopping the run. On passing downs, we may see some Slaughter as he is more CB and pass defender. The wild card here is McCarthy. He came in with more flair than his older bro, but we have not seen him really play yet.
CB: Last season this was supposed to be a strength, but struggled. I blame this on two things. First, we struggled with a pass rush, so we blitzed which meant these guys had to play soft to prevent getting burnt. Second, the players always looked like they were confused with the scheme. Move into 2011, we return 3 guys who I would take on my team any day. Walls, Blanton and Gray make up a really solid trio. I believe walls has great season in 2011 as he attempts to raise his NFL stock. Blanton and Gray will be competing like mad for playing time.
So in CONCLUSION. With the DL which will be bigger and deeper, the LB who will be more experienced and athletic, and CB who will all be experienced and solid, I find no way this defense does not show drastic improvements. The safety position is the only real question mark as we go into spring ball. There might be a few tweaks by Kelly, but we have about 9 returning starters.
DE: Ethan Johnson
NT: Ian Williams
DE: KLM
OLB: Steve Filer
OLB: Darius Fleming
ILB: Manti Teo
ILB: Brian Smith
CB: Darrin Walls
CB: Gary Gray
FS: Harrison Smith
SS: Zeke Motta?
Key Subs:
DE: Sean Cwynar
NT: Hafis Williams
OLB: Kerry Neal
ILB: Anthony McDonald
S: Slaughter, McCarthy
CB: Robert Blanton
