'24 AZ EDGE Elijah Rushing (Oregon commit)

Last year…. We had a top 30 defense in ppg allowed…. 4th in the sec….. you don’t accomplish that without the secondary contributing especially when you consider how many more passing attempts and overall plays our defense had to defend against… I didn’t think our secondary was that talented and the staff had them playing as good/above their talent level, imo…. Talent level is improving though so willie will have to demonstrate that he can take them to the next level… our defense was a big reason why we only lost 2 games last year… if Josh decides to move on then I trust he will make the right choice.
We also didn’t have a top 30 defense in ppg nor were we 4th in the SEC.
 
You’re right.

I think the defensive stats they care about are 3rd Down Stop Rate and Yards Per Play.
That seems right…. I just remember them saying they didn’t care about yardage allowed…. They want to create negative plays, turnovers, make the other team settle for field goals…. Defense wasn’t perfect but better than they were given credit for…. Much better than two years ago…Talent level looks to be increased with last years class and this upcoming class.
 
We were second to last in the SEC in passing Y/G (beat Vandy by 3 yards), and 5th to last in Division 1.
Why pick one random stat as some important indicator? There are obvious factors that inflate that particular stat. The coaches want our defense, that is symbiotic with our offense, to be great on 3rd down stops and redzone defense. They also want to affect the QB and win turnover battle. We can end up with a great defense over the next couple of seasons and yet our passing yards per game allowed will not be good.
 
I don’t think they care about ypg…..ypg is always going to be high bc of how we play.

Then why does passing defense exist as a stat? Basically what you are saying is, pass defense doesn’t matter on scoring defense matters. Why did virtually everybody talk about how bad our pass defense was? Heupel cares about our pass defense. He said he wants to play site defense. You can’t play elite defense by having one of the worst pass defenses in college football.

Look at the vast majority of the national champions. Tell me one that had a pass defense ranked in the 100s in college football.
 
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Why pick one random stat as some important indicator? There are obvious factors that inflate that particular stat. The coaches want our defense, that is symbiotic with our offense, to be great on 3rd down stops and redzone defense. They also want to affect the QB and win turnover battle. We can end up with a great defense over the next couple of seasons and yet our passing yards per game allowed will not be good.
At the end of the day I care most about two stats, how many total points per game the other team is scoring and how many wins the team has.
 
I don't think we are that far away from the defense we want to be. We took huge strides last year and if it wasn't for that no show against USCjr our numbers would have been even better.

We were top 40 in scoring defense, 3rd down %, turnovers, and sacks. If we can stay within the top 25 in those categories we will be very hard to beat.
 
Why pick one random stat as some important indicator? There are obvious factors that inflate that particular stat. The coaches want our defense, that is symbiotic with our offense, to be great on 3rd down stops and redzone defense. They also want to affect the QB and win turnover battle. We can end up with a great defense over the next couple of seasons and yet our passing yards per game allowed will not be good.
It’s not random when you’re 125th in the nation when discussing our pass defense. All your points are valid, but we still can’t be giving up that kind of yardage. Turnovers and sacks should be the focus, but we shouldn’t be competing with ECU and MTSU for the most yards given up in the nation.
 
It’s not random when you’re 125th in the nation when discussing our pass defense. All your points are valid, but we still can’t be giving up that kind of yardage. Turnovers and sacks should be the focus, but we shouldn’t be competing with ECU and MTSU for the most yards given up in the nation.

I don’t necessarily disagree but just pass ypg given up doesn’t take into account the pace of our offense nor how often others teams are throwing the ball playing catch-up.
 
It’s not random when you’re 125th in the nation when discussing our pass defense. All your points are valid, but we still can’t be giving up that kind of yardage. Turnovers and sacks should be the focus, but we shouldn’t be competing with ECU and MTSU for the most yards given up in the nation.
Were ECU and MTSU scoring over 40 points per game offensively, thus forcing their opponents to air the ball out (and go for it on 4th down constantly) to try to keep up?
 
I don’t necessarily disagree but just pass ypg given up doesn’t take into account the pace of our offense nor how often others teams are throwing the ball playing catch-up.
...nor the many 3rd downs we gave up to give more chances for more passes.

Can't discount what you said, either...those two points absolutely should be factored into passing yds allowed...but, they do not top, can't get off the field on 3rd down. Have to get off the field whenever you have the chance, period...especially if it's 3rd and long.
 
We were second to last in the SEC in passing Y/G (beat Vandy by 3 yards), and 5th to last in Division 1.
we also faced the most passing attempts in the nation. 532 total attempts, next closest was TCU at 514, then Georgia at 511, they played 2 more games than we did. so yeah, not surprising we gave up the most yards when we faced the most attempts.

and just to get an *ackshually* in we were 3rd from last in the SEC in ypg. Arkansas was dead last, and only faced 449 passes.
Vandy also only faced 399 attempts.

We were ~60th in yards/per attempt. which is still bad, but nowhere close to last in the nation.
 
I hate the passing ypg crowd who constantly bring that stat up with 0 context it was a whole lot of empty stats in those yards when the game had long been over or without the opposing offense scoring… the secondary needs to improve as does every position group at this time of year and with the culture we have I set now I have no doubt the secondary will improve… not as bad as people are making it seem it’s almost like the rapid growth in offense makes people forget how bad we were as a team in Pruitt’s last year… it was only year 2 and the defense as a whole made a huge jump from year 1 to 2 just because the offense goes from worst to first does not make that normal… the defense is on track to take another leap this year just relax and trust heup he has earned that to this point…
 
we also faced the most passing attempts in the nation. 532 total attempts, next closest was TCU at 514, then Georgia at 511, they played 2 more games than we did. so yeah, not surprising we gave up the most yards when we faced the most attempts.

and just to get an *ackshually* in we were 3rd from last in the SEC in ypg. Arkansas was dead last, and only faced 449 passes.
Vandy also only faced 399 attempts.

We were ~60th in yards/per attempt. which is still bad, but nowhere close to last in the nation.
It’s a little semantic at this point, but…
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I hate the passing ypg crowd who constantly bring that stat up with 0 context it was a whole lot of empty stats in those yards when the game had long been over or without the opposing offense scoring… the secondary needs to improve as does every position group at this time of year and with the culture we have I set now I have no doubt the secondary will improve… not as bad as people are making it seem it’s almost like the rapid growth in offense makes people forget how bad we were as a team in Pruitt’s last year… it was only year 2 and the defense as a whole made a huge jump from year 1 to 2 just because the offense goes from worst to first does not make that normal… the defense is on track to take another leap this year just relax and trust heup he has earned that to this point…
The context was Martinez needing to step his game up or he’s going to be on a very hot seat — which is true. His unit has underperformed the most. I love this team so I obviously hope he does great. But that’s all the conversation was…not that deep.
 
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The context was Martinez needing to step his game up or he’s going to be on a very hot seat — which is true. His unit has underperformed the most. I love this team so I obviously hope he does great. But that’s all the conversation was…not that deep.
With better talent, most coaches become better coaches. We will have better talent this year, so we will see better coaching, especially in the last half of the season.
 

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