butchna
Sit down and tell me all about it...way over there
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Our defensive players aren't 99th in the nation. People can blame players, scheme, or whatever else, but when your defense is ranked 99th in the country, most of it is on the DC.
This. We had more tackles for a loss then I can ever remember. Get some players. We’re fineOur defensive problems are mostly due to our personnel, and our offensive scheme, not bad coaching. Banks actually did pretty well considering those handicaps. The nightmare scenario to me would be Banks leaves and Heupel promotes Willie Martinez.
Legions of the miserable are sounding off today.Excellent they’d be doing us a favor. Now watch when he leaves, THEN everyone will start pointing at how awful we were defensively.
First of all it is REGRESSED not digressed. The main reason they got worse toward the end of the season is 100% due to fatigue. Did you miss that 100 snaps per game? They were completely worn out by the end of the season.Or he leaves and we get someone much better. I wasn't crazy about the hire to begin with. Someone I know that is somewhat familiar with Banks said to exercise caution.
As I said in an earlier post, he certainly didn't have the best to work with this year. We started off the season much better than I had anticipated But as the year goes on you expect to see guys improve, if proper coaching is applied. We digressed in just about every way as the season went along. I don't know that it's worth firing him yet, but I won't be disappointed if he moves along either. We cant be any worse next year than how we ended this year, that's for certain. It was Sunseri level bad.
When is it actually the DCs fault in your mind?So is it the DCs fault when players miss tackles? Is it the DCs fault when they completely blow assignments? Is it the DCs fault that the players aren’t fast enough to cover? Is it the DCs fault when guys are out of position?
Let’s use some TN history shall we? In 2015 we had Jon Jancek as our DC. A guy that many said sucked and wasn’t cut out for the SEC. Yet we finished the year 16 in total D. The next year, Botch hired one of the most well respected DCs at the time, Bob Shoop. We plummeted to 70th in 2016. So we’re our players that bad? Or was Shoop that bad? Because Shoops unit was #2 in the nation in total defense in 2018. That’s one year after leaving TN.
You can try and put this in coaching all you want but your attempts fail.
When is it actually the DCs fault in your mind?
When you are not calling the right schemes to stop the other teams. I would imagine recruiting is a guage as well? While the DC should point out those things when they see it, that is mostly up to position coaches. That said, the DC is their boss, so if there is any dropoff, it is their job to correct the situation. I am a firm believer that we were short on players and still adjusting to new schemes. This means low, less inexperienced talent. However, we recruited poorly at LB and DB. That is a concern IMO.The DC definitely shares blame in all of those things to a degree. But think about it. When guys get to college, how long have they been playing football? I played pee see, middle school and high school ball. They teach things like tackling in pee wee. Being in position, not blowing assignments etc. these are things that are taught in high school. It’s these attributes that are part of a guys rating coming out of HS.
So do you think Banks is actively teaching these guys how NOT to tackle? How NOT to line up? How NOT to be in position? Or is it these players are simply not executing at the level they need to?
We play more snaps on defense because our offense averages the most snaps (and points) per minute of any NCAA team. The defense doesn’t play more snaps “because we suck”. We play more snaps because that’s the downside of having an efficient offense. These concepts aren’t hard, but they do require you to acknowledge the facts that everyone else accepts as a starting point. Gravity is real. Water is wet. Your manager wants you to sell more shoes. Efficient and fast offenses make the defense play more snaps. If that makes you want to fight the toaster, your problem is psychological, not logical. Back to the defense: They lack depth and talent. Banks and Heupel both said they prefer to be aggressive and gamble to create losses and turnovers as a way to create more possessions on O. They did that successfully with the line and MLB. They create tackles for loss on overcommitting to gaps and run blitzing. They can’t do it on passing downs because our DB’s are not quick enough or strong enough, our LB’s play coverage poorly (Banks improved here) and our line creates no qb pressure. We are forced to play zone prevent on long downs and disguise delayed blitzes or face giving up TD passes (as we did against Ole Miss). Unfortunately the price of playing prevents is well known by most fans who lived through Chavis. Even with talent, there will be conversions. Did our DC call some imperfect plays? Yes. Does he have room to grow? Yes. Is he the reason you bang your head on the toilet when we lose? No. We need SEC level talent, and enough depth to play the game he wants to play. Between now and then, stay away from electricity and fire.
We play more snaps on defense because our offense averages the most snaps (and points) per minute of any NCAA team. The defense doesn’t play more snaps “because we suck”. We play more snaps because that’s the downside of having an efficient offense. These concepts aren’t hard, but they do require you to acknowledge the facts that everyone else accepts as a starting point. Gravity is real. Water is wet. Your manager wants you to sell more shoes. Efficient and fast offenses make the defense play more snaps. If that makes you want to fight the toaster, your problem is psychological, not logical. Back to the defense: They lack depth and talent. Banks and Heupel both said they prefer to be aggressive and gamble to create losses and turnovers as a way to create more possessions on O. They did that successfully with the line and MLB. They create tackles for loss on overcommitting to gaps and run blitzing. They can’t do it on passing downs because our DB’s are not quick enough or strong enough, our LB’s play coverage poorly (Banks improved here) and our line creates no qb pressure. We are forced to play zone prevent on long downs and disguise delayed blitzes or face giving up TD passes (as we did against Ole Miss). Unfortunately the price of playing prevents is well known by most fans who lived through Chavis. Even with talent, there will be conversions. Did our DC call some imperfect plays? Yes. Does he have room to grow? Yes. Is he the reason you bang your head on the toilet when we lose? No. We need SEC level talent, and enough depth to play the game he wants to play. Between now and then, stay away from electricity and fire.